I've always been facinated with trends in jobs and careers. I'll save the "why" for a future post, but the gist of the topic is an interest in how work and jobs change over time.
In a 2009 Time magazine article, the authors projected what the future of work will look like.
Ten years before the article was published, "Facebook didn't exist," they described. "Ten years before that, we didn't have the Web. So who knows what jobs will be born a decade from now?
"We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world," predicted Time. "It will be run by a generation with new values."
That article is now six years old. Unemployment is lower and the economy has improved. But it seems the authors predictions of greater flexibility, less security, and constant change have proved true--trends that are likely to continue.
Other trends predicted included:
- Continued growth in information technology jobs, along with health-care, education, and high-touch professions;
- More accountability in management positions;
- Shifting perks and benefits packages;
- Flatter, more collaborative organizational structures;
- Increased leadership roles for women;
- More "green" jobs;
- Less focus on seniority and more on creativity and flexibility;
- Highly skilled manufacturing jobs; and
- Fewer cubicles and more outsourcing.
Six years later, some of these predictions are coming true, while others are trending and evolving. One thing that is, and likely always will be, true: Change will happen, and each person's early career will look very different from his/her later work life.
