THE CHANGING WORKPLACE

Our New Work World

It is estimated that one week-day edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person in 17th century England was likely to come across in an entire lifetime. With a person receiving 3,000 messages per day, the amount of information and the speed of change is not going to slow down, rather, it is going to increase. The Christian’s response should be one of creativity, excitement, and a profound appreciation of new ideas and new opportunities. We should be leaders and not victims as the world becomes more complex and societal problems become increasingly difficult to solve. The Bureau of Labor Statistics “Occupational Outlook Handbook” forecasts 50 million new jobs opening up by 2006.

From 1920 until the mid 1980’s getting a job with a large company was the dream of most every young American. There was an unwritten agreement that if you agreed to work for a corporation for a lifetime they would take care of you. This system disintegrated in the mid 1980’s and 20 million blue-collar workers were terminated. It is estimated that technology makes many jobs obsolete in 5 years. It is estimated that 50% of all jobs that we will have in the next 6 years have not even been created. The average job in America lasts 3.2 years. The average American worker joining the work force will have 14-16 different jobs during his or her work career. Fifty-three per cent of the companies in the Nashville area have one to four employees, and only three per cent of the companies in the Nashville area have more than 99 employees.

The above information came from Dan Miller’s “48 Days to the Work You Love.”