A quick note on last week’s class,
I enjoyed listening to Dr. Hill speak as I always do. This is the fourth class I have been able to
hear him speak in and wish I had the opportunity to have him as a
professor. I would have enjoyed hearing
him go more in depth on topics and cover all the topics he intended to
discuss.
Brown’s Chapter 17 discussed trends
in the labor market and what affects them (2012). I found the list of occupations projected to
have the greatest decline interesting, but would expect this decline from many
due to increases in moving production off shoes and new advancements in
technology. Some jobs I did not
previously think about being in decline, specifically clerical or office positions. This may be because I have previously held
positions in this field but upon thinking about the advances in technology such
as electronic medical records, computer transcription programs, and other
software that enables clients/patients to check themselves in for appointments,
the projections made sense. After
thinking about this for a moment, I recalled my chiropractor having a touch
screen computer at the front desk instead of a person for patients to click
through and sign themselves in. My
University Health Services as an undergraduate had a similar check-in system
for appointments. I think it improves
the privacy of patients which may be positive, but see a negative in terms of
wait time for those who have difficulty operating a computer system.
Brown discussed the increase of
service-providing jobs opposed to product-providing jobs in the United
States. I believe a lot of this is due
to the lower cost of production off-shores.
I also think the generational shift regarding going to college has something
to do with this. I was talking about this
shift with a sixty-year old coworker who graduated high school in the 1970’s. I believe my generation was taught that you
can’t get a good job without going to college, pushing more individuals to go
to college. He discussed how he wishes
that he learned a trade instead, because there were many jobs he could have had
that paid well without a college degree.
I think because of the push for my generation and younger generations to
go to college, more people are over-educated for many o the jobs that produce
products. Some of the projections of
occupations that will grow I think are related to generations living longer and
the increase of older people in our populations. These trends need to be incorporated in
career development programs due to workers working longer and more older
workers staying in the work force.
Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career
counseling, and career development (10th ed.). New York:
Pearson Education, Inc.
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