At 11:26 PM 1/20/96, Blair Sandler wrote: >Sid Shnad writes: > >>It has become a contemporary article of faith that the jobs >of the future will be in the high tech sector. Of late, >however, there has been a great deal of evidence that >presents a prima facie challenge to this article of faith. > >Around December 1994, I think, the Wall St. Journal ran a long front page >article written by a reporter who worked in a dirty recycling center >(MURF), and a poultry processing plant, among other jobs. The very good >article reported that the six fastest growing jobs (in the U.S.) in the 90s >were those two and some other low-skill, low-wage, dirty, dangerous, >boring, dead-end jobs. > >Sorry I don't recall the other jobs or the exact reference. The article, by Tony Horwitz, appeared on Dec 1 1994 on the front page of the WSJ. It was excellent, a better picture of work life than anything I've read in the "left" press. A sidebar to the story reported that the firm that opened check-beraing mail for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Doris Day Animal League, Greenpeace, and the National Organization for Women was a classic modern sweatshop, combining low wages with high-tech supervision. The Nov 95 issue of the Monthly Labor Review carries the latest BLS projections for job growth. The ten most rapidly growing occupations, in numerical terms, between 1994 and 2005 are projected to be: * cashiers * janitors & cleaners * retail salespersons * waiters and watresses * registered nurses * general managers and top executives * systems analysts * home health aides * guards * nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants The only "high tech" job in the top 10 is systems analysts, projected to grow from 483,000 in 1994 to 928,000 in 2005. The only other high-end job is "general managers and top execs," slated to grow from 3,046,000 to 3,512,000. RNs are, of course, skilled workers, but the rest of the list features some of the cliches of postindustrial shitwork. Bob Reich seems not to read the projections of an agency he supervises. Doug -- Doug Henwood Left Business Observer 250 W 85 St New York NY 10024-3217 USA +1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.panix.com/~dhenwood/LBO_home.html>
