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REVOLUTION
IN IJ.S.
JOB MARKET
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Expected percentage of growth or decline in the
number of jobs in selected fields between 1980 and 1990.
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Sources:
Fortune,
June 28, 1982;
U.S. News
&
World Report,
February 7, 1983
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1990
1995 2000
zine, "but they'll be so different
that today's laid-off worker will be
hard pressed to fill them."
The new brand of compute11
technology will not only affect
engineers and scientists.
It
will
also affect the physician, the law–
yer, the executive, the administra–
tor, the salesman, the designer–
whether in the factory, the office,
the laboratory or the classroom.
The application of computer tech–
nology to office and factory will
affect almost every job and almost
every aspect of work.
24
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FUTURE INNOVATIONS-
Technology
has affected emp/oyment demands in
many fields, above. Videotex, /eft. pro–
vides at-home shopping and banking.
One study of help-wanted adver–
t isements in the New York
Times
showed that jobs requiring sorne
form of computer literacy doubled
from 1977 to 1982.
Five years ago, none of the list–
ings for t ravel agents mentíoned a
thing about computer-related skills,
reports
Science Digest.
Last year
71 percent required the abil ity to
operate computer-based reserva–
tions systems.
Secretary-typist jobs t hat de–
manded word processing skills
went from zero to 15 percent in the
same period.
How will the computer explosion
affect you?
It
will fundamentally
change the relationship between a
worker and his or her task. Work
becomes abstract, the elect ronic
manipulation of symbols.
Skilled workers wi ll be required
to handle information on paper and
in computers rather than take a
direct hand in producing goods–
robots will do much of that.
As robotics take over certain
dull , mundane j obs, more highly
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trained personnel will be needed to
maintain , repair, program and
supervise the machines.
People prepared for new jobs
will find factory work freed from
much of the curse of dull repeti–
t ion, leaving workers more t ime to
be creative.
Time will tell whether that crea–
tivity will be used in this age of
man for good or for selfishness and
greed- thereby multiplying unhap–
piness!
For those not willing to accept
the challenge, the change will be
painful. Middle-aged blue-collar
workers who know only welding or
painting may not be easily trainable
for the new role.
Compu ter Llteracy
To participate fully in an informa–
tion society, compu ter literacy will
be as important as reading literacy.
All this, of course, if the nat ions
can prevent war in the meantime.
In his book
The Unprepared
Society,
Donald N. Michael wrote,
" Ignorance of computers will ren–
der people functionally illiterate as
does ignorance of reading, writing
and arithmetic."
Computer literacy is the fourth
basic skill , says one innovative school
The PLAIN TRUTH