New Job Opportunities
Rudy Karsan -
Current Events
Thursday, May 07, 2009 12:00:00 AM
As we continue with the drumbeat of bad numbers we must remember that the economy is creating new jobs even as we speak. In the first quarter of 2009, two and a half million job losses took place. What people don’t realize is that nearly double that number of new jobs was also created. Thus, the net effect is really not as bad as it sounds—it's not as though all those millions of people that have lost jobs are all jobless and have not found other jobs. What’s really happening is that even as the current economy is destroying some types of jobs, other new types are being generated. So be very creative and innovative and open to opportunity if you are looking for a job change.
I’ve done a couple of sessions in the recent past where I tried to validate these numbers by asking the audience of about 300-400 people how many of them had found a new job in the first quarter of this year. Much to my surprise, about 2 percent of the audience raised their hands. This is consistent with the data if you consider the number of new jobs created and the working population as a whole. So be aware that there are jobs to be had out there, and your primary task, if you’ve been laid off or are looking for a change, is to go out and find them. You might find that you need to tap some latent or unused skills or go looking in a field of work that’s fairly different from what you’ve been doing, but the change is unlikely to harm you—for all you know, you might enjoy your new career far more than the old one.