The World of Work: Demographic, Labor, Social & Economic Trends

1. The World of Work:Demographic, Labor, Social & Economic Trends C. Doherty PSY 115 Quinsigamond Community College 2005 Sources Used: Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock Report on – American Workforce US Dept. of Labor US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Globe Magazine 1/16/05, 2/27/05 Report on – American Workforce US Dept. of Labor 2001 Bureau of the Census; Bureau of Labor Statistics Report on American Workforce U.S. Dept. of Labor US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics

2. OCCUPATIONAL TRENDS • The forces of economic, social, and technological change have acted on workers, compelling them to make adjustments to those changes. • Agricultural way of life was transformed into a manufacturing society, which today is an economy largely based on service and information. • The events of the last few years have left Americans mystified, confused, and upset over the state of the economy and the culture. Which events? • Forecasting occupational trends is a difficult art at best. No one can predict with 100 percent accuracy. • Does selecting a growing occupation guarantee getting employment and being happy in it? • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

3. OCCUPATIONAL TRENDS • Labor forecasts usually fall into one of three categories: • Optimists look to the future with great expectations. • A middle position is government forecasts. • Pessimists emphasize high rates of unemployment and underemployment, more low-paid jobs than high-paid ones, a declining middle class as the gap between rich and poor widens, the growth of an underclass of underpaid workers and increasing numbers of temporary and part-time workers. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

4. GENERAL ECONOMIC FORCES & LABOR TRENDS • John Naisbitt (1982): An industrial economy is being replaced by an information society where a majority of workers create, process, and distribute data. • The centralized factory system of industrialized society will give way to the decentralized workplace of the information age. • National economies will evolve into an interdependent world economy that will experience a global economic boom. • People will take on more responsibility for their own health, education, jobs, and general well-being instead of relying on corporations and government agencies.

5. DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS • The number of women in the labor force will continue to increase, but the proportion will slow markedly in the next 50 years. • The average age of the U.S. labor force is getting older. • America’s labor force will become more diverse than ever before. • Foreign-born workers are playing an increasingly important role in the U.S. economy.

6. IMMIGRANTSNative-Born and Foreign-Born shares of U.S. labor force, 2000 annual averages FOREIGN-BORN - 12.6 PERCENT NATIVE-BORN - 87.4 PERCENT • Foreign-born workers are about as likely to be unemployed as are the native-born. Source: Report on – American Workforce US Dept. of Labor 2001

7. Unemployment rates of the foreign-born and native-born by selected characteristics, annual averages, 2000Source: Report on – American Workforce US Dept. of Labor 2001

8. AVERAGE ANNUAL SALARY, 2003 SALARY WOMEN $28,704 $36,140 MEN Sources: US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Sunday Globe – Feb. 27, 2005

9. LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATES • Labor force participation rates for black men (69.0%) continued to be lower than those for Hispanic or white men (80.6% and 75.4%, respectively. • Among women, labor force participation rates were higher for black women (63.2%) than for their Hispanic (56.9%) or white (59.8%) counterparts. • Source: Boston Globe Magazine 1/16/05

10. LABOR TRENDS • More people will make mid-life career changes. • Two-income families are becoming standard in today’s world. • White-collar work will continue to grow while the proportion of blue-collar workers in the labor force will continue to drop. • Manufacturing is following the same path that has been traveled by agriculture. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

11. LABOR TRENDS • Employment will continue to shift toward knowledge-based industries and away from labor-based industries as the pace of technological change accelerates even faster. The most rapidly growing industries hiring knowledge workers are microelectronics, biotechnology, new material sciences, telecommunications, civilian aircraft manufacturing, machine tools and robots, and computer hardware and software. • Knowledge workers will continue to be the dominant group in the workforce, the center around which many other kids of work will revolve. • Creativity is becoming the driving force of the economy. • How is this evidenced? • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

12. LABOR TRENDS • Core industries of the “creative economy” are research and development, publishing, software, television and radio, design, music, film, toys and games, advertising, architecture, performing arts, crafts, video games, fashion, and art. • The number and percentage of jobs in the service-producing industries will continue to greatly outpace the number of jobs in the goods-producing industries. • A larger share of all new jobs will continue to be created by small businesses. • Large companies are getting smaller. -Outsourcing -Company Mergers • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

13. LABOR TRENDS • Large companies will still be attractive for many workers. • Why? • The aftermath of the 9/11 attack in New York and Washington, D.C., is creating more security-oriented jobs. • More jobs will continue to be available from replacement needs than growth needs. “Replacement” – new person needed to fill a job position that a former worker has left. “Growth” – more job positions are created from an increased demand for a product or service. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

14. NEW WORK VALUESDo You Agree? • Meaningful work is replacing money as a standard for success for an increasing number of people. • Paradox: Many people are earning more money and are living better in material terms than they did a quarter of a century ago. Nonetheless, we find our personal lives growing poorer and the time and energy for the nonworking part of our lives evaporating as we work longer and more frantically than before (Reich, 2000). Their search for meaning indicates that a lot is being asked from work nowadays. What gives meaning to work? • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

15. EDUCATION & JOB TRAINING TRENDS • The mismatch between available jobs and people’s ability to do them will continue. • You will be asked to perform more functions, to be productive, and use more skills in tomorrow’s work. • Your need for training and retraining will increase. College education is only a springboard to further education. Lifelong learning experiences. Cross training. Over the past 25 years, real wages have risen for college-educated workers, whereas they have fallen for people who never got beyond high school. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

16. EDUCATION & JOB TRAINING TRENDS • Male college graduates average about 70% more in earnings than high school graduates. • For women, the difference is even more dramatic: Female college graduates earn more than twice as much as female high school graduates. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

17. EDUCATION & TRAINING PAYEarnings for year-round full-time workers 25 yrs and over; unemployment rate for those 25 & over. Source: Bureau of the Census; Bureau of Labor Statistics

18. ALTERNATIVE WORK STYLES • “Free agent” or independent workers are increasing in the U.S. economy. Independent workers who are free from the attachments of a large institution and are agents of their own future. Represent a shift in power from the organization to the individual. • Some researchers see the percentage of “nonstandard” workers growing at a faster pace than the total labor force; others do not. “Standard work” means full-time work. “Nonstandard” work arrangements include part-time work, working for a temporary help agency, on-call labor, day labor,and independent contracting and self-employment. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

19. ALTERNATIVE WORK STYLES • An increasingly popular way to run your own business is to purchase a franchise from an established company. • Career ladder” and “career lattice” concepts will be replaced by other metaphors for the working patterns of many individuals. • Career Ladder indicated a way to move up. • Career Lattice – companies became less hierarchical and resembled more of a web like structure. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

20. ECONOMIC FORCES • The global economy will have more influence in our lives than ever before. • Importing more products than exporting them continues an unfavorable balance of trade. With an unfavorable trade balance, the difference between exports (which creates jobs at home) and imports (which loses jobs to other countries) produces more unemployment in the U.S. • National, corporate, and personal debt will threaten jobs and standards of living. Corporate debt is troubling; it blocks new investments that typically produce new jobs. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

21. LOCATION & TIME TRENDS • More workers will do their jobs, or part of their jobs, at home. Complaints to the National Fraud Information Center about at-home schemes came in second only to bogus credit card offers. • The percentage of people in the U.S. labor force holding more than one job is declining somewhat. • Hours on the job have lengthened as reactions against the longer workweek take place. Early 1970’s 39 hours per week. 43 hours by the 1990s. Typical American now works 350 more hours a year than the typical European, and even more hours than the hardworking Japanese. Why? • Employee job security and loyalty to the organization are declining.

22. UNEMPLOYMENT RATES • Unemployment is higher than official figures indicate and it remains troublesome for millions of people. Official unemployment figures do not give the full picture – doesn’t count “discouraged workers” – those who want a job but have given up looking. Laid off or fired people do not look for a new job in a four-week time span, they are not counted in the unemployment rate. Not included: people back in school because they can’t locate the job they want or set up their own businesses when unable to find work. • Unemployment rate does not adjust for part-time workers who would prefer a full-time job, those who would like to work but have been forced into early retirement. To 10 percent.

23. UNEMPLOYMENT • Widespread loss of jobs becomes disastrous in a free-market, competitive economy. • When displaced workers find new work, their new jobs pay an average of 13% less than the jobs they lost. Good chance these jobs will not be replaced. More than one fourth who had health insurance on their old jobs don’t have it at their new ones. Unemployment causes a vast array of social and personal problems. Homicide, suicide, crime, drunkenness, and domestic abuse all increase when unemployment increases. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

24. UNDEREMPLOYMENT & TURNOVER RATES • Underemployment means working in an occupation that does not use the worker’s skills and training to the maximum. • Underemployment will continue to b a fact of life for some college graduates. • There is not clear solution for this, but some recommendations can be made. (1) Gain work experience while attending school. (2) Consider dual majors in college. (3) Be willing to move to a location that offers a greater probability. (4) Adjust your attitude. It’s not the end of the world. Being aware of the possibility. View underemployment as an opportunity to learn new skills. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

25. UNEMPLOYMENTPercent of the labor force 25 years and older with more than a high school diploma Source: Report on American Workforce U.S. Dept. of Labor

26. EARNINGS • Among full-time wage and salary workers, the median weekly earnings of blacks ($468) and Hispanics ($396) were much lower than those of whites ($591). INCOME • Reported income before taxes is much lower for black families ($30,427) than for non-black families ($45,688). Source: Report on American Workforce U.S. Dept. of Labor

27. Unequal PayPercent of white male pay earned by race, ethnicity, and sex: Source: Report on American Workforce U.S. Dept. of Labor

28. MISCELLANEOUS TRENDS • “Soft, non-technical skills” are valued just as highly, if not more so, by employers as the technical requirements for jobs. • Cluster of personality traits, social graces, language fluency, personal habits, and friendliness all of us have. Good work ethic, courtesy, honoring commitments, self-discipline and keeping to company culture in grooming, dress, appropriate body language, and language in the workplace. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

29. MISCELLANEOUS TRENDS • Income inequality is growing in America. • Alternative forms of education will proliferate. Home schooling, distance learning, and charter schools. Apprenticeship training. • Membership in labor unions is declining in numbers and in proportion to the overall U.S. labor force. • More families will seek to blend work and family, instead of balancing them against each other. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

30. NEW & EMERGING OCCUPATIONS • New jobs emerge when employers need workers to do tasks never done before. Example of computer security as an emerging specialty. • Improved computer graphics brought forth new multimedia and animation specialties. Data management; networking capabilities; geographic information systems technicians and programmers who manage data from global positioning satellites. • Changes in the law bring into being new occupations. Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

31. NEW & EMERGING OCCUPATIONS • Telecommunication laws require closed captioning of television programs created the need for stenocaptioners, or closed captioners. Changes in Medicaid – new types of record keepers and record makers were needed. • Recent examples are artificial intelligence specialist, employee wellness coordinator, ethics officer, and information technology specialist. Emerging occupations have few workers but are expected to grow in the future. • Taking Charge of Your Career Direction, Career Planning Guide Book 1, 5th Edition by Robert D. Lock

32. COST OF LIVING: STAYING AT HOME More parents are making the decision to stay at home to raise their children, according to US Census data. It’s a decision being made in household incomes of all levels – one that is almost as common among those under $25,000 as in those over $100,000. Still, it is the mother who is likely to choose family over career. “The current economy and cutbacks in benefits are forcing a lot of women out of the workplace,” said Rosalind Chait Barnett, the research director of Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center.

33. STAY-AT-HOME MOMS(In millions)Sources: US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Sunday Globe – Feb. 27, 2005 5.4 4.5

34. STAY-AT-HOME DADSSources: US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Sunday Globe – Feb. 27, 2005 98,000 76,000

35. KIDS WITH STAY-AT-HOME PARENTS (Children under 15, in millions)Sources: US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Sunday Globe – Feb. 27, 2005 11.2 9.5

36. CHILD CARE Yearly average cost of child care in Massachusetts, 2003 $11,085.00 Sources: US Census, Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from SIPP, US Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Boston Sunday Globe – Feb. 27, 2005

37. How marriage, education, and work have changed in the United States. 1960 2000 MEDIAN AGE AT FIRST MARRIAGE MEN: 22.8 years old MEN: 26.8 years old WOMEN: 20.3 years old WOMEN: 25.1 years old COLLEGE EDUCATION Percentage of people older than 25 who have one or more years of college. 18% MEN 52% 15% WOMEN 50% Source: Boston Globe Magazine 1/16/05

38. How marriage, education, and work have changed in the United States. 1960 2000 FAILED MARRIAGES Percentage of new marriages predicted to end in divorce or separation over a lifetime 33% 50% WORKING MOMS Percentage of married women with children under 6 who are working 17.2% 67% Source: Boston Glove Magazine 1/16/05