Your Job in 2010

Ford, M. (2010). Your job in 2010. Retrieved April 12, 2010 from: http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/08/unemployment-google-2020-technology-data-companies-10-economy.html

This article, published on the Forbes.com Web site, gives the author’s viewpoint on the employment outlook a decade from now. Ford is also the author of a book that discusses similar subjects as well. Many analysts believe that, due to the aging of the workforce and the impending retirement of this same group, that there will be a worker shortage by 2018. Ford, however, disagrees and states that these predictions do not take into account the technological advances that will take place each year, many of which are used to eliminate jobs with more automation. He states that the U.S. employs one-million fewer workers now that it did in 1999 and that to keep up with the population growth, the economy needs to create one to two million jobs per year. Technological advances grow exponentially each year and computing power is expected to increase 32-fold in the next ten years. Additionally, many service companies are turning to self-service using automation or off-shoring to find less expensive service workers. And of course, many manufacturing companies are using more automation to eliminate jobs or in many cases, moving their facilities to foreign countries, where labor is much less expensive. From a management point of view this information is important because managers need to keep up with advancing technologies and use them in ways that will benefit their firms. From a student or worker viewpoint, one must consider these things and make learning a career decisions today that will help them better qualify for the jobs of the future and to keep up with advancing technologies so they can have a competitive edge.