Labor Market Realities

Keep the following trends in mind as you search for your next job and consider your career development. They will give you perspective and help you make realistic decisions about your future. They can also help with your SWOT analysis (see Final Analysis).

• Lifelong employability
  Strive to be employable-to have the skills that employers value-so you can find work easily even if you get laid off. Don't expect to have lifelong employment, especially with one company.
  
  
• Diversity
  Appreciate and work with cultural differences. Employers value this skill because the labor market has more women, older people and people of different races and ethnic groups than ever before.
  
  
• Computer skills
  Develop strong computer skills and update them regularly. Every industry requires workers who do.
  
  
• English, math and science
  Develop strong math, science and communication skills. Employers always need people with these.
  
  
• Customer service
  Always demonstrate a positive, helpful attitude toward customers, supervisors and coworkers. Employers value this attitude because gaining and maintaining customers is crucial, especially in a weak economy.
  
  
• Economy awareness
  Pay attention to the local, national and global market. Jobs are created and destroyed because of technological advances, the economy and corporate restructuring. Prepare for it.
  
  
• Post high school education
  Obtain an education beyond a high school diploma. It's the only way to maintain a middle class lifestyle or, in many cases, to be self-supporting. Only with an advanced education can you remain employable.
  
  
• Targeted education
  Get an education in high-demand fields; don't invest time and money on an education that prepares you for a field with few job openings and lots of competition.
  
  
• Continuous learning
  Constantly upgrade your skills. Employers want to know what you learned recently, not what degree you earned ten years ago.
  
  
• Education costs
  Find employers who will help train you. Since the price of college and technical education will continue to rise faster than inflation, this academic help is valuable.

• Flattened wages
  Be aware that many organizations are willing to replace long-term employees with younger, less-expensive workers. This practice has kept wages flat.
  
  
• Doing what you love
  Focus on work that fulfills and interests you once you begin long-term career planning. Since job security doesn't exist, you might as well enjoy what you do while you can do it!
  
  
• Not just 9-5
  Be aware of the pressure to work long hours. Flex time, telework and cell phones have blurred the lines between work and home. Today, Americans work more hours than people in any other industrialized country.
  
  
• Employer as client
  Embrace the new relationship employees have with employers, one that resembles a professional athlete's free agency: "I'll provide my knowledge, skills and abilities in exchange for wages and benefits as long as it suits both of us. The relationship ends when one of us wants out or the contract expires."
  
  
• High turnover
  Expect to have many jobs and perhaps several different careers over a lifetime of work. The career ladders of old no longer apply, which means you have to make your own decisions about what sort of career path (and therefore training) you need.
  
  
• Contingency workforce
  Realize that you may become part of the temporary and contract workforce, now the norm at many companies. That means you'll have lots of flexibility but few benefits and absolutely no security.
  
  
• Global competition
  Prepare yourself to compete with people worldwide for certain jobs. With the Internet, companies can hire people overseas to work for them but remain in their homelands. It's a small, small world!