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Fields of the future
by Melisci Hohlt
tor the majority of
college students, the ultimate
goal is graduation with plans for
immediate employment,
whether they want it or not. Of
course if the job happens to
offer a lot of great benefits and a
substantial check every two
weeks, they consider it less of a
burden.
For some, college may
indeed be all fun and games,
but everyone needs to come to
terms with what it will take in
the future to get the job that will
sustain their life.
The way to secure the future
is to get a good education, say
those who are hiring, because
tomorrow’s jobs will require
education or training beyond
the high school level.
For example, an article from
Business Week magazine
reports that 6 percent of the
current jobs can be filled by
those with less than a high
school education, while only 4
percent of the future jobs will
use the same lenient guidelines.
Similarly, 22 percent of today’s
jobs require at least four years
of college, while 30 percent of
the future jobs will require at
least a college diploma.
A startling reason for higher
education, says a USA Today
magazine article, is that in the
next 15 years, new jobs will be
created that require skills that
don’t even exist now.
Furthermore, and traditional
jobs will be restructured,
requiring newer and better
skills. All this restructuring is
happening because companies
are realizing they must eliminate
the unneeded positions and
quickly create new ones to stay
afloat in the ever-changing
world of business.
A
IT long with the
restructuring, businesses are
being more careful about the
people they hire. According to
Fortune magazine, one should
be prepared to take lie detector
and drug tests because many
businesses are enforcing such
measures. One should also be
aware that many businesses
require applicants to take and
pass a test that reflects one's
ability to perform under the
pressures of the job.
The main point to catch here
is that education is critical to the
job-to-person matchup.
Workers must be prepared to
adequately do the job for which
they were hired.
For most of us, better
education may just mean that
we’ll be working with what we
like to call “more competent”
workers. But for many
Americans, increased
educational requirements
means a disadvantage.
According to the Busines
Week article, the mean scores
on 1985 National Assessment
of Educational Progress tests
were 314 for whites, 263 for
blacks, 286 for Hispanics and
265 for the poor. (Poor is
defined as a child in a family of
four that earned below $13,300
in 1985.)
This information,
provided by the Educational
Testing Service, Census
Bureau, also showed the
percentages of 18-and 19-year-
olds who are not in school and
who haven’t graduated. This
dropout rate for whites is 14
percent, while for blacks it is 18
percent and for Hispanics it is •
29 percent.
An article from the July issue
of USA Today says that the
number of jobs in the next
decade will increase faster than
the number of jobseekers.
Economists are expecting the
number of entry-level
jobseekers to drop in the next
decade because too many
Americans will lack the skills
necessary to fill the jobs created
by our economy. The lack of
skills is directly related to the
number of people who quit
school before their educational
needs are met.
Another reason for fewer job
hunters is that the population
growth is leveling off, according
to the Business Week article. As
a result, the article continues,
the United States will have
fewer new workers to fill more
and more jobs, and markets are
sure to tighten.
Present figures, reports USA
Today, indicate that from 1985
to 1995, the number of new
jobs will increase by 15.6
million, while at the same time
the number of people in the
work force — those either
working or out looking for a job
— will increase by only 13.7
million.
I f these numbers are
correct, the end result would be
a gain of 2 million American
jobs, the magazine concludes.
The article also says that such
an increase could cut the
unemployment rate by about 2
percent, resulting in a “full
employment” status of 5
percent.
Now if you’re very far along
in this college/get-a-job game,
you’re probably wondering
what types of jobs are going to
be big in the future. However,
you may be disappointed to
learn that many of the jobs are
less glamorous than most
college graduates would hope
for.
USA Today says that future
jobs will move away from
manufacturing and toward
service and information
industries. According to the
article, only 5 percent of the
new jobs created were in
manufacturing in the past 15
years, while 90 percent were in
service and information.
Statistics from an August
issue of Business Week
magazine show that among the
low-glamour jobs, janitorial,
nursing, truck driving and
cashier positions rank pretty
high on the list of jobs with the
largest absolute growth
between last year and the year
2000.
o
V# n the other hand,
the same article says the jobs
with the fastest growth rates
include paralegal, physical
therapist, systems analyst and
computer programmer
positions.
The experts are still saying
the computer field is the one to
get into. These people are also
saying that a good working
knowledge of computers is
essential to virtually everyone,-
from secretaries to teachers to
accountants.
A good point of computer
literacy is that the skills learned
on one job can often be
transferred to another job in a
totally different and sometimes
more lucrative field, says an
article from the October issue of
Woman’s Day magazine.
Other trends prevalent in the
American business world
include an increase in the
number of older people in the
workforce and the movement
of more women into the labor
force. Women in the work place
represent a trend that has been
slowly developing for several
decades, continues USA
Today.
Regardless of your age or
sex, you need to know what’s
expected of you for the new
job.
Employers are looking for
people who are eager to work
and work hard, and for those
who have the desire for success,
says the July issue of Forbes
magazine. Instead of seeing
their employees as just laborers,
employers are now aware that
their people are educated
professionals who carry their
most important work tools in
their heads. Since people are
no longer just laborers, says
Forbes, they have greater job
mobility because they can’t be
separated from their vocation.
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