Veterans returning from the war faced economic uncertainty and many used the GI Bill to retrain and retool in order to find employment, sometimes with the help of headhunters (who worked for individuals). Resumes became an standard for profiling yourself. Still, many were left out. (see the milestone #5 from the 1940’s decade about how the GI Bill was misused and excluded African Americans)
The most abundant jobs in this decade were blue collar- usually in agriculture, manufacturing, or refineries. Professional services jobs were increasing quickly…for men. Women, unfortunately, were expected to return to the role of mother and homemaker with the recognition they gained during the war years too often erased as opportunities for many positions were no longer available.
This was also a decade of civil rights marches for equal opportunity.
1950’s Milestones:
- 1951 – Shaker Recruitment Advertising (Shaker Recruitment Marketing) and Nationwide Advertising (NAS) founded.1
- 1952 – McCarran-Walter Act passed.2
- 1953 – McKinsey hires its first two MBA graduates into ‘Middle Management’3
- 1954 – Hodes Advertising (Symphony) Founded.4
- 1954 – Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka ends [legally] segregation in education.5
- 1955 – American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) created.6
- 1956 – Federal-Aid Highway Act passed.7
- 1957 – The College Placement Council (CPC), forerunner of NACE founded.8
- 1958 – The National Defense Education Act.9
- 1959 – Landrum-Griffin Act passed.10
- ‘Knowledge Worker,’ coined by Peter Drucker.11
References