White-Collar Careers in Large US Corporations in the Past Thirty Years - Essay Example

WHITE-COLLAR CAREERS IN LARGE U.S. CORPORATIONS IN THE PAST THIRTY YEARS White-collar careers in large U.S. corporations in the past thirty years Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Date . Over the past three decades, several transformations have occurred to white-collar carriers in large US Corporations. For one, there has been an increase in the number of white collar career holders like accountants, managers, co-operate engineers and auditors among others. The percentage of white collar professionals joining labour unions has also increased. Lastly, this field has also registered an increase in the number of women workers as detailed below. For a start, the number of white collar workers in the American co-operate world has broadly increased. In 1977, professionals only accounted 15% of the USA working force with the larger percentage being that of the blue collar career holders. The circumstances have greatly changed three decades down the line with professional comprising 62% of the USA workforce (Battu 2008: 21). Among those who have greatly led to this robust increase in professional numbers are the software engineers and app designers who have recently been essential in revolutionizing the world. This is in line with the fast developing technology sector which greatly requires these personnel. Robot manufactures are yet the other category of professionals who are having it their way with the widespread technological transformation. Lots of other professionals are enjoying the radical change as it seems to work in their favour. Accountants and auditors in major US corporations have also grown significantly over the past thirty years. They grew from 0.9% to 1.5% as a proportion of total employment just between 1980 and 2010. This significant change is majorly attributed to the increasing complexity of business and co-operate world operations that has been realized over the given timeframe. This has also been caused by increase in the sophistication of management techniques which require more accounting data and subsequent analysis. The government regulations regarding financial disclosure, which has since then become stiffer and more involving, also prompted this change. Lastly, the rapid fuelling of this occupation might also be credited to the resultant development of complex tax laws. These left the major US co-operations with no choice but to increase their accountant and auditor capacitance in order to keep abreast with the changes. More changes are yet to be realized and as such, the number is expected to soar to even twice the current standings in the next couple of financial years. Co-operate engineers increased by four times in the course of the thirty year period. This represents close to 2 million engineers up from less than half a million in the past three decades (Government printing office 2004: 7). This is a result of rapid industrialization and increased technological sophistication which hugely depended on the engineers. Prior to this era, most of the technological inventions and developments were carried out by renowned self-taught inventors like Thomas Edison. This later changed when engineers took to the laboratories to handle the research on their own leading to a greater increase in the number of individuals in this profession. This growth was further fuelled by the need to develop more convenient modern infrastructure, increased demand of electric power and other utilities and even the extensive growth of telephone and broadcast co-operations which greatly depended on their services. The growth however became slow at the onset of the 21st century when the use of computers was embraced to carry out design projects (Troy 2004: 38). Instead of greatly increasing the number therefore, the existing engineers in the co-operate world just enhanced their technological knowledge on the use of computers and other evolved machines to facilitate most of the work that was previously carried out manually. Since then, the increase has been steady but not with robust growth as was the case in 1980’s and 1990’s. The health care sector is yet another white collar career that has experienced significant changes over the thirty-year period. The number of health workers and related physicians has greatly increased to over 15 million in 2010, a transformation that has been fuelled by several underlying factors (Holbrook 2008: 56). For one, improved health care permitted many medical complications to be treated leading to increase in the number of workers to effectively carry this out. The greater increase of affluent families and wealthy co-operations further enhanced the development since better medical care was necessary for the group with most preferring possession of personal physicians. Moreover, the spread of long-lived population furthered the necessity of better healthcare. Most importantly, the expansion of health insurance sector greatly contributed to this significant advance in healthcare. By shifting the responsibility of bill payments from the consumers to third party payers like the insurance companies and the government, health insurance encouraged the population to use more advanced and costlier health care services (Greene 2006: 25). A greater percentage of the working force could now access better healthcare by paying affordable premiums from their monthly allowances. More medical practitioners and related health workers were therefore necessary to take care of the increasing number of individuals with access to advanced health care systems. Lawyers and legal workers in the large US co-operations have also increased over the past three decades. Though not significantly, the number of these professional who play an important role in the co-operate world has also grown. The growth is barely twice the figure that was evident thirty years back. By 2001, the number of these career holders contributed to 0.71 percent of the total USA workforce. Employment of this category of professionals grew from 400,000 in 1980 to 972,000 in 2000 (Mills 2002: 17). This further increased in the 21st century following stiff government policies that required the intervention of law practitioners. The slight growth in the number of lawyers especially before 2000 was greatly as a result of the stiff licensing requirements for both the individual lawyers and subsequent law schools. Fortunately for them, this weakened in the wake of 21st century when the need for more lawyers, paralegals and other legal workers became apparent. The enactment of several co-operate laws and increase in the complexity of business further fuelled the necessity of more legal practitioners. Moreover, the society became more litigious with increase in environmental laws, stiffening of employer-employee relationships and increased civil right legislation for the American workforce (Bratt, Stone and Hartman 2006: 40). Furthermore, there was need for product safety and consumer protection which hugely depended on the contributions of professionals from the law industry. The demand for lawyers further became evident when divorce and higher crime rates became part of the co-operate scene. This left the government with no option but to regulate the policies regarding the law career in order to accommodate more individuals to practice law in USA. The changes in white collar careers within US co-operates can never be complete without the mention of managers, company officials and proprietors who play significant roles in the development of the co-operate scene. This category of workers rose to constitute a better part of the USA labour force with their contribution resulting to almost 20% of the total working force. This followed the emergence of more bureaucratic organizations with several layers of managers. Furthermore, there was a rise in sophistication of management techniques which further spurred the growth of managers and co-operate officials. Towards the 1990’s, there was a sharp decrease in the number of self-employed managers (Blau 2007: 53). This followed the small owner-operate establishments being replaced by larger co-operates which required the stewardship of salaried managers. The number of officials, managers and proprietors in the American workforce further increased in the 21st century when business became more complicated and advanced. There was need for organizations to be run by more efficient and elaborate managers. This led to absorption of many graduates with business management degrees into the USA co-operate world as managers and other officials. Despite the growing popularity of professionalism in renowned American co-operations, white collar profession have faced slight setbacks in the wake of the Great Recession. Several staffs in the co-operate sector are yet to contend with the saddening fact of being laid off as a result of the emergence of more sophisticate machines. These devices generate and analyze vast amount of data that used to be the core duty of professional statistic personnel. What’s even sad is that the jobs that are going away are not coming back; not now and not ever (Buffington 2007: 78). With demonstration of more skills and competence by computers every day, Andrew McAffe the Principal Research Scientist at the Centre for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sees a pretty grim future for a couple of professionals. The global economy is apparently being reshaped by machines and prospective employers now prefer acquisition of smarter nimbler robots as opposed to installing expensive equipment and hiring software professional to run and maintain them. At this rate of transformation, the white collar career is bound to suffer a huge blow, one that is unfortunately irreversible. Already secretaries and travel agents are feeling the pinch; one that will soon follow differentprofessionals in their respective areas of work. As Martin Ford, CEO of a leading software company in USA, confirms it; ‘It is everywhere. There’s no sector in the economy that has gotten a pass. ’ This is after the Great Recession era which left 3.5million people jobless. Among those who suffered the blow were qualified professionals in varied fields who had to step aside to effectively allow the embrace of the new technology. Several Middle class white collar career holders who earned an average of $38,000-68,000 are yet to recover from this set back following the radical period of change. It seems the trend is evident everywhere since 7.6 million jobs have disappeared in the Greater Europe between 2005 and 2013 disappeared (Addisonand Welfens 2003: 14). With further sophistication in technology, nothing less of loss of more white collar jobs can be anticipated. The white collar job workers who previously basked in the glory college degrees now have all the reasons to get worried following the adoption of technology by several US co-operations. It has replaced workers in large co-operations and it’s like nothing can stop the trend. Among the workers who have had difficult time upholding their careers are accountants charged with checking number listings, managers filing forms and even supervisors (Audretsch and Welfens 2002: 65). These are category of workers that were guaranteed job security in the past decades; a fete that has been wiped out by the rapidly advancing technology. Highly developed software is now presenting employers with perfect opportunity of starting up co-operations and businesses with a third the number of employees who were initially required. This follows the minimal need of administrative support like accounts handling and payroll work outs which have since then replaced by the new technology. The other evident change is that those associated with white collar careers in renowned US co-operations have moved in to greatly support labour unions; something that was barely evident back then. In the former USA, these kinds of unions were meant for the blue collar workers (Kendall 2011: 18). You wouldnot find insurance agents, lawyers and secretaries of greater American companies coming together to form labourunions in the mid 1960’s. Not that they didnot have the slightest idea of the significance of these organizations in fighting for the rights of labourers, but there was not much need. These professions were treated with nobility and as such, employers had their work force fully satisfied within their professional circles. It was unimaginable thinking of Worker’s unions fighting for the rights of highly esteemed professionals like these. The case is totally different a couple of decades down the line with many white collar career holders turning to unions for help in an economy where bosses are trying to squeeze outrageous profits from their working staff. Moreover, the workers have beenforced to take huge roles resulting to working beyond the normal labourhours. A lot of other internal changes have left the workers in the US co-operate world with no option but to seek refuge in labour unions that they had not given the slightest attention some years back. The restlessness experienced in white collar careers today was unheard of thirty years back. As things stand, there is a great deal of unrest among professional workers who donot have a history of union joining behaviour as noted by Chaison, a professor of Labour at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. If the trend is to continue for the next couple of years, you will expect the professionals in large US co-operations to be the frontiers of Labour Unions. Those who might have been hit hard by the radical changes are the career holders in the legal profession owing to their abysmal job market (Swenson 2008: 53). Many of these professionals would confide in you that most of them are treated like cogs on wheels at their respective work places; something that was unimaginable in the 1970’s. This is in spite of the high level of experience at hand in addition to multiple relevant degrees. This has not only diminished their level of influence but also added an insult to their pricey educations. So when they decide to unionize in a bid for better contracts, it might as well be understandable. The other significant change that has been embraced by white collar careers in big US cooperation is the increased entry of female gender into the labour force. Back then, the contribution of women professionals was low since males got access to better education facilities which eased their entry into the co-operate world. This significantly changed over the past thirty years when women got access to better opportunities that would later fuel their entry into the American co-operate scene (Audretsch 2002: 15). Moreover, the women’s ability to balance labour obligations and family responsibilities increased; enabling them to double up as family women and business proprietors. Research shows that the US’s women labour force in this category of jobs is set to increase with regards to the ever improving appropriate mix of work- family policies. These changes in the co-operate scene have no doubt sparked debates and conversions especially on their moral impacts. Whereas some changes are morally defensible, the others have resulted to complete ethical disruption and mess up. For a start, the general rise in the number of white collar career holders in engineering, managerial and accounting fields have upheld the moral values of the American society. Enlightened youths and graduates have channelled their energy and knowledge into developments at the expense of other immoral activities and crimes (O’Brien 1999: 26). On the other hand, the loss of job opportunities due to technological revolution has left some with no option but to jump into morally unacceptable activities and increased substance abuse. This explains the rise of white collar crimes; something that was barely heard of in the five decades prior. Increased professional responsibilities among this group of individuals have further resulted to distortion of several families. With bosses squeezing optimum profits from their labour force, professionals are compelled to work beyond the normal office hours. With this in place, most working parents no longer have time for their children leading to disintegration of families and bringing up of morally challenged youths. The worst blow has been the increased entry of women into the co-operate scene. Divorce cases have since then been on the rise as some choose to keep their jobs at the expense of their families (O’Brien 1999: 28). To sum it all up, white-collar careers in large US co-operates have undergone radical changes over the past three decades. The changes are evident in a number of sectors with increase in the population of white collar career holders being the major one. There has also been an evident trend of these workers joining labour unions; something that was chiefly set aside for blue collar career holders. Most significantly, the number of women entering this job category has increased representing yet another radical transformation. All these changes have not come without their own side of influence on the living population; especially with regard to ethical impacts. With a number of them resulting to degradation of family values, there is urgent need to blend the rising trends with ethical values if moral sanity is to be upheld in this 21st century generation. References Addison, JT &Welfens, PJJ 2003, Labor Markets and Social security: Issues and Policies Option in the U.S. and Europe. 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