Smart Job Training For The 21st Century!

As you'll find out as you read through this lens more closely, certain jobs and career sectors are exploding in popularity while others are dying a slow painful death.

Why is that?

The North American economy is moving from one that produces goods, to one that provides services.

Sure, we used to make tons of stuff over here.

But now, those same goods can be made much more cheaply overseas, which has led to a continued decline in the manufacturing jobs sector for several decades. This is extremely unlikely to change, at least while cheap sources of overseas labor remains in existence.

Sidebar: The only possibility I can see for a revival of North America's manufacturing sector is if two things happen: the cost of fossil fuels becomes prohibitively expensive, and the cost of overseas labor increases exponentially. In other words, if it costs more to pay people overseas to build stuff and ship it back here than it does to make it here ourselves, then factories will open once again.

But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Additionally, advancements in technology, productivity and automation means that we need fewer people to work to build the stuff that we actually still manufacture in North America.

So, if manufacturing jobs are being replaced by service-industry jobs, what's the big deal?

Many manufacturing jobs generated significant salaries and did not require any formal education (think factory work). These jobs are being replaced, yes, but they are being replaced by jobs that pay much less.

According to the U.S Department of Labor, some of the jobs to see the largest growth over the next 5-6 years are retail sales, food preparation (this includes fast food) and customer service representatives.

While none of these jobs require much training or formal education, they don't exactly pay well either; between $16-20,000 per year for the first two, and just under $30,000 for the latter.

if you were making $40-$60,000 a year in a manufacturing job, I don't need to tell you how tough it's going to be trying to manage on such a vastly reduced salary.

And that sums up the main issue with the move from a goods-producing economy to a service-based industry - the jobs are there, but they do not pay as well!

It also emphasizes the importance of job training - for a higher paid job that offers greater opportunity for advancement and long term sustainability.

The North American population demographic is aging.

This means we have an increased demand for jobs in the medical and healthcare industry. If you remember from your high school economics, increased demand must be met with increased supply, if the system is to remain stable. The demand in this case is for medical and healthcare professionals of all shapes and sizes (we'll talk a lot about healthcare related jobs on this lens).

The greatest demand is not for top-level medical careers like doctors and surgeons (although there's certainly opportunity there, too!) but for entry-to-mid level medical careers.

Obviously, an increased demand for healthcare services means it's going to cost governments and insurance companies more to provide such services. A simple way to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of the healthcare system is to delegate tasks normally performed by more doctors, for example, to qualified individuals who can perform the same tasks for much less cost.

Suppose you visit the doctor's office for something routine - a blood pressure check up and a prescription renewal. Why waste the doctor's time with something so trivial? This task can easily be performed by other professionals: certified nursing assistants, registered nurses, physician assistants, even a nurse's aide. The bottom line is that you get the same level of care, but the cost to provide it is is vastly reduced.

Accordingly, there is a HUGE demand for these supportive healthcare careers.

As already discussed in an earlier post, an aging demograhic in North America will lead to increased demands on the health care / medical system. This, of course, will cost the providers of these services much more money, which means they are always looking for ways to perform tasks more efficiently and at a more affordable cost.

There are several ways to do this:

1) I mentioned this in a previous post - delegate tasks to entry and mid-level professionals whenever appropriate. Instead of your doctor taking your blood pressure, a nurse or nurse's assistant does... and so on.

2) Keep people out of the hospital, and care for them in their homes: Hospital stays are outrageously expensive, and in many cases, can be avoided altogether, if the patient is followed up with regularly and provided with what seldom turns out to be more than basic care.

So it's not surprising that the demand for home health aides, personal and home care aides and registered nurses is great.

In fact, according to the U.S Department of Labor, the two jobs that are going create the largest numbers of new jobs in the period between 2008-2018 are registered nurses (581,500 jobs), and home health aides (460,900 jobs).

There is no doubt that the great demand for these professionals is influenced by pressures to cut costs and improve efficiency. That's certainly the case for home health aides, since they require minimal training, and earn a base pay of around $21,000/year.

If you're considering training for a new career, the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of time of money into something that has no long term future. Having said that, what sectors are not expected to grow - and may even decline - in the next decade?

1) Manufacturing jobs: No surprise here, since manufacturing jobs have been on the decline for two decades. The exception here is the manufacturing of pharmaceutical drugs, which the U.S. Department of Labor estimates will add an additional 17,600 jobs by 2018 - a relatively small amount that will have no significant impact on the workforce.

2) Goods-producing industries

3) Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction jobs

4) Agriculture, forestry, and fishing jobs

Why are these types of jobs on the decline?

For the first two, intense competition from overseas manufactures with their much lower labor and operating costs is a big culprit.

For all 4 of these, increases in productivity, technology and automation also play a big role. In short, for the jobs that still exist in these sectors, we're getting better at performing them efficiently and require fewer people to do so.