Tech Directions - October 2007 - (Page 6)

CLMS’s analysis. “Teen employment rates fell sharply in 2001, 2002, and 2003, and appeared to have bottomed out in 2004. While employment rates for some groups of teens increased modestly in 2005-2006, they have again taken a steep downturn this year, a very puzzling and troubling development.” While teen labor employment has declined for all major demographic and socioeconomic subgroups, it has been steepest for the youngest teens (ages 16–17), males, and those from low-income groups. Only 1 of 5 black teens, for example, was employed in any kind of job this past summer. The analysis also indicates how much federal policies can affect opportunities for youth. In 1978, federal job creation was at its peak, and 64 of every 100 male teens held jobs during the summer that year. This past summer, only 40 of every 100 male teens were employed. At a minimum, the CLMS and the U.S. Conference of Mayors have called on Congress to re-instate the summer jobs program, especially in low-income communities. Questioning the Value of College Education Several months ago, The American Prospect published an analysis of job trends and the outsourcing of employment that has been causing considerable comment among economists and recently resurfaced in full on an education news service. The analysis, by Alan Blinder, Princeton University economics professor and founder of its Center for Economic Policy Studies, questions the emphasis being placed on college-level education for larger percentages of youth. Indirectly, it makes a case for more attention to occupational skills that do not require advanced education. The greatest problem for the next generation of workers, according to Blinder, “may not be lack of education, but rather . . . the movement of jobs overseas, especially to countries with much lower wages such as India and China.” While manufacturing jobs have been going offshore for several decades, the next wave may be service jobs. Blinder predicts that the migration of service jobs overseas will exceed that of manufacturing. It is no longer limited to low-end service work, such as in call centers, but includes most occupations that Blinder classifies as “impersonal services.” His examples illustrate the point. It is easy to offshore working in a call center, typing transcripts, writing computer code, and reading Xrays, he says. The first two occupations require little education, the last two require quite a lot. “On the other hand, it is either impossible or very difficult to offshore janitorial services, fast-food restaurant services, college teaching, and openheart surgery.” Again, the first two occupations do not call for much education, the last two require a great deal. “There seems to be little or no correlation,” he writes, “between educational requirements (the old concern) and how offshorable jobs are (the new one).” In the future, Blinder predicts, civil engineers may be in greater demand in the U.S. than computer engineers because they need to be physically present to do their work, while computer engineers do not. He does not argue with the push to send more students to college because better educated workers are more productive, but the admonition to “stay in school” may not be as useful to future workers as it used to be. Many jobs that are personal and not exportable such as carpenters, electricians, and plumbers do not require a college education. Schools should be preparing students for the jobs that will exist 20 to 30 years from now, Blinder says, such as high-end personal services. He believes the No Child Left Behind Act is going in exactly the wrong direction: “The nation’s school system will not build the creative, flexible, people-oriented workforce we will need in the future by drilling kids incessantly with rote preparation for standardized tests in the vain hope that they will perform as well as memory chips.” Blinder suggests some public policy levers that can move people and opportunities to the personal services, such as higher salaries and standards for early childhood teachers and widening the pipeline for nurses. The country radically changed its education system to meet the demands of an industrial society, he says, and “we may need to do something like that again.” Looking Back 50 Years It is hard to imagine a time when the employment outlook for electronic manufacturing occupations never mentioned computers. A readthrough of the first issue of The Occupational Outlook, however, finds no computer references at all—only an emphasis on television and radio sets. First published 50 years ago this year, the Outlook predicts substantial future sales in the electronic area for automobile equipment, cooking equipment, refrigerators, air conditioners and heaters, intercom and high fidelity systems, and lighting. In the clerical jobs area, industries such as insurance were introducing electronic data-processing machines to reduce the need for workers, but they are “expensive and complicated, and it will undoubtedly take a number of years before they are widely used.” A speech by then Assistant Secretary of Labor Rocco Siciliano sounds familiar today. He called for betterqualified manpower because of the demands on the economy. “We have, on the one hand, a significant period of technological advance where we are actually crossing new thresholds in the sciences,” he said. “Accompanying this technological advance is an equally unprecedented period of international stress. To help us move through this great period of change, we must have quality, creativeness, and leadership in increasing proportions of our workforce.” The issue also editorialized about the importance of high school graduation for students “with sufficient abilities to benefit from additional schooling” and described a shortage of professional nurses. And it announced the sale of a report on careers for women college graduates. The cost: 25 cents. 6 techdirections ◆ OCTOBER 2007

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Tech Directions - October 2007 Technically Speaking Contents Direct from Washington The News Report Technology Today Technology’s Past Mastering Computers Rock Your Classroom!—Use Subwoofers to Teach Electricity and Science Sure, They Can Build It, But. . . . Manufacturing Students Need Process Planning Skills Teach Graphic Design Basics with PowerPoint Free Teacher Resources Product Central More than Fun

Tech Directions - October 2007

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