Dr. Ron Bird, chief economist of the Employment Policy Foundation, recently testified before the House Workforce Protections subcommittee on the changing face of workplace demographics, and focused on five dimensions of change over the past 50 years that should affect employment policy. They are:
- Job availability. The labor market moved from an era in which workers were plentiful and job opportunities scarce to a shortage of workers but plentiful job opportunities. In the past 20 years, the American economy produced 35 million new jobs. The 50.8 million employees now age 45 and over in 2001 will leave the labor force over the next 30 years.
- Industrial structure. In the past, most jobs were in centralized manufacturing enterprises. Today, the majority of jobs are in service industries, including positions in the business information, technology and professional services sectors.
- Occupational structure. The nature of jobs has transformed from routine, low skill manufacturing jobs to management, technical and professional occupations that require great skills, education and creative knowledge. If past trends continue, more than 43 percent of the jobs in the American workplace will be highly paid managerial, professional and technical related occupations, nearly twice the proportion 30 years ago.
- Education. Fifty years ago, jobs required little formal education. Today, positions require a highly educated workforce and ever-increasing educational attainment.
The 40-year lifetime earnings of a high school graduate are $1.2 million compared to almost $2 million for a worker with a bachelor’s degree or $2.8 million for someone earning a professional degree. - Diversity. Workers of yesterday went to their jobs with similar expectations and needs, while the employees of today enter the workplace with complex and conflicting expectations and needs. Diversity in the workforce is evident in age, gender, race, education, national origin, occupations and preferences for patterns of work.
Dr. Bird testified in front of Congress because the current federal employment laws and regulations are based on the 1930s environment, when the Great Depression was still fresh in everyone’s mind.
Today’s workplace, however, is obviously dramatically different and more complex. Subjects such as flexible scheduling, innovative compensation, employment work structures and alternative work arrangements are not uncommon practices in today’s environment.
Therefore, the Employment Policy Foundation strongly recommended that Congress review the effectiveness of the employment policies and reassess whether employment laws and regulations are meeting employee needs.
Such review may lead to a multitude of changes and make the jobs of human resource personnel more difficult and complex. However, if done correctly, the new regulations should be a better reflection of today’s workforce. IBI
