Three influences are making increasingly difficult to find a permanent job or being able to shift from job to job at will.
First, Charles Handy’s prediction that corporations would evolve into “shamrock organizations” consisting of a core of permanent employees, a network of vendor companies it contracts with, and a larger pool of contingent or temporary workers, is being fulfilled. Temporary workers, who now make up about a quarter of large corporations’s workforces and will rise to 50% within the decade, work without benefits, the most important and costly one being health insurance.
Second, indicative of the difficulty of finding jobs, the proportion of the adult population working or seeking work has declined to 63%. This number is called the Labor Force Participation Rate or LFPR and has not been this low since 1982. Many people have simply given up.
Third, the availability of unemployment insurance is shrinking. Less than 50% of the unemployed receive state or federal unemployment insurance.
While there are ups and downs to being your own boss, for many people, it offers the best route to a sustainable livelihood.
For an initial free consultation to explore this or another sustainable livelihood that bests suits your personality and your community, contact us. mailto:paul@elmstreeteconomy.com
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Comments on the substance of the blogs are welcome. If you have other questions, please contact me directly for a consulting appointment.
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