Question

What are the current trends in the workplace related to age, gender, race, and sexual orientation of the labor force? What does this mean for you as a young professional about the enter the job market, as well as what does it mean for you as a future manager? Maybe even a future CEO?

Answer 1

Labour force in the economy generally operates with the demand and supply of labour. In labour market, labour demand is the firm's demand for labour and supply is the worker's supply of labour. The supply and demand of labour in the market is influenced by changes in the bargaining power. The dynamics of labour market has changed tremendously resulting to change in the age, gender, race and sexual orientation.

Age : One of the most important demographic changes that affect the Labour force is the evolution of the population’s age distribution. Age composition is a major structural aspect of the labor force. Market-related activities are directly associated with age. Also, due to the fast aging population, most developed countries are witnessing a progressive drop in their working population.

Gender : Demographic contributions such as married women with childern, education, marital status are the ongoing trends in the labour force. Market-related activities are also clearly associated with age. The age profile of women in the labor force is curvilinear, reaching its nadir during the child-bearing years and after age 40 or so, when labor force exits begin to rise. Also, increasing educational attainment alters the relative importance of home work versus the labor market for many women. This is clearly revealed in female labor force participation rates that tend to accelerate with increasing educational attainment.

Race : Another current trends in the labour force is the increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of the polulation over the past several decades. Whether because of social , economic, or political factors, participation rates appear to vary across racial group.

As a young professional or future CEO, I feel that the rate of the labour force will decrease in the coming few decades. Also, it may become increasingly difficult to maintain the growth of the standard of living due to unavailablity of resources, fewer workers generating products and goods and services. The major challenge is to find and increase the productivity of these labours individually by investing in their education, paid vacations and health benefits plans like sickness or accident insurances etc, building infrastructure for them, physical capacity accumulation and some effective and useful research and development for them. To enter into the market, we need to make sure that the above aspects are taken into consideration to improve the worklife of the labour force as well as to retain them for the long run.