A new era is upon us. Call it what you will—the service economy, the information age, the knowledge society. It all translates to a fundamental change in a way we work. Already we are partly there. The percentage of people who earn their living by making things has fallen dramatically in Western World. Today the majority of jobs in America, Europe and Japan are in the service industry, and the number is on the rise.
More women are in the work force than ever before. There are more part-time jobs. More people are self-employed. But the breadth of the economic transformation can"t be measured by numbers alone, because it is also giving rise to a radical new way of thinking about the nature of work itself. Long-held notion about jobs and careers, the skills needed to succeed, even the relation between individuals and employers—all these are being challenged.
We have only to look behind us to get some sense of what may lie ahead. No one looking ahead 20 years could possibly have foreseen the ways in which a single invention, the chip, would transform our world thanks to its application in personal computers" digital communication and factory robot. Tomorrow"s achievements in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, or even some still unimagined technology could produce a similar wave of dramatic changes.
But one thing is certain: Information and knowledge will become more vital and the people who possess it, whether they work in manufacturing or service, will have the advantage and produce wealth. Computer knowledge will become as basic a requirement as the ability to read and write. The ability to solve problems by applying information instead of performing routine tasks will be valued above all else. According to the first paragraph, ______ indicates the arrival of a new age.