The term “new-collar worker” is becoming increasingly important in the STEM lexicon as advances in technology fields ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to accelerate along with demand for a labor force able to address a rapidly evolving slate of skills. As a result, the tech industry has been looking to community college, vocational high school, certificate, boot camp, and other programs to bolster its workforce, in some cases relaxing previous requirements for a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Although four-year and higher-level degrees will still be required for many specialized technology jobs, the continuing tech-labor shortage has led to some creative thinking among tech companies, IT industry association CompTIA explained in its 2019 industry outlook report. “Take tech giants Apple, Google, and IBM, for example,” wrote CompTIA researchers. “These companies no longer require a four-year college degree for many of their positions, including those in some technical roles. Loosening up this age-old requirement opens the doors for thousands of potential hires. And it is recognition that many of the skills required for a career in tech can be acquired via alternatives to the four-year academic path.”
Industry executives, including IBM Chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty who coined the term new-collar, have been concerned with whether the workforce will be ready to address the rapid pace of tech change. Participating in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in January, Rometty, stressed the importance of making sure “workers aren’t left behind” due to changes created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “We have a really serious duty about this because these technologies are moving faster in time than [workers’] skills are going to change. So, it’s causing the skills crisis.”
Rometty pointed to IBM’s apprenticeship programs for mid-career workers seeking retraining as well as the company’s establishment in 2011 of Pathways in Technology Early College High (P-TECH) Schools, in which six-year public high schools combine a traditional curriculum with key skills from community colleges, mentoring and on-the-job experience. IBM has teamed up with about 500 companies to provide work and mentoring for P-TECH students.
Candidates for new-collar jobs, which are neither white collar nor blue collar, might include new graduates, those seeking new careers or caregivers returning to the workforce. New-collar positions listed on job websites include cloud administrator, cybersecurity architect, data center technician, data storage engineer, systems administrator, and technical support representative.
“Depending on which of those suits your fancy, you might choose to master anything from AWS [Amazon Web Services] to best practices for inspecting network traffic for malicious code,” a recent article on career website Dice advised. However, businesses are constantly adding new-collar positions, so job-seekers should keep abreast of the skills most likely to be in demand, the article said.
Is “New Collar” a Buzzword?
Burning Glass Technologies, a software analytics firm focused on the labor market, does not use the term new collar. The concept, however, is spreading rapidly into new careers, new job titles, as well as traditional job titles with new responsibilities, said Will Markow, manager of client strategy and analytics at Burning Glass. “It is a popular framing for jobs that require digital skills but not a bachelor’s degree as well as jobs that require digital skills today but that didn’t used to.”
In a recent study, Burning Glass focused on five job areas in which skills are in strong or growing demand: data analysis, engineering and manufacturing, design, marketing, and programming and information technology. While two-thirds of the fastest-growing and highest-paying skills in these fields are computer science skills, just 18 percent of these jobs request a computer science degree. Although most postings request a bachelor’s degree generally or a degree in another major, programming and data analysis jobs are the only areas with significant demand for computer science degrees, according to Burning Glass. “Specific skills, more than a particular college major or prior experience, are quickly becoming the key to success in the job market,” the report stated.