Introduction
The New Jersey Council on Gender Parity in
Labor and Education recognizes the underrepresentation of women in science and
technology jobs and educational programs as a workforce issue that inhibits the
full utilization of its potential workforce.
The issues surrounding the exclusion of women from these occupations and
training opportunities are explored in this report and recommendations are
suggested to remedy the situation. This
report and its recommendations were developed as an extension of the New Jersey
State Employment and Training Commission's (SETC) Unified State Plan for New Jersey's Workforce
Readiness System. The Unified
State Plan, first
introduced in 1992 and revised in 1996, is an effort to address the
complexities of creating a unified high-quality workforce investment
system. The Council strongly believes
that this report will aid the State of New Jersey in meeting one of the core
principles of the Unified State Plan: there must be full utilization of all
potential workers.[1]
This report
should be seen as an initial step in recognizing workforce issues. Simply identifying the underrepresentation
of women in science and technology fields is not enough - instead, the Council
believes that strategies must be developed to increase the proportion of women
in these fields. As early as 1985, the
U.S. Office on Technology Assessment found that New Jersey would be facing a
shortage of scientists and engineers.
That Office encouraged recruiting women and minorities into the fields
of science and technology. It was
reasoned that doing so would alleviate the shortage of workers by the
twenty-first century.[2] However, because these recommendations were
not followed, New Jersey is facing the workforce crisis that it was alerted to
over fifteen years ago.
Gender parity
in the educational and workforce training system is an economic necessity for
the U.S. to remain globally competitive.
Indeed, this issue is crucial for New Jersey to attract and maintain the
industries such as information technology, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals,
and biotechnology, which, among other science and high-technology industries,
make up an essential component of the State’s economic base. While increasing the representation of women
in these fields and educational programs is clearly good for women, it is also
good for business and good for the New Jersey economy.
New Jersey's
Economic Future: Projected Job Growth and Skill Needs
As we enter the twenty-first
century, New Jersey’s economic base is shifting from an industrial
goods-producing economy to a knowledge-based economy. Much of this recent transformation has been propelled by the
State’s rapid expansion in the sectors of science and technology. New Jersey’s growth in this area has been so
great that The New York Times has recently dubbed New Jersey
the “Silicon Parkway.” Northern New
Jersey has 3,000 more high-technology firms than Silicon Valley; 30 of the
fastest growing national high-technology companies are in New Jersey; and New
Jersey ranks 5th among states with growing high-technology companies.[3] New Jersey is quickly becoming a national
and global leader in the science and technology sector, creating an
increasingly large number of new jobs to fill each year. However, as New Jersey continues to grow in
this field, the State is facing a potentially devastating labor crisis. Simply put, the labor demand is not being
met by the current labor supply. If
this situation is not addressed, significant labor shortages that will occur
throughout the early part of the twenty-first century will hinder the State’s
economic growth.
New Jersey’s shift to a knowledge-based
economy has drastically reshaped the overall employment picture. New jobs and industries that require
higher-level skills from workers are being created, while old ones are
declining and disappearing. Indeed,
economic success is highly dependent on the talents of the workforce at all
occupational levels in the new economy.
For example, since computers and machines currently perform much of the
needed industrial labor, factory workers are now expected to possess the skills
and leadership to manage the technology as opposed to merely engaging in
physical work. This new relationship
between workers and technology requires that the workforce possess high-level
skills in computers, electronics, life sciences, mathematics, and engineering,
along with various combinations of those skills. In addition, workers need flexible analytical and communication
skills that will enable them to adapt their talents to changing labor market
conditions.
As evidenced from data collected by the
New Jersey Department of Labor, New Jersey's goods-producing industrial sectors
are projected to decline by 2008 (see Figure 1). Manufacturing industries are expected to continue to decline as
they have throughout the 1990s, falling 7.1 percent by 2008. This translates into a loss of 34,100 jobs
in this sector. Within the
manufacturing sector, the apparel and textile industries are projected to
experience the greatest decline, a loss of approximately 31.4 percent or a loss
of 7,600 jobs by 2008. Consistent with
a shift to a knowledge-based economy, employment declines are predicted to be
the greatest in industries that manufacture durable goods.
Figure
1:
Notes:
TCPU
- Transportation, Communications, and Public Utilities
FIRE -
Finance, Insurance and Real Estate
Source: Projections 2008 New Jersey Employment and Population in the 21st Century. Vol. 1 Industry and Occupational Employment Projections for New Jersey 1998-2008. Part A (State Projections, July 2000) NJ Department of Labor Market and Demographic Research.
Alternatively, New Jersey's growth throughout
the first decade of the twenty-first century is expected to occur primarily in
service-producing industries. This
sector includes New Jersey's two largest industries, business services and
health services. Business services
industries are projected to be the fastest growing state industry, creating
135,500 new jobs to fill by 2008. The
expansion of business services is primarily propelled by continued strong
growth in computer and data processing services. Most significantly, this growth reflects the creation and
expansion of information technology occupations. While there are many different ways to define information
technology, the Council chose to adapt a definition used by the Women and Minorities in Information
Technology Forum: Information
technology jobs involve the creation, storage, exchange, and/or use of
information through technological means.
Specific information technology jobs include designing and developing
software and hardware systems, providing technical support for computer
systems, and creating and supporting network systems and databases.[4] As evident from the definition, information
technology jobs are represented in all New Jersey industries, not just
technical specialties. This requires
workers in all industries to possess a general set of technical skills
regardless of occupation.[5]
These
projected industrial shifts, along with the proliferation of technology in all
labor sectors, correspond to changes within New Jersey's occupational
structure. By the year 2008,
professional and technical specialty occupations are projected to experience
the largest employment growth, at least double that of all other occupational
categories. Specifically, from 1998 to
2008, two out of every five new jobs in New Jersey will be in the professional
and technical occupational category (see Figure 2). This will create 193,000 new jobs in New Jersey including
computer scientists, systems analysts, and engineers. Most of the occupations included within this category are high-skilled
jobs in the service producing industries.
In contrast, the occupational categories expected to experience
relatively slow growth are: operators, fabricators, and laborers; and precision
production, crafts, and repairers.
These areas will create only 33,600 and 16,000 new jobs respectively.
Figure
2:
Source: Projections 2008: New Jersey
Employment and Population in the 21st Century, June 2000, NJ
Department of Labor Market and Demographic Research.
Almost half a million new jobs are
projected to be created by 2008, however, the total number of job openings in
New Jersey is expected to be even greater.
This results from the movement of workers out of the labor force (as a
result of retirement, death, permanent disability and/or career change). In New Jersey, on average, 146,660 jobs will
need to be filled each year, with approximately two-thirds of those jobs
resulting from individuals leaving the workforce. In replacement jobs, as in new jobs, the most openings are projected
to occur in the professional and technical occupations, approximately 38,000
jobs each year (see Figure 3).
Figure
3:
Source: Projections 2008: New Jersey
Employment and Population in the 21st Century, June 2000, NJ Department
of Labor Market and Demographic Research.
These occupational categories include
many sets of occupations that represent specific employee skills needs. For example, the top five occupations that
will experience the greatest percentage growth between 1998 and 2008 are in
science, engineering, and technology fields.
In contrast, the occupations that are expected to decline are
concentrated in industrial sectors (see Table 1).
Table 1:
State of New
Jersey Occupations With The Greatest Percentage Change*,
1998-2008
|
|
1998 |
2008 |
Change:
1998-2008 Annual Average Job
Openings |
||||
|
Occupation |
Number |
Number |
Number |
Percent |
Total |
Growth |
Replacements |
|
Computer Support
Specialists |
18,600 |
35,500 |
16,800 |
90.4 |
1,800 |
1,680 |
120 |
|
Systems Analysts |
28,800 |
52,500 |
23,700 |
82.0 |
2,540 |
2,370 |
180 |
|
Computer Engineers |
13,400 |
24,400 |
10,900 |
81.2 |
1,180 |
1,090 |
80 |
|
Medical Assistants |
8,400 |
13,800 |
5,400 |
63.9 |
750 |
540 |
210 |
|
Home Health Aides |
22,000 |
35,900 |
13,700 |
61.8 |
1,680 |
1,370 |
310 |
|
Social/Human
Service Assistants |
7,500 |
11,600 |
4,100 |
54.0 |
600 |
410 |
190 |
|
Teachers &
Instructors, NEC |
5,600 |
8,600 |
3,000 |
53.3 |
360 |
300 |
60 |
|
Dental Assistants |
8,000 |
11,900 |
3,900 |
48.0 |
510 |
390 |
120 |
|
Telmktrs/Door
Sales/Related Wkrs |
24,500 |
34,500 |
9,900 |
40.4 |
1,620 |
990 |
630 |
|
Teachers, Preschool |
9,600 |
13,400 |
3,800 |
39.5 |
590 |
380 |
210 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sewing Machine
Opers, Garment |
9,700 |
5,700 |
-4,000 |
-41.7 |
130 |
0 |
130 |
|
Word Processors
& Typists |
18,500 |
13,100 |
-5,400 |
-29.4 |
360 |
0 |
360 |
|
Computer Oprs, Ex Peripheral Eq |
7,300 |
5,300 |
-1,900 |
-26.7 |
100 |
0 |
100 |
|
Bank Tellers |
16,200 |
13,000 |
-3,200 |
-19.8 |
690 |
0 |
690 |
|
Switchboard
Operators |
6,800 |
5,500 |
-1,300 |
-18.8 |
150 | ||