Friday, January 27, 2012

BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A JOB?

I’m Beatrice Bell—Bea to my friends—and I am happily retired.  I’m not looking for work, either part or full time because my friends, Hattie and Connie, I manage have managed to stay busy trying to solve a couple of cases of criminal activity that came our way.  But that’s a story for another time.
I bring up the subject of work because for the past 3 or 4 years this country has been in a job crisis.  Every politician is either shouting about the need to create jobs, or they’re boasting about how many new jobs they’ve brought to their communities.  I was kind of curious about these jobs that have been created and those that will be created in the future. Back in the day parents urged their children to be doctors, lawyers, or teachers.    As trends changed and the economy grew, there were many non-traditional jobs that were open to men and women alike.  This was especially true in the manufacturing industry.  These “good jobs” paid salaries that helped grow  the middle class.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics  (BLS) has looked at categories of jobs that will likely disappear by the year 2018.  Some of them surprised me.  Others I never thought about.
By 2018, it is predicted that there will be 700 fewer jobs for judges— magistrate judges, and magistrates—then there were in 2008.  This will be mainly due to budget cuts. Surprisingly, another reason is that judges once left for better paying jobs in the private sector, but they now stay on the bench because of the economic down turn.
Fashion designers are among those jobs are predicted to become distinct.  It is estimated that by 2018 only 200 more designers will find work in that field.  To quote Carol-Hannah Whitefield, who was a finalist on Project Runway in 2009, “The world doesn’t need another [fashion] designer.”

Thanks to improved software, Insurance Underwriters are doomed to extinction.  It’s easy to see that job being absorbed by others, especially since they punch in figures and the software lets them determine if a client is approved or not.  Add to the fact that the insurance field is in such turmoil; the future for underwriters looks grim.
Remember in the not too distant pass when we all had money to travel and we’d call a Travel Agent?  Now, thanks to web sites such as Priceline.com, Hotels.com, Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects 1,200 fewer travel agents to have work in 2018.
Everyone knows how the newspapers have disappeared from the scene and along with them the job of Newspaper Reporter.  The BLS states that 4,400 jobs will disappear by 2018.  It’s no wonder.  With the Internet, people who can read want the news fast and quick.  
You get the picture.  So where are these jobs of the future coming from?  It looks as though the service industry will be a mainstay.  The health field will provide jobs.   Unfortunately the majority of the jobs of the future now pay less than $30,000.  Everyone knows that people need jobs but with rising prices and inflation, they will barely sustain the middle class life style that many of us have enjoyed in the past. 
The bright side is that our children may have to struggle a little more to create their version of the good life. History tells me that just like in the past, the job market may change but there is every reason to believe that the jobs will be there and the future will be bright.  So muse on that.

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