Ninety Years in the World of Work in America

Career Development Quarterly, Sept, 2001 by Camille DeBell

In general, unions are less important to most workers today. In 1955, approximately one third of the American labor force was unionized; by 1995, that number had dropped to 16%. The decline in U.S. unionization coincided with the decline in U.S. manufacturing and the increase in global competition (Whitman, 1999).

Unemployment

The only major economic depression of the first decade of the twentieth century occurred in 1907 and lasted about 1 year, and its impact is evident in unemployment rates of the time. In 1906, the U.S. unemployment rate was 1.7%; in 1908, it was 8% (Bureau of the Census, 1961). For most of the rest of the decade, however, it was "nominal," defined by economists as between 4% and 6% (Shifflett, 1966). The unemployment rate today is also nominal, about 4.5% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001b).

The costs of unemployment have always been significant. In Parsons's day, when there were no social safety nets such as unemployment insurance, Medicaid, welfare, and food stamps, the loss of income from a major family breadwinner could be catastrophic. However, unemployment tended to be shorter lived. Ironically, the new world economy has produced more permanent, as opposed to temporary, layoffs, with 25% of today's displaced workers in the United States remaining unemployed for a year or more (Whitman, 1999).

From Farmer to Laborer to Clerk

The industrial revolution of the mid-nineteenth century had already begun to erode farming as an occupation by 1900. At the turn of the century, 38% of Americans worked in farm occupations; by 1960, that number had shrunk to 6%, and by 1996, less than 1% of U.S. workers were farmers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999; Primedia, 1998). By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States was considered a major industrial nation (Thompkins, 1996). Manufacturing jobs, however, have also shrunk from 27% of the labor market in 1920 to 13% in 1998, and this percentage is expected to decrease even more by 2008 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001a; Primedia, 1998). By the late twentieth century, the largest industries were neither agriculture nor manufacturing-they were the service-producing industries, including transportation, wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance, real estate, general services, and government. In 1998, these industries accounted for about 71% of jobs in the United States (Bureau of L abor Statistics, 2001a). In other words, the United States experienced an economic revolution in the late twentieth century as profound as the Industrial Revolution, of the nineteenth century.

Largest Employers

The birth of the giant corporation happened around the turn of the century. For example, from 1899 to 1909, the number of manufacturing businesses dropped by 50%, but the number of manufacturing workers increased. Some of the largest corporations in 1909 America are recognizable: U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, International Harvester, for example. Others are less so: Pullman Company and Central Leather (Bowen, 1969).