Characterizing Past and Future Trends in the Workplace: An Analysis

In my research, I characterize and evaluate the most rapidly growing occupations in the United States in order to assess how the workplace is changing. My empirical work is separated into three different sections. The first section is an overall analysis of the set of fastest growing occupations, the second section is an extension of Goldin’s (2014) research analyzing the flexibility of these occupations, and the third section is my own analysis of flexibility. Through my research I have found that over fifty percent the total rapidly growing jobs have a median annual wage that is less than $50,000 a year. I found that as median weekly wages increase the gender wage ratio decreases, meaning that women’s wages with respect to men’s wages were lower in occupations with higher annual wages. Additionally, I have found that occupations with a higher level of inflexibility also have a higher level of occupational segregation. These results emphasize important trends in the growing workforce to allow me to contextualize the future of the workplace.