Labour+in+New+Economy

=Labour in New Economy=

toc Jobs in the new economy will shift away from the association with a particular firm, industry, or sector like in the previous economy. Gone are the days when a person could spend his entire working career with one company and retire to a healthy retirement package waitng for him. The competitiveness of North Americans in the global market will depend, not on the fortunes of any American corporation or on American industry, but on the functions that North Americans perform - the value they add - within the global economy. Other nations are undergoing the same transformations all participating in essentially the same transnational trend. Barriers to cross-border flows of knowledge, money, and tangible prodcuts are crumbling; groups of people in every nation are joining global webs. To see in detail what is happening to labour in the new economy its is neccessary to view the certian jobs in terms of categories that reflect their competitive possitions in the global economy. The three categories that account for 3 out of every 4 American jobs are:

1) routine production services 2) in-person services, and 3) symbolic-analytic services.

1) Routine Production Services
Entails the kinds of repetitive tasks preformed by the old foot soldiers of American capitalism in the high-volume enterprise. They are done over and over- one step in a sequence of steps for producing finished products tradable in world commerce. //Routine production services// are often thought of as traditional blue-collar jobs, they also include routine supervisory jobs preformed by low and mid level managers. The payoff of //routine production services// is a function of hours worked or amount of work preformed and they rarely come into contact with those who benefit from there work.

//Routine production services// are found in many places within the new economy. They are found even in high technological fields. Few tasks are more tedious and repetitive, for example, than stuffing computer circuit boards or devising routine coding for computer software programs. Many information processing jobs fall into this category. The foot soldiers of the information economy are hordes of data processors stationed in “back offices” at computer terminals linked to the worldwide information banks. They routinely enter data into computers or take it out. //Routine producers// typically work in the company of many other people who are doing the same thing, usually within large enclosed spaces. They are guided by standard procedures and codified rules. //Routine producers// usually must be able to read and perform simple computations. But their true values are loyalty, reliability, dedication, and the capability to take directions.

2) **In-person Services**
Like routine production services, //in person services// entails simple and repetitive tasks and the payoff is a function of hours worked or amount of work preformed. //In-person servers// are all in direct contact with the ultimate beneficiaries of their work.

The most important feature of //in-person servers// is that the services must be provided on a person-to-person level and thus not sold worldwide. //In-person servers// work alone or in small groups. Included in this category are hotel workers, janitors, taxi drivers, waiters, and auto mechanics. In-person servers values include being punctual, reliable, tractable, and they must also have a pleasant demeanor. They must smile and exude confidence and good cheer even when they feel bad because they are in close proximity with all there customers. In 1990, //in-person services// accounted for 30 percent of the jobs preformed by Americans and the number has increased over the years following.

3) **Symbolic-Analytic Services**
Those who solve, identify, and broker problems by manipulating symbols. They simplify reality into abstract images that can be rearranged, juggled, experimented with, communicated to other specialist, and then transformed back into reality. The manipulations are done with analytic tools and with prior experiences. Some of these manipulations reveal how to more efficiently deploy resources or shift financial assets, or otherwise save time and money. Other manipulations can produce new inventions to be sold in the new economy. Like routine production services, //symbolic-analytic servers// rarely come into contact with those who benefit from their work. People who are employed in //symbolic-analytic services// have high education and have job titles such as architects, film editors, marketing strategists.

//Symbolic-analysts services// can be traded worldwide and must compete with foreign providers even in there own market. They do not enter world commerce as standardized things; they trade manipulations of symbols- data, words, oral and visual representations. //Symbolic analysts// often work alone or in small teams. They spend long hours in meetings or on the telephone advising, making presentations, and giving briefings.

=Other Roles Of New Labour=

Organizations are now connected via computer-mediated relationships, and they are giving rise to a new generation of “virtual” workers who work from home, hotels, their cars, or wherever work takes them.

The introduction of advanced technology trends tends to reduce the number of jobs that require little skill and to increase the number of jobs that require considerable skill. In general, this transformation is referred to as a shift from “touch labour” to “knowledge workers”, where employee responsibilities expand to include a richer array of activities such as planning, decision making, and problem solving. Knowledge workers are given far more power and say then their predecessors “touch labour” and are looked upon as a significant part of any organization.

Contract labour are employees that have skills that are of less strategic value and that are generally available to all firms. The scope of their duties tends to be limited. Individuals in these jobs are being hired from outside agencies on a contract basis and once the contract period has been fulfilled than there services are no longer required and they seek jobs elsewhere. This helps the organization increase efficiency and productivity as they only hire the labour needed to perform certain jobs and this helps the bottom line as they never have a larger workforce then they need. =CCT205 Wikispaces Links=

Further reading - //New Economy//** Further reading - __//Ch 14- Three Jobs of the Future//__

=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.

Belcourt, Bohnader, Snell (2005) __Managing Human Resources 4th edition.__ Thomas Nelson Publishing, Toronto ON. Pg. 7, 133