While workplace diversity and stories of the gains (or losses) of women in the workplace tend to dominate the news, a couple of recent Career Builder reports speak to overall changes in the workplace for both sexes.
On the women-in-the-workforce theme, this report examining the changing face of the American workplace since 2001 reveals some interesting trends. For example, female-majority occupations have seen the greatest growth, along with the greatest job losses coming from male-majority occupations. It’s no secret that America has shifted from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, and the report’s results reflect the change. While headlines tend to trumpet the disadvantaged woman worker, very little ink is spilled over the very real and very huge changes affecting men.
Another finding is typical of the standard headline:  women are losing their share of high-paying jobs. Seldom included in the reports is why. The demands of a career as a corporate CEO or brain surgeon aren’t always compatible with the conflicting demands of motherhood. Our anecdotal experience tells us of women who elect to leave the workforce or reduce hours to devote their energies to raising their children. Because something that obvious is outside of the usual news template we’re left to discover it for ourselves alone and isolated from blaring headlines.
Which brings up the second report. This article highlights 12 hot temp jobs. The first three reflect both the changing nature of temporary employment and opportunities that exist for people who color outside of the typical career lines. Far from survival level in-between-permanent-jobs work, temporary computer systems analysts, accountants, auditors, and management analysts all command respectable, professional wages. These are professions that any college student considering a major needs to give serious thought to pursuing.
That is especially true for young women.  A degree in these fields coupled with a few years of seasoning in the conventional workforce can equip a young mother with the earning power and flexibility to comfortably balance the demands of home and work regardless of what the New York Times proclaims!