ABSTRACT
Changes in the competitive environment brought about by systemic shifts—internationalization of the economy, market transformations, and industry restructuring—have placed new demands on workers at all levels of employment. The most revealing contrast between sectors is that between business services and the textile industry. These sectors are at very different stages of development, and they have a strikingly different orientation toward the labor market. Business service firms have been peculiarly successful in finding employees with higher levels of education and more specialized skills. External labor markets clearly affect the role of training; internal organization has a more subtle relationship to training. In the textile industry, despite the concessions made in implementing quick response, the emphasis has been mainly on retraining of workers to perform new tasks in the context of traditionally defined positions.
