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#YourCareer : Fed Chair Jerome Powell Says Fighting Inflation Will Cause Job Losses: Here’s What You Need To Do Now. In these Challenging Times, you Can’t be Complacent. MUst REad!

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In a blunt 10-minute speech at the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he’s following through with his promise to raise interest rates and do what’s necessary to cool down the economy.

Powell didn’t pull any punches saying that higher interest rates will push down inflation to the Fed’s 2% target level. As a result, the U.S. will experience slower growth and a weak job market. He freely acknowledges that many Americans will feel the ‘pain’ and lose their jobs.

How We Got Into This Predicament

Going back to the financial crisis, before Powell, the Federal Reserve Bank used its financial tools to prop up the economy and stock market. The Fed’s policies remained essentially unchanged up until now.

During the pandemic, Powell and the federal government flooded the economy with trillions of dollars to provide much-needed funds to families and businesses. One of the united results was the creation of an everything bubble ranging from runups in the stock and cryptocurrency markets, and venture-funded startups that minted multi-billion dollar unicorn companies.

Powell is in an unenviable position to make the economy worse before it can get better. It’s frustrating that we need to trust Powell, who, along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yallen, missed the harmful effects of inflation early on, claiming it was only “transitory” and would subside after a while. It didn’t, and inflation hit 40-year record highs.

Americans are now paying the price for the bursting of the bubble. The Fed and government’s massive spending programs led to record levels of runaway inflation, creating another tax on people and companies.

How Does Powell’s Program Work?

To dampen the economy, Powell is raising interest rates and withdrawing all the quantitative easing policies that were in place. In a more fiscally restrictive environment, businesses will feel the pain.

They will no longer have access to inexpensive funding, and their costs will dramatically increase. One of the intended results is that businesses will enact massive layoffs to cut costs. On a nearly daily basis, companies are announcing layoffs, hiring freezes, allowing attrition without replacement and rescinding job offers.

Powell has been telling the country that he will cause pain by raising interest rates and through quantitative tightening. The problem is that Wall Street and others didn’t take him seriously enough. They were betting that he was bluffing and would eventually ease up.

After an initial shock from Powell’s policies, stocks plunged but later rebounded, as investors thought they were out of the woods. Their misplaced optimism may have been the impetus for Powell’s no-nonsense blunt message.

His thesis is that as the economy shrinks, people lose their jobs. As more people lose their livelihoods, they’ll forsake spending money on purchasing goods and services. When this happens at scale, the economy contracts, causing a downward spiral.

For instance, interest rates on buying a home nearly doubled recently. The housing market went from people bidding over the asking price to families walking away because they couldn’t afford to pay the higher monthly mortgage rates. Housing is one of the largest sectors. If people cannot buy homes, there will be less need for architects, real estate agents, contractors, electricians, carpenters, plumbers and other blue-collar professionals.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

 

Wall Street’s Harsh Reaction to Powell’s Speech

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a bellwether index for the stock market, plummeted more than 1,000 points on the news. Other major indices plunged as well. According to Bloomberg, Powell’s bare-bones speech resulted in a massive loss of around $78 billion for the fortunes of some of the world’s wealthiest people. To be clear, unless a person sold their securities, it’s only a loss on paper. If the stock market turns around in their favor, the values may increase again.

  • Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and former CEO, lost $6.8 billion.
  • The high-profile Tesla CEO and possible Twitter boss, Elon Musk, lost $5.5 billion.
  • Bill Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, watched as he lost 2.2 billion dollars
  • Grandfatherly Warren Buffett’s net worth fell by $2.7 billion.

 

What Workers Need To Do Now

In these challenging times, you can’t be complacent. Take action to protect your job or make efforts to find a safe role elsewhere. You may have to make some sacrifices. For example, you may prefer working remotely, but consider going into the office to be seen. Once key managers and executives notice your work ethic and productivity, they’ll view you as indispensable.

Below are areas you can be proactive now: 

1- Get in touch with members of your network. Ask around to see if anyone has some good job leads or can make introductions to a target company that you’d love to work for. If you decide to switch jobs, make sure the new firm is financially strong and doesn’t have plans to lay off employees.

2- Update your résumé and LinkedIn profile. Find recruiters who specialize in your space and can keep an eye open for opportunities. Don’t take too much risk with your investments in stocks or cryptos.

3- When you interview, don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. You want to ensure that the position is right for you and that you’re not just jumping on the first offer. Avoid disparaging your former boss, company and colleagues, as it’s a turnoff to interviewers. They’ll assume you’ll talk bad about them too when you leave.

4- If you want to remain with your company, request a meeting with your boss. Tell them you love the place, think they’re a great manager and believe in the corporate mission. Share with them your goals and aspirations. The best outcome would be that your supervisor is relieved the conversation isn’t about quitting, and they’re delighted that you’re committed to the company and want to advance. You can collaborate on a path to reaching your desired role within the firm.

5- Pay close attention to your finances. Pay off credit cards and other debt, as the interest rate will escalate. Reign in unnecessary expenses. Put aside money, in case you are out of work for a while. Find ways to earn additional income streams. This could include gig work, starting a side hustle or an online business.

6- Use this time to learn new skills that will make you more employable. There are many online courses such as the Flatiron School, Goodwill, Coursera and Codecademy. You could sign up to learn in-demand skills. The classes can be attended whenever you want. At the end of the program, you’ll receive a certificate, badge or accreditation that could help you advance within your organization or when you’re hunting for a new job.

Try To Stay Positive

It is easy and understandable to become despondent during tough times. You can’t let people pick up on it. Work on your mindset, as you need to be mentally strong during tough times.

Hiring managers and interviewers desire winners who are positive, confident and charismatic. Cast aside any negative thoughts and teach yourself how to come across as likable and charming. When a business conducts layoffs, management is more prone to retain people they like and are comfortable working with, even if it’s a choice between a more experienced colleague.

 

Forbes.com | August 27, 2022 | Jack Kelly

#JobSearch : Workers Don’t Feel Quite as Powerful as They Used To. Some Companies are Doing Layoffs, and that Puts Pressure on People to Get Back to the Office. Great REad!

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Becca Smith will be back to work in no time.  Laid off from her sales position at a startup a couple of weeks ago, she says she’s received more than a dozen inquiries from recruiters in response to a LinkedIn post about her job loss.

Yet something has changed since the 40-year-old Indiana mother started at her former employer last summer. Back then, she was determined to work from home—and felt sure she could get her way. She also had the confidence to join a fledgling business amid a roaring economy.

No more.   “I will give priority to larger, more-established companies for this job search,” says Ms. Smith, whose old company was venture-funded and cut about one-third of the team to conserve cash. She adds she’ll consider reporting to an office part time. She’d also like her next job to involve selling a product customers need even in bad times, rather than a luxury that could get cut from the budget when money is short.

Though the labor market remains tight and many people still have leverage to negotiate high salaries and remote accommodations, some are bracing for a day when things won’t be so great. As unemployment claims tick higher and business leaders like Elon Musk try to reassert their in-office dominance, workers are showing a little less swagger and looking for more stability than they did just a few months ago.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

Article continued …

It’s a strange limbo. Working conditions are about as good as they’ve ever been for many people, and office workers’ complaints can seem petty by historical standards. (Imagine your 2019 self griping about being required to work in an office a few days a month.) Yet a loss of total remote freedom, coupled with sobering economic forecasts, can make it feel like workers’ power is slipping away.

Some companies sense the change and are wresting back more control over how much they cater to employees.

Boston Properties Chief Executive Owen Thomas says his tenants are growing bolder about office callbacks. The national office occupancy rate hit 44% last week, according to an estimate by Kastle Systems, which tracks building-access-card swipes. That’s the highest since the onset of the pandemic.

Employers’ fear that workers will flee for other jobs if told to return to their desks is beginning to subside.

“Some companies are doing layoffs, and that puts pressure on people to get back to the officeand stay closer to the senior leaders,” says Mr. Thomas, whose firm is among the largest commercial landlords in several major cities.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said repeatedly that she doesn’t expect the U.S. economy to fall into another recession. Such reassurances wouldn’t seem necessary if not for credible concerns, however, and it might not take the R-word to spook workers.

Career coach Phil Rosenberg says his calendar is filling up with clients who worry it’s now or never—or not for a while, at least—to snag a job with the pay and flexibility they want.

“People are trying to land before the next downturn,” he says.

Luis Caballero, one of Mr. Rosenberg’s clients, says he’s relieved to be starting a new position as a marketing executive next month.

He left a large company in late 2020 with a big enough severance package to support his family for two years, by his estimate, and initially wasn’t in a hurry to find his next long-term fit. Why would he have been?

“Companies were desperate for senior leadership,” says Mr. Caballero of the record numbers of workers who have quit or switched jobs over the past 12 months. “Several friends of mine were writing their own ticket.”

Mr. Caballero, 50, took what he describes as a short-lived “rebound” job last year but quit in February. Searching anew, he says the market“was not the gold mine I had heard about.” Many high-level roles paid less or had heavier workloads than he anticipated.

Mr. Caballero says he accepted an offer that met his expectations—with one major compromise. He’ll drive 10 hours round-trip from his home in Arizona to an office in California, staying over a night or two, to satisfy a requirement to work in person a couple of days a week.

Taking a new job can be risky in the event of a downturn. Some businesses take a last-in-first-out approach to downsizing. As the pandemic fades, companies that grew quickly when people were mostly homebound could cut back as life normalizes. Peloton, Netflix and Carvana already have laid off staff this year.

“If I’m a job seeker these days and I’m smart, I’m considering the business: Is it a business that just developed because of Covid?” says Stacie Haller, a career counselor at ResumeBuilder.com.

For now, though, the labor market still favors workers, especially in certain industries, she says.

Competition for talent remains intense in biotechnology, with candidates often able to pick among several offers, according to Jean Sabatini, head of staffing at Tango Therapeutics in Cambridge, Mass.

Tech workers, too, enjoy considerable bargaining power, though some have been humbled by the sector’s volatile stock-market performance and shrinking venture-capital pool in recent months, says Allan Jones, founder of an HR software startup in Los Angeles.

The hiring dynamic for most of the past two years has been “bonkers,” he says; prospects frequently Zoomed into job interviews with a confidence bordering on arrogance and scoffed when told that Mr. Jones’s company, Bambee, is office-centric.

Lately, the conversations have changed.

“Now, what candidates are asking is if the company has the financial posture to survive a recession,” he says. “It’s quite telling. They’re thinking about security over flexibility.”

WSJ Author:  Callum Borchers at callum.borchers@wsj.com

 

WSJ.com | June 16, 2022

#JobSearch : The COVID Effect on the Job Market. A MUst REad for All!

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As I write this blog article, the United States economy just moved past the 80th calendar day since the international pandemic (Corona-Virus 19) in which the quarantine sent everyone scurrying behind locked doors and face masks.  Companies who relied mostly on technology were mostly insulated from business losses during the quarantine.  Other companies moved to ‘curb-side’ service, online meetings (using Zoom, Adobe, and Google meeting cloud platforms).

Some businesses (online shopping, health care, e-commerce) were able to still perform ‘as usual’ – especially if already providing services and products ‘virtually’ (employees moved from offices to homes to work via telecom technology.  Those companies most impacted, e.g., non-essential retail, restaurants, hotels, travel, and entertainment are still struggling and many are facing bankruptcy.

What does this mean for workers or those looking for new jobs and careers?

1- Job seekers will have more competition for the job they would normally have been a ‘shoo-in’ pre-pandemic; in this economy, it’s now an employer’s market for hiring. Expect to be rejected more often as an applicant.  The company may have a hiring freeze or slow-down, but there also may be jobs not advertised.  Keep on posting your resume into the ATS on the recruiting system for the company(ies) you are targeting.

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Article continued …

 

2- Sharpen or add technology skills on the career resume for the job search. If you have the skill sets that enable to you to work from any location – job site, in the field, or from home, this will showcase your adaptability.  Have you worked from home during the quarantine? Are you able to adjust to a personal work schedule and reliability? Mention that in your resume to showcase capabilities.  Jobs ‘on-site’ in the past may be virtual go forward.

3- Job seekers need to update and ensure their computer has with telecom capabilities – camera, speakers, and access to Internet for online meetings; and it’s important to realize the vital need for updating one’s resume and LinkedIn profile for recruiters to more easily find you online. Test your meeting software and equipment with friends and family member (virtual dinner party, anyone?).

4- Review the field or industry – you may need to move to new careers. Job seekers need to target industries for ‘core business industries’ e.g., advertising, tech, delivery companies [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][packages, food], tax assistance, video communications, instruction and teaching platforms [e.g., universities, colleges, tutoring], essential businesses [pharmacies], healthcare services, and/or cleaning and sanitation [janitorial]. The companies to avoid targeting for job searches are those related to travel – hotels, airlines, sports, and automotive. My husband takes Viagra for a couple of years now. I always wondered if it could help me become better in bed, so I decided to take a pill. Well, I can’t say that I felt anything different, but the sensations during intercourse were definitely better. I suppose it was due to better lubrication, which, I suppose, was the result of my experiment.

5- Refresh your resume on the big boards (e.g., Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed) – the older resumes float to the bottom of the resume pool; even if you add a dot or space, those ATS platforms categorize the resume as a ‘new’ (refreshed) resume.

6- Be prepared for ‘more’ online virtual meetings, interviews, and panel discussions (hiring committees) versus driving to the location for the meeting (this is good – saves gas, and you can wear a nice shirt and jacket over your pajama bottoms).

7- Be prepared to do more email and online networking – the face-to-face networking is ‘out’ with social distancing in place (likely for the next 6-18 months). Do continue to make phone calls to friend, peers, past co-workers and bosses to let them know you are available for work. Who do they know is looking to hire?

8- Recruiters won’t be able to rely on ‘body language’ in virtual interviews, so it’s important for job candidates to look sharp, act like they are paying attention during the online cloud meetings, and to ensure the dog or cat won’t interrupt the meeting. The interview candidate may have to project more to demonstrate a positive attitude and don’t forget to clean up the area behind your computer to look like a more professional work environment.

9- In the past, recruiters may have been able to make a job offer and have a candidate in the seat in two weeks. The pandemic has slowed the process down to ‘whenever it is safe to physically come to work.’ Expect delays in the hiring process – some college grads who were extended job offers aren’t able to work for their new employers until as late as July or August while the company struggles to determine health and safety protocols. There will be a slow-down in the decision-making.  Companies may take a while before business picks up again to justify the hire and bringing the candidate onboard with a start date.

10- Job seekers who have lost their jobs need to be aware the extended benefits from the Payroll Protection Act are for a small and finite period. If your employer laid you off and you refuse to come back to work – you will lose your unemployment benefits.  Even if you get paid more in the PPA, it is vital for you to get back to work so you have a job after the benefits run out.

11- Do not lose hope. If you have a ‘side’ job, you may need ramp up the sales and services to bridge the financial gap between the last job and the new post-Covid career move.

 

FSC Career Author: Ms.Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is a FSC Career Coach & owner of D. Boyer Consulting – provides resume writing, editing, and publishing (print-on-demand) consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit her website at www.dboyerconsulting.com.

 

FSC Career Blog |  June 12, 2020

 

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., has been an entrepreneur and business owner for 20+ years, with a successful business and consulting firm (CEO) in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Richmond, VA.  Her background experience is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry. She is the author of 812+ books on the topics of business, human resources research, career search practice, women and gender study, genealogy and family lineages, quotes for motivation and self-improvement, and Adult Coloring Books.  Her books can be found on Amazon.com under her author’s page for Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

#YourCareer : 16% Unemployment This Summer: CBO’s Prediction And How To Prepare For It. Are you Processing This?

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The economic fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic is expected to be drastic and last much longer than first believed. On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office updated its 2020 and 2021 projections for the U.S. economy. CBO is forecasting that unemployment is likely to rise to 16% and then hold at levels of 10% through the end of 2021.

If you’ve learned that your company will soon begin layoffs or that your job is being eliminated, you have to get your mind around processing the bad news, and then you have to take action.

This is mind-blowing. It was just February that the U.S. economy had been riding a wave of record-level low unemployment with numbers as low as 3.5%. Can it really be that in neck-breaking speed unemployment could rise from 3.5% to 16% by summer? Yikes!

Are you processing this? It was also announced this week that 26.5 million new jobless claims have been filed since mid-March. When you add this to the fact that CBO’s economists and analysts are predicting 3rd quarter unemployment of 16%, you get the picture.

f this is to be, it means that unemployment will exceed the 14% high of the Great Depression as soon as this summer. And then it’s expected that it will remain excessively high and hover around 10% (the peak level of the Great Recession) all the way through 2021. If these predictions prove true, millions more Americans will become unemployed, and they will stay that way much longer than most had hoped.

This drastic increase in unemployment numbers was first reported in early April when the first of five straight weeks of devastating job reports started rolling out. Five weeks ago, The Guardian summed it up this way. “America’s decade-long record of continual job growth came to a shuddering halt on Friday as the US unemployment rate rose for the first time since 2010.” That first week it was 701,000. So we’ve gone from 701,000 new jobless claims to 26.5 million in a stunningly short time.

With the CBO predicting that it’ll get much worse before it gets better, here’s my recommendation for how you can better prepare for it.

Pay attention to what your company and others are doing.

Whether you are employed or unemployed today, pay attention. Whether you think your job is at risk or you’ve already lost it, pay attention. And whether you think your job is safe and secure and will remain that way, still pay attention. It’s up to you to do what’s necessary to own your career. You can’t afford to blindly leave your career—and financial security—in the hands of others. None of us can.

Stay in the know about what’s happening in the economy, with your employer, with your employer’s competitors, with your employees and all across your industry, and then ask lots of questions. Find credible sources of information—organizations, companies, and people—and follow them.

Find out who’s hiring and who’s not; who’s making pay cuts and who’s dolling out pay raises. If the core of your network is comprised of people rooted in a dying profession or a dying industry, take notice. To stay informed, you want to build a network that includes people who work in growing professions and industries for the future. Take notice of the companies that are disrupting themselves as a way to stay competitive and those who can’t seem to embrace anything beyond legacy systems and processes.

And, if you find that your job isn’t actually at risk today but you’re considering a career change, first assess what career capital you can leverage and how to go about doing it. I recommend you set time aside to answer these six questions before making any voluntary moves.

Learn where the demand is.

When making decisions about your job or career, it’s important to know what’s driving demand because demand is a huge catalyst for input (sales, business exchanges, deliverables, resources, money, innovation, time, etc.). Where you see a need—where you see demand—focus on it. Search out the companies and industries that are likely to be called on to meet demand so that you can better determine who is likely hiring now or will be hiring soon.

Conduct your own analysis by learning the answers to questions such as these.

  • What are the essential products and services the economy needs now?
  • What are the essential services and programs of the future?
  • Where is the demand in the economy?

By figuring out answers to these kinds of questions, you can make better decisions about which companies to seek out and which ones to avoid for hiring opportunities. Hence, you can better manage your career for the long haul.

If you’ve already lost your job, focus here.

Sometimes you can do everything right. You can play to win and still lose. You can manage your career on an upswing and still have it take an unexpected downturn. Things happen. Sadly, even bad things happen, and they happen to good people far too often.

If you’ve learned that your company will soon begin layoffs or that your job is being eliminated, you have to get your mind around processing the bad news, and then you have to take action. It’s very important that you immediately file for unemployment, learn about the available mortgage protection programs if you are struggling in that area, and take care of yourself. Read this advice for more specifics on what to do next after learning of a pending job loss, a termination, a layoff, or any other decision that otherwise leaves you unemployed.

It’s okay to feel disappointment, anger, sadness, and an array of other emotions during such a time. Give yourself the space to process the news and your feelings about it. But by all means, you’ve got to keep it moving and lockdown that next job as quickly as possible.

Author:  
Terina AllenContributor
Careers
I cover careers, professional advancement and leadership development.

 

Forbes.com | April 26, 2020

 

#JobSearch : Déjà Vu All Over Again – Good News, Bad News for Employers and Job Seekers.

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I remember…  with trepidation … the market events in the fall of 2008 caused the real estate crash in 2009 and the resulting rise in unemployment with hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs. (I was one of them. As a HR director, I had to write my own layoff letter!)  The recent pandemic is not quite the same, but the impact is eerily similar and much worse for workers who are now unemployed. With luck, this time, the economy will swing back quickly once folks get back to their office or location work sites as cures, vaccines, and plasma infusions are deemed safe and made available to inoculate the general population.

When economic crisis upheavals create market impacts and job losses, it’s best to be prepared for the ‘what ifs?’

In 2009, the bad news was employers laid off, terminated, or furloughed workers with no known return-to-work date.  This was a crisis for the company and its workers. The events affected stability, growth, and/or revenue for the business, but also provided a unique opportunity to enrich the workforce and gain more valuable employees in the long run.  Companies initially targeted ‘slackers,’ ‘redundant,’ or unskilled (untrained) employees in the mass layoffs. Workers able to do the work of others had to cross-train, or who were more productive were more likely to be retained.

Use the lessons learned from the 2009 economic crash to preparing for the current pandemic-related crisis, and/or future events with equitable impact on worker’s careers.

Those laid off or terminated were often the workers with the lowest return on investment (ROI) for the business model.  Unfortunately, it was also a great opportunity to drop what the company determined were ‘troublemakers,’ ‘high maintenance employees,’ and those who had reached a salary ceiling for their job level.

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of the article:

When the economy picked up again, the company had a choice of rehiring the furloughed workers. In some cases, companies found more productive replacements for the past terminated workers.  Some businesses chose to continue to pay unemployment taxes on furloughed workers and hired fresh employees to train to higher standards and productivity.  This may happen again in 2020. If fresh, new workers can provide a higher rate of productivity after training, the companies could turn a higher profit, faster, and decide not rehiring the furloughed workers is worth the business risk.

The good news is some workers ‘sent home’ during this pandemic event may not have been fired.  Companies recognized some work (telework) could continue if workers had the right equipment and access to work-related applications from home.  The scramble to set the employees up to work from home may result in long-term and increased ROI based on lower overhead costs. This event may help business leaders see the opportunity to keep workers, monitor productivity, and simultaneously reduce overhead costs by continuing to keep employees working at home.

It is bad news for the workers who are permanently laid off or furloughed. The economic crisis does provide opportunities for those who lost their jobs to go back to school, take more technical or trade training, and refresh their resume(s) for more practical or higher-level educational opportunities.

The good news is, even though the furloughed worker may have been highly productive, this is the perfect opportunity to use one’s advanced experience and skills to search for a new career position. Shop for that new job with companies who terminated the ‘redundant’ workers and are looking for that higher productivity employee.  When an employee is laid off it’s the perfect timing to refresh their resume to identify their strongest skills and their greatest weaknesses.

It is vital to showcase on the resume the job seeker’s achievements and accomplishments to document the metrics and capabilities of the worker in past and potentially future work environments.  Review the education section to decide when, where, and what to add to skill sets by taking online classes, going back to schools (colleges, universities – online courses where available), or targeting technical schools for updated trades training.

When economic crisis upheavals create market impacts and job losses, it’s best to be prepared for the ‘what ifs?’ in one’s career path.  Use the lessons learned from the 2009 economic crash to preparing for the current pandemic-related crisis, and/or future events with equitable impact on worker’s careers.  Keep updating one’s work skills, ensure your productivity at work is at its high level and makes a profit (or reduce overhead expenses) for your company. Continue to learn or take training in a variety of skills to make yourself non-expendable to your employer.  If you are not constantly improving yourself, you will not survive or do well in the worst-case economic scenarios of the future.

FSC Career Blog Author: Ms. Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., owner of D. Boyer Consulting in Hampton Roads and Richmond, VA – provides resume writing, and editing / publishing / print-on-demand consulting. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@me.com or visit her website at www.dboyerconsulting.com.

 

FSC Career Blog| April 14, 2020

#LifeStrategy : Lost Dream: 90% Of Americans Are Worse Off Today Than They Were In The Early 1970s….Recent Study Show 90% of Americans Earns Roughly the Same Real Income Today as they Earned Back in the Early 1970s

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For the vast majority of Americans, their nation’s economy is in a prolonged stagnation, far worse than that of Japan. When it comes to real income that is–income adjusted for inflation. 90 percent of Americans earns roughly the same real income today as they earned back in the early 1970s, according to a recent study released by The Levy Economic Institute (Figure 6).

Clockwork

Japan’s economic stagnation reaches back to the early 1990s.

Economic stagnation didn’t reach the remaining 10 percent of the population, which has seen a sharp rise in their real incomes over the same period.

Things were quite different in the decades preceding the 70s, a period that stretches back to the late 1940s, when real incomes rose for both groups – with the 90 percent group staying ahead of the 10 percent group in real income gains.

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Simply put, for the vast majority of Americans, the dream of a better life was lost back in the early 1970s.

What can explain this big shift in the income distribution in the last four decades?

The clue is in the time frame of the shift, which coincides with the growing openness of the American economy to international trade and investments. Thus, globalization is the first suspect that comes to mind.

An open economy pitted American entrepreneurs and workers against overseas peers.

For the top 10 percent of the population, those with the right skills, an open American economy was a good thing, a source of efficiency and opportunity that translated into higher real incomes.

For the bottom 90 percent of the population, those with the wrong skills or little skills, the openness of the US economy was a bad thing, a source of job losses and lower incomes.

But there’s another clue. The shift in income distribution became worse in the aftermath of the Great Recession, which brings up the second suspect: the ultra-low interest rate monetary policy, which boosted the prices of stocks and bonds, benefiting the top 10 percent, which was very likely to own these assets.

It should therefore come as to no one’s surprise that so many people are rallying behind Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders who blame both globalization and Wall Street of depriving them of the dream for a better life.

Forbes.com | April 23, 2016 | Panos Mourdoukoutas