Blog 13: Chapter 17

                No matter where you work or what type of business you are in, it is extremely important to be aware of the job market.  The work force is constantly evolving and as a professional you need to be mindful of those changes and anticipate how they may influence you.  Chapter 17 did a really nice job of organizing the information about these possible changes in an easily understandable way.  I enjoyed the charts and tables in order to better visualize the number of growths and decreases in openings, etc.  This chapter also gave me a better understanding of how the economy of the United States affects so many other nations and how they operate. 

                One of the most interesting pieces of this chapter was where it discussed the idea of the “lazy American”.  I feel like I have heard the stereotype that Americans are fat and lazy so many times.  Going against this stereotype, it was incredible to me to see that American factory workers produced so much more wealth than people in other countries.  I feel like China is often what we compare ourselves to when it comes to factories and while they produce about $12,642 American industrial workers are producing $63,885 (Brown, 2012, p. 371).  That amount is more than 5 times what the Chinese workers are producing!  Although the American workers make a great deal more than the workers in other nations, maybe that higher pay and clean working environment truly has an effect on the work that these individuals are producing.

                Another interesting part of this chapter was the chart showing the 20 occupations with the largest expected job openings.  Similar to what we discussed in class, most of these jobs only require on the job training rather than a specialized degree.  Initially this surprised me, but as I thought more about it, it seemed to make sense.  These jobs are always going to be there because they are typically low paying jobs that once an individual gets a degree or some type of training, they leave these careers to find higher paying positions.  A fair amount of these jobs are positions that individuals will only do for a short period of time before they leave to find a new position elsewhere.  Additionally the positions that do require a lot of education are typically ones that an individual will stay in for an extended period of time.  As Brown (2012) noted, “older workers are electing to continue their careers on a full-or part-time basis in order to maintain their incomes and because they enjoy their work” (p. 367).  Once these older individuals find a job that they have worked hard for and they enjoy, they do not want to leave; thus making it hard for younger individuals to move up the ladder quite as easily.

Brown, D. (2012). Career information, career counseling, and career development. (10th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.