There seems to be a great misrepresentation in the unemployment data that is often cited, as I've indicated in this blogs previous posts. The published 10% unemployment rate is the "U-3" number, which counts just current job seekers (i.e. collecting benefits). U-3 Total unemployed persons, is represented as a percent of the civilian labor force (the official unemployment rate)
What it doesn't count are "discouraged" workers,
who have given up looking, and the "involuntarily part-time" or
underemployed workers, who also can't find full-time work. Those individuals are in the the "U-6" number, a more recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics metric. U-6 represents total unemployed persons, plus all “marginally attached” workers, plus all persons employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all “marginally attached” workers.
Today the U-6 metric is more than 17 percent, which means real unemployment is approaching one in five Americans. And, yes, that's a (post-Depression) record (Unemployment in the United States rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%) cited in the recent work Principles of Economics by Robert Frank and Ben Bernanke
There seems to be growing evidence that something far more fundamental than just another economic cycle may be going on. The modern office/factory-model job as we know it actually could be headed for extinction. Goodbye, permanent employment. Hello, contingent work, contractual employment and "composite" careers. For several years, I've been discussing this phenomenon as I speak to conferences and trade groups around the country)
Many of us know people who hold down several part=time and home-based businesses. You probably know of people yourself who might deliver newspapers, do home remodeling and sellsAMWAY. It's a living -- in fact, many have been doing it for years by choice.
I'm also seeing more and more six-month and one-year contract jobs with employers who don't want to commit to workers beyond that. This may well be the shape of things to come.
William Bridges, the visionary executive development consultant and author who named this phenomenon "dejobbing," foresaw this years ago: "What is disappearing is not just a certain number of jobs -- or jobs in certain industries or jobs in some part of the country or even jobs in America as a whole. What is disappearing is the very thing itself, the job."
Here's a point to ponder...
As organizations employ more "contingent" workers, how do you provide for the skill development that is needed to ensure you have the skill levels and continuity for you to continue to prosper?
And also consider this: Is your organization satisfied with the "union hall" model that puts the onus of skill development and work ethic, back on the contingent provider company? (that is, if they send you a person who isn't up to the job, just send them back and ask for another?)
