It is illustrative to look at some actual numbers about the last half-decade or so of employment in the USA and to consider where they could be heading. Here is a chart of employment and population numbers from the Current Population Survey aggregate data, which shows the United States long term employment creation by decade. Jobs are constantly being created and destroyed in a dynamic economy emphasizing competition like the USA currently has. As a statistical matter, the low number of net jobs created in the decade 2000–2009 is due to a low number of new jobs created, not due to an especially higher than usual number of jobs destroyed (net jobs is new jobs created minus old jobs destroyed). For example, over the time period in that chart, large numbers of manufacturing jobs disappeared, like in textile production, both from improved automation and from offshoring of production. Thus was a trend observed even in 1987 and it has accelerated dramatically since, with many US communities dependent on textile manufacturing experiencing "severe hardships". But also during that time, a large number of service industry jobs have been created, such as in teaching, in prisons, in government, in hospitals, and in the computer industry, for an overall continued growth in employment. This reflects comparative advantage.
In the years 2008 and 2009, initial jobless claims in the USA moved up from the usual 350,000 or so initial jobless claims per week in previous years to more like 500,000 or so a week. This reflected a situation where there was only one new job created for about every six unemployed workers; in some industries the ratio was higher and in others it was lower. This is sometimes depicted as like the "stalling" of some jobs creation engine. This stalling metaphor reflects a political emphasis in a dynamic US economy on creating new jobs rather than preserving existing jobs. It can often be pointless to try to preserve some specific old jobs, as many specific jobs may gradually become obsolete from technological change, like replacing some bank tellers with ATMs. Other jobs may become unneeded from demographic trends, like an aging population purchasing less baby clothes and more hearing aids. This constant turnover in what jobs need to be done is part of the reason that the average person born in the later years of the US "baby boom" (1957 to 1964) held 10.8 jobs from age 18 to age 42, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.
Finding employment in paying jobs in the USA during a recession has been likened to "a cruel game of musical chairs".
Source of this article is Companies Management
Source of this article is Companies Management