Focusing And Broadening - Employees' Choices Of Growing Under The Wave Of Recession
The continuing pandemic, growing inflation, and down-turning economic situations have all made the living conditions of the employees tougher than before - in this heating August.
Author:Paolo ReynaReviewer:James PierceOct 20, 202297 Shares1.7K Views
The continuing pandemic, growing inflation, and down-turning economic situations have all made the living conditions of the employees tougher than before - in this heating August.
Sourced to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in August 2022 reached 3.7%, which is lower than the expected 3.5%. The number in July is 3.5%, showing that it is an unexpected rise since the economy has added around 315,000 job vacancies to the labor market. Meanwhile, the exact number of unemployed employees of 3.7% is 600,000, which has greatly increased from the 344,000 last month.
CouponBirds - an online coupons providing platform - did a surveyof 5,342 laid-off employees in every state of the US, to find out the specific existing differences among states. Data shows that in August, the District of Columbia had the highest unemployment rate, which reached 5.2% (equals that there is one employee who lost their job out of five employees in August). This high rate is followed by Alaska and New Mexico, and their unemployment rate is both 4.5%. The number reaches the lowest point in Minnesota, which is 1.8%.
Experts indicate that the probable reason for the existing difference in unemployment rate among different states is that there are differences in the industrial structure and government rescue methods in each state.
The unemployment rate also varies between different kinds of jobs. According to recent databy the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of layoffs has increased month by month since the beginning of 2022, with the largest number of layoffs in the fields of trade, transportation, and utilities. There may be tons of reasons for this, but some of them are probably because these types of jobs are always more repetitive and mechanical so the employees are highly replaceable. And they are prone to greater adjustments in industrial structure changes.
CouponBirds also surveyed the willingness of being laid off and receiving some compensation, in other words, how much is their expected compensation when being laid off. Data showed that 50% of employees said that if the company is willing to compensate for two months' salary as a layoff compensation, they will be willing to accept the reality of being laid off; 30% of employees said they would accept one month's salary compensation; while the rest of the respondents said they could not accept the fact of being laid off, no matter how much of compensating they would get. In fact, employees are always encouraged to confirm if there would be severance pay when signing a work agreement since it’s not requiredin the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). However, for employers, giving severance packages to employees who leave involuntarily always better reflects the humanitarianism of the company; for employees, when there is a disagreement with the company on the issue of severance pay, you can choose to ask the union for help.
Individuals are weak, and the strengths of each individual are always small. It may not be able to strongly fight against the wave of recession since the environment of the economy is continuing to go down, which is the common tendency around the globe. The impact of the virus pandemic and other natural disasters strike our lives every day. Since there is no way to avoid the strong trend, what you can do is to be active, take action with no further doubts, and take the initiative to protect ourselves.
First, you need to focus.
Focus on your current financial situation can be a vital factor in your career choice. If you’re facing severe financial crises or challenges, then you better be careful and choose jobs with stronger stability. What’s more, in the current economic situation, be cautious to buy big purchases like cars and houses, and would be better to prepare more savings for occasional issues.
Focus on what you really need, for both our career pursuit and daily needs. There may be many complicated factors impacting your choice, but still, stay not influenced by anyone else and just focus on yourself. Consider how much you would like to stay in the current phase, and how much it will take for you to change. Focus on two questions: What are the satisfying facts and dissatisfying facts in your current status? How important or impactful are those facts for you? List them both in one sheet - makes it easier and more intuitive to compare.
What’s more, you also need to broaden our horizons.
Broaden our horizons of current situations, so that you can have a comprehensive view of what you are in now, as well as a wider range of choices. Also, broaden our horizons of the future, so that it can provide us a through-going perspective and help us make better choices synthesizing current forms and future trends.
Focusing and broadening are not antonyms in today's context. Under the trend of downturns everywhere, as employees, you should see the world in a more full-scale view, broaden our horizons to the age and focus on ourselves in detail. In this way you can keep yourself safe from temporary challenges, and make choices that you won’t regret now and then.
Paolo Reyna
Author
James Pierce
Reviewer
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