Labor Market and Career Development in the 21st Century

Abstract

In this chapter we examine some of the major factors that are expected to influence global labor markets in the twenty-first century and interpret these trends in specific and particular contexts. New challenges for career guidance are delineated with suggestions for culture-resonant service delivery. The chapter begins with an examination of the shift in global attention from the Western, economically developed world to emerging economies, especially Asia, which is anticipated to reshape the latter’s economy and social structures. The phenomena of economic growth and slowdown, outsourcing of jobs to emerging economies, and the wave of massive urbanization, probably the largest in human history, are described and the implications for career guidance and counseling are discussed. The impact of outsourced jobs on the issues that surround holistic career development in emerging economies is especially highlighted. We then draw the reader’s attention to the changes in the demographic composition of populations around the world and the resultant introduction of new and unfamiliar features into labor markets. The contrasts and potential association between aging populations in economically advanced countries and the youthful populations of emerging economies are described. Attention is brought to bear on the implications for career guidance of a shrinking workforce in some countries and the rapid increase in the number of workers becoming available to the labor market in other countries. The formation of a new middle class in emerging economies and their orientations to career development is described against the background of the viability of these workers in fulfilling the demands of the contemporary labor market. Immigration inflows within as well as across countries are also described. The critical role that career guidance could play in preparing a workforce for a labor market for which it is not culturally prepared is discussed. We then analyze climate change as a determining factor of future labor markets, given the immense challenges as well as opportunities that arise from encompassing a “greener” view of occupations. The role that career guidance could play in sharpening sensitivities to environmental issues as well as the special requirements that environmental immigrants bring to the labor market is examined. In its final section, we take up the global economic crisis of 2008 to illustrate the vulnerability of careers to external shocks and the fluidity of the current economic environment. The impact of such economic upheavals on the labor market and subsequently on employment is analyzed. The steps that career guidance professionals could take to prepare workers to deal with and recover from such disruptions are outlined. In conclusion, we contrast the functional dynamics of the labor market that could treat the human individual as an undistinguished aspect of human capital, reduced to being a mere factor of production, against person-centered career guidance as a vehicle for personal growth and potential realization.