It is not all tragic, though. Job losses often can be overcome as existing industries expand and new ones are created. Jobs, more than ever, depend on the creation of new products and new industries. The hurdles to job creation get even higher if corporate managers remain risk averse and reluctant to invest in new businesses. During the past ten years or so, the prime employment gains came in occupations that rely on people skills and emotional intelligence – (nurses and lawyers) and among jobs that require imagination and creativity (designers, architects and photographers). Not all of the new jobs require advanced degrees or exceptional artistic talent; for example, there has been a rise of employment for hair stylists and cosmetologists. Self image is, indeed, important, for job hunters.
Legislative changes passed in 1997 cut government payments to nursing homes and home-health-care agencies -- which employ almost 4 million people -- and severely slowed the growth of jobs in these industries. The same thing is happening at privately run social-assistance programs, (food banks and individual and family services) which employ more than 2 million people. This does not mean that jobs are unavailable; it means that job growth is slower than in other fields.
As existing jobs give way to shifts in technology and trade, the economy (hopefully) will adjust, creating new work that uses new skills and talents. Over time, workers move up a pecking order of human talents – they find jobs that demand higher-order skills and offer better pay and working conditions. The pecking order provides a guide to the traits and qualities that will dominate the next employment wave. You – the job candidate – must research, analyze, and determine what the new economy will require from you and where you will fit in the chain of command.
