After my last piece on unemployment a colleague told me, “Ken, 92 percent of people are working, so what’s the big deal? We forget the fact that most people are employed.”
What my colleague doesn’t see are the scores of single women who’ve taken one or two part-time jobs in order to pay the bills. Not to pay for the extras, just the basics. I’ve known men in the news business that are so underpaid that after their health insurance premium is deducted from their check their children qualify for Medicaid. Yes, they’re working, but barely making it.
I focus on the impact of unemployment because it’s not pretty to witness one person or an entire family literally crumble, ravaged by the perils of an economy and job market that’s changed forever.
It’s especially cruel to train people for jobs when the actual training required is far beyond the scope of the “make work” program. Be careful about the programs that are out there offering false hope or faux training for positions that don’t exist.
The most effective tool for me was having access to a Career Transition Service that works with people who have been “laid-off” or “downsized,” common terms for being without a job these days.
But the prescription to success is taking inventory of your skills and to figure out what you do well. I firmly believe that everyone has something in their skill set that someone’s willing to pay money for. The problem today is finding that reservoir inside of you that holds that knowledge and to be conscious enough to access those resources that lie within each of us.
Writing is part-time work for me. During the past five years this industry has been devastated by the shrinking economic fortunes of Central New York. I’ve always worked and to be counted among those “few” who don’t have jobs is disheartening when you have to face National Grid or the next month’s car note.
Yes, there are a lot of people working but I never forget the true 10 to 20 percent that just don’t show up in the unemployment statistics. These people no longer eat at their favorite restaurants or go to the corner store for a snack or pay their mortgage.
After almost a year I found employment by becoming self-employed. I travel an hour each way and I have a one-year commitment. But as a result of this journey I’ve become a different person responsible for whatever happens regardless of the economy.
I spent 30 years building a skill set that some wanted me to cloak and hide, but I have to thank my step father who, years before he died, told me “You have something I never had the opportunity to get and that’s an education, don’t ever let anyone tell you how to use it.”
Thanks, Dad.
