charukesi May 23rd, 2005
Most of my friends either hate their jobs and are looking for something new all the time or love it and revel in it…. mostly the former…. Is this some kind of a crisis that our generation goes through in search of that elusive perfect job?
I came across this interesting research by Maarten Goos and Alan Manning of the Centre for Economic Performance at my alma mater, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) on the increasing polarisation of work in Britain.
This research says, the man or woman in the street often expresses the view that there are more lousy jobs around than there used to be. Economists on the other hand argue that there are more lovely jobs than before. That is to say, in the last 25 years, there has been very rapid growth in employment in the best-paid jobs but also growth in the worst paid jobs, a process the researchers call the polarisation of work.
If we accept this definition of lovely and lousy jobs respectively, then think about it, this is true of not only Britain but other countries too. I can definitely say, for India.
The main cause of these trends is technological change that replaces human labour in tasks that can be made routine. Think Indian banks and VRS.
But, they say, technology has not (as yet) been able to substitute for human labour in the best-paid jobs that require problem-solving skills (hail ! corporate managers of the world) or in the worst jobs that largely rely on hand-eye co-ordination (as in factories). Therefore, a steady increase in both these kinds of jobs.
The researchers, Goos and Manning using the British Labour Force Survey and New Earnings Survey for the period 1975-2000, document an increase in the best-paid jobs, mainly in finance and business service industries (where human ‘intelligence’ is required) as well as a rapid growth in the worst paid jobs such as waiters, porters, shelf-fillers and checkout operators (which are unskilled but non-routine) among other low-paid service occupations.
Together with a decline in the ‘middling’ clerical and skilled manual jobs in manufacturing, the picture is one of a rising polarisation in the quality of jobs and increasing wage inequality.
They conclude that policies to increase take-home pay among the low-paid, such as the minimum wage, and immigration seem likely to be most effective at dealing with the problems caused by the increasing polarisation of the labour market.
Closer home, the issue is a little more complex. To begin with, sharp polarisation has always existed in Indian society – educated v/s uneducated, skilled v/s unskilled, haves v/s have-nots.
Also, what defines a ‘lovely’ job in the Indian context? Well-paying? What about ‘meaning’ or ‘satisfaction’ in one’s job? There are so many high-paying jobs in today’s market which are not lovely in any sense of the word….
Think BPO and call centres. Think Indian techies and Y2k and beyond…. Go ahead and classify them as ‘lovely jobs’ and you will see what I mean….
Read the entire report here…
