Chapters 17 and 18 Post

            I was quite intrigued as I was reading chapter 17. I It is crazy to see how many factors can change (positively or negatively) the job market. Technology is efficient and useful in many ways, but it has been gradually putting people out of work. As for the global economy (outside of imports and exports), most corporations in this country are multinational by doing business with other countries, but they have investments and operations abroad as well (Brown 2012, page 365).  Companies have moved their customer service operations offshore and production operations can be found in other countries. These choices are usually based off of the labor costs of workers. If it is cheaper to do the work in another country, then why not? Along with the global economy, our national debt is extremely high. The government will either have to increase taxes, or stimulate the economy and increase the number and quality of jobs (Brown 2012, page 366). Population factors also contribute to changes in our future job market. Obviously, the growth in the US population means that more jobs will need to be filled. In addition to growth, many legal and illegal immigrants come into our country looking for work to support their families.

            I am not going to lie, but I have never paid much attention to news, politics, or government. I was glad Brown laid it out for me in this manner. I hope to become more aware of these factors in the future. These factors could have an effect on my future decisions, but more importantly, it will help me be better prepared.

            Looking through table 17.2, I was comforted to see that elementary school teachers are expected to see a job opening growth of 16% by 2018. I wonder what the table looked like 10 years before today. Would it have seen a percentage decrease for elementary school teachers? I wish Brown would have had some reasoning behind the increased projection. In all honesty, it seems that teaching jobs are becoming fewer and fewer each year. Considering that the government feels that “underperforming” schools need less money and assistance, I really do not see an increase in the future unless this philosophy changes. In addition to an increase in elementary teaching jobs, there is an even larger increase in health care providers. Brown notes that people are living longer because of our health system and medicines, but as they people get older, they require higher levels and more intensive health care. (Brown 2012, page 369).

            In chapter 18, Brown notes the trends specific to career development and the like. One this that I did notice is the increased use of technology in the future. Online job information, services, assessments, and openings will continue to increase. This makes sense because of the development of technology over the past 10 years. Also, it was interesting to see that the many theories that we learned will still be of interest in the future. Holland’s theory will continue to dominate, Super’s, Krumboltz’s, and postmodern theories will continue to have an impact in career counseling. It seems that using an eclectic method of career counseling (depending on the client) will be the best method going forward.

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