Chapter 39: Career Challenges in Midlife and Beyond¹

Individuals from any generation face changing expectations and complex challenges as they move through a career or work life. For example, in the late 1800s an economy based on agricultural production prevailed. Individuals skilled in farming, shop keeping, blacksmithing, and carpentry enjoyed a secure place in the labor market. At the turn of the century, the agriculture-based economy gave way to the Industrial Revolution. Suddenly, the job market called for individuals who could quickly learn how to operate various types of machinery. Critical to employment in this industrybased economy was the ability to spend long hours doing one specific job, or one specific part of a job. In the 1970s, the automation of factory jobs, industry closures, and job layoffs weakened the industrial economy. As the demand for labor in factories decreased, an economy based on more intangible commodities, such as information, health, education, and financial services, emerged. This service-based economy demanded workers with communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem solving skills. Then, stimulated by political initiatives such as the 1994 North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement and technological advances such as the Internet, U.S. companies began expanding beyond national borders. With this expansion came the downsizing of U.S.-based operations and the outsourcing of jobs to other countries. As the United States moved toward a more global economy, dramatic changes took place in the workplace and labor market. First, jobs and employment opportunities in various work sectors completely disappeared. Second, rapid advances in technology and increases in consumer demands for goods and services prompted the development of new occupations. Third, people from different parts of the world began working together, sharing information and coordinating the production and distribution of goods and services. Workers found themselves communicating with people who spoke different languages and held diverse views of work. Fourth, the lifetime job security enjoyed by previous generations was replaced by the need to develop transferrable skills that could be moved from job to job and career to career. Workers who want to secure a place in the global economy labor market will have to develop skills in team decision making, adapt to constantly changing work requirements, keep up to date with rapid advances in technology, solve “real world” problems, assume self-responsibility for career pursuits, and actively engage in a continual upgrading of work skills (Amundson, 2005;,Feller, 2003; Owens & Hafner, 2008; Stebleton, 2010).