Here is some interesting information, from the Huffington Post: Long-Term Unemployed Now 46 Percent Of Unemployed, Highest Percentage On Record.
This is a scary aspect of “unemployment” that you don’t hear about often. I think, though, in the scariness, there is opportunity. Many of those who are long-term unemployed, and want to get back to work, are skilled and/or hungry. Perhaps even desperate. Maybe some of them will start their own companies.
The strength of the U.S. could be, it’s been argued, in the small businesses and capitalism. If that is the case, perhaps it would be awesome to see much of this talent move to “self-employed,” and see where that goes.
I really need to pick up Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation… a book that is fairly old (2002) but I have hears about it for a while, which talks about this idea.
Scary, but full of opportunity, don’t you think? Or is that just wishful thinking… ?
Hey Jason, you probably know this about me but your readers may not. My company was actually formed when I lost my first ever position in 1987 as a Community Manager of a 400 unit luxury project under construction. We had worked for the owner / developer in Wausau, WI for 5 years before taking the transfer to Naperville, IL. We had our first child and while we were waiting to move to the project I became pregnant with our second son. He was born in Naperville. There were misconceptions on both sides, child care was never discussed and because the owner had his son in his office to the age of 5, I wrongly assumed that I would have some latitude with child care. No, at 4 weeks of age, Dan and Tim, 14 months had to go to fulltime childcare. Everything melted down from there on.
It was a blessing in disguise but nonetheless the heartbreak of losing both my job and my husband’s who was the owner’s Construction Liaison and Facilities Manager and the new apartment we were calling home was hard to take.
I built my business the hard way and neither of us ever worked for anyone ever again as employees. I can’t say it was easy and as you know, life has changed dramatically this year. But it is good.
All of my experiences led me to be very empathetic to job seekers and career changers. I understand the goals of individuals and the depression of a job loss.
Starting a business can often be an uphill climb, which can be especially tough when money is desperately needed. That having been said, I am happy for all those who use the current economic situation as motivation to start their own businesses and are able to make it work. My guess is that on average most of these business owners will be much happier in the long run then they would have been working for someone else.
This is great if someone has the entrepreneurial spirit and resources. Many people are not cut out to run their own business or have family/personal issues that would prohibit investing the time required. So to some degree I think it is wishful thinking. On the other hand, creating new businessses may create new employment opportunities for those that don’t want to start a business, and that’s good for everybody.