It s not just that you might be left stranded because you re in the wrong occupational sector or you work for a company with weak management. Even in growth sectors like public health and e-commerce, adaptation is inescapable. Nurses, for example, have to extend their repertoire of clinical interventions or be left behind. The skills needed to make a success in the new economy are still being mapped out, so it s a sector that s experimenting continuously with new combinations of skills clusters. Changing power relations are reinforced by the need for companies to recruit innovators in order to maintain their competitiveness.
Information technologies make competition on the basis of price unsustainable.
There will always be someone who can undercut and the customer can find the best price by logging on to the Internet. The move towards paying people on the basis of what they are worth as opposed to what their job is worth is inexorable. This increases the incentive for individuals to target their skills development on those areas that will enable them to maximise the outputs that influence what they earn. People no longer see the company as their source of security. However, many will stick with the single company model though at the same time being prepared to change jobs more often.