The
New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market.
Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Pp. 200. $16.95, paper. ISBN:
0-12402-7. TEL: 609-258-5714 • FAX: 609-258-1335
Computers and the Internet are bringing about a revolution that might be the
equal of Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press. This new technology
seems to be changing everything. Not a week goes by that we don’t hear
about outsourcing, technology innovation, layoffs, downsizing, or the jobless
recovery of the economy.
Where have all the jobs gone? In what sectors is there job growth, or at least
stability? What jobs must be done on a national, corporate, and personal level
to ensure that there are enough good jobs so we don’t become a divided
country of managers and underlings.
Levy and Murnane, authors of Teaching the New Basic Skills, show how computers
are changing the employment landscape. At greatest risk are jobs that can
be expressed in programmable rules—blue collar, clerical, and similar
work that requires moderate skills and used to pay middle-class wages.
The loss of these jobs leaves a growing division between those who can and
those who cannot earn a good living in the computerized economy. Left unchecked,
the division threatens the nation’s democratic institutions.
The nation’s challenge, the authors say, is to recognize this division
and to prepare the population for the high-wage/high-skilled jobs that are
rapidly growing in number, jobs involving extensive problem-solving and interpersonal
communication. Using detailed examples (a second-grade classroom, an IBM managerial
training program, Cisco Networking Academies), the authors describe how these
skills can be taught and how our adjustment to the computerized workplace
can begin in earnest.
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