The future of jobs
Dixie Sommers, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, recites a list of the 10 occupations that the BLS expects will provide the greatest number of new jobs over the next decade. These include:
1. Registered nurses
2. Home health aides
3. Customer service representatives
4. Food preparation and serving workers
5. Personal and home care aides
6. Retail salespersons
7. Office clerks
8. Accountants
9. Nursing aides, orderlies and attendants
10. Postsecondary teachers
Six of the top seven fastest-growing occupations are low-skill, low-wage jobs.
This raises an incredible array of questions.
How do we create new enterprises and entrepreneurs in these sectors so that they can professionalize these jobs for richer career and earnings potentials? How do we grow other sectors that create options for people with more experience, education, and expertise? Can we grow any economy on local or global scales through an imbalance of service over product jobs? Can the world economies be more creative than focusing on health care to baby boomers - inspired by a vision of the world we want when baby boomers are no longer the dominant driver of new jobs?
January 23rd, 2010 05:54
Well, in the old days they did it through unions. It would be informative to go back and review the history books to better understand why unions fell out of favor.
January 23rd, 2010 06:14
Also, if you ever read the help wanted ads - and I do frequently because I’m either looking for work for out-of-work friends and loved ones or I just want to stay informed about market trends - you might notice something that I think is short-sighted.
Many companies tend to look for particular experience in their own industry….So, for example, a person could have all the requisite skills necessary for a solid foundation to perform a particular job, but they are excluded from consideration because they don’t have experience performing that role in that particular industry. What the heck is up with that? Are managers so busy that they can’t take a little time to orient the new worker to the corporate culture? What makes them that busy? Whatever happened to the concept of mentoring and on-the-job training?
I work in a department that has no end of regulations and nuances that apply to our business. I learned all of it on the job. There are a few golden opportunities to morph oneself into new industries. An employee needs to be quite wily to find them. It shouldn’t be so hard.
January 23rd, 2010 12:19
I find it a bit galling that Ms. Sommers considers these to be necessarily low-skill jobs. Indeed, they are, if done poorly, but these should be considered jobs that may require a significant amount of skill and knowledge (although may not need formal advanced education). If we continue to brand such work as low-skill and low-pay, these workers will continue to be undervalued.
At the same time, Americans need to really consider the idea of wage, property and possessions and consider the question, “How much is enough.” I know people who are single, make over $50,000 annually and still have problems making ends meet.
Society is out of balance. The American Dream has lost the plot. Full of brilliant colors and sparkly objects, the dream has become a well-disguised nightmare.
January 24th, 2010 09:54
All comments before are well-received. Unions? No way.
Americans do need to get out of the “more for me, shop at WalMart” mentality”: (I get more, nobody gets what they need).
We are creating more health care jobs because Doctors tell patients they need to be seen 10 times more than 40 years ago. We also don’t take care of ourselves.
Home health care: of course. Boomers will live longer.
Customer Service: There are few people who understand what that means. Retail: For college degrees in Art History. (ooops that would put an end to HR jobs).
INDUSTRIAL JOBS WILL BE BOOMING IN THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS. The need for skilled labor is already feeling the pinch.
January 24th, 2010 10:45
Indeed, Robert, that is so very true. In order to meet the construction needs of our projects (that is, good construction techniques for modern buildings) we as a state agency must provide training for the trades *and* the designers. Industrial jobs and skilled labor jobs will be booming and we have so undervalued it in our hearts as a society (and at times overvalued it in terms of pay) that we are developing few young people ready for these jobs. It seems the author of the article has completely set aside skilled labor.
One example of a system that is in peril: the US electric grid. It is estimated that 3/4 of the existing linemen will retire in the next 5 years. There are very few people going in to this very dangerous but needed work. What will happen when our aging grid (and all of the lives and services that depend on it) crashes? How will we build that Smart Grid initiative that has been so widely funded? Our grid may or may not provide power with the quality that allows the smart grid equipment to actually function properly.
This lack of skilled labor for construction and industrial jobs will be what forces us into bringing our economy back into a realistic balance — which is going to be very much unlike the “growing” economy we expect. It will be one more of thrivancy and community than growth.
January 24th, 2010 12:18
I’m reading a great book about capitalism and the shifting markets. Because of the natural rise and fall of Main Street enterprise, old products and services will die off to be replaced by new products and services. Over the course of one working man’s lifetime, there could be several shifts like this and the need to constantly retrain to fit in…I worry a lot about the older work and hiring biases that make it difficult for the older retooled worker to find new work….I’ve seen some employers who value experience, but many more who don’t want to pay the money. If ever there were a place for government intervention, this is it.
I’ve never been a member of a union, though my grandfather was a union organizer for the coal miners…In fact in most jobs I’ve been in, I’ve been fed the Kool Aid that unions are a bad thing. Being the independent type, I’ve tended to agree. But the little guy is losing his voice, it seems. If not a union then there must be something else.
January 24th, 2010 13:41
Donna: I think it’s got to go back to supporting community resources. We’ve got to look around us and not only have concern for those who have lost their jobs and are having a hard time finding their way, but we’ve got to find out who they are; what they do; what they know; what they love. We’ve got to harness each other as resources and encourage each other through all of this. Your book sounds fascinating and I would love to read it.
While working for the state, I’ve been in both union (positions were created within the bargaining unit to protect the energy analysts/technicians from political whims) and exempt/classified. Within government, union serves an important purpose in buffering staff from politics (admittedly it’s highly imperfect). I can tell you that three years ago, when OSFC became so large that it attracted union attention and AFSCME/OSCEA got our admin staff moved to union, people were offended and did not want to be union. I can tell you the folks at OEPA and Development who are protected by their positions being union (thus findings and research are less likely subverted) are happy to be union.
At the same time, I cannot comment on what is going on in our agency because of union pressure on the Governor and the results that might collapse the work we do from the inside. It is very sad. I can tell you I’ve seen the good and the bad sides of the coin, but mostly these days…I can’t support the traditional union. And, I’m a card-carrying liberal.
I wish the pundits would stop flapping their lips at the easy topics to talk about and spend more time talking honestly about the challenges we face and the myriad of [unclear] solutions. Stop the rhetoric; start the dialogue.
January 24th, 2010 22:26
What’s important in all of this is that there are richer connections between the employers of growing jobs and the schools who can develop the talent they need, and then we can close the triangle of connecting job-loss industries with schools who can help job-lost people re-tool for job-growth industries.
February 1st, 2010 12:45
what all these jobs have in common is that having tech skills to use a computer and social media - will actually put you on the TOP of these professions.