Non-governmental research came together in January 2007 to reflect what professional employee message boards on The Vault and Yahoo! have been saying for years: The era of being employed is over, but executives are in strong demand to handle contract laborers.
The Entrepreneur’s Source of Southbury, CT, calls the era "The New Career Economy," and confirms that year 2006 was the tipping point for what was once considered a stable career economy. The United States' Bureau of Labor Statistics does not reflect the trends by way in which it collects data, but it does reports unemployment is at a historic low.
In essence, the study by Entrepreneur's Source suggests that "gone are the days" when individuals will work for one or two employers, receive lifetime benefits, and retire boasting double-digit service time from one employer. The study did suggest that in the future, long-term security would be gained through individuals managing their own careers through self-employment...or by launching your own business.
“We’re at a tipping point in the American job economy,” said Terry Powell, founder and CEO of The Entrepreneur’s Source. “The traditional job market no longer offers the security individuals and families need to live well,” he said.
The research cites many threats to an individual's job security and financial freedom -- all of which never existed before -- such as company downsizing, lengthy layoffs, the elimination of benefits, enormous corporate bankruptcies, colossal consumer debt, and social security insolvency.
“After spending 26 years in corporate America and facing another restructuring, I made a decision to get into my own business,” said Robert Plenderleith, who owns Huntington Learning Center in Wyomissing, PA. “I had an opportunity to do something positive for kids and make some money,” he said. “I now have created my own financial security, through running my own business and reaping the many rewards from my own decision-making,” stated Robert.
For those that will work for employers in the future, the research states that W-2 wage earners can expect to have six to eight job changes within a chosen profession in a working lifetime; and/or to completely change their working profession at least three times.
The research findings point out that since traditional employment options are becoming unreliable, individuals may have to provide up to 50 percent of the income they’ll need for the more than 20 years they may live in retirement.
As it is, 27 percent of households in the United States cannot make ends meet on salaries of more than $100,000, according to the Roper Center for Public Opinion. Six-in-ten have only enough cash to survive one month after layoff. Inflation too continues to outpace wage growth and 40 percent of employees live paycheck to paycheck. The average household income in the United States, by the way, is half of what high earners contend is difficult to live on (or $49,000 per year.)
One new company in Minnesota hopes to tap into the shift away from employing workers to replacing the staff with contract laborers. HotGigs Inc., of Minneapolis, launched contract-central.com as it contends contract labor for professional jobs is exploding in the United States with double-digit growth rates each year. Corporations seek to use contract labor to avoid overhead costs, benefits, workers compensation, taxes, and can terminate a labor contract without penalty or notice.
"There have been many attempts at creating freelance or independent contractor websites, however this only represents a small percentage of the actual contract workforce," HotGigs contends. The website is said to link up contracting staffers with candidates. The company was listed in the top 20 companies to watch in 2007 by the Twin Cities Business magazine.
Telecommunications company ADC estimates that ContractCentral will save $1.5 million in staffing costs this year. HotGigs' CEO Doug Berg said, "These companies are using HotGigs' unique capabilities to create and broadcast contract requisitions, acquire and management talent, and report on staffing spends by manager, job or skill type or staffing vendor. In short, we are providing the right, actionable information in real time, automating otherwise cumbersome recruiting process and saving companies a bundle in the process.”
There is less to worry about though if an employee is an executive earning more than $100,000. TheLadders.com's quarterly executive employment outlook sees a surge in demand for high wage earners.
“Executives tend to job-hop more frequently in a strong economy and hunker down when things are slower,” said Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com. “This year, we’re seeing a perfect storm of strong econometrics, seasonality and good old fashioned optimism come together to boost activity in the $100,000+ market.”
The hottest +$100,000 per year salaried jobs were in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Diego. "San Francisco has emerged as the top talent magnet; it’s the metro area with the highest number of job-seekers from other locations looking to get into the Bay Area," TheLadders reported. "San Francisco also has the least competition for every available job; it currently boasts a 1:1 ratio between job seekers and job postings on TheLadders.com. Among the firms doing the most high-end hiring in the region are Cisco Systems, eBay, Sun Microsystems, Google, and Charles Schwab."
One recruiter at Google's Mountain View, CA, campus told CNN news this past week that they have thousands of openings, but cannot find qualified candidates. The recruiter did not explain which roles they were attempting to fill, however a quick view of Google's job board shows the need for engineering, human resources, and IT operations.
Triple-digit salary jobs in demand for New York and Boston are reported to be in the financial and healthcare sectors. "Companies such as Citigroup, Fidelity Investments, Ernst & Young, Schering-Plough, Wyeth, and The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory all contribute to the allure of the east coast."
Dallas, Tampa, and Detroit however are reported to have extremely tight markets with stiff competition for each job available.
Those who earn more than $100,000 told TheLadders that they remain optimistic about prospects, 62 percent of executives said 2007 is better than 2006 for job searching, 36 percent anticipated having to apply to less than 20 job listings before getting an offer versus 50 jobs in 2006.
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