Development economists have considered physical infrastructure to be a precondition for industrialization and economic development. Infrastructure investments play a particularly important role in expanding overall employment opportunities either directly by absorbing workers or indirectly by crowding in private investments, technology adoption,…

In this article we argue that mobile, design, content, and social media technologies have fundamentally redefined the role of the writer in the workplace. Rather than the originator of content, the writer is becoming a sort of multimodal editor who revises, redesigns, remediates, and upcycles content into new forms, for new audiences, purposes,…

The challenge for human resource development managers is to design an environment that makes the most of productive people rather than perpetuating the factory system of work. (JOW)

The real retraining of the American work force will not come about through massive, federally operated job training programs. It will come about only when employers are able to look forward to a promising economic future that requires highly trained and motivated employees and that offers real jobs. (Author/SSH)

Redesigning jobs, training, and retraining may be the most important economic challenge facing this country for the next decade. Training must support jobs that are really changing and retraining has to prepare people for jobs that really exist. (Author/JOW)

Advances and employment outlook in the field of computer science are discussed as well as the problems related to improving the quality of computer education. Specific computer jobs discussed include: data processing machine repairers, systems analysts, programmers, computer and peripheral equipment operators, and keypunch operators. (EA)

This document explores the changing U.S. office, from its expansion in the 1830s due to the railroad industry to its dominance in the U.S. economy of the late 20th century. This examination of the office provides a way to study the U.S.' growth from the industrial revolution to the information age. Chapter 1 provides a brief historical overview of…

In contrast to high technologies generally developed in the industrialized countries, technological development in the new industrial countries is mostly characterized by innovative efforts to change imported technologies over a period of time. Economic and social impacts of the introduction of new technologies include the significant reduction of…

The conference reported in this proceedings brought together states' rural development policymakers in an effort to identify the programs and research needed to establish successful state policies. Topics of papers presented at the conference and included in the proceedings covered: (1) telecommunications and computer technology as sources of…

Includes "Waking up to the New Economy" (Huey); "Service Is Everybody's Business" (Henkoff); "Government Learns Humility" (Norton); "The New Work Force Builds Itself" (Richman); "The Productivity Payoff Arrives" (Magnet); "America May Be More Productive than You Think"; "The Geography of an Emerging America" (Labich); and "Global--Or Just…

In order to diversify its economy and raise the economic level of its people, South Carolina concluded that a possible solution might be to provide pretrained people for the work force of any industry that located in the State or for any expanding industry within the State. In 1961, Technical Education Committee (TEC) Centers were created and…

This paper, the introductory chapter to a forthcoming book ("Financing Recurrent Education"), discusses the political and economic dimensions of life-long learning (recurrent education) and suggests methods by which a recurrent education system might be constructed and financed. The decline in youthful labor force entrants and forecasted changes…

This position paper of the United Faculty of Florida argues that the state of Florida must become more active in the informational economy of the nation and the world or become a low-wage, semi-colonial area in servitude to centers of "informationalism." The paper begins by examining the economies of America and Florida. Next, the paper…

This paper demonstrates that production life-cycle models provide a conceptual framework to analyze systematically the interrelationships between industrial and technological change and human resources. Section II presents the life-cycle model, focusing on its implications for the types and level of employment and skill requirements in an area.…

Predictions of occupational growth to the year 2000 show how important the "new crafts" are becoming. Workers who possess the new crafts perform jobs that often involve sophisticated technical knowledge but are not done by people with bachelor's degrees. The growth of technical jobs in the middle of organizations threatens the familiar division…