If you are looking at a job now, consider the trends of today's workforce.
Many jobs are temporary, short lived, ill defined, and less than full time.
these considerations are important when figuring out who will pay for the
adaptions to the information technology necessary to do the job, with the
adaptions costing more perhaps then the technology itself.  A recent
article in the San Francisco Chronicle tells more 

kelly 

   
   Job Boom Brings Insecurity
   Report says positions are short-term, low-pay
   Ramon G. McLeod, Chronicle Staff Writer
   Tuesday, May 25, 1999
   ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle
   
   
   California is the epicenter of an emerging ``new economy'' that has
   produced tens of thousands of jobs in new industries, but the evolving
   workplace is highly volatile and characterized by high levels of job
   insecurity.
   
   While the popular image of this new economy is one of the highly paid
   computer programmer, a more realistic picture might be that of the
   lower-paid temporary employee, a new report says.
   
   That's the conclusion of a joint study by the San Jose-based Working
   Partnerships USA, a union organization, and the Economic Policy
   Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank.
   
   Between 1993 and 1998, the number of temporary positions -- which
   often have few benefits and lower wages -- expanded from 238,600 to
   412,500. That was a higher rate than the job growth in the software
   and electronic component industries combined, which added about
   150,000 jobs and employed 942,000 in 1998.
   
   ``The level of insecurity in this economy is high, and not just
   because of the growth of temporary and contract jobs,'' said Robert
   Brownstein, an author of the report. ``People are forced to change
   jobs more rapidly and, if they're unemployed, they're likely to be
   unemployed for longer periods of time.''
   
   For example, the study found that only 21 percent of California
   workers have been in their jobs for more than 10 years. Nationwide,
   the average is 34 percent.
   
   High tech industries are particularly volatile. Because these firms
   must innovate constantly, the report notes, they have tended to use
   high numbers of contract and temporary workers to do a specific
   project.
   
   The new California economy -- which is a complex mix of service,
   trade, high tech and entertainment industries -- is also marked by a
   widening income and benefits gap between those with high skills and
   those in lower-end service jobs.
   
   The report calls for a new ``social contract,'' similar in goals to
   that developed in the United States after World War II, but different
   in that it recognizes that the days of long- term employment and
   smokestack industries are gone. In the postwar years, the nation
   enjoyed three decades of remarkable economic growth and stability,
   fostered in part by policy initiatives such as unemployment insurance
   and a minimum wage.
   
   Among its recommendations, the report calls for a state income tax
   credit to help low-wage workers, an expansion of employee stock
   ownership to a wider range of workers and an expansion of unemployment
   insurance programs to cover part-time and temporary workers.
   
   The study also said that health care benefits, which are often not
   extended to contract and temporary workers, need to be made portable.
   One way to do this in a nonunion environment would be to create
   professional associations that could act as a central point for
   administering group health plans for those who are in a particular
   industry -- but who change jobs inside that industry.
   
   Education is the best way to ensure success in the new economy,
   Brownstein said, but it must be work-related and closely matched to
   the real job market.
   
   ``The era of lifelong learning is really upon us, but while employers
   demand that their workers have constantly changing skills, they don't
   provide much opportunity for them to actually acquire those skills,''
   he said.
   
   Part of the reason is that employers don't want to invest money in
   employees who are likely to change jobs or be replaced. On the other
   hand, employees are unlikely to invest in their own training, which is
   costly and time consuming, particularly when they work in jobs with
   quickly changing requirements.
   
   Brownstein said that one way to address this could be through regional
   training partnership programs that include employers, unions and
   educators. Such partnerships can develop specific programs for the job
   needs of growth industries, he said.
   
   ``It does no one any good to have people trained for jobs that don't
   exist,'' he said.
   
   ©1999 San Francisco Chronicle  Page A11


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