4.20.09
Contact: Patrick Tucker
Senior Editor
THE FUTURIST
Director of Communications
World Future Society
301-656-8274
ptucker@wfs.org
Labor Expert and Futurist John Challenger: Unemployment Trends are Improving, Jobs Of The Future Will Create Growth
BETHESDA, MD: John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, is one of the most quoted labor and employment experts in America. He’s become a regular fixture on CNN, CBS, and a host of other networks and is a featured speaker at WorldFuture 2009, the annual conference of the World Future Society. He recently told THE FUTURIST magazine that he's begun to feel more optimistic about the U.S. labor market.
"The rate of layoffs in the last two months has dropped. That rate is still high, but it’s decreasing. We’re not in a roaring recovery, but [it’s] a faint signal that the worst of the worst is over. On the one hand, manufacturing jobs in the U.S. continue to vanish, but on the other, the layoff rate in the financial sector seems to have stabilized. We talk to human-resources people around the country on a casual, anecdotal basis; the people we’re speaking with are taking whatever measures they can to avoid making layoffs. They don’t want to be short-staffed in the event of a turnaround."
In an exclusive interview, he went on to discuss labor shortages, immigration, the emerging employment scene in China and India, and jobs that might exist in the future.
The current recession, expected to be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, probably won't put to rest old concerns about looming labor shortages, says Challenger. He says that individuals and companies seeking competitive advantage should position themselves now for the opportunities of the future, a subject he will address in depth at World Future 2009, the annual conference of the World Future Society.
WorldFuture 2009: Innovation and Creativity in a Complex World, the annual conference of the World Future Society will take place July 17-19, 2009 at the Hilton Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Professional Members' Forum: July 20, 2009.
Founded in 1966 as a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Washington, D.C., the World Future Society has members in more than eighty countries around the world. Individuals and groups from all nations are eligible to join the Society and participate in its programs and activities.
The Society holds a two-day, international conference once a year where participants discuss foresight techniques and global trends that are influencing the future. Previous conference attendees have included future U.S. President Gerald Ford (1974), Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy (1975), behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner (1984), age-wave expert Ken Dychtwald (2005), U.S. comptroller general David M. Walker (2006), and scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil (2006).
This year's speakers include: Ambassador John W. McDonald, Robert D. Atkinson, former project director of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, labor expert Edward E. Gordon, University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan, longevity expert Michael Zey, bioweapons expert Barry Kellman, and bestselling author of Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott.
More information and registration can be obtained from The World Future Society's Web site. www.wfs.org
CONTACT INFORMATION
Patrick Tucker
World Future Society
Email World Future Society
301-656-8274