I’M STILL GLAD I’M RETIRED!

I’M STILL GLAD I’M RETIRED!

(Michael T. Robinson, Baker College)

(Debra Auerbach, Green Bay Press Gazette, Frazer Chronicle)

You can say anything that you want about retirement, fixed income, Medicare, Medicaid, depleted earning power, unable to do certain physical work, and realizing that you’re life’s ticket is about ready to be punched, and I’ll still take retirement every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

There are way too many things that you don’t have to worry about; like getting up in the morning, what to eat and what kind of diet you’ll be on next week…..(physical health dictates that) who’s going to cut the grass or rake the leaves. Not having to worry about taking the dog for a walk…..he’s way too tired for it, and pleasing the wife (she’s already resigned herself to your shortcomings).

But young people, those under 50, seem to need to be able to adapt to an ever changing job market, an ability that I never worried about during my working career. Rust belt jobs (Midwest job markets), seem to have all moved off shore, leaving millions of workers completely disillusioned, caught off guard and seemingly doomed with regards to earning a living for the rest of their working careers.

We’ve all heard or read about the horror stories people talk about, losing their jobs, searching for something that’ll earn about the same as the former job…..and eventually having to settle for work that pays just a fraction of what a guy made five or ten years ago.

Or what about the guy who was phased out of his position, spent several years taking night classes to gain an education for a new job that suddenly is gone. Swallowed up in a massive off-shore move that so many American companies are taking advantage of today.

I’ve worked in all sorts of jobs during my time, truck driver, salesman, high school and college athletic coach, carpenter, businessman, laborer, and program director at a Y.M.C.A. So when I speak about the dearth of good jobs with a future in the United States…..I have a modicum of experience in a diverse field, and know a bit about what the future holds for a worker.

A vast majority of the working force in the United States, at least at the present time are unskilled laborers who have a tough time earning a living wage. The prevailing wage in the United States is about $41,500, to me, that figure sounds like a decent piece of change. However when you factor in the cost of living for 2013, and also add what I call the wild card of youth, all bets are off with regards to a living wage.

I can remember when I was young (I’m retired, not dead), I was compulsive, bought way too much, lived high on the hog, lived way beyond my means and gave very little thought to tomorrow. So when I read an article about jobs that a high school graduate can get, I get that fuzzy (better look twice) feeling, at the information. The piece that I used for this article listed the top ten jobs high school grads could get and their pay grade.

An example:

To say that I am dubious would be an understatement, a loan officer, with an average annual salary of $61,928 dollars sounds nice to a graduating senior…..but how many years will it take to get to that level, what’s the stability of the position, will it be there in five, or ten years down the road. There aren’t any 20 year old junior G men; it takes time to learn and earn a position.

JOBS…..THEY COME AND THEY GO

Personal care aide, home health aide, medical secretary, emergency medical technician and paramedic, medical assistant, registered nurse, licensed practical nurse…..do you see a pattern here, like an aging society that’s going to need an extended amount of care. We still don’t take our old people (which I’m now a member of) out in the field and leave them under a tree…..do we?

My point here is simple; all of the above jobs that seemingly will become available (according to the experts) in the next ten to twenty years are service oriented. Service oriented jobs habitually are more in the lower paid sector of job description, will this be changing in the future?

Some of what probably would be called the staples in the labor scene would be the trades, like plumber, construction laborers or helpers, masonry and stone sculptors, pipe fitters, boiler makers, ceramic tile installers and electricians, auto mechanics, utilities workers, and I suppose high end sales people, those people selling pharmaceuticals, insurance, automobiles, and other such items.

And then you have jobs that absolutely will never go away, grocery store baggers, clerks, floor sales persons, pallet makers, manufacturer and small factory workers and just plain ordinary laborers that work in the fringes of United States industry.

Nobody can predict the future of jobs in the United States; the outlook is way too volatile for anybody to make an educated guess. One thing is for certain, there are two things that potential employers will attempt to do before anything else…..they’ll work on eliminating jobs and will keep initial pay as low as they can…..depending on what their business is.

Another guarantee will be the fact that the labor market at the lower end, the fast food industry, or the Wal-Marts of the world, where people can almost walk in one day, and go to work the next, will remain way down the list of advantageous jobs with regards to pay.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE LOWEST PAID WORKERS

There is a fact of life out there for all the lower paid working stiffs; there will never be an exit strategy into a higher paying position in the lowest paying jobs in America. There is always going to be a segment of the country’s working population that will be downtrodden, taken advantage of and viewed by employers as dime a dozen units of labor with little or no rights of any kind…..I know, I’ve been on both ends of the equation.

All of the career builder writers and self help organizations in the United States are geared towards to profession to semi-professionals in the work force. There is little or no help what-so-ever for the lower end of the workers in the country.

There are advocates for the agriculture workers, advocates for the immigrant workers (both legal and illegal) and self help writers and organizations that will help lift people into different strata of the job market.

Of course you have extension courses, small technical colleges, trade schools and private learning institutions that, for a price, will help the average person obtain a better and more diverse job. However there isn’t any help for the person who is just on the edge, intelligent wise, these people need help too. Like I said…..I’m glad that I’m retired.

HAVE A NICE DAY!