The innovation and training give the union a presence in the new technologies and the chance to organize among temporary and contract workers. The changing patterns of work are behind the economy's surging productivity and therefore have major implications for investment. As companies work on the Internet with suppliers and customers, they are bypassing traditional wholesalers and other middlemen. The cost savings have not come from reducing employment. On the contrary, the spread of information technologies has increased business and inspired a tremendous demand for workers.
More business means more jobs.
We have lower unemployment now than in the 1960s, when we didn't count women as seeking work. Yet reported inflation has remained low because cost efficiencies have offset some wage rises. Also, traditional measurements of wage and salary inflation often miss high pay for contract work because it is classed as business expense or small-company income. Government laws need changing Government labor policies are out of date, argues economist Thomas Kochan of the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The policies still see the work force as one of male breadwinners working full time for large companies.