Understanding Our Changing Workforce

Understanding our Changing Workforce

In the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic change in the demographics of the company. Education, age, race and gender in the workforce are part of the current change in the company. Human beings are able to connect with other people from all racial, ethnic and cultural environments. The United States could easily be considered a hospitable sensitive nation.

The workforce use to consist of manufacturing jobs that did not require any education or a high school diploma. Today and in the future more education is required for a more educated workforce, such as management positions. The higher cost of living is bringing more women into the workforce and more people are continuing their education as well. Men use to be the only one in the household working while the women stayed at home. There are more single parent families or two wage-earner families now that may help contribute to higher education in the workforce due to the higher cost of living.

Traditionalist, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Why's, are the four distinct demographic groups in the workforce today. Each of these groups has different motivators. Traditionalists (age 60+) usually appreciate strong ethics and moral values, want respect and to be recognized. Baby Boomers (age 44-60) seek status. Many will surrender family for advancement within the workplace. Generation X'ers (age 26-44) has the "every person for themselves" mentality. They work hard, but also want to be paid great for it. The "work-life balance" is heavily focused on by this generation. Generation Why (age 26 and under) wants an immediate acknowledgement and wants to make a change. This generation demands work flexibility and they do well with change. Work was much easier to assign, decades ago, when it was men aged 20-60 with comparable physical qualifications. Currently, people are healthier and living longer making them able to work even longer.

It has been over 45 years since the civil rights movement had the pathway of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which consists of ten titles. The most important prevents the discrimination of employment. Although it is sad to say, that the control of power and bondage of minority groups is naturally a part of the history of the United States. Race no longer consists of black,

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white, Hispanic or non-Hispanic anymore. Over 50 years ago more than 60 percent of the workforces were of white males. A lot of the higher education or professional positions where held by white males. This in turn duplicated more employment for white males. This would make it hard for minorities and woman to enter into the workforce as a professional. The statistics tell us that 50 percent of the workforce is women, but for the America's 500 largest companies