I think 1987 through around 1996 or so was a very major change in office and work productivity and structure in USA -
Caused primarily the ushering in of truly personal (one pc per worker) computing - word processing, spreadsheets, personal email and other IT advancements drove productivity and caused lots of layoffs. Later in that decade of time came access to the world wide web at work, a shift in mentality to casual Friday's, conversations on work-life balance and flex time, awareness of sexual harassment, no smoking in the office, cubicles instead of individual offices, and a big reduction in folded and perforated paper !!!!
I recall that manufacturing was the "industry" to be in back then - production line work, engineering, product planning, plant management, accounting - there were many more administrative or data processing oriented jobs that paid a living wage. Fewer "service jobs" as we know them today. Every step of every job was more manual, less instant-real time, and more prone to inaccuracy. Jobs tended to be about producing something physical versus some intellectual property or virtual computer code or paper financial transactions or robot-produced cars.
Finance was mostly banking loans and maybe retail brokerage houses - stock trading was for "the rich". and heavily commission based and u paid a hefty commission - Now anyone can trade online for 5 bucks per trade etc etc. .
Retirement meant 35 years at same company and a defined benefit pension at the other side. That was quickly going away and the rise of the IRA and 401k happened in the mid-late 1980s it seems
Of course there are still lawyers and doctors and teachers and nurses and firemen and police men (and women) and retail and restaurant and accountants, sales and marketers, mechanics, etc.