The restrained dawn strains behind the crowd. If this feels like you in your job search, I know how you feel. There are approximately 13 million Americans out of work right now; the unemployment rate is near 10% with another 3% having given up even finding a job. This is the highest unemployment figure since the Great Depression. As you well know, the competition for a job - ANY job - is fierce. A friend commented recently (March 2010) how he went for a job interview and there were at least 20 people ahead of him in line - and he was there an hour early! People with years of experience and MBA's are taking entry level jobs.
People say that most of our jobs have fled to Mexico or China or some other country. Although, on the surface, that may be true, that truth obscures the real issue. The fact of the matter is that we are in another great restructuring of the economy. The normal patterns and ebb and flow of business and commerce and trade between nations is over. As a result, so are homegrown jobs. We need to be looking toward the future, not arguing about how to fix the past. One method is to retrain for another job or career. Many states offer subsidized job training in a career of your choice, perhaps your state has such a program. Another method is to think more outside the box.
From now on, a job, any job, is going to be vulnerable to forces you cannot control. You may be working one day and out the next. The only way to ensure you have control over your finances is to become self-employed. I am not saying you need to start a business. That sounds like way to much work for me. What I mean is kind of like career groups are doing now. Many doctors are self-employed, so are many massage therapists. Many counselors and self-help gurus are self-employed. Dancers and craftspeople also have many self-employed individuals among their ranks. None of these occupations may be suitable for you, but I'm sure there is some skill, education, experience or talent you have that you can channel into a full time income. There are job and career specialists (most are self-employed) who can help point you in the right direction to uncovering and exploiting your own natural talents and, if necessary, preparing a program of study that will enable you to begin your new career.
