High above the second floor rotunda in the B.C. legislature are four murals that celebrate the industries that helped create this province.
With each passing day, those murals are becoming increasingly rooted in the past and somewhat irrelevant to the modern-day province that British Columbia has become.
The murals show pioneer figures engaged in agriculture, mining, forestry and fishing. Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, those industries were indeed dominant in B.C. and remained so for decades.
But if someone were to paint murals today that depicted the face of the modern workforce of British Columbians, the pictures would be radically different.
Instead of loggers, fishers, farmers and miners, we would see nurses, construction workers, hospitality servers and public sector employees. Here are some numbers to ponder:
* Since 1987, the number of people working in B.C. in agriculture, forestry, mining and fishing has declined by 17,000.
* Over that same time period in this province, the number of people working in construction has ballooned by more than 120,000 while those working in food and beverage stores has increased by 31,000 and there are 34,000 more nurses working in the health care system.
But it's not just a fact that there has been a dramatic transformation over the past 30 years or so of which industries dominate the provincial economy, it's also true that the nature of "work" is radically changing as well.
Two noted magazines have recently made those changes the subject of cover stories. The Atlantic Monthly's is entitled "The End of Work" while the Economist went with "The Weaker Sex: no jobs, no family, no prospects" (a cheeky reference to male workers).
Being magazines, both cover stories are deliberately provocative but are well-grounded in research. The Atlantic argues that never-ending technological change is reducing employers' needs for human employees, while The Economist argues the traditional male bastion of blue collar jobs is rapidly shrinking in size.
Both premises seem sound, given that anyone who knows members of the Millennial generation knows there's something remarkably different going on out there in the job market, something that wasn't there even 10 years ago.
It's no secret that young people are finding it harder and harder to find full-time and well-paying jobs. Many hold down two or more part-time jobs, and escaping the minimum wage ghetto is proving an elusive goal for many.
As the Baby Boomer generation rapidly moves into retirement, the jobs its members are leaving behind may disappear with them.
The days of a mass of well-paid industrialized jobs are drawing to a close. It's worth noting most of those jobs were unionized, and came with generous benefits packages that went beyond a solid salary.
Take the traditional media industry. For decades, daily newspapers employed hundreds of employees and most of them were well-compensated (when benefits were included, I suspect the average annual compensation was on average about $100,000 for many).
But the model to keep daily newspapers afloat is broken, and those well-paid jobs are disappearing by the buyout load. Younger workers may eventually take over some of those jobs and other jobs in television media, but they are unlikely to come with anywhere near the same high pay packet.
This scenario has played out in a number of sectors. The result is likely to be lower-paying jobs (a huge spike in the number of people working in fast food joints or all-night convenience stores is not exactly a big boost for the economy, let alone those workers' pocketbooks).
I suspect those hoping to succeed in the job market in the coming years will have to be multi-skilled, well-educated and willing to freelance their skills to a number of employers.
Now, I suppose there will always be the proverbial starving artists out there looking for work. But don't bet on any of them landing work anytime soon painting new murals at the legislature to mark this dramatic and ongoing shift in the employment picture.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
