How is the changing nature of urban employment changing our cities?

Many cities, particularly in North America, emerged as centers for manufacturing, primary industry and some natural resource processing and trade.  In recent decades, manufacturing finished products has become more automated and global.  Making primary products like steel has undergone a similar transformation.  And many of North America’s resources are gone, and those that remain are often more costly to harvest than comparable products in other countries (forestry and the fishery being good examples).

That has changed.  Urban jobs increasingly are based in the knowledge economy or urban experience economy.   The former often  involve engineering, accounting, financial or other analytical work.  The latter involve providing others with experiences, whether that perfect morning latte, a spa treatment, a personalized workout, retail service or the presentation of fine food to name a few.

There is still construction employment and jobs driving containers of Cheerios or designer clothes to warehouses will not disappear.    But so many other jobs often considered masculine and male dominated are gone.

Our cities are changing along with attitudes about gender.  Most women today have less than 2 children (1.5 children per woman in her lifetime is the current fertility average); women earn 55% of bachelor and masters degrees, often needed (or an advantage) in the knowledge economy and skilled experience-service economy positions.

As women take skilled positions in the knowledge economy, it creates positions for child care workers (a skilled, service economy role) and perhaps more demand for lower maintenance apartment living rather than suburban single family home ownership.

Immigrants to Canada come with higher education levels than the typical native born person (50% of immigrants to Canada over the age of 24 have degrees, in comparison to 20% of Canadian born in the same age group).  This is making Canada’s major cities more multi-cultural than ever.

With many of the resource and manufacturing companies gone, there seems to be fewer large employers and more smaller ones.  Does this empower talented people or is it a loss to job security? or both?

What other ways do you see changing employment patterns in cities affecting the look and feel of urban areas, or the way people live in them?


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