Word: levelling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...problem is not just large numbers of people who are insufficiently educated. Never before have the majority of American jobs placed so many demands on employees. To compete effectively, the average American worker today must employ skills at a ninth-to-twelfth-grade level, in contrast to the typical fourth-grade standard during World War II. "It's not that people are becoming less literate," points out Irwin Kirsch, a senior research psychologist working for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J. "It's that we keep raising the standards...
...million last year. Most of the growth will be among minorities -- the very groups that have been served least well by public school systems. Over the next decade, blacks, Hispanics and Asians, who may speak English poorly, will make up more than half of all entry-level employees...
...shock has been particularly strong in the service industries. At American Express, which expects to fill 75,000 entry-level positions in the next five years, profits depend on good customer relations. Says Amex President Lou Gerstner, whose company spends $10 million annually to teach its new workers basic English and social skills: "I lie awake at night wondering where I'm going to find well-qualified employees for the future." Even the art of cooking requires more of workers than ever before. Last year Domino's Pizza of Ann Arbor, Mich., discovered that its fledgling bakers had trouble understanding...
...longer just type endless claim forms and pass them along for approval by someone else. Instead they are expected to settle a growing number of minor claims on the spot with a few deft punches of the computer keyboard. Now, says Bob Fenn, director of training at Travelers: "Entry-level clerks have to be capable of using information and making decisions...
...crash was the latest in a series of air mishaps that have brought angry demands from the West German public for an end to low-level training flights. The Cabinet immediately suspended low-flying exercises until the end of the year and asked U.S. and other NATO forces to do the same. U.S. Ambassador Richard Burt, saying he was "shocked and very saddened," announced that the U.S. would comply...