Shaping Labour Market Trends

David's Story: Meeting Goliath

David came to see Charlotte, a career counsellor in the local community centre, after he had lost his job running a production machine in a goods manufacturing company. He was twenty-seven years old at the time, married with two children. Although several people had been laid off, David was shocked and upset that he had been one of those let go, when others had been kept on.

This is an excerpt from the first interview.

David: The company had been losing sales. They had some international orders that they couldn't keep up with. Then they told us they would be getting new machines. When they arrived we could see that the new machines were much more technologically advanced and production could be increased with fewer machines than we had been running. That meant fewer of us would be needed.

I'd sort of thought that I would be kept on and given training because of my good record on the old machine. I was assistant supervisor of our section and the safety representative. I thought my ability would show through. But it was clear very fast who they would keep and it was, almost without exception, the younger, newer hires who had a college education. They seemed to have some background that related to these computerized machines and that allowed them to catch on fast.

Seven years I've been here - had been there - and they didn't even bother to take the time to retrain me. I'm responsible and had an excellent work attendance record. They gave me separation money but that won't last long supporting my family. Now I think my skills are useless, same as the old machines. One thing that takes the edge off of it though, is that some of our best supervisors and managers who ran a really tight ship were let go too. I don't understand it.

David had experienced the brunt of some fundamental changes in the labour market, resulting in his loss of what he thought was a secure job, his anger at the injustice of it, and his confusion about how to get back into the work force. His expectations that he would be secure in his position and that the company should retrain him demonstrate some "old economy" values he holds.

Chapter 2 explains what is behind these changes and the impact on workers as they try to deal with: companies struggling to keep up with technology and the pressures of competition in the global marketplace; chief executive officers trying to reorganize staff so they can compete - and cut costs to pay for the new hi-tech equipment; workers with higher technical skills getting the jobs; and a new style of managers taking over. After a brief explanation of each trend some of the implications for career decision making for both practitioners and workers are discussed.