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I’ve been reading an article by Scott Gerber of nevergetarealjob.com about the reality of the modern jobs market.

Scott makes some good points about the problems of the employment markets in the developed world.

He points out that there are currently over 81 million young people unemployed throughout the world.Yet at the same time young people are still being told by parents, teachers and society:  ”Go to college or university. Study hard. Graduate with good grades – and a big debt. Then send out resumes by the hundred and land a ‘good job’ with a large corporation”.

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And spend the next decade or more paying off your college debt. Whilst taking on a mortgage at the same time – yet more debt for you to service.

In other words, people are still being presented with the view of the world as understood by old people as it was back in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

The problem is that the world isn’t like that anymore.

The old post-war world began to fall apart in the 80s

Three things happened since the 1980s which had a major impact on the economies of the developed countries and which have changed the nature of the employment markets of these countries.

The first thing that happened was the opening up of China

Before the 1980s doing business with the Chinese world meant Hong Kong or Taiwan. Mainland China itself was a closed out of bounds Communist country. Then China began to reform and open up it’s economy. Since then it’s pace of industrialization and modernization has been breathtaking. Industries that were once based in Europe have now migrated to China.

The second thing was the end of the Eastern Bloc

Next came the collapse of Communism in the USSR and Eastern Europe, together with the reunification of Germany. With this came the opening up of the economies of the ex-Eastern Bloc and their integration into the world free market system.

This meant lower cost resources – in particular labour resources – now became available to multinationals in Western Europe and the US.  This meant that from then on, jobs in the Western developed countries would not longer be so secure as they had been up until then.

And finally, the opening up of the Internet to the public

Prior to the end of the 80s the Internet was accessible only to education and research institutions and government authorities.

Then with the end of the Cold War, the Internet was opened up to commercial firms and the general public. This has made possible a massive communications explosion.  Communications were no longer under the control and restriction of Post Office authorities or telephone companies. Global communications are now so cheap that they’re almost free.

But the Internet isn’t just about communication and media.

The net is also a completely new marketing channel

The Internet makes it easier and cheaper to buy, sell and outsource globally.  It’s now possible to create “virtual firms”,  with staff scattered throughout the world, without even an office or physical address. Firms can now reach markets anywhere in the world much easier than before.

The result: Globalization

Globalization has begun to shake up the whole of the old economic system. Jobs are migrating. Economic activity is migrating.  It’s a process that’s going on right now.

The old world of employment no longer exists

At the same time the developed countries are producing more and more graduates than ever.  The current goal of the UK government is for 50 percent of all young people to enter higher education.

Yet the old sector of large blue-chip companies can’t create the extra jobs and careers that are needed.  They’re actually going in the opposite direction: cutting and migrating jobs to Eastern Europe, China and India.

Economists, politicians, trade unions, businesses and the public still aren’t sure how to respond to this. Some aren’t even aware of the full impact of all this. Often they think we’ll just “weather it through” and that it will soon go back to “business as usual”.

Many people still look at things the way they’ve become accustomed to over the last 20, 30 or more years:  still pushing the old conventional path of study, debt and mass CV writing leading to a long term job.  I agree with Scott Gerber that this is an obsolete model.

The old pre-1980s system of employment can’t help us now nor in the future. We need to take a new and different approach.

In my next post on this topic I’ll discuss how we can get out of this dilemma.

Image courtesy of Labour Youth

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