What today's work world looked like from 1978

What experts in 1978 thought the 21st-century workforce would look like written By Bob Lind. This is a bit of fun, to see what our experts believed the world would look like, and it shows that even experts sometimes get it wrong.

I have highlighted some of the interesting bits from the article. For the full article go here In 1978, the Associated Press out of Washington, D.C., came up with a story about what was predicted in the 21st Century

"By the year 2000," the article said, "job conditions will reflect basic trends in the workforce: an older, more self-assured group than today. More women will be active in dual-career families where the working father will share housekeeping responsibilities.

Millions will find themselves in the thick of these trends:

·         The work week will shrink. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says employers should expect the four-day, 32-hour work week for most workers by 2000. Increases in vacation and holiday time also will sustain the growth in leisure time.

·         A continued increase in the percentage of women, especially young mothers, who hold paying jobs.

·         With more than one breadwinner at home, fewer job holders will feel trapped in undesirable jobs.

·         Worker wanderlust will grow to epidemic proportions. Experts say American workers will shift jobs eight or nine times, and many will change careers two, even three times, before retirement.

·         Retirement will be a gradual process, rather than the abrupt dismissal at 65 that marked recent decades, with phased-retirement plans and post-retirement careers.

In the 21^st work will only take up 14% of our time. The work ethic, it seems is slipping as the article concludes, "Hard work leads to affluence; affluence leads to new lifestyles; new lifestyles diminish the work ethic”.