America’s highly skilled workers continue to take a big hit in the jobless recovery. These workers are suffering scant wage growth and unusually high unemployment. With the overall U.S. unemployment rate at 6% in April, most are ready, willing and able to get back to work.
Educated workers seem especially prone to bouts of long-term unemployment in this downturn. Of the 1.9 million workers who have been unemployed for six months or more, one in five is a former executive, professional or manager, according to a study by the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group for the unemployed. Because these workers have specific, often technical, skills it sometimes takes them longer to find a job that matches those skills.
Permanent job losses are the result of productivity growth where companies are squeezing more output from existing workers. Worker productivity has been growing faster than the overall economy. That has allowed corporate executives to meet small increases in demand while still eliminating jobs.
Other job losses are the result of the competition created by globalization, which has forced companies to cut positions in the U.S. and move them to places such as Mexico, China or India, where labor is much cheaper. “Before the 1991 recession, most people got their old jobs back,” says Robert Reich, former Labor Department Secretary and now a professor of economic and social issues at Brandeis University. “After 1991, most people didn’t get their old jobs back. Those jobs went abroad, or they were automated out of existence.”
For job seekers who have been unemployed for an extended period, anxiety and desperation are bound to set in as the months pass with few prospects. Many are taking lower-paying jobs, going back to school to get new skills, or becoming independent consultants and picking up small projects when they can. “A lot of people are losing ground economically,” says Reich.
For those working, this year’s paychecks look a lot like last year’s. So, it is not surprising that many people with jobs really want to do something different. The problem is they have no idea what that next thing would be or how to find it…but…they know that they need a change. Whatever the change, they want more than what they have today.
For desperate job seekers and those unhappy in their profession (without the slightest clue on how to seek a new opportunity), we have patched together 21 Career Transition Tips.
Career transition is a midcourse correction that we all face when we move from one job or vocation to another. So, why shouldn’t we have some mental models to point us in the right direction at this crossroad?
Figuring out what one really wants out of life is important. But switching careers up to five times in one’s professional life is not easy. Getting guidance from career transition tips or working with a career counselor or coach can reduce the time, worry and costs of making this midcourse correction.
John G. Agno, Certified Executive and Business Coach
Signature, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-2086
Telephone: 734.426.2000 (US Eastern Time Zone)
mailto:info@CoachThee.com
Self-Coaching Tips: http://www.12CoachYou.com
