Assessing the impact of technological change on similar occupations: Implications for employment alternatives.

BACKGROUND: The fast-changing labor market highlights the need for an in-depth understanding of occupational mobility impacted by technological change. However, we lack a multidimensional classification scheme that considers similarities of occupations comprehensively, which prevents us from predicting employment trends and mobility across occupations. This study fills the gap by examining employment trends based on similarities between occupations. METHOD: We first demonstrated a new method that clusters 756 occupation titles based on knowledge, skills, abilities, education, experience, training, activities, values, and interests. We used the Principal Component Analysis to categorize occupations in the Standard Occupational Classification, which is grouped into a four-level hierarchy. Then, we paired the occupation clusters with the occupational employment projections provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We analyzed how employment would change and what factors affect the employment changes within occupation groups. Particularly, we specified factors related to technological changes. RESULTS: The results reveal that technological change accounts for significant job losses in some clusters. This poses occupational mobility challenges for workers in these jobs at present. Job losses for nearly 60% of current employment will occur in low-skill, low-wage occupational groups. Meanwhile, many mid-skilled and highly skilled jobs are projected to grow in the next ten years. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate the utility of our occupational classification scheme. Furthermore, it suggests a critical need for skills upgrading and workforce development for workers in declining jobs. Special attention should be paid to vulnerable workers, such as older individuals and minorities.

Aspects of violence leading to distress and changed attitudes for physiotherapists: A qualitative investigation.

OBJECTIVE: Physiotherapists are often the targets of workplace violence. We investigated how physiotherapists make sense of their exposure experiences, and what aspects of their experiences of workplace violence lead to negative reactions and changed attitudes towards the work organization. DESIGN: Qualitative interview study. METHODS: We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 82 physiotherapists across a range of care settings. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. We then conducted an inductive content analysis of the transcribed interviews. RESULTS: We found two themes representing meaningful characteristics of exposure incidents for determining reactions: attributions of intent to cause personal harm and acceptance of violence. We found three themes under changed attitudes: awareness of risk, adequacy of the organization's actions to prevent violence, and satisfaction with organizational support. Physiotherapists were more likely to experience psychological distress when they perceived that perpetrators intended to cause harm and were cognitively coherent. Following violence, physiotherapists were also more cognizant of risk in their profession. Changes in attitudes about the organization were driven by satisfaction with violence prevention measures and organizational support. CONCLUSIONS: Organizations should develop policies to prevent violence and provide victims with additional support, particularly when victims express that they believe that violence was committed intentionally and when the perpetrators are not cognitively impaired. Physiotherapists may be able to minimize the effects of violence exposure by reflecting on their exposure experiences and attributing the exposure to external factors.

Comfort with and willingness to participate in COVID-19 contact tracing: The role of risk perceptions, trust, and political ideology.

OBJECTIVE: Contact tracing (CT) can limit the spread of infectious diseases, however its effectiveness hinges on public participation. We evaluated perceptions of the financial and health risk posed by COVID-19 and trust in information about COVID-19 provided by the state health department that manages CT as predictors of comfort and willingness to comply with CT. We further examined the moderating effect of political ideology on these relationships. METHODS: We used structural equation modeling to test hypotheses in data from a cross-sectional survey completed by a representative sample of Michigan residents (N = 805) in 2020. RESULTS: Perceptions of the risk of COVID-19 to one's health (but not finances) was negatively related to comfort and willingness to participate in CT. Trust in information about COVID-19 and liberalism were positively related to comfort and willingness. There was also a moderating effect of political ideology, such that conservatives were less comfortable and willing at greater perceptions of health risk. CONCLUSIONS: Conservatives and those who perceive a greater health risk may require targeted messaging and more deliberate engagement strategies to increase CT participation.