The Restructuring of American Business Means the Restructuring of American Careers

What do new, future-focused careers have in common? They represent America’s highest needs. rnThey require a reasonable investment in time and credentialing in order to qualify. rnThe time to plan is NOW if you want or need to continue to work THEN! The restructuring of American business continues to put great pressure on the traditional relationship between employer and employee. With all this fracturing of businesses into different and smaller units, employers can’t guarantee jobs anymore because they don’t know what their companies will look like next year. While not everyone is on their way to becoming an independent contractor, most mature workers may have to look at a time in the near future when they will handle their own insurance, benefits, health care, career management and everything else. Husbands and wives are now economic units. They take different jobs and work different shifts depending on where they are in their careers and families. They make tradeoffs to put together a compensation package to take care of the family. This used to happen only with highly educated professionals with high incomes. Now it is happening at the level of the factory floor worker. Couples at all levels are designing their compensation packages based on their individual needs. The only way this can work is if everything is portable and flexible, which requires a continued huge shift in the American economy. Specialists in areas of high marketplace need continue to be in demand for full-time, part-time or just-in-time jobs. The under-skilled will find precious few jobs in a struggling economy when lower skilled jobs no longer are in high demand.