Here are some insights into the world of work:
Where the jobs are: According to the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, a publication of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, these occupations are projected to grow between 2000 to 2010: food preparation workers; customer service representatives; retail salespersons; computer support specialists; cashiers; office clerks; security guards; computer software engineers; and waiters and waitresses.
Also, general and operations managers; truck drivers; nursing aides, orderlies and attendants; janitors and cleaners; post-secondary teachers; teacher assistants; home-health aides; laborers and freight, stock and material movers; computer software engineers; and landscaping and groundskeeping workers.
Now you can’t say I didn’t alert you to the best opportunities.
Where the jobs are not: The occupations projected to lose the most jobs between 2000 and 2010 are farmers and ranchers; order clerks; tellers; insurance claims and policy processing clerks; word processors and typists; sewing machine operations; dishwashers; switchboard operators, including answering services; loan interviewers and clerks; and computer operators.
Also, dining room and cafeteria attendants; electrical and electronic equipment assemblers; machine feeders; telephone operators; secretaries (except legal, medical and executive); pre-press technicians and workers; office machine operators; cutting, punching and press machine setters, operators and tenders, metal and plastic; postal service mail sorters, processors and processing machine operators; and railroad brake, signal and switch operators.
Now you can’t say I didn’t warn you.
Hooray for training and development: “Training is more important than ever in an economic turndown,” wrote Eva Kaplan-Leiserson in Training and Development magazine, citing an American Management Association report that says there is “a direct link between a downsized company’s improved performance and an increase in training expenditures after layoffs.”
Since I believe lifelong learning is so important, I’m happy to learn that the importance of professional training may not be overlooked in the aftershocks of Sept. 11.
Unhealthy health care: Is the health-care plan your employer offers making you sick? If it’s any comfort, you’re not alone: Only 43 percent of 10,000 employees surveyed by Watson Wyatt, a global human capital consulting firm, said they’re satisfied with the overall performance of their health plan. In the same study, only 48 percent of the workers say they trust their employers to design a health plan that will provide the coverage they actually need.
My advice: Stay well.
The impact of the new technology: “Instant [access to the Internet] has swept upon us like a tidal wave . . . just one of a flurry of trends that is spawning a fundamental paradigm shift in how we work . . . and even exist,” observes Liz Nickles in “The Change Agents: Decoding the New Workforce and the New Workplace” (St. Martin’s Press, $23.95). “[Sen.] Hillary Clinton has called the wiring of the country and its impact `as significant as electrification of the country in the 1930s.'”
And as electrifying.
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Carol Kleiman’s column also appears in Tuesday’s Business and Wednesday’s Working sections. Send e-mail to [email protected].