Bren:Alumni

Known for his books on globalization, Thomas Friedman talked about the “Green Collar” jobs in an interview posted on YaleGlobal Online. I first read about the “Green Collar” workers in IHT while I was in the Philippines last month and later found this interview where he shares more about the concept and the future global workforce:

Global climate change intensified by globalization will create new types of jobs

He explains this new job category for the middle or educated class of workers which many are saying will be out of jobs as a result of outsourcing. “Middle” here refers in between the spectrum of the highly specialized (i.e. brain surgeon, NBA superstar) and the other end as the localized (i.e. baker, locksmith, etc) jobs. Jobs on either end are not going to be digitized anytime soon so they are safe.

As computer science grads and information workers have seen, more jobs are being sent offshore. However, computer science grads and information workers should not worry but be excited about new categories of work being created as a result of globalization. One example is the “Green Collar” category:

Tell your kids, anything green. Because when the world is flat and 3 billion new consumers walk onto the flat world all with their own version of the American dream – a house, a car, a toaster, a microwave, a refrigerator, if we don’t find a cleaner, greener way to power their aspirations, we’re going to burn up, heat up, choke up the planet faster than even Al Gore predicts. What does that mean? It means green design, green consulting, green manufacturing, green science, is going to have a huge new middle opportunity.

He also talks about other types of information workers who would excel in the new global workspace including great collaborators, leveragers, localizers, explainers, adopters, math lovers, and passionate personalizers. Read the interview to find out who these people are!

Just one more thing to get excited about the flattening of the world