@a> Millennium

Virtual realty, laser cechnology, fibre optic communications, the information superhighway: like generations before us we are faced with technological advancement that will have an impact on the way we live and work. For centuries, people have been challenged by high- tech innovations transforming their homes and workplaces. Like dropping a pebble in a pond, new technology creates a ripple effcct, starting at one specific point but making waves that roll into our lives.

The economy of the new millennium will likely be the product of six major waves of recent years; waves we are riding into che year 2000 and beyond.

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INFORMATION REVOLUTION

Information services now account for the most significant economic growth as we move into the next millennium. Each time the economy changed in the past, so did people's lives. For example, as people adapted to the massive shift of the industrial revolution, chey moved from fasming communities to factories in urban centres, learning to use new machines and work in conditions very different from their previously agrarian lifestyles. The newest shift is also affecting people's lives, requiring many of us to fearn new technology, work from home, share jobs, work on a contract basis or find other ways to create our own employment. HIGH-TECH INNOVATION |

Much of the change chat has occurred has been fueled by technology. High-tech innovations have enhanced some jobs and eradicated others. Bur information technology has done something else: it has enabled people. through phones, modems, teleconferencing, systems, faxes and the Internet, to change the ways they work and look for work. People can work for a big corgpration but remain in cheir home offices. Others can ran their own business from a desk in their

apartment. Sdll others can collaborate with collcagues across cawn or across the ocean. “Technological change bas provided opportunides for more creative working arrangements and prompted us to become more flexible in the strategies we bring to creating and doing our work,

GLOBAL VILLAGE

With free trade agreements, open borders and telecommunications chat provide teal-time interaction across the globe, more and more companies are doing business on a world-wide scale. In this globsl economy, the need for cultural understanding among global villagers is at a premium, and people who have both the industry expertise and the cultural and language skills to do business in the global marketplace will be well positioned for the future.

GREENER BUSINESS

With shrinking resources and growing garbage dumps, individuals, corporations and governments have realized thas the practices that have caused current environmental conditions cannet continue if fucure generations are to inherit the earth. "Environmentally Friendly” has therefore become a key phrase of new

economy business. Ir makes environmental

sense for business to be clean and green.

POPULATION SHIFTS Demographic changes, including increasing numbers of older Canadians and new Canadians, represent yet another change in the economy. As the population ages, a need emerges for services for elderly people, particularly in caring professions where technology can never replace the compassion of a real person. Canada’s multi-cultural make-up also opens opportunities to provide services for ethnic communities or new immigrants. It means doing business in Canada requires working with people from all cultural backgrounds.

New WorkiNG PATTERNS In the new millennium, the nine-to- five, five-days-a-week job will likely be uncommon. Employment will come in many shapes and forms, with the majority of jobs being in small business and self-employment. ‘ More people will begin to share jobs, others will .‘juggle contract positions and some will leave che traditional workplace altogether, setting up shop in their homes or telecommuting to a “virtual” office. For some, work will continue as usual but may be enhanced by computers or other technologies that make administrative work less time-consuming and leave more time for human interaction. For every one of us, finding or keeping employment will require well-developed skitls, creative thinking, initiative and an understanding of both the new economy and our own skills, abilities, talents, interests and visions of the furuce.

just the Facts

* University degrees are becoming increasingly common: In the 1960s, one in 100 Canadians had a degree. In 1995/96, about one in 8 Canadians have a degree. By the year 2005, it is projected that one in 5 Canadians will have a university degree.

Part-time employment is the fastest growth segment of the job market, accounting for a third of the net expansion in the 1980s.

Short-term work (jobs of less chan six months’ duration) are an the rise.

« Entrepreneurial ventures generate about 80% of all new jobs in Canada.