“Nine months ago [Mark] lost his job as the security manager for the western United States for a Fortune 500 company, overseeing a budget of $1.2 million and earning about $70,000 a year. Now he is grateful for the $12 an hour he makes in what is known in unemployment circles as a “survival job” at a friend’s janitorial services company. But that does not make the work any easier.” (NYTimes.com)
Stories such as this are all too common in recent months. Tragic stories flood the news full of grief and despair from ex-CEO’s, Wall Street hot shots to everyday positions such as high school teachers and farmers. All across the country men and women are losing their jobs by the thousands and are being forced into working wherever they can just to get by.
Not only are people accepting lower paying, lower ranking jobs but it is becoming more common for those retired or about to retire to be reentering the work force. Allan Swank, a 49 year old ex-military soldier and long time factory worker is reformatting his future. A path that once led to a near retirement is being replaced with going back to school to become a teacher. Fortunately for Swank he began this new life path early enough to be finishing up at school this summer and will have his PhD soon next year.
Unlike Allan, David Green of Western Washington University was forced out of the country to find a job. Green is a recent grad looking for a job as a history teacher. Green sent out over 50 applications over the last year landing only two interviews and no job offerings. Green decided to look abroad and plans on teaching in Seoul, South Korea.
It is almost impossible now a days to recession-proof your future. The job market is shrinking by the day and becoming more and more competitive. With all the new plans to save the country’s economy and create new jobs by the Obama administration, hopefully the job market will start to recover.
Sources: 1, 2, 3
No comments:
Post a Comment