Last night I was reading Thomas Friedman’s book, That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World it Invented and How We Can Get it Back. In Section FOUR – Up in the Air, there is a sub-section called Creators and Servers. In this section Friedman explains how recovery from recessions or downturns has changed since World War II. He quotes Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago saying that:
- From WWII to 1991 it typically took 8 months for jobs lost during a recession to return to their previous levels
- After 1991 it took 23 months for jobs to return to prerecession levels
- After 2001 it took 38 months
- After 2007 it is expected to take five years or more
The main reason for the change is that the world has changed, and continues to change so fast. When jobs go away during a recession, they usually don’t come back in the same form they were in prior to cutback. And the two factors that are driving this change the most are 1) advances in technology, and 2) globalization.
Both of these factors also have a huge impact on what kind of people we need to have in different types of roles. Oftentimes, the additional technology components incorporated into a job means that we need a higher skilled person to perform the job. Globalization means that we can often find this resource cheaper someplace else.
And all of this should be considered by young adults as they try to figure out what/who they want to be when they grow up, and what is the best path to get them there.
Mike McCormack is the founder of PeopleRight and PeopleRight Careers. He spent over twenty years in corporate America before launching his first business 10 years ago. His main mission is helping people and companies match individual skills and talents to the needs of the world. You can reach Mike at 214 702-6826.