Career Trends

The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is a non-profit, independent research and media organization based in Montreal. In addition to the Global Research websites, the Centre is involved in book publishing, support to humanitarian projects as well as educational outreach activities including the organization of public conferences and lectures. The Centre also acts as a think tank on crucial economic and geopolitical issues. The Global Research website at www.globalresearch.ca publishes news articles, commentary, background research and analysis on a broad range of issues, focusing on social, economic, strategic and environmental issues.They have established an extensive archive of news articles, in-depth reports and analysis on issues which are barely covered by the mainstream media. There are quite a few articles on economic trends arising from globalization, such as outsourcing.

The website Globalization101 is a vast resource covering many topics regarding the globalization phenomenon. The article High-Stakes Testing in particular looks at different educational systems, and how US admissions are undergoing reform, while being compared to other educational system styles. The major link between this article and the first chapter of the World is Flat is the focus on skills, not job titles or location. The new standardized admissions tests will focus on skill development opposed to grades which may level the playing field for people to find internationally connected jobs. 

Interesting article from CBC outlining the draw to outsourcing to lower costs for businesses and increase efficiency, yet the downside of loss of jobs.

TORONTO - Sears Canada is laying off 245 workers, the lion's share in its information technology department, with plans to replace them by partnering with companies that outsource to India and the Philippines, a senior spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

I thought this article would be really interesting to post because I don't know about everyone else, but I have heard a lot of times over the past few years that Sears is facing financial issues. It can be seen then that Sears is trying to remedy their issue by cutting costs by outsourcing the IT positions to those in other countries such as India and the Philippines.

Joseph (Joe) C. Shenker, one of the most decorated attorneys in the US market shares some lessons from an institution that has built one of the best brands in the business on the sturdy platform of stewardship - there is a great section in this interview on Globalization, Footprint & Client Service

The starting premise about Columbus in The World Is Flat bothered me a lot. There were many people who knew the world was round before him. Greek philosophers such as Pythagoras, Eratosthenes and Aristotle calculated and reasoned that the world was not flat - either round or at least a dome. Also, to anyone looking for a ship, the top of a mast appears first over a horizon, like something coming over a hill. It would make sense for people to assume that the world was round. In terms of who 'proved' the earth was round and that you could go all the way around and get back to the same point, Magellan's crew was the first to circumnavigate the globe in 1522, definitively 'proving' what many already believed. I've seen repeatedly that Columbus' actual argument was that the world was smaller than people thought, so he thought he could find a sea route from Europe across the Pacific to India. Instead, he ran into what later became the Americas. Hopefully, Friedman will address these issues and will see his viewpoint changed by his experiences in parallel with the Columbus story.

This article gives an opposite view of the world being flat seen by Pankaj Ghemawat's point of view.

Written by Patrick Dixon Futurist Keynote Speaker: Posts, Slides, Videos - Future Emerging Markets, BRICS, Strategy Keynotes Growth of India and China, emerging markets threat and opportunities The truth about the speed, scale and unstoppable momentum of business process outsourcing and offshoring. What will be the net impact of outsourcing on American and European economies? What I found interesting was that the speaker/writer points out that the cost savings of outsourcing diminish constantly due to salary inflation, and companies will have to continue to look for cheaper labour (eg Pakistan). My question is what happens to the people and infrastructure created in one country when a company decides to move operation to another cheaper country? Will they be worse-off or better?

... there's a new trend going on in America: large companies wanting people to work for free. Actually, Versace wants you to pay her.

This is an interesting article in forbes detailing what social media trends are popular in 2014 and which social media trends are predicted to continue to be popular in the next few years.

This site is aimed at people who own/are interested in starting their own business. The "how to" section features some handy tips that are definitely worth exploring. As well, in the top left hand corner of the webpage, if you click on "latest" there are some interesting articles many written by business professionals.

Interesting article written in April 2013, when RBC was outsourcing jobs and there was much hype in the media about it.  The author makes some interesting points which I have highlighted for you to read.  Firstly, commenting on the fact that Indian workers are actually as well qualified or more qualified than Canadian workers to get the job done.  Friedman mentions this in his book when talking about his visits to Bangalore.  She notes that when businesses boost profit this is good for the economy because it means they will invest it. However, it was noted by Stanford in Economics for Everyone, that this is not always the case, and the amount of profit being spent on luxury goods rather than investment is currently increasing.  Interesting note the author makes about us vs them.  She mentions that if the jobs had been moving somewhere else in Canada, would the reaction have been just as passionate?  It is important to ensure that we are looking at cultural and racial issues here and taking these into account.   Lastly, she comments that on how we have to allow "the natural forces of capitalism to work".  Stanford also mentions how economists will often refer to capitalism as "natural" and that this is not true.  It is one economic system (which has been created by man) which we currently use, but it is not the only one that can exist, and it certainly did not exist before man did.  It is not natural like the seasons.  

An interesting current community and university partnership research project on precarious work and its impact on poverty in Ontario.

This is an article written by the CBC (April 2013) reporting the common practice of outsourcing jobs to foreign workers by Canadian banks. It points the finger particularly at RBC and its close relationship to iGate, a foreign IT company, which receives 11% of its revenue from RBC. Canadian Bank outsourcing is kept very private, therefore it is difficult to identify how many Canadian jobs have actually been lost. In 2012, at least 45 Canadian jobs at RBC were lost, and at CIBC, at least 41. This has resulted in fewer full-time positions and the banks have offered very little support for lay-offs.

Waterloo Region Record WATERLOO - In the future, Emily Loberto feels sure that there will be flying cars, even if she has to invent them herself. She wants there to be a cure for cancer. If there isn't one by the time she's older, she wants to help find it. ** Check out this great event that happened at the University of Waterloo this past Saturday to encourage women into the Engineering field. A colleague of mine attended and I'm looking forward to her feedback at work tomorrow. **

I think unemployment rates are something we should all be aware of. This PDF is government research that shows the average unemployment rates in Canada and in each province from 1976-2013. Note that in most provinces in the 1900s, the unemployment rate increased dramatically. This is clearly shown in the highest increase of 20.1% in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1993. It is also interesting to see how provinces like Saskatchewan were not hit with unemployment nearly as bad. Why do you think that is?

In this Canadian Living Article, the author describes what he considers to be the top 5 skilled trade jobs in Canada at this time. I think this could come in handy for job seekers looking to explore the skilled trades and I really appreciated that for each of the trade jobs listed, this article linked further sites containing more detailed information.

This is a fascinating video that makes you think about future trends in the world of work. It is an insight into the labour market, which is being overwhelmed with automation and technology. A very interesting video!

Hi everyone! :) This is an interesting article I found on Workopolis regarding workplace trends. It discusses what the authors believe will be some of the "in demand" jobs in the future. This article also links to a similar but useful page (linked below) that discusses some of the jobs that will likely become obsolete in the 10 -20 years. http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/workopolis-2013-research-ten-jobs-that-will-not-exist-ten-years-from-now/