sumthin with computers

Have you ever wanted to know what our future job market holds in store for us? Or have you ever pondered over changing career goals? The fastest growing employment market is the computer industry. Compared to the employment in the computer field to the nonfarm employment, the miniscule 1.8% annual rise in nonfarm employment doesn’t even rank near the 10.8% annual rising rate in the computer system related design. This employment industry is expected to increase to 11.6% adding 364,000 jobs to the work force by 2012.

The employment in software publishing, internet publishing, and internet service providers are predicted to rise by 68%, 44%, and 28%. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (also known as BLS) has discovered that out of the computer industry, the rising employment is mostly found in the service sectors, software publishers, internet publishing, internet service providers, and telecommunications. To paint a better picture, the manufacturing industry only represents about 10% of workers today; this number is only half of what it was thirty years ago. This has been leaving many job positions as obsolete due to the use of computers. Since the past we have gone from telegraphs to emails, assembly lines to computerized robots, and from a personal typist to being able to own your own laptop.

After an interview with Dr. Joseph Cavanaugh, Wright State Economy Professor, he quoted, “Over the past 30 years the service sector of the U.S. economy has grown rapidly and now employs over 80% of U.S. workers. Over the past few decades the employment growth in computer related industries has been one of the most significant contributors to the service sector’s growth. I expect this trend to continue for at least another ten years as the global economy continues to apply pressure to the U.S. goods producing industries.”

Many businesses rely fully on their computer systems each day, so what would happen if they had to shut down? Kylle Dietz, an Information Technology Project Manager for JP Morgan Chase of Columbus, Ohio, laughed when she said, “If our computers would shut down, and we’d spend a lot of time looking around at each other not knowing what to do. Most places have generators so they do not find themselves in that type of panic or rut.” She has been working with the computer industry for fifteen years and is contentiously waiting to see how it will grow. Dietz, formerly from St. Marys, also exclaimed how the industry has grown already. She told me that there were no computers until she was a junior in high school; she knew that the computer industry would soon take off and it did as she predicted (that was even before the internet).

Have you ever wondered how much computer work has goes into a cup of yogurt? My recent conversation with Brandon Meyer an Ermi Packaging Operator for Dannon Company of Minster told me, “Inventory management system is a computer program, when we use inventory it deletes it out of the system, which inventory then becomes depleted and in order to replenish the inventory an order is automatically sent to the supplier. So; no computer, no inventory, no production, no profit, no job.”

As the youth become adults and are thinking of their future, a necessary thing to think about should be the growing computer industry. The amounts of job positions are huge and open up a wide field of opportunities. Just think, what would happen to society if there were no computers for a day?