Speculates on future trends, such as industrial and work force productivity, labor supply, the need for and development of high technology skills, rising educational level and economic status of the work force, labor-management relations, displacement of workers in particular sectors, and the further feminization of poverty. (GC)

The crisis in preparing people for work stems from many factors: generalization versus specialization, student employment with little guidance or relevance to future work, changing skill requirements, and labor shortages in specific occupations. The focus of reform should be a greater match between skills training and employment opportunities. (SK)

Will there be radical changes in the workplace by 1997? Four predictions, two full of gloom and doom and two full of promise, are common in current literature. One recent theory holds that we are facing a polarization of American society through the erosion of the middle class. Another gloomy prediction suggests that not only is the middle class…