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l American Journ to tter WorKin Lon ition This publication was digitized and made available by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Historical Library ([email protected])
AlffiER FROM THE PRESIDENTThe late Texas picker-poet Townes Van Zandt is alleged to have said that all musicis either the blues or zippity-doo-da. The economy had the blues toward the end of2000, after almost five years of zippity-doo-da. Its growth rate fell from over 5 percentin the first half of 2000 to under 2 percent in the second. One might say the economy hit an air pocket on its glide path to a soft landing. Fortunately, it had enoughaltitude to avoid a crash. The question at year-end was whether we'll have a hardlanding, a crash landing or a touch-and-go.Going for the touch-and-go, the Fed responded aggressively in January, with twoSD-basis-point cuts in the federal funds and discount rates. Financial markets perkedup somewhat, but it's too soon to gauge the impact on the economy or what furthersteps may be needed.The slowdown has prompted some to question the New Economy's viability, butI remain a new-paradigm optimist. The New Economy has never been about infiniteprice-earnings ratios or an end to business cycles. It was and is about invention,innovation, risk-taking, animal spirits, and new ways of thinking and working. It'sabout new technology increasing productivity and growth potential, about technology, productivity and global competition tempering inflation. In policy terms, it'sabout a higher noninflationary speed limit and considering the supply side of theeconomy as well as the demand side.Even with the midyear slowing, productivity grew more than 4 percent in 2000,the highest rate in years, and unemployment ended the year at 4 percent, near its3D-year low.The Dallas Fed in 2000It was zippity-doo-da at the Dallas Fed last year. One especially perceptive authorwrote that the Bank "has lately become one of the more robust corners of AlanGreenspan's empire Well said. We didn't get the Y2K blues, nor did the banks wesupervise. We did more business at a lower unit cost, contributed significantly toReserve System projects and assumed major new responsibilities as fiscal agent forthe Treasury. The Eleventh District economy again outperformed the nation's.Our board chairman, Roger Hemminghaus, retired after seven years of servicein Dallas and five in San Antonio. Roger was my role model for how to be a coolCEO. We will miss him. Bartell Zachry of San Antonio is our new chairman, andPatricia Patterson of Dallas moves up to deputy chairman. We will also miss KirkMcLaughlin and Peggy Caskey, from our Dallas and Houston boards. Kirk promisesto apprise me of any Buddy Holly sightings in Greater Lubbock.President Bob McTeer. If you look closely you can spota frog, the unofficial mascot of the New Economy.
Have aNice Day!Our essay this year grew out of a conversation I had with Mike Cox, our chief economist, about productivity growth and living standards. Mike pointed out that no onehas a bumper sticker that says "Have a productive day!" Being productive is only partof a good workday. Working conditions and amenities are also important, as are sufficient leisure and some playtime on the job. In our new economy, work and play,work and leisure, home and office, workweek and weekend are blending. Time andplace are less important. (Guess where I am as I write this and what time it is.)The essay got me to thinking about my own work life. I was raised by the side ofthe road in rural North Georgia at Doyal's Truck Stop. I'd helped out earlier, but thesummers before my junior and senior years in high school I worked there full-timefor pay- 40 a week. It wasn't bad, in part because Doyal was my dad.Doyal's Truck Stop never closed. It was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Doyalworked from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Little Doyal (that's me) worked from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.except Saturday night if I had a date. (Does a chicken have lips?) Those times, BigDoyal would fill in for me until I got home around midnight.I pumped gas, wiped windshields-remember those days?-and mopped floors.If a truck had a flat tire, I put on the spare, which was dangerous work. But if itneeded fixing, I had to get Big Doyal out of bed, which was really dangerous. I occasionally had to roust him to break up a late-night fight. Sometimes I did it myself, mycredibility in such matters deriving from his.The worst thing about that first job was trying to sleep in the daytime without airconditioning. One or two in the afternoon was about the limit. The best thing wasall-night access to the jukebox. Puppy love problems caused me to wear out HankWilliams' "Lovesick Blues:'I learned a little about economic incentives working for my dad. A sign out frontpromised free coffee to truckers. They also got a 3-cent-a-gallon discount on fuel.My biggest on-the-job fear was that I would mistakenly put gasoline in a truck thatused diesel fuel or vice versa. Either way would ruin a big motor and my life. Thesame sort of fear haunted me during basketball season. [ was afraid I would shoota basket on the wrong end of the court and forever be called "Wrong-way McTeer:'My fear of zigging when I should be zagging persists, especially as it pertains tomonetary policy. Maybe we need more policymakers who pumped gas.The summer after my senior year, I went off to college and never returnedexcept to visit. My first job at school was not a good one. I had to visit every retailbusiness in three remote counties and fill out a questionnaire on their tourist business. It wasn't a sales job, but it felt like one. I'd arrive uninvited, asking lots of questions that were none of my business. The job taught me what I didn't want to dowhen I grew up. The highlight of that summer was being tracked down by the highway patrol and told that Suzanne was in labor with yet another Little Doyal.During graduate school I had jobs as a student assistant and instructor. For awhile I tutored football players in economics. There was some danger there, as I wastrying to tell them more than they wanted to know-like now.2FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS I Annual Report 2000
Following graduate school, I joined the Research Department of the RichmondFed in 1968. It was mostly fun work with good people. The exception was an earlyassignment to the Voluntary Foreign Credit Restraint Program, which wasn't that different from the tourism survey This time I had to ask large-bank CEOs about theirforeign lending and encourage them to hold it down for balance of payments reasons. Yuk! Fortunately, the VFCR program expired before I did.Presumably because I wasn't a very good economist, I was soon kicked upstairs(actually downstairs) and given management responsibilities. As an officer, my soleperks were parking inside the garage and a water pitcher in my office. In 1980, [ wassent north to run the Richmond Fed's Ba[timore Branch, where [ worked with somewonderful people. My worst day on the job came early on. A convention of conBob McTeer in the days of the Old Economy,circa 1968.sumer activists shouted me down for arguing that easing monetary policy in aninflationary environment was not likely to reduce interest rates. We called that oldtime religion back then, but [ didn't make many converts. After that day, the next 11years in Baltimore were a piece of cake.[ came to Texas (as soon as [ could) and to my present job in February 1991, 10years ago. Good people again. My only dangerous assignment here so far was moderating a daylong NAFTA debate packed with protectionists. Fortunate[y, the goodguys eventually won that debate and opponents' fears went unrealized. Proponents'hopes were exceeded. The debates over NAFTA and the New-Paradigm Economyhave been highlights of my tenure here.Working conditions in Texas are good, especially the air-conditioning. The mostimportant enhancements to my work life in the past decade have been remotee-mail and word processing, especially the delete button.It's not an official job perk, but one of the nicest things about living and workingin Texas is the enjoyment and inspiration [ get from its picker-poets-otherwiseknown as singer-songwriters-including, but not limited to, Willie, Waylon, Lyle,Terry Allen, Robert Earl Keen, Nanci Griffith. And how about them Dixie Chicks? TheTexas poet I've enjoyed most this past year is Billy Joe Shaver. I recently had thepleasure of hearing Billy Joe and his picker son, Eddy, in concert, just weeks beforeEddy's tragic death. God bless you, Billy Joe. Hang in there.My favorite Billy Joe Shaver lines are:I've been to Georgia on a fast train, honey; / / wasn't born no yesterday./ got a good Christian raising / And an eighth grade education,And there ain't no need in y'all treating me this wayFor some reason, [ always think of those lines when I'm criticized by New Economy skeptics and naysayers. Writing this letter every year brings to mind anotherBilly Joe Shaver line: "The devil made me do it the first time. The second time I doneit on my own."Have a nice dayl#t-11t Robert D. McTeer, Jr.FEOERAL RESERVE BANK Of OALLAS I \1l' I1I'prr 71 n3
avea ·ce a IIl e Americ n Journe to etter Wor in on ition America works.A record 135 million people now hold jobs in the United States. We earn our pay-Coal mining ranks as the second worst job in thecountry, after lumberjacking. Coal mine and oil fieldemployment peaked in 1920, when roughly one ofevery 40 workers held these grueling jobs. Today,it's just one in 1.056. We've come a long way.checks as accountants and architects, cooks and carpenters, landscapers and lawyers,pilots and pipe fitters, salesclerks and secretaries, web masters and waiters.Some of us work designing clothes, others work washing them. We build trucksand taxicabs, and we drive them, too. Americans invent and manufacture computers. We sell and service them. Millions of workers use them on the job to compose,calculate and communicate.Work, work, work.4FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS I Annual Report 2000
It's as true in the new millennium as it was in the old: work is an important part ofour lives. But for today's workers, jobs aren't just a way to put bread on the table. Theyconfer status, define our identities and even add to our happiness.The way we work matters. We expect our jobs to provide higher pay, more fringebenefits and shorter hours, of course. But that's not all. More than any time in thepast, we're asking our employers to make work more enjoyable and meaningful andto reduce its danger, drudgery and discomfort.With each passing generation, working conditions have gotten better in the UnitedStates. Today's jobs are safer than ever. From office to factory, our surroundings arebecoming more pleasant as the worst aspects of the Industrial Age fade into the past.Thanks to modern technology and changing attitudes, more employees are gaining the freedom to decide when and where they work. In today's competitive labormarket, companies are trying to please employees by adding on-the-job amenitieswith some even hiring "culture czars" to find ways to boost workplace morale.Only wealthy societies can look past the basic concerns of paying the bills andgetting weekends off. It takes steady, long-term economic progress-forged with newtechnologies, expanding markets and higher productivity-to achieve a level ofdevelopment that delivers better and better working conditions.America's thriving market economy provided the foundation for rapid improvement in the workplace over the past two or three generations. The secret: competition.Just as the "invisible hand" of free enterprise leads profit-seeking companies to vie forlabor and customers, it works to meet employees' desire for better working conditions.[n routine comings and goings, someone's always, with good-natured friendliness,encouraging friends and coworkers to have a nice day. It's a simple wish, but itreveals what's important to us. We don't celebrate the great achievements of moderncapitalism by telling our fellow Americans to consume more or to have a productiveday.0,we typically bid them a nice day. How could we do so if we had to spendlarge chunks of our time in unpleasant, perhaps even unhealthy, work environments?Have a nice day!Our free enterprise system is striving toward that goal-not just for today's Americans but for tomorrow's as well.Our work world has changed much over thepast century, as these pictures of Pittsburghin 1905 and today show.
I HOW FAR WE'VE COMEFor much of America's history, working conditions weren't a high priority. Ourforebears willingly endured harsh work lives for the goods and services work bought.As the Industrial Revolution burst forth in the 19th century, workers migrated fromfamily farms to factories, from the Old World to the new. They saw their paychecksrise but became, like Charlie Chaplin's character in Modern Times, mere cogs in avast engine of mass production.Work was often brutal. Early factories were noisy, smelly, dirty, cold in the winterand hot in the summer. The labor itself was repetitive, physically exhausting andoften dangerous. Modern workers can hardly imagine what days were like for gluestirrers, lime burners, gravediggers and acid mixers.To eke out a living, employees toiled an average 10 hours a day, Monday throughFriday, plus another half day on Saturday. Breaks were few and far between. Workrules were draconian: no talking, no eating or drinking, not a minute late punchingthe time clock. (See Exhibit I.)The management guru who captured the ethos of the early industrial era wasFrederick Winslow Taylor, a taskmaster armed with a stopwatch who pioneered thetime-and-motion analysis that sped up the assembly line.Taylor's regimen no longer holds sway. The management consultants of thenew millennium advise employers to put the focus on the workers, not the work.The new corporate ethos recognizes that workers perform best in an environmentwhere they're treated as human beings, not robots.EXHIBIT 1ThenNow and ThenStand in an assembly line.The 1920 book Working Conditions, Wages andProfits offers invaluable insight into the routineconcerns workers in yesterday's companies faced.Injury, fatigue, strain, excessive temperatures, highhumidity, poor ventilation, inadequate sanitation,disease, hazardous chemicals, long hours, rigidschedules, boredom, lack of toilet facilitiescauses for concern were basic and near at hand.Today's 100 Best Places to Work for in America,compiled by the Great Place to Work Institute andpubl ished by Fortune magazine, reveals a wholehigher level of concerns. Interesting and meaningful work, respect, job status, buy-in to companyobjectives, flextime, bonuses, inclusion, communication, feedback, empowerment, friendly coworkers, comfort, wellness classes, on-site day care,autonomy, paternity leave, same-sex partner benefits, employee activities, employee council, company culture-these issues frame the dialogue ofthe day. Concerns have progressed all the way fromthe bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to thetop-from physiological to self-actualizationreflecting the century's great progress in workingconditions.Operate dangerous machinery.Time -motion studies.Punch in and wait for the 5 o'clock whistle.15-minute break, sack lunch and thermos.Smoke, soot and stale air.Dark, dank, dangerous conditions.Join a union to be heard.No phone, no window, no visiting.Work at the office, play elsewhere.Commute.Work your way up the company ladder.50 years and a gold watch.Starched collar and a necktie.Power is position and job tenure.Trade school and a ratchet set.Blue collar, grease and Borax soap.A good job is hard to find.Search the local paper's help-wanted ads.Look for a job.Boredom from repeated tasks.Just do what you're told.6FEDERAL RESERVE BANK DF DALLAS I Anneal Haport 2000
Our modern dialogue about jobs focuses on meaningful work, empowerment,communication, employee feedback and corporate culture. We're more likely to talkabout the etiquette of the office refrigerator than problems with ventilation or sanitation. Today, hours are flexible, workstations are ergonomic and retirement savingsare portable.Our jobs still include elements of toil-they are, after all, work. But work is becoming something to enjoy, a source of enrichment beyond mere money-at least that'sthe expectation of a growing number of Americans.[n an economy that rarely experiences hard times, employers compete for scarcelabor resources, and they've greatly eased the burdens of what was once called thedaily grind. Yet the progress is rarely acknowledged. Popular culture feeds us animage of a beleaguered working class.The comics' Dilbert, trapped in his stifling cubicle, suffers daily the slings andarrows of outrageous corporate stupidity. The movie Office Space portrays a workplace filled with mindless memos, mutinous office machines and frazzled employees. News stories depict today's workers as fearful of layoffs, stuck in meaninglesspursuits or sacrificing their personal lives in a world where business goes on 24/7.These descriptions may contain a grain of truth, but they don't reflect the experience of the great mass of Americans. It's time to examine what working conditionsare really like.NowSit in a cubicle.Operate a computer.Ergonomic workstations.Flextime, just get the job done.Go out to eat, outside to smoke.Constant indoor air-quality analysis.Indirect lighting, central heat and air.Employee empowerment.Access to e-mail, eBay and coworkers.Work and play blur.Telecommute.Cultivate your core competencies.Portable 401 (k) plans and an early out.Khakis and a polo shirt.Power is ideas and vision.Technical school and software certification.Lab coat and a clean-room suit.Four job offers and a signing bonus.Park your resume on the NetPursue a career.Interesting and meaningful work.Think and grow rich.FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS I Annual Report 20007
II IT'S NO ACCIDENT"Safety first" could be the motto of today's workplace. Accidents still happen, ofcourse, but far less often than they once did. On-the-job deaths are at an all-time low,dropping to 38 per million workers in each of the past two years. Over time, thedecline has been steady and sharp-from 428 per million in 1930 to 214 in 1960,134in 1980 and 87 in 1990.Occupational injuries and illnesses are declining, too, reaching an all-time low of63 per thousand full-time workers (59 per thousand for injuries alone). What's more,injuries are less severe than they once were, with fewer workers suffering suchcalamities as amputations and loss of sight. (See Exhibit 2.)Riskier industries show the greatest gains in safety. Accident rates in construction,the most dangerous field, are less than half what they were in 1973. Mishaps in manufacturing are down nearly 48 percent. Safer industries, characterized mostly byoffice work, haven't improved as much, but they, too, report fewer accidents thanthey did a generation ago.lI Accidents and Deaths, on the Job and at HomeInjury rate250Death rateSOD --450. ,-400-----225200.: : : InJunes per 1.000 full-time.: : workers in manufacl\Jring175350300-.-. . .150.':250: e . .:.e. 200 . -150125.:.'100'.75501002550Work-related deathsper 1 million workersoEXHIBIT 21926 '31 '36 '41 '46 '51 '56 '61 '66 '71 '76 '81 '86 '91 '960First, Do No HarmEven before the birth of the skyscraper, America needed structural metalworkers, a clearly dangerous job. In 1998 alone, these workers sustained 4,990injuries, making this occupation the third most injurious in the country. Injuryrates for structural metalworkers are 264 times higher than those for lawyers,and work-related deaths are 43 times higher. Commercial fishing is the deadliest occupation, whereas waiting on tables is the least fatal. Not surprisingly,many of the most dangerous jobs involve operating various kinds of machines.8Life is inherently risky, but businesses have incentives to reduce risks at work soas to attract and retain valuable, productive employees. That's why the deathrate at work has declined far more than that at home over the past 70 years.Work-related deaths have dropped by 91 percent-from 419 per millionemployees annually in 1928 to 38 per million today-while deaths at home aredown just 57 percent. Smart machines, increasingly prevalent in the New Economy, are helping cut injury and death rates even furtherfEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS I AnliJ Report 2JCO
5 r OST DEADLY JOBSOST IN UIOUSr117 Production assistantsMOST DF LY1,560 Fishers, hunters and trappers99 Driver/sales workers1,545 limber cutters and loggers79 Structural metalworkers808 Farm managers, except horticultural75 Nonconstruction laborers657 Airplane pilots and navigators70 Public transportation attendants606 Structural metalworkers62 Machine feeders and off-bearers491 Water transportation occupations62 Construction and extractive trades helpers371 Construction laborers55 Punching and stamping machine operators362 Extractive occupations54 Construction laborers356 Grader, dozer and scraper operators51 Grinding and polishing machine operators345 Garbage collectors51 Sawing machine operators288 Truck drivers51 Insulation workers276 Roofers48 Welders, cutters273 Taxicab drivers, chauffeurs47 Molding and casting machine operators269 Heavy equipment mechanics44 Nursing aides, orderlies263 Farmworkers44 Truck drivers263 Driver/sales workers44 Furnace, kiln and oven operators, except food259 Farmers, except horticultural43 Kitchen workers254 Electrical power installers and repairers42 Separating, filtering, clarifying machine operators226 Rail transportation occupations39 GlaZiers223 Sheriffs. bailiffs, other Jaw enforcement officers45 Industry Average13 Industry AverageLEAST INJURIOUSlEAST D:ADlY.8 Drafting occupations33 Property and real estate managers.7 Typists31 MachinistsEducation administrators30 Janitors and cleaners.7 Economists29 Supervisors and proprietors. sales occupations6 Library clerks25 Electrical and electronic technicians.6 Data processing equipment repairers20 Miscellaneous food preparation personnel.5 Management analysts19 Securities and financial services salespeopleA Child care workers18 CashiersA Correctional institution officers17 Stock and inventory clerksA Securities and financial services salespeople14 Lawyers.3 Underwriters14 Maids. housemen.3 Dentists12 Marketing, advertising, public relations managers.3 Lawyers10 Stock handlers and baggers.3 Secondary schoolteachers10 Postsecondary teachers3 Civil engineers10 Social workers.3 Real estate agents10 Assemblers.2 Physicians9 Cooks.2 Elementary schoolteachers9 Registered nurses,1 Special education teachers7 Accountants, auditors.1 Religious workers5 Waiters, waitressesAnnual work-related deathsper 1 million employeesAnnual nonfatal work-related injuriesinvolving lost workdays per 1,000 employeesFEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS I A9
Observations made by Mr. Wolle, March 11, 1899, on John Haplin and Joseph Yamishin loading full pigs (average weight 92Ibs.) on B. & Q. car # 54285, together with10 other laborers from Hack's Gang. The full load of 57680 Ibs. was loaded in 54 minutes,which represents very slow work, the men crowding each other too much to do their best.The weather was cloudy, with atemperature of about 55 .TABLE NUMBER ONEConditionof workAverage walk on levelS feet.Operation "I.Picking up pig.::'Ec'"E .::'Ec·3'"CoOperation #2.Walking to carwith pig.Operation #3.Throwing piginto car.Operation #4.Walk back empty.::c.;'E(1,).9c.E 'z '"Top of car 2 ft. 6 in. above top of plank.Walk on plank 18 feet with 5 ft. rise.EQ)""'"'" .0;;:;0 c'E.:'"EC-.-;oc U. E;;;-. '" '"co","'.0;;:; 0Operations 2&3observed together.::ECQ)E .::'Ec'"E.S-uio cQJ. E ', '"co",'" .0;;:; 0::;;:'"::; -::;;:'"::; -::;;:'"::;;: -Haplin0.500.150.3160.350.180.2580.300.170.226Yam ish0.250.050.1010.120.080.0930.17.05.108 U" U" U" Operations 1,2,3&4observed together.::'EC.::'EcOJE ::;;:'".§-,-;oc U. ·3 OJQ)""'"c'" .0;;:;0::;;: EXHIBIT 3What Price Productivity?In the late 1BOOs, engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor pioneered his revolutionary time-motion studies. Taylor brought his stopwatch to the shop floor, wherehe logged workers' every movement to scrutinize, shortcut and speed up. Taylor's methods raised productivity and hastened the move to mass production, butnot-many thought-without cost in terms of working conditions Such classicfilms as Fritz Lang's Metropolis projected the foreboding future Industrial Ageworkers foresaw as human automatons. Cold-blooded corporations, seekingever-greater productivity, would consign workers to mind- and body-numbingrepetitive-motion jobs, in which every day was worse than the one before Atleast. that was the fear But was it the reality? Hardly.Since the creation of the first assembly line, with all its associated humdrum, the invisible hand of free markets has generated new and better jobs formanual workers, replacing repetitive jobs with professional and technicalcareers and creative pursuits. During the half century from 1900 to 1950, thefraction of American workers employed in nonfarm manual jobs rose from 36percent to 41 percent. The economy busily shed even more agricultural laborers,though, cutting them from 38 percent to 12 percent. And since 1950 there hasbeen a steady downward trend in nonfarm manual jobs, which fell to 25 percentof total U.S. employment in 2000. Farm jobs fell to 2.5 percent. The share of jobsheld by managers and professionals rose from 10 percent to 3D percent over thecentury, and those held by technical workers, salespeople and administrativesupport staff went up from 7.5 percent to 29 percent.Of course, some monotonous and tiresome jobs- such as assembler andmachine operator-will always exist. Punching, stamping, slicing, cutting, sawing, sewing, grinding, polishing-a selected 3 million machine operators makeup just 2.2 percent of the employed labor force today but account for more than14 percent of all repetitive-motion injuries. Assemblers make up just 1,2 percentof the labor force but account for 11 percent of all such injuries. The mere factthese jobs aren't popular tends, in the long run, to be the source of their undoing. Over just the past three decades, the fraction of Americans employed in the20 jobs most prone to repetitive-motion injury has fallen by almost two-fifthsfrom 11.3 percent to 6.9 percent.10 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK Of DALLAS I A ua epo lOOO
Repetitive-motion trauma, including carpal tunnel syndrome, gets a lot of attention these days. Aches and pains from doing the same tasks over and over, however, didn't originate with the computer. In fact, repetitive-motion injuries plaguedthe Industrial Age, when factory workers- prodded on by time-motion studiespermanently injured themselves performing the same task for hours on end. (SeeExhibit 3.)The shift of the economic base has actually reduced reliance on occupationswith repetitive motion. At their peak in the early 1950s, so-called manual jobsoperators, fabricators, plus laborers and craftsmen-made up 41 percent of all occupations. Today, they're just 25 percent. Two broad categories of white-collar jobs witha lower incidence of repetitive-motion injuries-managers, professionals, salespeople and administrative support staff-rose from 37 percent of employment in 1950 to60 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, the broad category with the greatest incidence ofrepetitive-motion injury-operators, fabricators and laborers-fell from 27 percentto 14 percent of employment.--,Repetitive Motion:The Tiresome 20Percentage ofIncidence Rate- T--------t----;2 Assemblers4.8851.281.213 Upholsterers395008.054 Selected machine operators35273672.195 Hand packers and packagers3417.72.276 Textile machine operators33761.14.317 Production helpers2.950.18.068 Machine feeders and off-bearers2.855.14.069 Crane and tower operators2.671.17.05. - 05 110 Nonconstruction laborers261811 Butchers and meat cutters2453.36.2012 Taxicab drivers and chauffeurs2.306.21.2113 Order clerks2.251.13.2314 Welders and cutters2.236.724415 Telephone operators2.17350.1216 Kitchen workers2.16209.2317 Driver/sales workers2.14036.1218 Farm product graders and sorters2.131.03.05 2052.23. I20 Miscellaneous handworkers------IAverage incidence rate (worst 20)1---FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS2000:I 819 Furnace, oven and kiln operatorsThis flywheel assembly process at a Ford plant circa 1913, was typical of the kindof repetitive task that defined the early Industrial Age.i 1970- -- . 7 134Production testers.;;;I;I.;.;JI;,.,;;,1997Ii------1i U.S. Employment - .c.T.:c0t al employment sh a re s1.19971.777------t3.377t-.580Io2 1130 I-- A ve rage incidence rate (all jobLL .:.:.:- --- . -l.Incidence rates are per 1,000 employees
America's shifting economic structure has provided an added boost to overallsafety. With the move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, jobs are migrating from riskier sectors to safer ones. Manufacturing, an industry with high accidentrates, fell from 3 I percent of all jobs in 1973 to 17 percent in 1999. Over the sameperiod, a large, catchall category of service industries, with a good safety record, rosefrom 20 percent of employment to 34 percent. (See Exhibit 4.)To put it succinctly: there's less risk of injury while pushing ideas around in theinformation economy. Workers are more likely to get hurt while engaged in the tasksof the Old Economy-lifting, cutting, drilling, digging, grinding and handling dangerous materials.What about mental well-being? The federal government didn't even collect dataon workplace stress until 1992. So unfortunately, we don't know how today's stresslevels compare with those of the past. We do know this, though: debilitating stresshas been cut in half in the past five years. (See Exhibit 5.)EXHIBIT 4T eDe . eof Re etifve- onon Jobs and. . .The Move to Safer IndustriesOperators. fabricators and laborers--
of a good workday. Working conditionsand amenities are also important,asaresuf . If a truck had a flat tire, I put on the spare, which was dangerous work. But if it needed fixing, Ihad to get Big Doyal outof bed,which was really dangerous. Iocca . America's thriving mark
