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Technology is not the only trend driving this change from "brawn to brains". Today over two-thirds of the US workforce is employed in producin and delivering services, not products. Between 1998 and 2008, the number of jobs in goods- producing industries will stay almost unchanged, at about 25.5 million, while the nmber in servie-producing industries will climb from 99 million to 118.8 million. Several trends account for this with global competition, more manufacturing jobs are shifting to low-wage countries, as noted. For example, Levi Strauss, one of the last clothing manufacturers in the US, closed the last of its American plants in 2003.

There has also been dramatic increase in productivity that lets manufacturers produce more with fewer workers. Just-in-time manufacturing techniques link day-to-day manufacturin schedules more precisely to customer demand, thus squeezing waste out of the system and reducing inventory needs.

As manufacturers integrate Internet-based customer ordering with just-in-time manufacturing systems, scheduling becomes even more precise. More manufacturers are partnering with their suppliers to create integrated supply chains. For examples, when a customer orders a Dell computer, the same Internet message that informs Dell's assembly line to produce the order also signals the video screen and keyboard manufacurers to prepare UPS to pick up their parts at a particular time. The net effect is that manufacturers have been squeezing slack and inefficiencies out of the entire production system, allowing companies to produce more products with fewer employees.

In general, the jobs that remain- and especially the manufacturing jobs - require more education and more skills. For example, the five occupations projected to grow fastest in a first decade of the 2000s depend on computers - computer engineers, computer support specialists, computer systems analysts, database administrators, and desktop publishing specialists.

Furthermore, automation and just-in-time maufacturing systems mean that even manufacturing jobs require more reading, mathematics and communication skills than before.

Skilled machinist "A" illustrates the modern blue-color worker. After an 18-week training course, this former college student now works as a team leader in a plant where about 40% of the mahcines are automated. In older plants, machinists would manually control machines that cut chunks of metal into things like engine parts.

Today "A" and his team spend much of their time typing commands into computerized machines that create prescsion parts for proudcts including water pumps. Like other machinists, he earn about $45,000 per year (including overtime).

Also reflecting the desires to keep costs down, there has been a shift to using nontraditional workers. Nontraditional workers include those who hold multiple jobs, or who are "contingent" or part-time workers, or people working in alternative work arrangements (such as a mother-daughter team sharing and glight attendant job at JetBlue Airlines). Today almost 10% of American workers - 1.3 million people - fit this nontraditiona workforce category of these about eight million are independent contractors who work on specific projects and move once the projects are done.

For mangers, this means a growing emphasis on knowldege workers and human capital.

Human Capital Refers to the knowldege, education, training, skills and expertise of firm's workers. Today, "thecenter of gravity in employment is moving fast from manual and clerical workers to knowldege workers, who assist the command and control model that business took from military 100 years ago." In this environment, managers need new world-class HR Management systems and skills to select, train, and motivate these employees and to get them to work more like committed partners.

Workforce Demographics: At the sametime, workforce demographics are changing. Most notably, the workforce is becoming more diverse as women, minority - group members, and older wokers enter the workforce.

Between 1992 and 2005, wokers classified as Asian and others will jump by just over 81%, Hispanics will represent 11% of the civilian laborforce in 2005, up from 8% in 1992.

About two-thirds of all single mothers (seperated, divorced, widowed, or never married) are in the labor force today, as are almost 45% of mothers with children under 3 years old.

The labor force is also getting older. As the baby boomers born between 1946 and 1960 prepare to leave the labor force in the next few years, employers will face what one study calls a "severe" labor shortage, and will have to "rethink attitudes toward older workers and re-examine a range of established practices, from retirement rules to employee benefits."

About 11% fewer American born between 1966 and 1985 than were born in the 20 yrears of World War II, so there will be fewer people to replace the baby boomers. Furthermore, over the past 50 or so years, the proportion of women in the workforce has risen dramatically, but is now projected to stop gorowing. America thus can't depend on the entry of women into the labor force to counterbalance the existing baby boomers.

With the aging of its workers, "America is facing a demographic shift as significant as the massice entry of woemn ito the owrkforce that began the 1960s. From the 1970s through the 1990s, many emploers improved their competitive positions by instituting policies and benefits (such as more flexible hours) that attreacted more women to the workforce. Employers will now have to take similar steps to fill the openings left by retiring employees - probably by rehiring retirees.

Many frims are already instituting new policies aimed at encouraging aging employees to stay, or at attracting previously retired emplyees. Aerospace Corp. lets employees coninue to work part time rather than retire completely. Oracle Corp. retrains older recruits to be Information Technology workers. Ford offers numerous new elder care services to employees, to help current employees better cope with the demands of supporting elderly family members.

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