How the Recession in the U.S. Economy Impacts the Career Marketplace

An economy needs jobs in order to be healthy. A job not only gives a person a means of living but it the disposable income enables the consumerism needed to stop a recession. Many believe that this recession in the U.S. economy may be quite long because there may not be enough jobs to go around and sources for new jobs are diminishing. Let’s take a look at some of the aspects of career erosion that will continue to feed the recession in the U.S. economy:

Being a doctor is no longer as prosperous as it used to be. Excessive litigation, rising malpractice insurance costs, and troubles with the insurers mean that being a doctor is not the money maker it used to be. Complicating this is the reality that medical school is too expensive for most to attend. Another variable in this quagmire of uncontrolled expense is the health maintenance organization (HMO). These are the businesses that reimburse doctors when they are treated by one if their enrolled members. It is health insurance but they only pay a pre-set amount and any difference between the doctor’s costs and the insurance reimbursement are passed on to the consumer (patient). As the state of the U.S. economy and the recession worsen, patients will be unable to pay their patient shares (the difference between what the HMO reimbursed the provider and the provider’s bill).

There are fewer product-producing jobs in the United States. This means that the U.S. economy is saturated with service jobs. And when companies begin to lay off employees, the population of service jobs diminishes rapidly. For someone who typically has service jobs, it would be wise for them to begin learning how to produce a product.

Jobs in the information technology area will continue to shift overseas. Computer programming was once a lucrative career to get into however because a programmer was expensive for a business, sources for this type of labor were sought elsewhere. Also, when one considers that they are teaching basic web design and programming to middle school students, the professional web programmer will find his or her job less in demand and that salaries will drop in general. Lower salaries mean decreased buying power in the U.S. economy. And, the recession continues.

One will have to be much more versatile in a workplace in order to decrease the chance of being another layoff statistic. Employers are downsizing their workforces and are requiring those left be able to wear multiple hats in their workplace. While this may appear good in theory, the result is that you will have worker burnout much faster. With worker burnout, you have employee turnover. It costs everyone and reduces American buying power more.

Middle-aged and senior citizens are going to have a tough time in the job market. It is true that there is no legal age discrimination in America but in reality it happens all the time. Companies pay much less for younger workers out of college. For those aged 40 and above, it will get increasingly more difficult to find any good paying job even with experience because of the salary issue. The young persons alone cannot revive the U.S. economy and turn around the recession. The expertise of all age groups is needed.