“Are job skills obsolete or just too common?” |
| Are job skills obsolete or just too common? Posted: 05 Sep 2010 07:06 PM PDT For six years, Murphy Ashley enjoyed the security of a decent-paying job in welding and manufacturing. Then came the recession. The College Park man lost his job making steel parts for beds, counters and mailboxes. Needing to support his wife and two kids, he searched for work, finally landing a low-paying position in a paint-making factory. He added income by starting a cleaning business on the side. For Ashley, it didn't make sense to wait around for a job like the one he lost. "I couldn't find anything under my own job skills," said Ashley, 33. "It's always good to have your own company." Today will be the third Labor Day since the Great Recession began, pulling Americans into an economic riptide. Virtually every sector lost jobs. But what kind of downturn is this? Is it simply a nasty cycle that eventually will end? Or is it a fundamental shift in the kinds of skills that are valuable to employers — that is, a structural change in the economy? The more time experts have to assess the market, the better they'll know. Still, frustrated job-seekers are left asking a key question: Are my skills obsolete? Or are they just too common? The answer could send the unemployed back to school, across the country, or into a lower-paying job. Or home to wait it out. Paris Sirakis, 31, of Sandy Springs, Ga., was first laid off from his job as an industrial engineer in 2007. He worked on and off as a consultant before landing another engineering job. Then last summer, the company outsourced his group's work. He went home to Michigan, working in his family's jewelry business for a few months before he landed a job back in Atlanta through Kelly Services. He's using his engineering skills as a project manager for a company "in the food and beverage industry." Survival is about flexibility and versatility, he said. "Companies are looking for the best they can get for their dollar. Whatever project they throw at you, you've got to be able to handle it." Angela Carr, 33, of Atlanta had been a supervisor in a call center, a job that called for both management as well as technical skills. She lost the job when the center closed. She found a job in the office of First Step Staffing, an organization that helps the homeless find work. She's thinking about training for the health care field, she said. "I'm starting to think that maybe I need to make changes to change with the economy." Moving with the market can be the way to success, said Peter Bourke, author and founder of a Christian career ministry. But when possible, a job-seeker should look at "ancillary careers where his or her skill set is easily transferable without major re-training," said Bourke, a principal in Alpharetta-based Complex Sale, a training and consulting company. If job-seekers have the "wrong" skills right now, it may not be that companies need anything different than they did before. But there are so many unemployed, companies can demand exactly what they want. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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