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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
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...and The Ugly
January 14, 2000
Yesterday we looked at some of disturbing possibilities implied by Department of Labor (DOL) projections for 1996-2006. Unfortunately these problems were only the tip of the iceberg. Fifteen years ago, during the Reagan 'economic boom', critics pointed out that the vast majority of new Jobs were in the low paying service industries.
Two terms of Democratic control of the White House have produced remarkably similar results, according to the DOL:
At least there are plenty of Jobs to go around, right? I mean, what's the point of having eight straight years of economic boom and Federal Reserve 'miracles' if people can't get a Job? Even this solitary rose in the Jobhunter's glass may soon fade. The DOL notes:
The newest entrants into the workforce represent a tidal wave of potential workers, the size of which hasn't been seen since in over a generation. Generation Next, the group born between 1979 and 1997, will eclipse the Baby Boomers in size and importance. And they will be fighting each other (and you) for the limited number of 'good' Jobs that are still available.
You have a couple years to get your career on track, then Whammo!, the Nexters start hitting the streets, looking for Employment. The boom time in Jobs may be short-lived.
The Good, the Bad...
January 13, 2000
Crystal Ball gazing should be kept to a minor distraction for Jobhunters, or you'll end up chasing careers that have waned just when you thought they were going to wax. Trust me on this one. I decided to enter Paralegal school based on the Department of Labor's estimate that the Job category 'legal assistant' was going to have the largest percentage shortage of workers by 2000.
What I failed to take into consideration was that other clever Jobhunters read the same bulletin, posted in unemployment offices throughout the country (and probably broadcast in a wide variety of media outlets). In the years that followed my unsuccessful attempts at landing a Job as a certified Paralegal, I discovered frustrated Paralegals working as bartenders, landscapers, waitresses, office assistants, drivers, etc. They were so plentiful that it was hard to go through an entire week without accidentally running into one.
Caveats aside, it's still fun to read the DOL reports and try to glean some meaning out of the various graphs, charts, and predictions. Everyone should know by now that (on average!!) workers with higher levels of education tend to earn more over their work life than workers with lower levels of education. Duh. Some interesting 'facts' for the years 1996-2006, considering that we're almost halfway there:
The good news is that Jobs continue to be plentiful, though the labor force is growing at a faster rate than the overall population. The bad news is that most of these Jobs are going to be service related, require little education, and won't pay very well.
Those Prying Eyes
January 12, 2000
With the hullabaloo about the arrival of the new millennium (whether it has already happened or is still about a year away), the real news is that 1984 is finally arriving. Big Brother is watching, and he's not alone. More and more companies, large and small, are gearing up to use the latest and greatest technological innovations to spy on their Employees.
The tools for monitoring Employees are getting very sophisticated. The emergence of cheap webcams and software programs that generate detailed reports about average keystroke performance and website category usage puts workers on the defensive.
But workers on not defenseless, it seems. Nearly twenty-four percent of Employees that were surveyed by Vault.com said they take precautionary measures to avoid Employer monitoring of their Internet use. Their methods to avoid detection?
The Vault.com survey is based on responses from almost 3000 Employers and Employees, with slightly more than 50 percent of the responses coming from Employers. Their survey results are available in a 34-page study, which they sell to Employers.
Access to information is apparently a double-edged sword for both Employers and Employees. While Employers need their Employees to be able to uncover accurate information quickly, they worry about the distractions the Net offers along the way to getting that information.
Like all relationships, work is dynamic rather than static. There is always an underlying tension resulting from the fact that Employers and Employees are different entities, with variant views of the world and how to solve work related problems that arise in it. As the older models of command and control organizations give way to work teams, there will be plenty of opportunities for new kinds of workplace frictions to spring up.