The prediction, in brief:

Many jobs are just never coming back. Blue-collar workers, secretaries, receptionists, clerical workers, sales clerks, bank tellers, telephone operators, librarians, wholesalers and middle managers are just a few of the many occupations destined for virtual extinction in the Digital Age.

Predictor: Rifkin, Jeremy

Prediction, in context:

In a 1995 article for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Marcia Stepanek of Hearst Newspapers interviews scholars about their views of the expected impact of communications networks, quoting Jeremy Rifkin, author of “The End of Work.” Stepanek writes:”Computerization is making some jobs obsolete. In his new book, ‘The End of Work,’ public-interest advocate and economist Jeremy Rifkin says that, in the past, technology both abolished jobs and created new ones. In the future, he predicts, fewer and fewer jobs will be created as machines are created to do more and more of the available work. Rifkin says America’s workplace next century would be divided into an ‘information elite’ made up of ‘knowledge workers’ who control and manage the high-tech global economy and an ‘information-disabled’ group made up of ‘growing numbers of permanently displaced workers who have few prospects and little hope for meaningful employment in an increasingly automated world. This would further split society’s haves and have-nots, he says. ‘Today, we must start to face the reality that many jobs are just never coming back. Blue-collar workers, secretaries, receptionists, clerical workers, sales clerks, bank tellers, telephone operators, librarians, wholesalers and middle managers are just a few of the many occupations destined for virtual extinction in the Digital Age.'”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1995

Topic of prediction: Economic structures

Subtopic: Employment

Name of publication: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Title, headline, chapter name: Scholars Try to Measure the Impact

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=a2da499fc860f603f890270e01d5c693&_docnum=1&wchp=dGLbVtb-lSlAl&_md5=c06b25b68e8d45fca948131279df77d3

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Garrison, Betty