Recent Work Trends

If you are thinking about your own career options, it is important to keep in mind general trends in the world of work. The job market is always shifting and has been changing at an accelerated rate over the last 20 years.

The Economy

Obviously, the state of the economy affects our career decisions. In a recession, jobs are likely to be in short supply, whereas in a time of rapid economic growth, there are more opportunities available. These openings are not caused just by the creation of new jobs, but also by people moving more freely between jobs. It is much easier to re-enter the job market or make radical career moves when the economy is booming.

Employment Structure

There has been a more fundamental shift in employment structure, which will affect career planning to a much greater degree than the economy. Although these changes will vary in detail by country, region and sector, the same broad shifts are evident across the Western world:

• A decline in less skilled jobs and a growth in high-skill, professional and 'knowledge' jobs.
• A growth in temporary and part-time employment.
• An increase in jobs in the service sectors, for example, in retailing, financial services and health services.
• The 'contracting out' of some work from larger organizations (e.g. in security, catering, cleaning) to smaller organizations or the self-employed.
• An increase in the importance of employment in smaller organizations and of self-employment.
• A reduction of employment in agriculture, fishing, mining, and so on.
• Relatively fewer jobs in manufacturing industry.

These shifts have caused considerable levels of general unemployment, along with shortages of people with particular skills.

What Does This Mean?

We have to realize that a 'job for life' is not a realistic prospect for us anymore, so we should expect several major changes in occupation during our career, and many more changes in our job or employer. We may have a 'portfolio career' involving several types of paid or unpaid work activities at the same time.

Change is constant. We need to understand that it is up to us to manage our skill development and career moves - if we do not ensure our own employability by attaining the right skills and move into areas that offer us growth and opportunity, then no one else will do it for us. This means we must look around for suitable work avenues to pursue and convince our employers that we are ready to tackle new challenges.

To manage our own careers, we need to be:

• Aware of and understand trends in the job market.
• Ready and capable of managing our own careers.
• Able to develop and use personal networks to find new work.
• Willing to learn new skills, especially higher-level, interpersonal and technological skills.
• Adaptable and flexible.