The Changing Work Environment 

Knowledge@Wharton details a relatively new field that barely existed a decade ago: data analytics. Data analysis will be required of many employees. Given the tools available, employees don’t have to be statistical experts themselves, but can get information from these tools to give them insight into the job they are doing. For those that are really interested in data analytics, you can pursue a degree in the subject, and aim to be the Chief Data Officer for a corporation. 

The article follows the career of Charles Thomas, who is now General Motors’ first-ever chief data and analytics officer (CDAO), to illustrate how the field of data analytics has changed. According to Thomas, 

“The person who understands data and can explain it to the business? That’s the unicorn. That’s the hardest skill to hire for.”

Inc. recently published an article filled with interesting statistics on which skills Gen Z will need for the workplace they will face—one full of technology and Artificial Intelligence. What they will need are the skills that differentiate them from robots. In other words, they will need emotional and social skills.

“Soft skills represent the top three missing skills of job applicants, according to the Society of Human Resource Management's (SHRM) "2019 State of the Workplace."

The top six missing skills in job applicants are:

1. Problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity (37 percent)
2. Ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity (32 percent)
3. Communication (31 percent)
4. Trade skills (carpentry, plumbing, welding, machining, etc.) (31 percent)
5. Data analysis / data science (20 percent)
6. Science / engineering / medical (18 percent)

There is one job in banking that robots will NOT be able to take from a human, according to this article from Bloomberg. That job is the compliance officer—those humans that detect scams and illegal flows of funds that computers haven’t been able to uncover.

 College, Vocational School, No School?

The Inc. article mentioned above also gives statistics on employment of people with non-traditional educational backgrounds.

“Employers aren't looking for the same level of deep knowledge and technical skill as they did in the past. In fact, 90 percent of employers say they are open to accepting non-traditional candidates that do not hold four-year college degrees. And they are more open to hiring candidates with a recognized certification (66 percent), complete certificate (66 percent), an online degree from a massive, open online course (MOOC) (47 percent) or a digital badge (24 percent).

At IBM, as many as one-third of U.S. employees lack a traditional four-year degree….”

As more evidence that corporate America is rethinking things, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained in a Business Today article that he did not believe a four-year degree was necessary for a career in coding. Exposure to coding in early grades, with tasks increasing in complexity over time, may make high school grads capable of earning money based on their coding skills.

Inside Higher Ed looked at the work of researchers who reviewed data from nearly 4,000 participants in the 1998-2015 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. They found “that for each upper-level CTE class a student took in high school, they earned about 2 percent more annually, even if they didn't go to college, compared to people who took more academic courses without going to college, who had no such return.” In other words, vocational courses in high school are important, particularly for those that do not go on to college. It is much more expensive to gain these skills after high school.

An article from the Deseret News describes several programs available to students in Utah, from joint enrollment in certification programs while in high school, to formal apprenticeship programs. The joint enrollment prepares kids to earn decent money with a high school diploma, and they can pursue additional education while working.

USA Today posted a list of the highest paying jobs you can get without actually getting a college degree, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The list of the top twenty ranges from jobs in the energy and transportation fields to retail management and commercial pilots. This would make a good resource for students researching careers.

How do students feel about college versus an alternative path? According to a TD Ameritrade Survey covered in this MarketWatch piece, younger Americans feel college is too expensive and is no longer necessary to have a decent career. 89% of Gen Z students are considering something other than the “four years of college directly after high school” path, whether that means taking a gap year and delaying college, taking courses online or at community college, or jumping right into the workforce. Furthermore, almost half millennials already in the workforce reportedly felt that “their degree was ‘very or somewhat unimportant’ to their current job.”

The article is worth a read, as it follows the story of a young woman employed directly from high school. While professionally successful, she discusses the social and emotional issues she faces being just nineteen years old with the responsibility of her job, which puts her in charge of teams and takes her overseas.

And for those that decide to go to college, will they select their major because they love the subject, or will they let this sort of data influence their choice? MARKETPLACE reported on a list from Bankrate.com of the most and least valuable college majors.   It is surprising to no one that STEM fields (engineering) are at the top end, and performing arts and literature are at the bottom end. Money shouldn’t be the only thing driving the choice of a major, but in the era of ever increasing student loan debt, the opportunities at the other end should be considered. Again, this article would be a good resource for students researching careers.

• For a related activity, check out the recent NGPF Teacher Tip from Amanda Volz on the Activity: Creating a Salary-Based Budget.

 Managing your career

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published a great article on communicating across generations in the workplace. Do older generations have to get with it and keep up with how younger generations prefer to communicate, or should we expect this to be a two way street? This article is aimed at advising older folks on how to work with younger generations, but perhaps if we shared this article with our Gen Z students, they might enter the workforce somewhat enlightened and sensitive to how management prefers to operate and be more successful at “managing up.”

And finally, folks today, particularly millennials, are switching jobs much more frequently, and often to new fields. Bloomberg offers advice on how to pull that off.

Early September Additions:

• Axios describes the down sides to the historically low unemployment rate…”worker deserts.”  This forces employers to go beyond the usual toolbox to entice workers to move into the desert.

Across the country, there are more than 1 million more jobs available than there are people to fill them.

• Another demographic phenomenon impacting the number of women in the workforce is that caring for older family members most often falls to women. (NYT)  
• The Economist looks at all the reasons people are staying on the job/in the workforce past the typical retirement age. They may need the money, but they may need the sense of self-worth even more.
• A Gallup poll of millennials supports our anecdotal evidence: they are the job-hopping generation. The current tight job market both enables this and makes it that much more costly to employers.

The data support this. A recent Gallup report on the millennial generation reveals that 21% of millennials say they've changed jobs within the past year, which is more than three times the number of non-millennials who report the same. Gallup estimates that millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually.

• CNN takes a look at how we might better prepare our younger children for the job market they will face as adults.

A report by the World Economic Forum notes that 65% of the children entering primary school in 2017 will have jobs that do not yet exist and for which their education will fail to prepare them.

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