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Research Outline

Prepared for Lindsay R. | Delivered March 10, 2020

"No-Collar Jobs"

Goals

To gain an understanding of the term "no-collar jobs" and see if able to co-opt the term with own definition by researching the term "no-collar job" or "no-collar jobs," define how it is being used and by whom, if brands or influencers are using it, and the context it is being used in the U.S.

Early Findings

  • The term "no-collar" was used in a Kansas City Star article about the tech workforce and working with colleagues. However, it was not further defined.
  • A Wall Street Journal article describes how the "no-collar workforce" will be an opportunity for companies to combine human and machine jobs.
  • The TechRepublic described the "no-collar workforce" consisting of virtual workers, bots, and hybrid teams. The "no-collar" jobs are a result of the growing rise of AI intelligence and automation in the workforce.
  • Soon-to-be retired IBM CEO Ginny Rometty coined the term "new collar" jobs which includes jobs for individuals that have tech skills but didn't go to a four-year school. She described the jobs that would fit in this new category as call center, app developing, or even cyber-analyst positions. These jobs are created for those with "relevant skills, often obtained through vocational training."
  • IBM even created a "New Collar Certificate Program" that is about skills, not degrees. Congress enacted the New Collar Jobs Act to support this type of training and other companies have developed programs for this as well.
  •  USANews published an article about the growing demand for "new collar" jobs. The article follows IBM's description of the term.
  • The major job search engine, ZipRecruiter, uses the term "new-collar" and breaks down those jobs to include health care, engineering, technology, and software.
  •  Glamour Magazine tweeted about their article concerning "no-collar jobs." The article describes no-collar offices as that are more relaxed, free-flowing, and where employees can even invent their own positions at work.
  •  Getting Smart has over 66,000 followers and helps support innovations in education. They tweeted about their article that states schools need to prepare students for jobs that require 4-year degrees and for no-collar jobs. This article follows the definition that IBM's CEO coined, but used "no-collar" and "new-collar" interchangeably. This was included to show how "no-collar" and "new collar" are being used hand-in-hand in news articles and by the public.
  •  Milena Harito, the CEO of cell phone company Orange, shared a post on Twitter that references the "#digitaltransformation" of no-collar jobs based upon the human and machine relationship.
  • The Huffington Post uses the term "no-collar" to describe individuals who don't work for one company for their whole lives, who enjoy a flexible lifestyle, and do virtual jobs. Jobs that they included in their definition are app developers, bloggers, consultants, and designers.
  • An article on LinkedIn describes "no-collar workers" as those recent graduates that are overqualified, unemployed or tech professionals that are combining collar types. They use the term "open collars" to desribe virtual workers.

Summary of Initial Research

  • Our initial one-hour research identified a large amount of information regarding this topic. A consistent thing we noticed is that this term "no-collar" tends to be used interchangeably by the public and even in news articles with the term "new collar." We also found that they are sometimes used to describe different types of jobs or office environments.
  • "New collar" is often used to describe jobs within the tech field and for people with vocational skills. "No-collar" can be used for this description as well, but also can be used to describe virtual jobs or for a relaxed workplace.