In an article that was recently published in the financial Times entitled “A Leviathan cowed – welcome to Britain in 2023, the author outlined a radically different country from the one we live in today. Whether we like the title or not, the article made a fairly compelling case for major structural change to many things in this country.
The author argued that despite the UK being three years into the government’s cuts programme we have not even reached the halfway mark. It is doubtful that that the age of austerity will cease in the short term whoever governs the country. The recent tight spending round announced by the Chancellor approximates to what even the Labour Party says it would do far beyond the next election in 2015. To quote the author “and if forecasts for growth in revenue prove as glaringly optimistic as they have been of late, deficit reduction will, as Margaret Thatcher once aspired to “go on and on”.
If this were the view of just one journalist, however competent, we could perhaps note it and get on with our daily lives. However any student of the financial programmes that are aired every day on television will know that we do not suffer economic problems alone. Will there be a hard or soft landing in China? The jury is still out on that one, ever since their rulers have instituted a major change in economic policy in the last 12 months. The effects of this, be they good or bad, have still to be felt by a world that many feel is at the behest of one of the two major economies in the world.
Whatever one’s level of interest in economics or high finance, no one can deny the fact that the world is struggling with an unprecedented amount of debt and quantitative easing is perhaps just a polite way of saying that many of the major economies are on “life support”.
“But surely things are looking up” many people will say “You only have to look at the way stock markets have risen globally since the beginning of the year”. Unfortunately once again many will argue that this is no true indicator of a real return to the growth that is so needed to get us out of this financial situation. Rather the rise in global stock markets is a reflection of the money that has been pumped into the world economy by central banks and which has to find a home somewhere as it is widely acknowledged that it is not going into the economy at large.
Nearer to home the story is even worse in the view of many financial pundits. The main economies of Europe are weighed down with debt with their industries struggleing to compete on world markets with outdated labour laws and in the case of a number of countries a currency whose value completely out out of sync with its fundamental economy. It is no wonder that in the case of some of these countries the unemployment rates are staggeringly high with over 50% of young people being out of work in some places. Even Germany which many acknowledge has many highly efficient companies exporting to the world thanks to the valuation of the Euro being very much in their favour, is struggling to grow the wealth of its citizens.
Neither is this the only issue affecting prospect employments in the UK. Many organisations from the financial sector all the way through to colleges of further education are investing heavily in technology to increase productivity. This does not bode well for those who are not engaged in installing IT systems, upgrading supply chains in organisations or are not technically highly qualified. Add to that the fact that many companies have learnt to manage more with less (in terms of people) over the last few years and the picture can be a bleak one especially for those in the later stages of their careers.
Yes every economy, be they individual countries or the global economy goes in cycles, and after bust there should be boom or a least recovery on some scale. Here again the rules have changed in terms of the finance actually available. Banks are seen as very reluctant to lend to companies in order to fund growth and so provide employment. Now that large companies of whatever kind are cutting down on manpower, recovery in terms of job opportunity is left to small and medium organisations to provide opportunities and these are the companies that often are denied the funds to expand. Therefore if neither the companies themselves nor their customers can get credit this must be a major drag on growth and so prospects of recovery to pre-2007 levels are highly unlikely at least in the short term.
Where then does this leave the executive wants to further his or her career?
Is there such a thing as job security anywhere?
What can be done to ensure not only keeping a roof over your head and food on the table, but to enable you to put enough by for retirement?
These and similar questions are on the minds of many people in today’s job market.
We firmly believe that the old days have gone, never to be repeated. A world awash with credit is no longer a possibility. Too many people have suffered too much and the lessons learned will affect many in the way the great depression of the Thirties affected the attitudes of our fathers and grandfathers .
So is there any hope left or do people have to stick with the same old job even though they find it more difficult to go to work and deal with the stress?
We firmly believe that there is.
However we also believe that the rules have changed and that career management now means just that. Your career, or should we say your personal fortunes have to be managed in a very different way and no longer left to the vagaries of the job market. In any case the average time spent in an executive job nowadays is just under four years. Even if you have work now, will you have it at the end of that period? And if you do not have a job in four year’s time, will you easily be able to find a replacement at the same level and with the same opportunities.
This is why we have developed an entirely new approach to helping clients secure their futures and prosper. It is very much a game changer. We have spent a great deal of time researching and studying the marketplace? We have re-engineered everything from the ground up. We make no bones about it, we have copied the methods that have succeeded in other areas where people have succeeded in securing their financial futures. We also make no bones about the fact that this programme defies much of the accepted logic. However in doing so it allows people a much greater sense of freedom and control over their lives.
If you would like to receive a copy of our report and see how you can easily be a Game changer – the 7 ways your future does need to be managed and the one way it doesn’t – simply go to www.gatewaycareers.co.uk enter your details and the report will be sent to you
Gateway Career Management.
0845 459 0035