There’s an unemployment problem in this country, but it’s not the one you think it is. The unemployment rate, already over 10 percent in 14 states, is expected to reach that figure nationally in the U.S. later this year, and most blame it entirely on the Great Recession that presently plagues us. While that blame is not ascribed entirely unfairly, focusing exclusively on the current, acute economic troubles so intently may obscure a bigger, more ominous threat to the long-employed: cultural change and technological progress.
From automobiles to newspapers, evolution in technologies, as well as changes in temperament and taste, are yielding significant and everlasting changes in whole industries, to include seeing to their outright elimination. This condition will persist long after the current, shorter-term economic troubles have ended, and for many the remedy will be found with adaptation; the ability to recognize, with great foresight, the societal changes in direction and smartly react to them.
The adaptation about which I speak may take any of a variety of forms in its manifestation. It may mean physically moving from your present location to one where jobs are more plentiful; it may mean returning to school, to earn advanced certifications or a new profession altogether; it may mean harnessing the power and opportunity presented by the Internet age to cultivate multiple streams of income from several of the mechanisms available therein.
Adaptation is not always pleasant, because adaptation means more work and sacrifice. That said, the writing is on the wall, my friends, and those who choose not to see it may well find themselves represented in unemployment figures long after the current economic mess is a part of history.
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Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor-At-Large www.ChristianMoney.com
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