Posted on 03/02/2009 9:23:05 PM PST by Chet 99
Will Part of Professional Class Be Wiped Out by the Downturn?
Posted 14 hours, 55 minutes ago By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Wall Street Journal column asserts that the safety net doesnt extend to the growing professional class in the United States, and airs the possibility that part of these jobs will be wiped out.
The Microtrends column in the Wall Street Journal says the United States is totally unprepared for professional job losses. We have safety nets for the chronically unemployed, for the fast-food workers let go (oddly they may be the only ones keeping their jobs in this recession), and for the manufacturing plants that have been shuttered. The stimulus will create construction jobs galore. But there are no jobs for the professionals such as writers and editors who cant build roads, according to the article.
The column notes job losses at top law firms and says lawyers are hit hard. They principally had their savings in the stock and housing markets, which have been decimated. Unlike many blue-collar and public-sector workers, they have no union protection, limited pensions and suburban-family expenses. And as professionals, they have perfected how to do their narrow job well. But many have little direct business sense or experience.
Its unclear how long and deep the recession will be and how much of this class will be wiped out, the article says. These professionals worked and studied hard to become successful, but now many face lost jobs and financial security.
(Excerpt) Read more at abajournal.com ...
They don't do well with newspapers and magazines either!
Okay well I'm screwed LOL
(Although unlike some of my fellows in this biz, I've actually worked in a machine shop and ain't afraid to use my hands.)
"And as professionals, they have perfected how to do their narrow job well. But many have little direct business sense or experience.
I suppose lawyers could go back to religion where they can live off the work of others by 'reading the sacred babble' to us unwashed in local, state, and federal codes.( why do you think they call'm 'codes'?)
They have plenty of experience in carpetbagging, grave robbing, extortion, bribery and blackmail... The mob is always hiring...
My husband and I are assuming he is safe for the same reason. Up until the election he was really considering going 80% time. Now he’s talking about trying to do extra work instead.
I don’t know if the Mafia would lower themselves to take lawyers.
Maybe crack whores could have someone feed their kid pop-tarts or something.
Boilsucking isn’t used in medicine anymore, so that’s out.
I think like the elderly eskimos, the best thing would be to build thousands of large rafts and push them out into the Gulf Stream.
On the positive side, the white collar professionals who will find themselves out of work will represent a pool of talented people who have the ability to use their creativity to help themselves and the economy.
“...No offense to any legal Freepers, but I hate lawyers as a general rule. The bar associations have hijacked our court system... good riddance...”
I can’t say if so many lawyers of all kinds are the cause, or effect — but the Law (and Government) itself has become so complicated, expensive and byzantine the average man needs this special class of “priests” to help negotiate it - which has turned the Law into a kind of dictatorship
Isn’t it great; 92% of these guys voted for Obamessiah and he is destroying them along with the rest of America. Liberals foolishly believe it will happen to every one else but them. Reality is setting in; unless you are a FOO (friend of Obama) your head is on the chopping block.
Robots are taking over those fields, and soon others, including many female jobs. We are at the same early stage in robotics that existed when Bill Gates started Microsoft. All the base technologies exist but it may take a major war against Asia to bring it all together. There will be money to be made in manufacturing robots but the big profits will be in robot software development. Anything related to robotics is an excellent direction to go in right now.
I have also been told by a lawyer who has been practicing for 35 years that practicing law has changed dramatically in the past 35 years and he would not recommend it as a career choice.
Only about the top 10% of the class gets hired by the big firms, which pay the big bucks (and also require ridiculous hours). Most freshly graduated lawyers don’t make even close to that.
I went to UH Law and know how hard it is to get a job, even one that doesn’t pay well at all. Many lawyers are making less than teachers. It took me a year after passing the bar to get a real job (where I wasn’t working as a clerk or as a sole practitioner during cases no one else wanted),and that wasn’t exactly a job to write home about.
Plus many of the bigger firms are laying off. Or at least freezing hiring.
Additionally, the salary isn’t as impressive once you consider the $120,000 in student loans that need to be paid back.
That depends on the professional relationships you have established. In my smaller hospital, my docs trust my readings and get nervous even when American trained locums show up.
In any case, I have far more work than I need or want ..... especially from the ER that, as one of our surgeons once griped, too often "get a CT in lieu of doing an H & P."
You’ll be fine
You can't outsource the ability to manage cheap folks in India (and China). I have done both. "Seamlessly" taking functional requirements and translating them into both tech specs and project plans is very much in demand.
But continuing to code means I have unique insights into problems (and approaches) that general Management don't. In my firm I am very much in demand and I have a client list out the wazoo that would very much want me -- now more than even because I can fill multiple positions.
Like I said -- keep your tools sharp and be both deep and wide. That is how you survive. Be a value proposition and get and keep a good reputation (as a Miracle Worker if you can).
“There is an entire generation of college graduates, heavily female and heavily urban, who have been making six-figure incomes and consuming useless crap while doing nothing of value.
I expect what is about to happen will affect them to a significant degree.”
They will scream “SEXISM” and make sure much more qualified White Straight Christian/Jewish Males are fired first.
Compost
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.