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The Future of Work in America

Booz Allen Hamilton Vice President Gary Labovich moderated a panel titled “Work in America: Without the Big Three, What Road Are We On?” on July 2, 2009, at the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Ideas Festival. Labovich, who leads the firm’s federal-civilian information technology efforts, appeared alongside Michael Kinsley, a columnist for The Washington Post; Megan McArdle, business and economics editor of The Atlantic; and Vijay Vaitheeswaran, a correspondent for The Economist. Labovich provided these insights about the panel’s conversation.

The auto industry was successful at creating blue-collar jobs. Are there any options that might replace the auto industry?

That’s the challenge. I’m struck by somebody who’s 53 years old who’s been working in the auto industry for 20 or 30 years. He doesn’t have a college education. Suddenly, he’s unemployed. Where does he turn? There’s a need for retraining, but most of those programs aren’t very successful. I’m concerned about 2 million or 3 million people who have had a comfortable, middle-class life suddenly being thrown in the street.

What about upcoming generations? Will there be blue-collar jobs in green energy or nanotech or biotech?

There will be the thinkers, the creators of new industries, but there will also be the people who are going to have to do the work. I think jobs will be distinctly different, and I think the premise of all this is a reemphasis on our education system. I’ve heard that theme through the four days here at the Aspen Ideas Festival. It cuts across every one of the panels. It really comes down to educating our workforce for what’s going to be a new way of doing business.

What are the implications for America’s education system?

We need to raise the rigor and the standards. We need to focus on mathematics and writing. Everything else is sort of secondary. I think it’s the only way out today. We can’t rely on the same set of jobs we had 30, 40, 50 years ago where somebody could roll out of high school and expect a middle-class wage. With competitive pressures from countries like India and China, those jobs are going to be obsolete. If we’re not betting on education and making those investments, our country could be in a very different place 50 years from now.

Where would you put your money if you were a venture capitalist?

Clean technology. I don’t think we have much of a choice but to reinvent ourselves around energy and energy use. That and innovations in health care. The costs of health care are just prohibitive.

Booz Allen has been involved in the development of the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid™. Is that part of the innovations in health care you’re talking about?

We’ve been gathering data on surveys that have been done around cancer studies. We’re creating a database that will be available for researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other places. We have a very big health care practice. Most of our work is on technology systems applications, and we’re starting to migrate into electronic medical records and trying to help with some of the large agencies’ payment reform.

Some of that is fundamental. It’s getting some of the overhead out of the system, bringing the costs down so it’s more available to people. Right now, the costs and the inefficiencies in the system are dramatic.

In the end, Vijay Vaitheeswaran said he remained optimistic about America’s spirit of innovation. Do you?

I do. I think we’ve seen it throughout our history as a country. I absolutely believe in the power of innovation. I believe in the power of capitalism. I believe in the power of entrepreneurship. I believe in the power of smart people getting together doing great things. I am optimistic.

Watch a Clip from the Panel Discussion

Watch a video clip from the “Work in America: Without the Big Three, What Road Are We On?” panel.

Learn more about Booz Allen's participation in the 2009 Aspen Ideas Festival.

story posted July 3, 2009