TPC-Journal-V5-Issue1

The Professional Counselor /Volume 5, Issue 1 10 found in the Investigative and Artistic areas, employed relatively small numbers of people in 2010 compared to the other four areas: 12% versus 88%. The STEM fields are not big-growth occupational areas that employ many hundreds of thousands or millions of people (e.g., nurses, retail salespersons, office clerks, teachers). However, the STEM fields are generally characterized by fast growth that involves a few thousand or more persons (e.g., biomedical engineers, veterinary technicians, glaziers, physical therapists). Persons in these occupations typically have higher salaries and better employment opportunities (Horrigan, 2003–2004). The findings of the present study indicate that most people are employed in Realistic, Enterprising and Conventional (REC) occupations. Public attention to employment and career preparation often is directed at occupations with code combinations in the Investigative, Artistic and Social (IAS) areas because the percentage rate of employment growth is often greater there than in the REC areas (Reardon et al., 2012). The IAS areas provide higher levels of prestige and income, but employ fewer people (Reardon et al., 2004). One must remember that these are projected new jobs, which seem to capture more public attention and interest than the census data regarding actual employment. A large number of jobs actually involve replacement of older workers, perhaps as much as one-third of employment (Mittelhauser, 1998). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS; 2012) used data from the Current Population Survey and found that the replacements provide many more job openings in most occupations than straight employment growth does. While the census data provide information about past employment that can inform career planning, the U.S. BLS provides additional labor market forecast information based on occupational projections. Lockard and Wolf (2012) identified the 20 occupations expected to have the most job openings each year through 2020 (big-growth occupations). Four of these occupations—registered nurses, retail salespeople, home health aides and personal care aides—will add more than half a million jobs each through 2020. These occupations are not new, different or unique, and they are unrelated to STEM fields. Reardon et al. (2012) noted that the Holland summary code order for these 20 big-growth occupations was SREICA. In the current study, the profile for employment in the 2010 census was RECSIA. It is not surprising that the Realistic area is prominent in both of these projections, because according to the census, it is the area of largest employment in the economy. Given the overall increase in actual employment from 64.1 million in 1960 to 119.8 million in 2010, there has been a corresponding increase in employment across the six areas of work. For example, the number of persons employed in the Investigative area has grown from over 1.9 million in 1960 to 11.5 million in 2010, and in the Social area from 5.6 million in 1960 to 29.6 million in 2010. Employment growth has been less dramatic in the Artistic, Enterprising and Conventional areas, and growth has declined slightly in the Realistic area from 35.0 million in 1960 to 31.9 million in 2010. In addition, the percentages of the U.S. population employed in the six areas of work also have changed from 1960–2010, but in a less dramatic way (see Figure 2). For example, the employment percent profile from highest to lowest employment in 1960 was RECSIA, and in 2010 it was RSECIA, with only the ECS areas alternating in order. However, the percentage difference between the Realistic and Artistic areas was greater in 1960 (54%) than in 2010 (25%). This may be evidence of a decline in manufacturing. Income Across Six Areas of Work Our findings indicate that income is not equitable across the six RIASEC areas, with the Investigative area consistently having the highest income and the Realistic and Conventional areas the lowest. Research using census data by Huang and Pearce (2013), Reardon et al. (2004), and Reardon et al. (2007) revealed similar findings. We find that although the RIASEC schema is familiar to counselors using the Self-Directed Search,