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The work world of the next several decades will be significantly different from the work world of the last two decades in at least three key ways: * There will be a dramatic and rapid shift in the capabilities of technology that reduces the costs of coordinating activities and sharing ideas. * There will be a set of economic activities that is shifting away from the 20th-century industrial or manufacturing-based model and mass-consumer brands to a model based on knowledge and co-creation between consumers and suppliers. * There will be new patterns of demand for talent and skills in which many individuals, particularly those with higher levels of education, will have the leverage to create work arrangements that are more conducive to adult growth than were possible before.

Introduction The meaning of work The "Future of Work" has been the subject of an enormous amount of research, both byacademics and other commentators. Large numbers of books, reports and journal articleshave been devoted entirely or in substantial part to this topic. Globalization and technologyin combination are resulting in dramatic changes in how work is done and where it isundertaken. Work can now easily be broken into smaller tasks and redistributed around theworld. Dramatic improvements in real time communications, including the development of "virtual worlds" , are transforming the concept of what it means to be "at work", althoughthere is sometimes a tendency to exaggerate and sensationalise in order to sell books andnewspapers. 1

he White House likes to talk about manufacturing, and it's easy to fetishize the honor in "making things," but when you get right down to it, it's a services world, and we're all just living in it. The manufacturing sector makes up about a tenth of GDP. It's a crucial, productive, and fiery tenth. But it's just a tenth. The vast majority of us are working for the government, administering health care, serving food, manning an aisle, or doing something else while sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day. The Services Economy isn't a new development, but it's deepening with each passing decade. Between 1990 and 2008, we created 27.3 million net new jobs. Health care and government alone accounted for 40 percent of that growth, according to economist Michael Spence. Adding in retail, food services, hospitality, and construction*, these sectors accounted for two-thirds of job growth over those two decades.