First Social Impact On Changing Career Models

In the article Fixed and Footloose: Work and Identity in the Twenty-First, author Ursula Huws analyzes the changing shape of the global job market. He points out that due to technological change and an increase in globalization jobs that were previously tied down to a certain place, “fixed jobs”, are now becoming “footloose jobs”, that have no geographical restrictions. Huws states that this change causes people to move more frequently and have less job security, even a person with specialized skills.

Supporters argue that outsourcing has a minimal effect on job losses, and has increased economic growth in some cases. In actuality, outsourcing has decreased the domestic economy by decimating job opportunities and lowering wages. Steven Pearlstein, economics columnist for the Washington post reaffirmed arguments that outsourcing has decreased employment availability and stability of the economy by saying “There are growing numbers of people who think that what started as a sensible, globalized extension of sending some work outside a firm to specialized companies may in fact be creating long-term structural unemployment in the United States, hollowing out entire industries”. (Pearlstein 3) The IT industry has been especially affected by outsourcing, with many jobs moving overseas to India and Bangladesh, leaving employees in the United States without a job, unable to compete with lower wage offerings. Supporters of outsourcing argue that this business strategy increases everyone’s productivity, raising everyone’s income, and boosting economic growth. Many such studies tend to focus on large multinational corporations, for which the data and anecdotes are more readily available. And indeed, during the 1990s, the data seemed to show that for every one job added abroad, companies added almost two new

‘Is your job next?’ headline blared, followed by the disturbing preview of the article inside: “A new round of globalization is sending upscale jobs offshore. They include chip design engineering, basic research— even financial analysis. Can America lose these jobs and still prosper (R. Hira, 2008, p-1)?” The reaction of this news was swift and divided. Definitely large corporations that will be outsourcing will make huge profits in the long run but “what about the American citizens?”

“Without warning, they left us broke, sealed out, and jobless” (Edwards). These are the words from Gregg Davis, a former Oshawa workman, after he received notice his job was being relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. Gregg Davis worked for IQT Solutions, a call-center company based in Oshawa, Ontario. Along with 600 other people, Gregg Davis was left jobless after his job was outsourced to Nashville, Tennessee in a desperate attempt to save the company money. Today, thousands of American workers are also waking up to the stunning situation of unemployment as the result of their jobs being outsourced to foreign countries. This outsourcing phenomenon has been fueled by the recent trends in globalization, with the hope to cut cost and

Many current politicians such as President Trump have stated that they are going to revive the middle class by bringing jobs back into our economy that have been shipped off overseas. However, the problem with jobs has not been from shipping them overseas. Paul Wiseman, writer for The Associated Press, shows proof of this by stating, “A study at Ball State University’s Center for Business and Economic Research last year found that trade accounted for just 13 percent of America’s lost factory jobs. The vast majority of the lost jobs — 88 percent — were taken by robots and other homegrown factors that reduce factories’ need for human labor” (“Automation” 21). Many companies such as Amazon are prime examples of the automation of factory jobs. Amazon has many factory jobs that require long and hard work in some questionable working conditions. The New York Times reports, “that white-collar workers at Amazon are also subjected to a grueling culture consisting of 24-hour mandated performance, ritual abuse by bosses, and the annual arbitrary culling of employees, referred to as ‘purposeful Darwinism’ in company dialect” (qtd. in Means 21). Amazon did fix the worker problem; but, not by changing job conditions or managers. Instead, they fire the workers and simply replace them with Kiva robots that would do the job complaint free (Means 21).

According to Richard W. Judy and Carol D’Amico in the article “Work and Workers in the Twenty-First Century”, Americans are figuring out how to deal with the dramatic changes in the workforce. The journey to become a productive worker will not be easy to achieve but the hard work Americans put in will pay off in the long run. There are four forces that explain the dangers and satisfactions that are ahead for American workers. The four forces to be considered are as follows: technological changes, globalization, the aging population, and ethnic diversification. All four of these factors play a role in coping with the changing workforce.

The modern day American society hosts a broad spectrum of industries with various occupations and professions to engage today’s workforce. America, much like most first world countries is a service economy based on the exchange of knowledge and expertise rather than materials and products. People have a long history of work and work evolution that has ultimately brought America to a service economy producing both strengths and weaknesses within the society and its economy. As America has moved to a service economy, much of the manufacturing and production jobs have moved oversees to third world countries creating a reliance on other economies. This globalization of the workforce as well as unionization, and the

Over the years, there has been a great impact on society and the workforce due to the shift from a manufacture driven economy to a retail and service driven one. One of the main causes of this is the outsourcing of manufacturing and entry-level jobs to those overseas in order for the company to earn more profit. They hire foreign workers to be employed for little wages and take openings away from those living in the United States where the products will be sold. Therefore, there are few job openings, particularly in the expanding service industry, for those without advanced degrees and more people are fighting for them during the past decade due to the Great Recession. A significant problem associated with this is that people are forced to

The U.S. job market is currently under siege. The global market shows no mercy and America is not an exception. Ever since the “Great Recession” of the late 2000s, millions of people have been out of a job. According to a chart on the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, a federally managed website, there are still large amounts of unemployed people in some states: Many states in the U.S. still have an unemployment rate of over five percent (“Unemployment”). The United States needs to create more jobs. The economy is not in its best shape due to the multitude of job cuts in the U.S. workforce. There are many reasons that have contributed to the catastrophe of America’s workforce, but there are also plenty of solutions. The United States economy has too few of jobs to satisfy the global demand, but there are many strategies involving both business and government that can solve this problem.

Consequently, even the highest performing US graduates will still struggle to compete in the global job market because only a small percentage have necessary skills whereas a majority of Hong Kong students possess similar skills. Since US highest performing schools obtain a low percentage of higher performing students, this means that the percentage, in every other state, will face bigger problems. “The current and future workforce will be competing not only with each other and millions of newly arrived immigrants but also with equally (or better) skilled workers in lower-wage economies around the world” (ETS). Under NAFTA, many owners outsourced their businesses overseas because they rather increase their profit by hiring higher quality

With little regard for the individual a company can ignore the comfort of the individual employee that is easily replaceable. This is made possible through the advancements in technology which disregarded the need for an artisan. Immigrants would be finagled into working in factories for lower pay than others. The weakness of the worker’s unions and organizations for improving the life quality of a worker made little to no progress. The American industrial worker had sacrificed their quality of life in exchange for work to continue living. Middle class workers were able to enjoy luxuries not previously available to them. In all, an improvement in technology and influx of immigrants just made workers disposable, and workers had little support, representation, and influince in the

One’s work is viewed as a positive, fruitful contribution. While one’s occupation consumes one’s life, it is an inherently valuable investment. How did this paradigm shift from viewing work as estranged labor (in modernity) to a meaningful endeavor (in postmodernity) arise? Which social classes feel estranged from their labor? What is the broader relevance of labor and how it shapes how we view our identity and humanity? One could argue that human agency is a paradigm that shapes how people view how meaningful their work is. How do we shape our work and how does it mold us? Does our work align with our values and goals for ourselves? In the 21st century, work is often seen as a source of pride. Americans derive a sense of satisfaction from their occupations because they are often granted the agency to start their own businesses; to that end, entrepreneurial enterprises are the staple of American innovation. Creative endeavors are valued as well. On the contrary, labor in modernity served as a source of alienation. “The worker therefore only feels himself outside himself. He is at home when he is not working, and when he is working he is not at home” (74). This idea contradicts the “9-5 job” narrative shapes the American business paradigm. Today, the unemployed are ostracized for their lack of work. And yet, they do not willing subscribe to this stereotype. Unemployed Americans

In “ Labor Force Insecurity and U.S. Work Attitudes..” Lalleburg discusses the soical, ecomonical, and political forces or job concerns within the United States.

With the United States’ economy in a depression and our unemployment rate skyrocketing to record highs, job-outsourcing has moved to the top of the list of controversial issues. Froma Harrop’s essay New Threat to Skilled U.S. Workers and Thomas Friedman’s essay 30 Little Turtles discuss two different viewpoints of job-outsourcing, and their effects on society. Does our government really want to cut back on job-outsourcing, and what can society do to help the issue? Friedman’s standpoint on job-outsourcing shows how it is emotionally beneficial to other countries and Harrop’s factual standpoint shows job-outsourcing regulation, however, I feel that our citizens are unaware of the opportunities and our government is eager to send the jobs

In “Will Your Job Be Exported?”, Alan S. Blinder argues the quality and security of jobs in the future, service sectors in America will be determined by how offshorable they are. Blinder starts out the story with a quote by Edmund Burke, “You can never plan the future by the past”. Although he stated we are doing exactly that when it comes to getting the American workforce ready for jobs of the future. Blinder states “demand for labor appears to have shifted toward the college-educated and away from high school graduates and dropouts” (p. 8). According to Lou Dobbs, “Well under one percent of US service jobs have been outsourced.” Eventually offshoring for service sectors will exceed offshoring for manufacturing-sectors for 3 reasons. First simply because there is a greater amount of service jobs than manufacturing jobs in the US and other countries that are well off. Second, service sector offshoring continues to accelerate due to technological advances thus increasing the range of services offshore. And lastly, (e.g. Chinese and Indian) workers with the capability to perform service jobs continue to increase rapidly.