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- Ruben B. Garcia
- Manager, Automated Follow-Up
- Labor Market and Career Information
- Texas Workforce Commis=
sion
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- To identify “high-tech” occupations in Texas.
- Use the data to explain job generation and economic development.
- Develop a sufficiently detailed definition to drive workforce
development planning or curriculum revisions.
- Provide a list of “high-tech” occupations to labor market
planners, curriculum developers and institutional researchers to ass=
ist
them in their research and planning functions.
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- For example, in crop production, a farmer can calibrate an implement=
to
spread the required amount of fertilizer to the one tenth acre by us=
ing
satellite mounted geothermal sensors linked to GPS in the
tractor’s cab.
- For example, English, which has long been considered the refuge of
technophobes, is becoming increasingly technology-intensive– a=
ll
of Shakespeare's works are now available digitally and are linked to
search engines to digital libraries of movies, stage productions,
literally criticism, and histories of the period settings for each p=
lay.
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- The Supply of Information Technology Workers in the United States (1=
999)
- William Aspray and Peter Freeman
- Important Concepts
- “High Technology” must be construed as a characteristic=
of
occupations
- “High Tech” occupations are scattered across all
industries. They
aren’t deployed just in industries which design, manufacture =
and
distribute advance information technologies.
- Not all jobs in industries labeled “high tech” require
mastery of technology.
Indeed, the majority of jobs in the next decade will still
require only low- to medium skills.
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- “High Tech” is not a dichotomous (yes/no) variable. Rather occupations can be a=
rrayed
on a continuum according to the ways in which workers relate to
technology.
- Preparation for “high tech” occupations involves more th=
an
training people to use technology.&=
nbsp;
The curriculum must strike a balance between technical
preparation and substantive business and industry knowledge appropri=
ate
for each occupation.
- Any strategy, policy or initiative which is based on a shallow,
industry-level conception of high technology is likely to underestim=
ate
skills shortages and, thus, miss the target with its remedies.
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- First, we assumed that workers will use the most advanced digital or
sophisticated analog technology that is readily available.
- For manufacturing occupations, we assume that equipment (e.g. a
conveyor) being used on the shop floor is programmed by some form of
computer system.
- We assume municipal government will use Global Positioning Systems (=
GPS)
and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to improve operations in the
Police and Fire Departments or Urban Planning or Public Works divisi=
ons.
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- Elementary through postsecondary instructors occasionally use the
Internet to search for information;
- Supervisors use the technology of other workers as well as personnel
information management systems; and
- Automobile repair workers use computerized diagnostic tools.
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- Amount of time spent using advanced technology
- Constantly, intermittently, daily, occasionally, never
- Type of job duties in which advanced technology is used
- Process/R&D, install/repair, operate, monitor, input
- Purpose in using advanced technology
- Program/design, run, perform specific function, extract info, input
info
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- Applied to 691 Occupational Employment Statistic (OES) –based
occupations in Texas.
- Each occupation was cross-walked to a description in the O*Net
(knowledge, skills, and abilities database) and emerging and evolving
occupations identified in prior research.
- Using the rubric described in previous slide, we selected the
appropriate rank within each variable – one being the highest =
use
of advanced technology and five being the lowest – for each
occupation.
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- Computer Scanner Operator
- Resulted in 1.3.3 designation
- Employee constantly (1) operates (3) advanced technology equipment=
to
perform a specific function (3).
- Each variable is weighted equally.
- Derive an average rank by totaling the digits and dividing by 3: 7/3 =3D2.33
- Round to closest whole number =3D 2
- Job duties require significant use of advanced technology
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- Our methodology works well.
- Ranking make sense intuitively.
- Engineers who design technology rank higher than engineers who desi=
gn
structures.
- In manufacturing, Set-Up crew members who program computers to run
machinery rank higher than Operators who simply use the machinery.<=
/li>
- In the health care industry, technologist (who typically hold a
Baccalaureate degree and perform some supervisory role) rank higher
than technicians (typically, Associate’s degree or one-year
certificate holders without supervisory duties).
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- Some occupations could not be ranked because the level of technology
used depends on the product being sold or procured:
- Sales or purchasing
- Example: Vacuum Cleaner Product Demonstrator virtually never uses
technology and would rank as a “5” while a Computer Ser=
ver
Product Demonstrator would be represented digitally as
“1,3,2” using the metric with a rounded rank of “=
2”
(e.g. where job duties require significant use of technology).
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- “Technology-intensity” can be used to explain why employ=
ment
demand is increasing in some occupations while flattening or decreas=
ing
in others—independently from the shifting fortunes of the
industries in which they are deployed:
- Of the 638 occupations with useable data for assessing their
technology-intensity, only 18 are classified as being “driven=
by
technology”
- Another 49 “require significant use of technology”
- Although digital technology has become quite pervasive in consumer
goods and services, our metric shows that over 40% of all occupatio=
ns
fall into the category where “job duties do not rely on
technology.” In=
TX,
this represents 43.3% of all employment in 1998.
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- Greatest demand growth in technology-driven occupations
- Projected to expand by 33.7% between 1998 and 2008 – a rate
almost double that for all occupations
- Occupations “driven by technology” – 65.9 % of
projected job openings will be due to growth as opposed to a need to
replace existing workers.
- Occupations that “don’t rely on technology” will h=
ave
only 38% of total openings due to growth vs. TX job market as a whole
will have 42.2% due to growth.
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- Texas Workforce Commission
- Labor Market and Career Information
- 9001 North IH-35, Suite 103B
- Austin, TX 78753-5233<=
/li>
- (512) 837-7484
- ruben.garcia@cdr.state.tx.us
- www.cdr.state.tx.us/researchers/techworkers.pdf
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