I had an interesting discussion with a senior executive of Kelly Services that provided some very striking new perspectives on the world of work. Kelly Services is a global workforce solutions company, providing temporary and medium-term workers with a very wide range of specialized skills (link). One thing that was particularly striking is the fact that Kelly provides advanced technical and scientific expertise to corporations and government agencies as independent contractors. In fact, according to their website they have over 11,000 scientists and engineers available for placement. On any given day they have placed roughly 150,000 workers around the world, and are administering another 100,000 or so who are provided by independent contractors. So Kelly Services has a strong real-world knowledge base about the talent needs of the current global economy.Understanding Society
The most striking part of our conversation is this. Our traditional thinking about a job and a career is badly out of date. We think of the normal work situation as fulltime longterm employment in a specific location and with a salary and benefits. But this situation isn't even the majority situation anymore. We know that a lot of employers don't offer benefits, but that isn't the big news. According to this executive, almost half of workers in the US economy are self employed or part-time or temporary. These workers don't have benefits usually, and they don't have job security. What they have is a specific set of talents to sell in a national or global market, and their standard of living depends entirely on the value of this set of talents.....
The talent supply chain
Daniel Little | Chancellor, University of Michigan-Dearborn
6 comments:
"So the conclusions are stark. Encourage all young people to invest in their educational opportunities; "
It wouldn't even occur to him to see the problem as being a slack labor market easily fixed by lower taxes and higher spending. Rather It is a lack of education by the 'bottom' 60%.
We have thousands of highly educated but under/un employed workers and he sees a need to double down on the educational race to the bottom. Great. Lets see if we can get a Masters degree in Science and Engineering for every single fast food worker, waiter, truck driver and hospitality worker -- that will raise the wages for everyone in the nation. No clear mechanism, just by magic and pixie dust it will create opportunity?
The most extraordinary part of this article is the wonder and shock displayed by the university chancellor. His attitude is stereotypical of what we expect from US higher education with all the 'inspired' thinking and neo-liberal biases.
Ryan, I read the post as saying that if you don't want to end up in the bottom, where the future is uncertain, get an education that allows you to compete for the dwindling number of decent job. LIttle's question is really about how society is going to adapt to a future in which a majority of workers are expendable. This is indeed the neoliberal, neoconservative, neo-imperial, and neocolonial future we are facing unless the direction changes. I that Little is mainly describing what he sees happening.
It is not a great job market if you only have a high school diploma.
http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2012/10/20/infographic-of-the-day-can-a-degree-get-you-through-a-recession
Note the source of the report, and I think you would need an economy run from the perspective of MMT to bear fruit (full employment.
"Industrial Federation of Robotics - Positive Impact of Industrial Robots on Employment"
http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/10/robots-create-more-jobs-than-they.html
This has been the situation in the Third World for a long time. The people at the bottom exist in the informal economy, which is a combination of subsistence living, barter, black market activity, crime, substance abuse, prostitution, etc. Cities are divided into sections with barricades and check points, and everyone who has anything of value lives behind fences and barred windows, with heavily armed guards, usually with submachine guns and body armor. This is not a good direction in which to be heading.
"This is not a good direction in which to be heading."
Nope, and it is not even economically necessary. It is all ideology. But then you don't have to worry if you always rig the game in your favor and call muckrakers (whats left) and other truth-tellers anti-capitalsit/communist, but seems to work on certain segments of the populace. Even though the real communist are the corporate type.
http://coreyrobin.com/2012/10/15/the-kochs-libertarian-hypocrisy-its-worse-than-you-think/
"The Payoff: Why Wall Street Always Wins"
http://fdlbooksalon.com/2012/10/21/fdl-book-salon-welcomes-jeff-connaughton/
http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/investment_manager.html
"The bottom line here is that I think it is very difficult to create a net worth in excess of $10M from income alone. Yes, sports stars, entertainers, and some business people do -- but they are rare. Those with a higher net worth tend to acquire most of their net worth from capital gains, not income that has been saved and invested. Large capital gains tend to come when private businesses are acquired by private or public companies with stock or when executives are paid directly by options or stock. Wall Street and the banking industry are frequently involved, either directly or indirectly."
I think the bottom 50% will be hard pressed to put together 10K.
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