What Unexpected Numbers?

What’s the reality of these uncertain times?

If you have a job what steps do you need to take to keep that job?

If you don’t have a job, how can you fast-track your job search?

Recently, I read an article published on the Web by Bloomberg.com, stating “First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week and total benefit rolls soared to a record high, a sign companies may keep shedding jobs as the recession worsens.”

Before reading the report, I went to the Department of Labor to review downturns in the economy since the late seventies. Personally, I am more interested in what is happening or has happened around my back step in Oklahoma instead of national unemployment statistics. Recessions much like job search are local in scope.

I have been helping people shift gears in their career for almost a quarter of a century. And I’ve seen a few bumps in the road along with times when the economy hits a ditch. To say the weekly numbers are unexpected, is like sticking your head in the sand and pretending everything is peachy.

If you have had your head in the sand or have turned the TV and Radio off, this might be a surprise to you. Where I sit in Oklahoma the unemployment numbers for December indicated that 95% of the workforce had jobs. When the numbers are tabulated for January and February, those numbers will be higher. But the sky is not falling, there is still opportunity.

Those of us who are in the ancient ranks, throughout our career, have done things that we didn’t want to do. This generation may be called on to put their dreams in a box and take them out on another day. Or they may find a super highway to make their dreams come true.

The optimist in me says, find you path to the super highway and make things happen. While it may not be easy, and sacrifice may become the watch word for the emerging generation. But if it is giving up luxuries so you can build a future, that sacrifice becomes a privilege.

To put some perspective to my optimism, I began writing résumés and coaching clients in the fine art of job search, during what the Labor Department, called a recession in the late nineteen eighties. I have privately called that downturn a depression. The stories popping up today are just another version of what happens when people lose their identity - the one they have built through their career.

I am all in favor of a safety net to help those discourage and need assistance in finding their way. Finding a counselor or career coach may put your identity into perspective. After the shock and anger subsides, it is time to evaluated job opportunities at your back step. What type of job opportunities are there within 5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles, 100 miles, 500 miles? Has your job skill joined the ranks of the buggy whip manufacturer? Do you need more training? Can you shift gears and transfer your skills to another industry? What are your options to find immediate employment?

Yes there will be unexpected turns, dead-ends and opportunities? Arm yourself the knowledge to distinguish opportunities and treats to your future.

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