The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market

By Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane

Book Overview

As the current recession ends, many workers will not be returning to the jobs they once held--those jobs are gone. In The New Division of Labor , Frank Levy and Richard Murnane show how computers are changing the employment landscape and how the right kinds of education can ease the transition to the new job market. The book tells stories of people at work--a high-end financial advisor, a customer service representative, a pair of successful chefs, a cardiologist, an automotive mechanic, the author Victor Hugo, floor traders in a London financial exchange. The authors merge these stories with insights from cognitive science, computer science, and economics to show how computers are enhancing productivity in many jobs even as they eliminate other jobs--both directly and by sending work offshore. 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 cannot earn a good living in the computerized economy. Left unchecked, the division threatens the nation's democratic institutions. The nation's challenge 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691119724
• ISBN13: 9780691119724
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Best book on workforce in a long time.

If you only read one book this year, read this book. It will change the way you think about work, education and the global economy. Murnane and Levy ask two fundamental questions: What do computers do better than people? (A: rules-based thinking) What do people do better than computers? (A: pattern recognition) Much of the work of the industrial economy was rules-based, both on the assembly line and in the manager's...

A most insightful analysis of the historical labor data.

This is a very short and easy to read book. Yet, it is very informative and insightful. I have read many books covering the same theme written by Peter Drucker, John Naisbitt, Robert Reich, and Lester Thurow among other visionaries and economists. This one is the best on the subject for two reasons. The two authors studied the historical data much more extensively than the others. Also, this book is more focused. The...

Effortless Learning

A wonderful quick read, a painless injection of knowledge, letting those of us who never got beyond Econ 1-a understand the revolutionary impact of computers on American society. Not all a bed of roses -- we face the troublesome specter of our own version of Benjamin Disraelli's Victorian "two nations," with a growing gap between those at the bottom and the rest of society.

A must read for Employment Professionals

I highly recommend this book to job counselers, educators, and HR professionals. It also would be useful to general managers. It provides empirical data on what is really going on in today's workplace and gives incite into what can be done to address job issues. Chet Terry Retired HR Professional