2. Labour Market Trends Innovations in Technology and Globalization The Shift to Non-Standard Employment Industrial Shifts: How Occupations and Industries are Classified Focus on the Service Sector Labour Force Survey Profiles on Services The Impact of Demographic Change Summary Where to Find More

Four Areas of Growth in the New Economy

Computers/Semiconductors

• microwaves
• intercom systems
• stereos, CD players, VCRs, TVs
• watches, clock radios
• thermostats
• tape decks
• security systems
• garage doors
• telephones, fax machines

Health and Medical

• pharmaceuticals
• diagnostic chemicals
• artificially reproduced genes
• special case hospitals
• clinics
• nursing homes
• medical instrumentation and equipment

Communications and Telecommunications

• entertainment
• cable TV and radio broadcasting
• telephones, fax machines and video equipment
• electronic theme parks
• video games
• virtual reality

Instrumentation

• surgical instruments
• robotics
• computer controls
• laser technology
• environmental monitoring

SOURCE: Shifting Gears (Beck, 1992).

The Home-Based Business Trend

The growth of the service industry has also encouraged the home-based business trend. Technological advances make it easy to work at home, at the same time telecommuting reduces staff turnover and saves on office rental. The biggest area is in consulting. In spite of the disadvantage of isolation, home-based business is a trend likely to continue as new service needs continue to emerge and job security continues to decline.

This section examines the implications of industrial and occupational shifts for career planning. It is useful to begin by making clear the distinction between industries and occupations.

A useful way to think about the distinction between occupation and industry is that an occupation is what a person does and an industry is where a person performs that occupation. Nursing is the kind of work (occupation) a nurse does, but he or she can perform that work in the health care industry (hospital surgical nurse) or in the education sector (school nurse) or in forestry (occupational health and safety nurse). Note: industry and sector are used interchangeably.

How Occupations and Industries are Classified

An occupation is defined by its function - the kind of work performed. Occupations are classified in the National Occupational Classification (NOC), which is presented in detail in Chapter 3.

An industry is defined by the kind of production (goods or service) an organization is involved in. Industries are classified in the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). Appendix E shows the 18 industry divisions and 76 major industry groups of the SIC. Industries are divided into two groups, those that produce goods and those that provide services, as illustrated below.

The landmark 1990 report of the Economic Council of Canada, Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, gave us a more effective way of looking at the range of service sectors that make up the service industry. It is worthwhile to be familiar with this classification and its categories because they are cited in many reports.

• Dynamic service industries include the more knowledge-intensive or high-tech services, such as telecommunications and business services.
  
• Traditional services refer to services directed toward meeting the needs of consumers, such as retail trade, personal services and tourism.
  
• Non-market services include health, education and government.
  

There are occupations which are specific to an industry, such as miner to mining, but there are also many occupations found in all industry sectors, such as clerical occupations. Perhaps the biggest confusion about the industry/occupation distinction concerns service occupations versus service industries. Workers in service occupations are not necessarily employed in the service sector. Cooks also find employment in logging camps, and sales representatives work for manufacturing firms. But usually, workers in service occupations (such as cooks) work in a service industry (such as tourism). (Tourism includes the accommodation, food, recreation and selected transportation sectors.)

Because industries provide information on where an occupation can be found, knowing which industries are growing can help to increase the chances of a faster, successful job search by concentrating on those industries which offer the best opportunities for employment. The growth in the computer software industry for example, means a secretary, warehouse shipper or accountant would likely have a better chance of finding work at such a company than finding work in the mining or government sectors.

Knowing about the growth of industries can also help in predicting which jobs will offer the best long-term prospects. Although all industries hire workers in finance, clerical, sales and administrative occupations, computer software firms hire mostly computer specialists and environmental protection companies hire mostly scientists and technicians. The higher-than-average projected growth rates for these two sectors indicates good employment prospects for computer and other scientists/technicians.

The advice of Nuala Beck, author of Shifting Gears: Thriving in the New Economy, (1992) is to find work in a new-economy industry. Almost all the growth industries in the new economy are technologically based. Information and technology typify new-economy industries, so knowledge workers, such as medical technologists, materials scientists, broadcast engineers and paralegals, will be in demand.

Beck cites four strong areas of growth in North America: computers/ semiconductors, health/medical, communications/telecommunications and instrumentation. Beck estimates that 70 percent of Canadians are already employed in these industries and that Canada is strong in two of the four areas of growth: telecommunications and the health/medical industry.

Disruption exists even in parts of the economy that have good prospects. Despite the growth of new economy firms, there have been layoffs at such firms as Northern Telecom and Xerox Canada. Knowledge workers are now more likely than in past years to lose the jobs they have, but it is generally agreed that knowledge workers have a better chance than workers in many other sectors of the economy of finding new jobs.