Wouldn't it be refreshing and less stressful to speak to a human operator without having to listen to a laundry list of annoying automated service menu options when making a call to inquire about a bill or to get general information? God forbid if you pressed the wrong number and have to start your call all over again. It's quite natural for frustration to kick in, as you feel your blood pressure going up, while creative expletives probably come pouring out, when having to redial that number all over again.

Advances in technology are and have been major feats of what we can invent in order to make our capabilities and lack of ability more efficient. But, as we look back at the Agricultural and Industrial Eras in this country, we must be ever so mindful not to dismiss or reduce the importance and significance of how these influences affect us today. We cannot look at historical achievements as completely old-fashioned and obsolete, because if we truly take off the blinders and see that their importance is vital to our survival today, then we will understand human need and value.

When I watch Sci-Fi movies that present incredible possibilities of profound technological progressiveness, is it likely that too much of a good thing can send people into a newfound imprisonment or lead the human species to self-destruction? Embracing modern technology without fully incorporating our motor skills and mental faculties is a formula spelling disaster! We must be mindful that by embracing too much virtual and very little reality, it can probably reduce human worth to a mound of complacency and nothingness. As we look at our past, as a time we learned, developed and grew, we must ensure that our future of learning, developing and growing does not cause human importance to wane and become as extinct as the prehistoric creatures of time gone by.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor - Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition (Tomorrow's Jobs), here's a list of those occupations with the largest numerical decreases in employment, projected for 2006-2016:

• Stock clerks and order fillers
• Cashiers, except gaming
• Packers and packagers, hand
• File clerks
• Farmers and ranchers
• Order clerks
• Sewing machine operators
• Cutting, punching and press machine setters, operators, tenders, metal and plastic
• Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers
• Telemarketers
• Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers and weighers

If you hold one of these positions, first of all you do not want to panic or become stressed out because of your profession's decline in the industry marketplace. Instead, you want to focus on transitioning your skills and gaining more knowledge to apply to comparable occupations with more job growth. Try applying these three suggestions to position yourself better in occupational employment:

1. Increase Your Mind Power - Stay in the "know." Make sure that you are continuously learning new and updated information about technological advancements. Knowledge and open-mindedness helps to keep you mentally alert, expands your creativity and positivity, increases your productivity and thought processes.

2. Increase your knowledge in Modern Industry Employment. Much to our dismay, many skills requiring manual labor for jobs that were prevalent thirty or forty years are becoming obsolete with today's work force. We are experiencing a decline in occupational employment, which is resulting from declining industry employment. Research those industries that are gaining popularity and availability, then compare your current skills and learn ways on how you can apply them, in conjunction with gaining more education about your select industry's requirements.

3. Increase your Marketability. By obtaining more education, attending lectures or conferences, networking and reinventing your personal and employable skills, you are in a better position to be a competitive contender as a potential employee; or you will be able to make independent entrepreneurial decisions on a new course, for a new source of income.

Although technology is affecting and endangering the previously mentioned declining occupations, you want to get more training and try your hand at other occupations that will give you the opportunity to utilize your skills and experience. Don't throw your hands up in self-pity and defeat. Raise your hands with confidence, knowledge and victory. Increase your occupational and industry employment!

Author's Bio: 

Kym Gordon Moore is a Creative Marketing Strategist and Public Relations Administrator for Moore 2 It Productions, a firm dedicated to coordinating cost-effective, creative strategic marketing packages for new small businesses and newly published authors. http://www.moore2itproductions.com She is the author of "Diversities of Gifts: Same Spirit," and an e-book, "Alphabet Soup: 5 Main Ingredients for Turning Words into a Bowl of Hot Topics!"; Co-Founder of Favorite Things for a CAUSE, a member of the American Marketing Association, American Authors Association and the North Carolina Writer's Network. www.kymgmoore.com