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The Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) describes what workers do on the job, working conditions, the training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations.  The California Occupational Guides, the Emerging Occupations Guides, and Emerging Occupations provide information about job duties, working conditions, employment outlook, wages, benefits, entrance requirements, and training.  New and revised Occupational Guides are introduced throughout the year and are available online.

Work in Transition

Peters, (2000, pp. 1-3) sees a five sided pincer movement that will bring to fruition his prediction that “90% of the white-collar jobs in the United States will be either be eliminated or changed in 10 years.”  These movements include:

(a) the destructive nature of the current flavor of competition: dot-coms will mostly fail, the survivors will apply massive pressure on traditional businesses

(b) enterprise software (every aspect of a businesses back end process, personnel, production, sales, accounting and then line to the suppliers and the supplier's suppliers and wholesalers and retailers down to the end users will be networked)

(c) out-sourcing white collar tasks (Michael Dertouzos said India could easily boost its GDP by a trillion dollars in the next few years performing back room white collar tasks and notes the average annual salary for each new Indian worker is $20,000)

(d) the Web (companies will link all their tens of thousands of suppliers into a single, internet based network, in other words, every penny of waste will be pressed from the massive procurement system)

(e) time compression (the Web arrived on the scene in only 4 years, and the radio took 37 years to get to 50 million homes, the new white-collar group will be on the scene in about only 10 years)

Peters adds, these forces are energizing; just as blue-collar workers took the sweat out of the factory and warehouse and dockside, the same will happen to white-collar workers.  However, as Peters envisions drastic change, he predicts employees will have to be flexible and upgradeable, but may actually enjoy the work they are doing.

Information Technology (IT)

The three primary census job classifications for Information Technology employees are:  (a) computer systems analysts and scientists, (b) computer programmers, and (c) operations and systems researchers.  Lerman adds computer engineers work with the hardware and software aspects of systems design and development and often work in teams that design new computing devices or computer related equipment.  Software engineers design and develop both packaged and systems software.  While database administrators work with database management systems software, reorganize and restructure data and are responsible for maintaining the efficiency of databases and system security.  Computer support analysts provide assistance and advice to users, interpret problems and provide technical support for hardware, software, and systems.  System analysts interact with the user and programmer to implement computer technology to meet the individual needs of an organization.  And finally, computer programmers write and maintain the detailed instructions that list in a logical order the code computers must execute to perform their functions. (Lerman, 1998, p. 4)

According to, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects rapid rates of employment growth between 1996 and 2006 in the field of Information Technology (IT) and offers the following examples:  (a) computer engineers, 235,000; (b) database administrators and computer support specialists, 240,000; (c) systems analysts, 520,000; and (d) computer programmers, 129,000 (p. 6).  The  growth is estimated at about 1,000,000 new workers over 10 years or about 100,000 per year for fields other than computer programming.  The additional 1 million job openings in the IT fields other than computer programming represents approximately 12% of the 8.3 million openings estimated for professionals and about 8% of 13.5 million openings among professionals and managers ( Lerman, 1998, p. 8).

Internet Commerce

A Cisco Systems, Inc. study suggests nearly 2.5 million people made a living directly from the Internet in 1999, which is up 36% from 1988 according to the report by the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce (CREC) at the University of Texas at Austin.  However, the study has shown that though new Internet jobs cut across all kinds of industries, the number of Americans depending directly on the Internet economy for their jobs account for only one in 50 positions (Lawsky, 2000, p. 1). 

The biggest rate of growth in the Internet industry was among people who make and service the basic infrastructure of the Web -- the fiber backbones, routers, software and Internet service providers (ISP); the CREC study suggests this sector grew by 48%, to nearly 779,000 employees.  He comments the workers who make the browsers, viewers, search engines and other software that makes business possible on the Internet grew by one-third, to more than 680,000 people.  The report suggests the smallest growth was in the group called intermediaries.  These workers are the middlemen who run portals, such as Yahoo! Inc., Excite and Geocities, and brokers such as Double-Click and on-line stockbrokers, this sector increased by 17%, to 340,000 people.  The Internet commerce group, which included on-line retailing, business-to-business and to consumer groups, grew by 26%, to 725,000 people.  Further, according to the CREC study, groups that sell digital content, such as music transmitted over the Web increased revenues by more than one-third and gross margins were increased by 25%.  The companies that sell physical goods, such as books mailed by Amazon.com, increased by nearly 40% and gross margins by almost 42% (Lawsky, 2000, p. 2). 

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) predicts in its latest study, E-tail of the Tiger:  Retail E-commerce in Asia-Pacific that Asia and the Pacific Rim are now poised to surge forward in retail e-commerce after several years of taking a distant third place behind the United States and Europe.  Projected growth is 150% in 2000 to just under $7 billion in revenues, from $2.8 billion in 1999 (Marketer, 2000, p. 1).  Three countries currently account for 94% of the total Asia-Pacific market, Japan ($1.5 billion), Korea ($720 million), and Australia ($380 million). The Asia-Pacific online market is now reaching critical mass needed for accelerated growth (WebBusiness, 2000d, p. 4).

Professional, Managerial, and Technical Occupations

Between January 1995 and 1998, the number of jobs increased by over 6 million and only 1 million left the ranks of the unemployed.  Nearly two out of three of the 17 million full-time jobs added since 1998 were in the professional, managerial, and technical occupations; in 1996, these occupations accounted for only about one in four jobs.  Many of the new jobs require creativity and critical thinking, commenting jobs for actors, college professors, social scientists, reporters, and lawyers have doubled and tripled at the rate of nonprofessional jobs and college professor jobs have risen from 125,000 in 1950 to around 850,000 in 1995.  (Lerman, 1998, p. 2)

New Business Models

Virtual Organizations

New tiny virtual organizations with few captive workers, with physical or virtual products, and who exist by out-sourcing most of the company's key functions.  These companies take their business idea to an "incubator" where a percentage of a firm is traded for help in creating a strategic business plan and raising money from "angel" investors and venture firms.  For more stock and a board seat, an "angel engineer" company will provide software building blocks for an e-enterprise.  Yet another company handles the scaling up of the software into a real product and building the front end of the company's Web site.  The completed site is then hosted and managed by an Internet utility company where, for a monthly fee, the company will store your data, guarantee that your Web site stays up and running, and protect it from hackers; the new company is now in existence.  Almost every firm out-sources customer support and "tech support," and remarks, the support engineer who responds may be from India.  Further, the company's in-house computer system and other housekeeping chores -- legal services, public relations, payroll, human resources are available for hire, though some want equity in lieu of a fee or on top of it.  People are needed to manage the out-sourcers and these few people need to communicate extremely well. (Corcoran, 2000, pp. 415-416)

Distinctive Products

Energy and change in the global economy is evident with GATT and NAFTA; this global village coming on-line is extraordinary.  In the last 10 years, quality has been the focus of enterprise; and today, that quality comes from Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan.  There are 500 million Indians in poverty, leaving 400 million Indians who are moving into the middle class; there are 700 million Chinese on the farm, while there are 600 million who are not, and are well trained.  "There are billions of educated workers coming on-line around the world and they are spending money on education and communications."  For these reasons, it is important to create the “curious corporation”, one that is constantly exploring and re-inventing itself (Peters, 1994) . 

Personal Brand Names

Tom Peters says he is branded just like Martha Stewart, Peter Drucker, and Rosabeth Kanter and points out that to be successful, workers will need to make a “brand name” for themselves.  He suggests to do that we must do something different, anything and do it well   ( Peters, 1994,  p. 1).   Koch concurs with Peters that it’s a knowledge age and more attention will be paid to individual specialness or brand (Koch, 1998, p. 3).

Look for Exciting New Occupations in the 21st Century

New occupations for the 1990s and beyond will center around information, energy, high-tech, healthcare, and financial industries.  They promise to create a new occupational structure and vocabulary relating to computers, robotics, biotechnology, lasers, and fiber optics.  And as these fields begin to apply new technologies to developing new innovations, they in turn will generate other new occupations in the 21st century.  While most new occupations are not major growth fields, because they do not initially generate a large number of new jobs, they will present individuals with fascinating new opportunities to become leaders in pioneering new fields and industries.

Futurists identify several emerging occupations for the coming decades.  Most tend to brainstorm lists of occupational titles they feel will emerge in the next decade based on present trends.  Others identify additional occupations which may be created from new, unforeseen technological breakthroughs.  Several are listed below.

• artificial intelligence technician
• aquaculturist
• automotive fuel cell battery technician
• benefits analyst
• bionic electron technician
• computational linguist
• computer microprocessor
• cryonics technician
• dialysis technologist
• electronic mail technician
• fiber optic technician
• fusion engineer
• hazardous waste technician
• horticultural therapy
• image consultant
• information broker
• information center manager
• job developer
• leisure consultant
• materials utilization specialist
• medical diagnostic imaging technician
• myotherapist
• relocation counselor
• retirement counselor
• robot technician
• shyness consultant
• software club director
• space mechanic
• underwater archaeologist

Others that come to mind are:

• Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
• Chief Information Officer (CIO)
• Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)
• Chief Geographic Officer (CGO)
• Chief Training Officer
• Chief Privacy Officer
• Cybrarian
• Portal Administrator
• Health Informatics Knowledge Worker
• e-Commerce
• Bioterrorism Specialist

entrepreneur.com/
http://www.entrepreneur.com/

e Business Links
http://www.sac.edu/students/admissions/international_students/career_life2/ebusiness.htm

Warren Groff's Learning Community
http://www.members.cox.net/greenka6/wgnewweb/wgindex.html

Bioterrorism Workforce
http://www.csuchico.edu/csuperb/MBC_JobsImages.html
http://www.bio-link.org/issuesBioterrorism.htm

A list of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Sustainability Job Titles
http://www.ecconet.com/ECC/job_titles.asp

Healthcare Management
http://www.HealthManagementCareers.com

Web Industry Job Descriptions
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/98/41/index2a.html?tw=jobs

Emerging Career Opportunities
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/resources/jobtitle.html