Changing economy poses challenges for job seekers, shifts mean new world for those seeking work

Market Watch ^ | 05/08/2010 | Market Watch

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A surprisingly strong April jobs report points to a labor market on the mend, but for 15.3 million unemployed Americans it will take a long time yet to overcome the steep job losses resulting from the Great Recession and longer-term changes to the labor market.

While the economy added 290,000 nonfarm jobs in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, almost 7.8 million jobs have been lost since December 2007, and structural shifts in the labor market started long before that. See related story on the April jobs report.

For years, goods-producing jobs have disappeared as the service sector has grown. More recently, the recession has wreaked havoc on middle-skill jobs -- from sales and production work to office and administrative. Post-graduate degrees are proving increasingly valuable. And temporary positions have seen gains in recent months.

[The Magical Mischief Tour]

Everytime I read a story like this one I can’t help but read it as some type of eulogy for the middle class.

I can’t help but read it as someone trying to explain to those who have lost jobs, and to those who will lose their jobs in the coming moths that its over.

Your only hope is to win the lottery or something.

Even college grads are having trouble finding work.

And you know its bad when lawyers are hurting to find work!

Law School Graduates Face a Tough Job Market - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704866204575224350917718446.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

[2ndDivisionVet]

My late father grew up during the Great Depression. He said that the only people that consistently had enough to eat and money to spend were the salesmen and their families.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Post-graduate degrees are proving increasingly valuable.
(If true that just means we have a surplus of stupid and gullible employers. I can show them stacks of resumes from people with worthless online MBA’s from fly-by-night correspndence colleges. If they are paying extra for that, they are morons)

And temporary positions have seen gains in recent months.(when the Gubbermint starts throwing mandated benefits around you avoid expanding your headcount however possible)

“One of the things that has become really important is not just that people get out of high school and go to college, but that people go back to school. That sort of training helps quite a bit in transitioning people to new careers,”
(Employers have bought into 60 yrs. of propaganda from the Education bureaucracy that they need not spend one dime of their own money on training, that this marvelous Educrat system they’ve constructed will take care of all of that for them)

“You get to help rehabilitate people and make a good amount of money,” (not after Obamacare kicks in)

“When it’s easy to find a full-time job that pays good wages then the price of college is pretty high. In current circumstances, that price is a lot lower for a lot of people.” (say WHAT??? Tuition hikes are always running in double digits ahead of inflation, and have for decades)

[algernonpj]

per article: "Phillips isn't counting on the return of his old job. He's back at school, training to become a physical therapist assistant. "You get to help rehabilitate people and make a good amount of money," he said. "

I hate to burst Phillips bubble, but we have 'guest workers' who will do that job at a lower salary because they pay no or partial taxes, depending upon the visa.

We continue to bring in 125,000 new workers into the US each month (a combination of guest workers and green cards), for a total of 1,500,000 per year.

Those in the medical field and in teaching are being aggressively replaced by cheaper guest workers who are just doing 'jobs Americans won't do'.

We are witnessing the demise of the pesky American middle class. Ain't globalism grand!