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American Morning

What will be the Jobs of the Future?

Aired September 03, 2001 - 09:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, for a lot of American workers Labor Day is no holiday at all, including those of us who are working away here. And figures show that workers in the United States today are putting in more hours than they were a decade ago. The International Labor Organization says that Americans worked an average of 1,978 hours last year; that is up from an average 1,942 hours in 1990.

And joining us now to talk about some of the hot jobs of the future is Diane Strahan. She is the senior career adviser with careerbuilder.com.

Diane, thanks for being here.

DIANE STRAHAN, CAREERBUILDER.COM: Thank you.

Maybe you can start by telling us what a senior career adviser does at careerbuilder.com.

STRAHAN: Well, actually, we really take a look at some of the trends that are happening both from an employer perspective and a job- seeker perspective to make sure that we're providing the right services that really meet then needs of the marketplace today.

MCEDWARDS: All right, so where are they, these jobs of the future?

STRAHAN: Well, you really don't have to look far into the crystal ball to see the emerging jobs of the future. A lot of them are already on the scene of today's business.

We're currently in an economic slump, but when we pull out of that we're still going to find that technology professionals and health care professionals and other specialized job functions are going to continue to rule the day.

MCEDWARDS: Why technology? Why health care?

STRAHAN: Well, we have to keep in mind we have just gone through sea change of jobs in the '80s and in the '90s, and most of this is a result of the prosperity that we've had over the last eight years and the technology boom. And you also need to take a look at the macro economic trends that are happening, because we have an aging of Americans and we also have a declining number of people in the workforce. And the tech boom is still here and strong.

So technology and health care are going to remain really important sectors.

(CROSSTALK)

MCEDWARDS: Diane, just -- I want to interrupt you there on the technology issue, because a lot of people interested in this. You say the technology boom is still here and strong, and I think no one thinks that the technology jobs are going to go away over the long- term. But short-term, my goodness, there have been some awful, awful layoffs in the technology sector. So is that still where people should be looking?

STRAHAN: Well, you mentioned a really good point, technology has been hit hard, but we still are almost a half a million engineering and technology workers short.

Right here, I live in D.C. market, and before working at careerbuilder I worked 10 years at MCI, and we've been hit really hard with WorldCom, Windstar and Teligent layoffs. So what job-seekers are going to need to do is be very flexible. They may not be able to get a job in the telecommunications sector, but they might be able to get a job in telecommunications, but in a different sector. So we're recommending that job-seekers focus on three things: one, really make sure that they can wear a number of hats, develop their skills beyond what their current job titles are today; two, you know, be indifferent to what sector you're working in because you might need to change sectors; and three, be a little flexible on your geography, because you might not thoroughly be able to get a job in L.A., but you might be able to get one in the West Coast somewhere.

MCEDWARDS: Any jobs you see as becoming obsolete?

STRAHAN: Well, we have some interesting things happening, we are going through a transformation of jobs. You know, before we had lots of telephone operators, and today we have telemarketers. Before we would have, you know, our friendly neighborhood butcher that we go down the street for, and now that same person's back on the scene, they just might be a gourmet meat specialist at Sutton Place.

So we need to keep in mind that we are going through this transformation of jobs, and there's some new exciting job titles that are on the front. When you take a look engineering, for example -- we were just talking about technology -- we had a whole plethora of engineering titles come into the scene with software engineers and hardware engineers. In the future we'll have tissue engineers, where we really focus on the bioengineering of skin so we can manipulate cells and grow skin and tissue.

We see other changes happening where we had janitors, and then today we have sanitation engineers. Well, tomorrow we're going to need technology recyclers because we have a lot of unused computer equipment that we're going to need to figure out what to do with because it has mercury and lead and other toxins that can impact the environment. So there are going to be some new jobs on the front and there are going to be some jobs that are passe, like postal workers that just need to change and transform to deal with the new electronic communications of the future.

MCEDWARDS: All right, Diane Strahan, we've got to leave it there. Thanks very much for your time today. Appreciate it.

STRAHAN: Thank you.

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