Change and Innovations in the Labor Market Challenges

Change and Innovations in the Labor Market: Challenges for Workforce Development John Dorrer Senior Advisor Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Or If you think your job is hard- It really is! 2

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Your Challenge:

Change and Innovations in the Labor Market: • Big Waves of Structural Change • Evolving Labor Market Practices • What Employers Are Saying • Do Our Solutions Measure Up? 6

“The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones. ” John Maynard Keynes

THE BIG WAVES OF STRUCTURAL CHANGE

Mc. Kinsey Global Institute Report

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EVOLVING LABOR MARKET PRACTICES

The Labor Market in the New Information Economy (NBER Working Paper No. 9254). by Richard Freeman • the increased demand for those working with the Internet, and computers more broadly, has boosted both their wages and the hours they work, • the low cost of transmitting information over the Internet is shifting job search and recruitment activities to the Web. • the ease of communicating and interacting over the Internet has led unions to experiment with web-based modes of servicing members, perhaps thereby improving union democracy and reversing the long-run decline in membership, and carrying their message to the wider public. • despite the rise of computer-based work at home, much important information -- business, scientific, or technological -- apparently still requires human interaction to be effectively transmitted. So location does matter.

Staffing industries play an important role, not only in making sure companies make the right hire, but also in helping companies retain those employees

Many economists have demonstrated major declines in the middle of the job market, but businesses owners still have difficulty filling them. Jobs that still pay well increasingly require more complex reasoning or communication skills

Pew asked a national sample of adults to pick select skills from a list of ten, which “are most important for children to get ahead in the world today. ”

FEEDBACK FROM EMPLOYERS

survey of 636 C-level and senior executives by The Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by the SHRM Foundation.

Houston – We have a problem “ Colleges and universities appear to overrate the degree to which they prepare students for the life of work. According to Mc. Kinsey, “ 72 percent of educational institutions felt that their graduates were ready for the job market, but only 42 percent of employers agreed. ” 2 2 Mc. Kinsey & Company, Job Creation and America’s Future. October 2011 http: //www. mckinsey. com/insights/mgi/research/labor_markets/an_economy_that_works_for_us_job_ creation

BIG CHALLENGES DEMAND BIG SOLUTIONS

2015

The recent AARP/AIER study found: • An estimated 16 -29 million of the people in America in January 2014 had successfully changed careers after the age of 45. • Successful changers generally went to careers that leveraged skills and experience they already had, while those who were unsuccessful tended to seek careers requiring entirely new skills. • Nearly 70 percent of successful changers saw their pay either stay the same (18 percent) or rise (50 percent), while 31 percent saw their pay decrease. • Eighty-seven percent of successful changers said they were happy or very happy with their change, and 65 percent felt less stress at work.