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In this economic situation, I keep on thinking more about jobs and future career situation. There doesn't seem to be any safe jobs and even looking 20 years or 40 years ahead the situation looks grim. With globalization, all the well paying jobs seems to set to be sent off to other countries.
I am a 23 year old and this I keep on thinking about the future situation regarding jobs in the US. I will have to keep on working for few decades to come before I can retire, but will there actually be a good career out there in US for people? Is there any good paying job that will still have demand through bad economic time and will actually will be there for decades to come?
You can work for the utilities. People are still going to need electricity, water, and gas. I haven't heard of any of them laying off, maybe only from retirement.
There is absolutely ~no~ safe job. Don't ever fool yourself into thinking there is.
If you have a stable job, you may risk getting beat out by cheaper labor. Even if you are skilled labor, you aren't safe. People will sell their skills cheaper just to get the job. We may be entering a period where education, advanced skills etc only guarantee you the chance of being more likely to obtain the job. It won't necessarily mean a higher pay rate. This is what happens in other countries with high unemployment.
Industries like farming are not even safe. Farmers risk lower cost markets providing the food for lower. A highly mechanized farming operation will consume lots of diesel fuel. Even though that farmer will produce more food they will have to sell the food for more to pay for the fuel. The 3rd world farmer who only uses mules to farm will not have those extra costs. They will produce less food but will be able to sell it for less.
There are simply too many variables in the world to get a safe job.
A safe job in bad times is being a repairman. It isn't the greatest job in the good times though...
During the good times, if something dies, you just replace it. During economic booms, repairmen have to find work doing installation or switching careers for a while.
During the bad times, people fix things instead of replacing them. That's when the person who knows how to troubleshoot and fix problems will prosper.
A safe job in bad times is being a repairman. It isn't the greatest job in the good times though...
During the good times, if something dies, you just replace it. During economic booms, repairmen have to find work doing installation or switching careers for a while.
During the bad times, people fix things instead of replacing them. That's when the person who knows how to troubleshoot and fix problems will prosper.
Yea but there won't be much work when there is 6 million other unemployed people who are all trying to fix each other's garbage. That is what happens when the economy goes south and unemployment rises. People start flocking to the places where jobs exist which drives up competition and lowers prices for those industries.
You can work for the utilities. People are still going to need electricity, water, and gas. I haven't heard of any of them laying off, maybe only from retirement.
Ultimate safety is death. In the meantime, we can talk about the best bets.
Let's talk first about honest, easy going, and non-violent people.
The utilities mentioned above are a good start, and add food. Also education, legal, medical/health care, accounting, tax preparation, basic technologies, including things like plumbing, electricity, HVAC systems, mechanics. Also law enforcement and fire-fighting.
People with a gift of gab and somewhat dishonest can be good at sales.
In most of the above, knowing at least one extra language besides English can be a useful asset.
If you are a high stress person and enjoy taking big risks, capital markets trading.
If you are a dishonest crook, but prefer to stay within legality, go into politics, or be a lawyer for, or otherwise serve, a politician or bureaucrat (we're going to have lots more of those after this is "over").
If you are a dishonest crook and violent and don't care, for the moment at least, about legality, mafioso-type activities like selling arms and drugs.
There is absolutely ~no~ safe job. Don't ever fool yourself into thinking there is.
If you have a stable job, you may risk getting beat out by cheaper labor. Even if you are skilled labor, you aren't safe. People will sell their skills cheaper just to get the job. We may be entering a period where education, advanced skills etc only guarantee you the chance of being more likely to obtain the job. It won't necessarily mean a higher pay rate. This is what happens in other countries with high unemployment.
I would say the one exception to all of this is nursing (as well as other in-demand medical professions). After the last recession of 2001-2002, instead of going into real estate (which, at the time was just starting to boom) I decided to become an RN instead. To me, it was the most recession proof decision I could make ... and I was right.
Aging baby boomers (the largest segment of the population) continue to drive up demand for healthcare services. There are high barriers to the labor pool ... four years of college are required as well as a licensing exam. The cirriculum is very tough ... lots of people flunk out limiting the labor pool even further. So ... it's not like anybody off the street can come in, take your job and drive down wages.
And ... they can't export a nursing job like, for example, what happened with IT.
However, I'm also an RN in California which has strong nursing unions so ... that was another factor in my decision. I don't know if I would be doing this well in a non-union state although, generally, nursing has been cited in the press lately as one of the few recession proof jobs.
This is the first recession where I haven't had to worry about money .... which is pretty remarkable since this is also the worst recession since the great depression. I'm just glad I sacrificed those four years for nursing school instead of going into real estate ... which, at the time, would have been the easier choice.
I would say the one exception to all of this is nursing (as well as other in-demand medical professions). After the last recession of 2001-2002, instead of going into real estate (which, at the time was just starting to boom) I decided to become an RN instead. To me, it was the most recession proof decision I could make ... and I was right.
Aging baby boomers (the largest segment of the population) continue to drive up demand for healthcare services. There are high barriers to the labor pool ... four years of college are required as well as a licensing exam. The cirriculum is very tough ... lots of people flunk out limiting the labor pool even further. So ... it's not like anybody off the street can come in, take your job and drive down wages.
And ... they can't export a nursing job like, for example, what happened with IT.
However, I'm also an RN in California which has strong nursing unions so ... that was another factor in my decision. I don't know if I would be doing this well in a non-union state although, generally, nursing has been cited in the press lately as one of the few recession proof jobs.
This is the first recession where I haven't had to worry about money .... which is pretty remarkable since this is also the worst recession since the great depression. I'm just glad I sacrificed those four years for nursing school instead of going into real estate ... which, at the time, would have been the easier choice.
From what I saw in OC, CA there were a lot of nurses coming from the Philippines taking jobs. Nursing is safer than most, but nothing’s 100% safe.
From what I saw in OC, CA there were a lot of nurses coming from the Philippines taking jobs. Nursing is safer than most, but nothing’s 100% safe.
I work with a lot of Filipinos. They're generally very good nurses. But it's not the same thing as exporting a job to India where they will take away a job from an IT guy here for an Indian worker who makes $10 an hour.
A Filipino nurse has got to jump through a lot of hoops to get here. And they're going to have the same cost of living as any other California nurse and will demand the same wages.
They do add to the labor supply somewhat but ... I'm making over $100K a year (I live on the Central Coast) so ... they don't seem to be driving down wages here.
A nurse that makes 100k a year... WOW!!!...You can take my temperature anytime....smile
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