The New Division of Labor - Tapa dura

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 authors did not get sidetracked by many related economic and political issues. The authors extensive research dispels thoroughly the notion that computerization is bad for employment. To the contrary, computerization has increased both the quantity and quality of jobs. The authors studied in detail labor trends over the past 40 years to support their conclusion. They uncovered the prescient work of Herbert Simon, who wrote an essay in the 1960s on the change in labor mix with the advent of technologies. The authors documented that for the most part Simon was correct. Due to computerization, the labor mix was going to change materially over the next several decades tilted towards a greater concentration of jobs associated with greater complexity in terms of critical thinking and judgment. Just as Simon predicted, there is today a far greater percentage of the population involved in complex jobs associated with an intense critical thinking component. Such jobs include managers, professionals, technicians, and many sales related activities. By the same token, there is a far smaller percentage of the population engaged in blue collar routine work. As mentioned, just as the quality of jobs (greater complexity) has improved immensely during the past several decades, so as the quantity. --By Gaetan Lion on November 27, 2004

This excellent short book has implications far beyond its titular subject. Although ostensibly about the effect of computers on labor, it provides a model for thinking in economically rational terms about any kind of innovation that offers lower costs or greater efficiency. In a nutshell, scaremongers tend to exaggerate the threats and underestimate the benefits of such innovations. Some prognosticators, for example, predicted massive unemployment, poverty and social unrest due to employment disruptions stemming from computers. Why? Because computers could do many jobs, especially automated ones, faster and better. Something like the classical economic notion of comparative advantage is at work: computers and people should each do what they are good at. On the other hand, the authors analyze how innovation leaves many low-level, unskilled workers behind, and explain how and why the haves must make reasonable, just provisions for the have-nots. We believe that any reader who appreciates lucid analysis and clear prose will enjoy this book, and will gain understanding and perspective. --By Rolf Dobelli on July 28, 2004

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 office. Most of the work in the innovation economy is based on pattern recognition, including what Murnane and Levy call expert thinking and complex communication. Their research shows that these are the skills for which demand is growing in the economy at all rungs of the job ladder. I've found their argument so compelling that I have purchased copies of the book for most of the top policy-makers in my home state of Rhode Island. The ideas in the book are starting to shape the discussion of school reform and workforce development here. In particular, we are concerned that our school system, like those in every other state, is still producing labor for a rules-based industrial economy that no longer exists. While it's possible to absorb rules-based thinking from a book or a lecture, it's difficult to teach pattern recognition skills in a pure classroom setting. You learn to recognize patterns by actually doing it the company of someone who is already very good at it. It's the essence of good experiential learning and mentoring, which can no longer be thought of as a luxury in the education system. If we want to produce the workforce we need for an innovation economy, we'll need to make experiential learning a part of every K-12 and college experience. --By Christopher L. Bergstrom on May 14, 2007

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 London financial exchange. The author 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.