If
you're like most people, then you want job security.
That steady paycheck and ability to count on income
in the future helps you sleep at night knowing
that the bills are going to be paid. But long
term reliable employment is getting harder to
come by. Job security, once taken for granted
as a part of American life, is declining, and
in recent years job markets have continued to
shift under people's feet.
Your
seniority at a job won't protect you from job
cuts.
Seniority
can actually hurt you because older workers tend
to be paid more and companies have many creative
ways of removing older workers from their ranks.
The "golden handshake" is the nicest
way of losing a job, but sometimes a company will
just close an office or plant that has an older
workforce and that's the end of it.
You
may not enjoy thinking about these uncertainties,
but deep down you know that you need a plan for
maintaining your income in the future instead
just relying on companies to employ you. Expecting
to find a well-paying job that will be there for
you until retirement is just not a realistic idea
anymore.
Manufacturing
jobs that used to be the pillar of well-paid secure
employment are disappearing. The headlines always
tell the same story. For example, Ford Motor Company,
whose founder Henry Ford made sure his workers
earned enough to actually buy one of his cars,
has started massive job cuts.
In
the coming years, Ford will shut down 14 factories
in North America and it has already started laying
off workers. It plans to shed 25,000 to 30,000
jobs before it's done. These shocking job cuts
include white collar workers as well. These cuts
may have contributed to Ford being the only US aotu
manufacturer to post a profit in 2009 and avoid
bankruptcy and Government bailouts but they did
little to help the current work force
feel more secure.
Overall,
in the years from 2000 to 2003, the United States
lost almost 3 million manufacturing jobs according
to the Economic Policy Institute. There is no
sign that this trend is going to change.
You
can also be leery of getting one of those "good
union jobs."
Tied
in with the crumbling of manufacturing is the
decline of union membership. Compared to 1945
when nearly one third of Americans were union
members, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports
that only 12.5% of wage and salary workers were
in unions in 2005. Unions that used to command
high wages and protect jobs are fast becoming
a thing of the past.
Then
there is "offshore outsourcing" in which
your job can be transferred to someone in India
or Mexico who will make 15% of what you earn.
Outsourcing doesn't just happen to factory workers
whose plant is moved overseas. It happens to software
developers and it happens to administrative support
jobs and to medical service jobs.
Why
does this happen? The greatest factor motivating
employers to scale back on secure employment is
cost. Companies want to make money, and well-paid
full time employees in America aren't cheap. That
is why companies look for ways to switch to lower
cost employees in other countries or use non-union,
lower paid, or part time workers here. And, because
major employers tend to be very large multi-national
companies, it is easy for them to play musical
chairs with jobs among different countries. There are
a few of the lucky workers whose jobs are outsourced
or downsized that find work at home
positions with their present employer but they are
few an far in between
This
logically leaves you asking: "What
can I do to be financially secure?"
As
the above statistics show, looking to the job
market is not going to get you what it used to
in the past. You'll need to take charge of your
future and start making your own secure income.
When you are the boss, there is
no one to lay you off or cut your hours. Fortunately,
there is an exciting home business opportunity
that offers you a way to create your own safety
net.
Security
and financial success can finally be in your
hands - not someone else's.
Yes,
it is tempting to keep putting all of your eggs
into one basket and believing that your good job
will last - or believing that you will find a
good job for years to come. You hear about job
growth and new jobs, but they are not the same
jobs that are being lost. The new jobs are lumped
into the category "service industry"
- that means working in sectors like retail or
customer service. These service industry jobs
are notoriously unreliable in the amount of hours
given and they pay less than the old manufacturing
jobs.
White
collar workers are feeling the pinch too. The
stereotypical laid-off steel worker has a lot
of company these days. In In June of 2010 US
payrolls declined by 125,000. BP Solar just announced in
June 2010 that it will be cutting 320 jobs at
their sprwaling Frederick, Maryland with more
cuts in this "Green" sector manufacturing plant in the next few months.
These
technology jobs have been touted by politicians
as the future for the American worker, but it
is not a secure future. Those secure jobs from
a bygone era when you could count on a company
being around and taking care of you just are not
reality anymore. This means that you have to start
looking out for number one because no one else
will. Your first step toward security is getting
information about starting your own home based
business.
