If you close off your job search to include traditional full-time with benefits jobs, you may be unemployed for a very long time. Employers are changing the way they hire, so you need to be open to non-traditional opportunities.
Spending every day submerged in the unemployment crisis, I have realized that companies are more and more often using innovative strategies to cut costs with employees. Businesses remain insecure about the economic market, and the costs employers are skimping on are benefits packages and salaries. In order to do this, they have devised several tactics. These are the new faces of employment:
1. Part-time employees only. Rather than have six full-timers, they might have 12 part-timers instead. The wages might be the same, but no benefits are paid by the employer. Retail establishments and fast food joints have done this for years. During the job search, for some it becomes necessary to shoulder two part-time jobs in place of one full-time job.
2. Temp agency employees. This is a major new trend, particularly in manufacturing and in clerical work. An employment agency is used by companies to fill vacant positions on a temporary basis. Once again, no benefits must be provided and in addition, if the employee doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the job, the company simply notifies the temp agency to send someone else. Companies also do not have to post jobs, interview, or perform human resource functions for temp workers. There are dozens of temps working for up to a year at some manufacturing plants. Some temp agencies only work their temps three months, lay them off, and fill in the slots with new temps. It’s an employers’ market right now and many people are willing to take any work available through any means necessary. It’s a great disadvantage for employees, but there is always the possibility that the company could hire a temp permanently full-time.
3. More work, less pay (fewer coworkers). It’s common now that when an employee leaves the company, their position is not filled, and the duties of that position are delegated among other employees. Companies are downsizing and reorganizing. New hires are paid less now than they would have been paid four years ago for the same position and the duties are more expansive than before since companies cannot afford as many employees as they could before the recession. Also, businesses have put raises on hold or have cut employees’ salaries in order to keep from closing the business, though inflation and the cost of medical insurance continue to rise.
4. Underemployment. With the average job search now taking much longer than it historically has, many people are forced to accept jobs for which they are overqualified as they continue to search for work that is more suited to their levels of education and experience.
5. Unpaid interns or volunteers. The intern trend applies specifically to professional businesses. They seek out college students who need an internship or who want some experience in the field of their college major, and it’s free labor for the business.
There are jobs out there, but they may not look like what you are used to seeing. Job seekers need to be open to new possibilities.
"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." ~Einstein~
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