Chapter+14

toc =THE THREE JOBS OF THE FUTURE=

Written by Robert Reich

Basically, what Reich talks about is the emerging international economy.

Part 1.

 * Global web is becoming more typical
 * Ecumenical companies – Suppose a company had their headquarters located in America, production facilities, research, design in Japan, Europe, North America, production in Southeast Asia, Latin America, investors in Taiwan, Japan, West Germany and the US.
 * “Battle lines no longer correspond with national borders” – Americans are becoming part of an international labour market. This means that the competitiveness of Americans do not depend on any American corporation or on American Industry. Instead, it is about the functions that Americans perform- the value they add- within the global economy.
 * The trend: Knowledge, money and tangible products are flowing across borders; groups of people of every nation are joining global webs.
 * Competitiveness of American work force not shared equally by all citizens. Meaning, those whose contributions to global economy are more highly valued in world markets will succeed while those whose contributions are deemed far less valuable fail.
 * Eg. GM’s American executives becomes more competitive even as GM’s American production workers become less because the functions of the executives are more highly valued in world market.
 * Americans no longer rise & fail together, as if in one large national boat. They are in increasingly different boats

Part 2.

 * We have to look at job categories that reflect America’s competitive positions in global economy in order to see and understand why the economic fates of Americans are beginning to diverge.

Routine Production Services

 * Repetitive tasks
 * Repetitive step in a sequence of steps for producing finished products tradable in world commerce
 * Includes Blue collar jobs & low/mid level managers (foremen, line managers clerical supervisors)
 * Found in may places in modern economy: from heavy industries to high technology
 * R.P.S. of information age Information-processing jobs – behind the scenes people (payroll, subscriber lists, personnel, credit card record etc.
 * Guided on job by standard procedures, rules, monitored. Wage based on time put in
 * usually can read & perform simple computations
 * virtues: reliable, loyal, capable of taking directions

In-person Services

 * same as RPS: simple repetitive tasks, paid by hrs worked, supervised, require little education but also Require person-to-person contact & cant be sold worldwide
 * retail, sales, waiters, hotel workers, janitors, & increasingly, security guards
 * usually must be punctual, reliable, tractable, & must also have pleasant demeanor (traditionally women)

Symbolic-analytic Services

 * include all problem solving, identifying, & strategic-brokering activities
 * can be traded worldwide thus must compete w/ foreign providers
 * trade manipulations of symbols – data, words, oral/visual representation
 * includes corporate headhunters, systems analysts, architectural consultant, advertising execs. Marketing strategists, publisher, university profs.
 * Solve, identify probs: efficiency, new inventions,
 * Like routine producers, rarely has direct contact w/ beneficiaries
 * Often have partner
 * Pay vary & not directly related to time put in but rather quality, originality, cleverness etc.
 * Careers not linear or hierarchical
 * May take on vast responsibilities and command inordinate wealth at young age and lost authority/income when older (not based on seniority)
 * Time & cost usually spent on conceptualizing problem, devising solution, planning & its executing
 * Account for no more than 20% of American Jobs (mainly white male)

Part 3.

 * These 3 functional categories cover more than ¾ American jobs.
 * Remainder: farmers, miners & other extractors of natural resources (5% jobs). Other rare mainly gov. employees (pub. School teachers), employees in regulated industries (utility workers) & guv. Financed workers (weapon sys, engineers), almost all also sheltered from the global competition.
 * Jobs may also overlap (secretarial, sales, managerial)
 * Not all professionals are symbolic analysts eg. lawyer that does monotonous tasks
 * Also, Not all symbolic analysts are professionals

Part 4.

 * Status, job title, income and content of job may be difficult to convey to others simply
 * Subtle distinctions of symbolic analytic rank
 * Real status related to length of job title
 * Two terms signify a degree of authority (‘creative director’ ‘project manager’)
 * In the emerging global economy, woven the most impressive of positions in the most prestigious of organizations is vulnerable to worldwide competition
 * The only true competitive advantage lies in skill in solving, identifying, and brokering new problems.

=CCT205 Wikispaces Links=

Further readings - //Labour in the New Economy//

Further readings - __//New Economy//__

=Works Cited=

Castells, Manuel. "An Introduction to the Information Age." __The Information Society Reader__. Ed. Frank Webster, Raimo Blom, Erkki Karvonen, Harri Melin, Kaarle Nordenstreng, and Ensio Puoskari. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 138-149.