We've Have Been Jobbed!

"Jobbed" -To be the victim of a conspiracy; to lose a seemingly fair contest because of deceit; to be guaranteed to lose. The term derives from the professional wrestling term "jobber".  

First some background. I have had a very interesting career. Not typical, not normal, but very interesting. More than once, I was blessed to be in the right place at the right time. In addition, I have been humbled to have my career plans unexpectedly change more than once. All in all however, it was a great ride as I had many experiences and learned a lot.

My job history started at age 15 working for the YMCA. I did youth work with after school programs as well as giving swim lessons. At 16, I started working after school and during the summertime for Montgomery Wards to learn the world of retail. I did that until age 19 when the Navy came calling.

After discharge, I attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota and accepted employment from Sperry Univac in a low level finance position. I was able to move up into Contract Management and stayed there until I was recruited by the rapidly expanding Control Data. CDC hired me to do a job I knew nothing about, and the learning was very painful. However, the money was very good, we were expecting our first baby, so failure was not an option. I ended up working at CDC for almost 10 years until recruited by FMC.

I finished out by Aerospace/Defense career at FMC. I worked there almost 10 years, had highs and lows (fortunately more highs than lows), and then decided to have a huge career change. One day, after almost 25 years in the only industry I knew, I quit. No job, no prospects, nothing. However, employment had always come easy, so I thought after taking a few weeks off, I would find something interesting. Wrong! With kids still in high school, for the first time in my life I was unemployed.

After a few months I was hired by Nash Finch. It was a short, but sweet tenure. While there, the outsourcing group from IBM and I became close - too close. IBM ended up hiring me and I worked for Big Blue for the next 7 years. After retiring from IBM I worked at two other places for short periods - at a large church and at Ecolab. That's it - end of my career. Along with a 21 year career in the Navy, I believe I had a good taste of the workplace. 

That brings me to the current job situation.  If I was starting my career today, I would not have had the opportunities I experienced 40 years ago. At one time you took a job with a firm because the chemistry was right. Like our parents before us, there was an expectation to work at that firm or organization until retirement. My dad worked for the same company for almost 45 years - unheard of today.

Today it is rare to work for the same company for an entire career. I read not to long ago that the average number of job changes for young people entering the job market is seven - and that number is expected to go up. Everyone has become an "at will" employee. You can be let go for a multitude of reasons that have nothing to do with your job performance. You can be outsourced, right sourced, co-sourced or resourced. The number of jobs paying a decent salary and good benefits continues to shrink. Well paying, well benefited jobs are being replaced with service sector jobs. When the government reports on the number of jobs created every month contain many jobs which are lower paying and low or no benefits compared to jobs lost. Lies and damn lies - another way we have been jobbed.

We get a lot of information every week on the employment, or lack there of. What is reported is the "U-3" index, which is how many people are reported to have filed for unemployment and are looking for a job.  It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time. This number bounces all over like a yo-yo. One month earlier this year, the workplace participation went down and the number of filers for unemployment went up. The number of people filing for unemployment goes up, the percentage of people unemployed should go up. The percentage went down, because the workplace percentage also went down. Even though things got worse, some of our leaders had pressers to tell us things were getting better. Again, we got jobbed.

So how do we get an honest number for how the economy is doing? Not just a yo-yo number like the "U-3" number, but one that takes into consideration the unemployed, the under employed and the people who have fallen off the radar as they have given up. For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work. So why is the "U-6" number not used instead of the wildly inaccurate "U-3" number? It would be suicide for the ruling party to have this number known and understood. The "U-3" number keeps most in the dark, in the Martix. Jobbed.

The "U-6" number is startling. Nevada's rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007. Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.

The bottom line for the job situation in our country is this: if you don't understand the metrics, you are not suppose to. I believe the proper word for how job information is disclosed is obfuscation. What I will tell you is this - we are living in a different world than our parents. If you are out of work, it will be hard to find something decent. If your company does not now have benefits, it probably never will. If you get let go from a job, chances are it was not your fault. Things are tough, but getting valid information about the job market makes it all the tougher. We deserve better - we deserve the truth - we are tired of being jobbed.