Brother, Can You Spare a Job?

 

An (Un)Stocked Market

    The job market isn’t exactly brimming with opportunity. It is an obvious statement, but one that isn’t any less serious and important to all of our lives. As many of you who are reading can attest, it seems more and more difficult to find a job than ever (especially good ones, the ones that actually pay somewhat decently, that give you the slightest bit of an illusion that someone at the job cares about you). How quickly decent jobs have disappeared may create the false impression that those of us who are not able to find employment are just not worthy of a decent job. This false idea, that it isn’t the number of jobs that have changed, it’s just that everyone else has gotten so far ahead of you, creates the dangerous catalyst of self-doubt. The less you feel like you deserve good employment, the less you feel compelled to search for it. Unfortunately, this false paradigm can lead to, ironically, many good jobs within an organization or company being shut down, due to an apparent “lack of interest” (well, at least that’s one of the reasons). Hopefully, you’ve already come to the realization in your life that this isn’t correct, that it isn’t your employment skill that’s directly causing the lack of jobs available. You aren’t the sole cause of a widespread problem, but you are most definitely the solution.

The Big Crash

    As is obvious at this point, the apparent lack of jobs isn’t solely dependent on your skill level as a person. There isn’t just a larger number of people employed because of a growing earth population. The reality is that there are actively fewer jobs available (and less access to them for those who are not socially wealthy), than in the past. One article written by The Orgonian2 describes the staggering decline of jobs statewide in the last year alone, “The number of job openings in the state fell by 24% last fall compared to a year earlier. It's the fourth consecutive quarter with such a steep decline”. The amount of available jobs is outright plummeting at a dramatic level. If this were (for the sake of argument, even if not what would really happen) to continue into the next year, almost half of the job market that existed just two years ago would have vanished. While something like this is realistically unlikely to happen, it’s still terrifying to think that almost a quarter of the job market can seemingly evaporate in such a short time.

A Depressing Sight

    If one were to look at the website for the State of Oregon: Blue Book3, specifically their page about employment, they reveal a rise in the need for previous experience, “In 2021 and 2022, around 50% of job openings required previous experience. By 2023, 58% of vacancies required previous job experience.” This shows a somewhat slow but clear attempt at gatekeeping more and more jobs away from a large group of people. Not only are the young adults of the world going to have just a bit more trouble with getting a job than usual, but those who are unable to provide previous job experiences (or the already financially destitute [who may not have the electronic mechanisms nor possession of a paper trail capable of delivering the relevant information]) are on an unfortunate slope towards less and fewer job opportunities, which lead to less job experience, which leads to even less and fewer job opportunities, and so on. This ominous trend tills the path for a hideous negative feedback loop, that if not slowed or challenged, may lead to a tricky situation where the only way to get a job, is to already have a job.

The Great War

    Obviously, we want a way to counter this. Thankfully, there are those who have already helped to start the kindling of an idea. An article on Talk Poverty4 by Zach McDae discusses a number of ways how to create more jobs and help reduce the number of those in financial trouble by creating jobs for them, mostly infrastructure and communal jobs. These types of jobs also have the benefit of helping reduce both the personal financial troubles of such people, and improve the communities we all live in.

If you want to help in the creation of more jobs and help those in desperate need of one, please visit websites like https://worksourceoregon.org/step, and https://oregonworkforcepartnership.org/advocacy/,and give some of your time and support to their organizations, as it’s only when we all choose to fight for our ability to find jobs when we’ll all have the opportunity to keep them.

Resources:

1Image Provided by Image by mramirferdi from Pixabay:

<a href="https://pixabay.com/users/mramirferdi-19455786/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6034896">mramirferdi</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=6034896">Pixabay</a>

2 The Oregonian

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2024/03/oregon-has-fewer-job-openings-as-labor-market-eases-up.html

3State of Oregon: Blue Book

https://sos.oregon.gov/blue-book/Pages/facts/economy-employment.aspx#:~:text=Oregon%20employers%20reported%2072%2C800%20job,was%2060%2C700%20vacancies%20in%202017.

4 Talk Poverty

https://talkpoverty.org/2014/07/28/three-ways-create-jobs-lower-poverty/index.html