If Scranton Can Do It, Why Do You Think That There Is Any Job Security?

You may have heard or read the news this week, that during a budget dispute between the mayor and city council of Scranton, Pennsylvania (the fictional home of "The Office") the mayor has unilaterally lowered the wages of 300+ city employees to the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

To do what he did, he has violated contract terms with a number of unions and he will soon be sued for doing so.

Now, one would like to view this situation as a political "pissing match" with hope that an acceptable compromise will be worked out soon.

My intent in writing about this is to tell my 50+ boomer peers who are still grasping the intent of continued corporate work with both arms - you'd better wise up and realize that THERE IS NO JOB SECURITY in the U.S. anymore.

The closest we used to come to a lock on job tenure was in state and city jobs. But, over the past four years, more than 500,000 municipal workers have lost their jobs...so there doesnt appear to be very much job security in government jobs anymore either.

Now, I don't want you think that my story today is all "gloom and doom".

Rather I'd like to drawn upon the age old philosophy that "necessity is the mother of invention".

Today when we are faced with the necessity of finding continued work income without a corporate or government job, then we need to re-invent our work lives as what is being called "an independent worker".

An independent worker identifies a skill, talent or experience that can be used to solve an important problem for a large enough group of people to promise attractive and continuous income. You create a compelling selling story, identify a group of prospective customers, and make your sales pitch, often through what you write on your business website with a bit of email marketing thrown in.

Now, I'm the first to tell you that running your own business is full of ups and downs. But, here's the key as I see it.

When you work a job, your continued employment may well ride with the opinion of one superior, sometimes one that doesnt know you real well.

But when you run your own business, your continued income production depends upon keeping a group of customers happy. To end up with no income at all (such as you do when downsized) you'd have to be "fired" by all of your customers at once. And I dont know any successful business owner who is stupid enough to let this happen.

So, the key difference between the "security of a job and the "security of selling yourself" is your level of control. Most corporate employees (and now government employees) have very little control over keeping their jobs. But, as the owner of several companies for the past twenty-four years, I sure as hell do have control over my financial destiny.

It is this sense of control that gives me the zip to start each new work day, to continually create new ideas and follow up on them and to know that I help people each day, while helping my family by producing income.

I'd rather depend upon my wits and wisdom any day to keep money flowing into my bank account, than to hope that I can "brown up" a superior sufficiently to keep my job one more day.

Till we speak again...
Jeff Williams

50+ Boomers Need To Face Reality in Job Market

I help run a job club in the Chicago area for unemployed folks over 50.

As you can imagine, the size of the group has been continually growing over the past three years.

After previous recessions, we would see the same people for maybe three or four months and then they would dissapear as they found new jobs.

But, in our current job club we've been seeing the same people month after month for a year or more.

I often wish that I had a magic wand I could wave to get each and every one of these people successfully placed once again in a corporate job.

I unfortuantely don't have this ability.

Because of my entrepreneurial personality I have been telling the members of the job club for some time to think seriously about how to sell their talent and experience as independent contractors or as small business owners.

But, only a few seem to be taking to heart what I say...they are still convinced that somehow they will find an attractive replacement corporate job, even at age 58 and even after being out of work for a year or more.

To these folks and to some of my blog readers, I feel compelled in today's entry to tell you this: "It's time to wake and smell the coffee here!".

By this I mean that they need to look at some basic employment numbers.

The U.S. economy is adding fewer than 200,000 new jobs per month and has been at this level or worse for more than three years. It takes at least 175,000 new jobs just to absorb new entrants into the workforce (many of whom are under age 30).

This means that FEW NEW REPLACEMENT JOBS are really being created. And so, a panel of top economists last week predicted that we will continue to face an unemployment rate of 7%-8% for two or more additional years. This means that by the time the unemployment rate starts to get closer to the traditional 6%  that the members of our job club will have been out of work for five years or more!

Learn more about the economic projection...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-01-30/cutting-the-jobless-rate/53390626/1

Despite all the campaign rhetoric, the reality is that any U.S. President has scant power to create massive job growth.

Employers must feel confident before they will hire and right now order volume is declining once again for many companies which is their barometer to hire. Lowering taxes will not create massive job creation - most Fortune 500 companies already pay well under 5% of their profit in income tax. And health care costs will continue to rise regardless of whether the Affordable Care Act is fully implementend or not, so on this point large employers already know the expense landscape.

The truth is: Why would a company take on the financial responsibility of a new full time employee when they can buy all the talent they want through temporary help agencies or by placing more jobs overseas.?

The reality: They will continue NOT HIRING.

But, guess what they will continue to do?

They will continue to buy billions of dollars of goods and services from small suppliers and independent contractors and consultants!

I often remind the members of our job club of the following truism in the U.S. workplace:

"Customers don't care what the age is of the CEOs of their suppliers - they only care that they deliver what they promised".

For many under age 40 hiring managers, an unemployed boomer over 50 can NEVER deliver enough to overcome his relative unattractiveness as an employee!

For millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans over 50, it's time to wake up and realize that "You're retired from the corporate world and just don't know it yet!"

It's time to move on to find an entrepreneurial way to turn your talent into income.

Till we talk again...
Jeff Williams