Jon Cruddas on the Knowledge Economy

I came across an article by Jon Cruddas about immigration on his home page and thought these paragraphs taken from it show another viewpoint on the 'Knowledge Economy'.

'Globalisation and the information and communication technologies have been widely cited as the key contemporary levers of change that are reshaping the labour markets of the future. Yet, the fundamental problem with this conception of the 'new knowledge economy' is one of evidence. On the basis of both the empirical changes over the last ten years and the best projections for the future, it is clear that we are witnessing an ever more pronounced polarisation within the labour market – and wider society – often described as the 'hour glass' economy.

On the one hand, there exists a primary labour market – the knowledge economy. On the other, there is an expanding secondary labour market where the largest growth is occurring – in service-related elementary occupations, administrative and clerical occupations, sales occupations, caring, personal service jobs and the like. In terms of absolute employment growth since the early 1990s, the fastest growing occupations have been in four long-established services (sales assistants, data input clerks, storekeepers and receptionists); in state dominated education and health services; and the caring occupations (care assistants, welfare and community workers, and nursery nurses).

In short, employment growth has been concentrated in occupations that could scarcely be judged new, still less the fulcrum of a 'new economy'.'

JS