Global connectivity and jobs

by Ilse Genovese

Here is one incontrovertible fact—there will never again be 2009. Just as well. The last year of the disappointing Aughts went out on a limp. The massive injection of capital into the global economy by central banks throughout the world has averted a global bust, but that does not mask the fact that the macro-economy has been mismanaged. Everyone—consumers, regulators, financial institutions, lenders—has engaged in a risky experiment that has ended badly. Capital was spent on building mini-mansions and fuelling corporate buyouts instead of funnelling it toward industrial or small businesses that might generate real economic output. The housing bubble both caused, and was enabled by a boom in widespread indebtedness. Its crash, and the disappearance of credit, has dealt a severe blow—unemployment in industrialized countries has reached historical highs. In the U.S., unemployment at the end 2009 stood at 10.2 percent—3.9 percent higher than following the last such downturn. The job market is expected to improve slightly by mid-2010, but even cautiously optimistic economists predict that unemployment in the first several years of the “Oohs” decade may not go down as nimbly as we would wish it to. Yet, forces other than recessions are at play in the jobs creation market. Globalization continues to enhance employment opportunities in the emerging markets and take a toll in the industrialized world. Workers in China and India are increasingly able to perform jobs higher up the food chain, squeezing out even white-collar workers in some industries. A recent study by McKinsey Global Institute found 71 percent of U.S. workers hold jobs for which there is decreasing demand, increasing supply, or both (www.mckinsey.com/mgi). It’s widely held that any long-term fix to the flight of jobs out of the U.S. is to ensure that we have a globally competitive work force. This will mean increasing educational standards at all levels, but particularly in primary and secondary schools. According to a 2006 benchmark exam conducted by the OECD Program for International Student Assessment, U.S. high schoolers ranked 25th out of 30 industrialized nations in math and 24th in science. Dealing with new economic reality in the near term will most likely mean retraining parts of the work force. Laid-off auto workers in Detroit are re-tooling their skills to be able to compete for jobs in other technological fields. Elsewhere, former assembly workers are going back to school to qualify for jobs on DoD projects. This is what to me means “picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and facing the future with confidence. For, among the many realities that have become apparent in the last two years is the inherent resilience of the global economic system. Underpinning it is technological connectivity. Until a decade or so ago, “globalization” was a term used in connection with trade—countries made goods and sold them abroad. Now, it describes a situation where managers in, say, Phoenix, Arizona, can work with suppliers in Beijing, China, in real time. Thanks to global connectivity, people in under-developed areas can learn via satellite about life in developed countries. People around the globe can connect with friends and family via cell phones, and those living in oppressive regimes can inspire support well beyond the borders of their countries. The technology making this connectivity has its most ardent promoters in the wider geospatial community of which we are a part. It is this technology and our continued engagement with it that fuels my hope for 2010 and beyond. We have the means for both encouraging and benefiting from growth in geospatial connectivity. It is this incontrovertible reality which holds promise of expanding our field of professional surveying and mapping.
A Happy and Prosperous New Year!