"Knowledge Workers"

[Michael Hoover]

> Can anyone give me ballpark figures of just how many "knowledge
> workers" exist in the USA; the ratio of public to private sector
> "knowledge workers"; changes in the number & proportion of "knowledge
> workers"; etc.?
> Yoshie

Here's what Robert Reich had to say about "symbolic analysts" (_Work of
Nations_, Vintage paperback ed., 1992, pp. 177-180): professionals,
upper-middle managers and above, others who create, modify, and synthesize
knowledge.  About 20 percent of the US labor force.   Michael Hoover 

" Included in this category [symbolic analysts] are the problem-solving,
-identifying, and brokering of many people who call themselves research
scientists, design engineers, software engineers, civil engineers,
biotechnology engineers, sound engineers, public relations executives,
investment bankers, lawyers, real estate developers, and even a few
creative accountants. Also included is much of  the work done by
management consultants, financial consultants, tax consultants, energy
consultants, agricultural consultants, armaments consultants,
architectural consultants, management information specialists,
organization development specialists, strategic planners, corporate
headhunters, and systems analysts. Also: advertising executives and
marketing strategists, art directors, architects, cinematographers, film
editors, production designers, publishers, writers and editors,
journalists, musicians, television and film producers, and even university
professors." 

"Symbolic analysists solve, identify, and broker problems by manipulating
symbols. They simplify reality into abstract images that can be
rearranged, juggled, experimented with, communicated to other specialists,
and then, eventually, transformed back into reality. The manipulations are
done with analytic tools, sharpened by experience. These tools may be
mathematical algorithms, legal arguments, financial gimmicks, scientific
principles, psychological insights about how to persuade or to amuse,
systems of induction or deduction, or any other set of techniques for
doing conceptual puzzles"

"Most symbolic analysts have graduated from four-year colleges or
universities; many have graduate degrees as well. The vast majority are
white males, but the proportion of white females is growing, and there is
a small, but slowly increasing, number of blacks and Hispanics among
them. All told, symbolic analysis currently accounts for no more than 20
percent of American jobs. The proportion of American workers who fit this
category has increased substantially since the 1950s (by my calculation,
no more than 8 percent of American workers could be classified as symbolic
analysts at midcentury), but the pace slowed considerably in the 1980s
even though certain symbolic-analytic jobs, like law and investment
banking, mushroomed."