Technical+Occupations

toc =What?= "Technical Occupations" have come to dominate the workforce in North American and other first nation countries today. The number of these workers has risen from less than one million back in 1890 to over 10.8 million by the year 1968. The largest growth section in the 1960's included:

1. Teachers (2+ million) 2. Professional Health Workers (2 million) 3. Engineering and Science Technicians (900,000)

Compared to today, the 'technical occupations' of the past have shifted dramatically to include:

1. Electrical and Electronic engineering technicians make up 34% of all engineering technicians. 2. Computer Software Technicians, according to current trends, is projected to be the fastest growing occupation over the 2004 to 2014 period.

What can be attributed from these trends is that the lower-middle-class blue-collar worker is in decline as the need for higher skills related to higher forms of education is presently required by many occupations.

=Brief History=

Since the advent of the Post-Industrial Society, the increasing demand for workers with skills related to the technological field of jobs has been steadily increasing. Following World War II, employmentbegan to grow steadily into the late 1960's in the service field. As far as the manufacturing of goods service industry went, it increased by a mere 10 percent. As was seen between the years of 1870 to 1920, the shift from agricultural to industrial industries can best be described as a simple reaction to the gradual changing of the economy (agricultural to industrial, in this instance).

=Future Outlook=

With white-collar workers on the rise since 1920, it is fair to say that there will be some major changes in the structure of present jobs - both professional and manufacturing. The new generation of workers will come in more highly educated than their predecessors, and this will have an impact on the relationship between those in managerial postions and those in lower positions. those that are involved in the computer technology field have a large variety of occupations to choose from. From a basic computer operator to a computer software engineer, to engineers in general (of which there are 1,449,000 current job positions in the United States), the idea of a steadily shrinking proletariat class is a constant reality. Those that work for the wages of another are slowly being replaced, however, by those that are constantly being sourced out to different companies due to their level of continuing education. With so much diversification amongst groups, the future of workers within manufacturing industries is unclear.

=References=

Bell, Daniel. "Post-Industrial Society." __The Information Society Reader.__ Ed. Frank Webster, Raimo Blom, Erikki Karvonen, Harri Melon, Kaarle Nordenstreng, and ensino puoskari. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. 87-99.

U.S. Department of Labour, Bureau of Labour Statistics. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos128.htm