MONEY 30 - JOBS 1

THIS IS MY 30^TH POST ON UNDERSTANDING MONEY TOOLS

Recently, someone I know told me that I write all my blogs with the assumption that people already have money.  They asked, “what are your ideas on employment and making money”. Great.  This is the tough one, I guess.  It’s hard to make money, and then it’s hard to keep your money.

Please remember that these thoughts are subjective, and you may not agree, but I love the expression “let’s agree to disagree”.

Now, unemployment is still high considering that full employment in the US is considered to be around 4.5%, as a certain number of people just don’t want to work. The government tosses out unemployment figures just under 8%, however how many people have become discouraged trying to find work and are not included.  Over the past 20 years more and more companies have outsourced work to independent contractors or the self-employed.  In this category a person is most likely not included in the unemployment figures. Therefore, we better at least double the unemployment figures.

If it makes you feel better, I fall into this category!  I’ve had some great jobs, some true successes, lots of education and training, lots of ups and downs and who would employ me today?  Age discrimination is greatly in the picture. When employers view your resume, they can make a determination within a few years how old you are, or can find that answer.

Back to the topic.  Let’s look at reality and the overall picture. The future for employment in this country is not looking good.  We have become a service industry country, not a producer of goods. Even the service industry doesn’t look good.  More companies are going to automation and robotics and unskilled people will not be needed.  Banks are automated, warehouses are automated, retailers are going more and more to on-line sales, and the finest automobile manufacturing plants are robotic.

I think if you are younger and seeking a profession the industries to look at are health care, oil/gas and energy production, and high tech engineering.

With young people graduating from college in general studies they can’t find work.  In Europe and many countries, when a person is entering high school they select if they should go on to college and higher education or take up a skilled trade.  It might be wise to use a similar method here in this country.  The future is for the skilled, not the generalist.

Breaking apart the industries I mentioned, let’s look at health care.  Again, skilled training is what is necessary.  Doctors are using high tech and computerized instruments for operations, so they need to be trained in medicine as well as technology. Physical therapists, nutritionists, skilled nursing is all a part. We probably will have Medicare cut backs in the future, so it will be the educated and skilled that prevail.  60 Minutes recently had a segment where robots were replacing the unskilled labor in hospitals, fewer human beings and more technology. In that program they had an interview with a warehouse manager.  The robots were more efficient and could lift more than the human. On an hourly cost efficiency and with a three year depreciation of the robots they worked at about $3.00/hour (and no need for benefit packages), thus a similar pay scale currently found in China and India.  This is less than half our minimum wage rate.  Even some trained/skilled tech jobs start out at $12/hour.  A person can’t live on this.  That is only $96 dollars a day before taxes and FICA.  To grow a healthy economy we need skilled jobs around $15-18/hour.

The oil and gas business is coming on strong.  One of the biggest concerns here is the environmental issues. No one, especially the wealthy, want oil/gas wells near where they live, frac fluid could be health concerning and visually windmills for alternative energy are unattractive to the eye. Western North Dakota is booming and will continue to do so.  This area including eastern Montana, Wyoming, and western Colorado is all part of the Western Overthrust Belt that comes down from Canada. We have a ton of natural gas and oil in this area.

The Bakken Formation in the Williston Basin in western North Dakota was founded about 1955, however the thin formations of oil made recovery difficult.  This area was not economic until recent years with higher oil prices and better drilling technology. This industry could turn around our dependency on foreign oil, and perhaps someday we could export our surplus oil and liquified natural gas thus eliminating our trade deficits and trade imbalances.  We can’t have a healthy economy with the trade deficits we currently have, and our dollars leaving the country. If you are young and don’t mind migrating and hard work there is a lot of work in North Dakota.

High tech engineering will lead the way.  As an example, the reason we have higher oil and gas production in this country now is that we have drilling technology that permits us to extract far more oil from one vertical drilling and then the ability to drill horizontally.  Several years back we did not have this technology, thus wells were shut in and the industry left a lot of oil behind. We need to remain the leaders in technology.

Don’t forget that timing is essential.  I’ve been in various businesses and fairly big time in oil and gas and real estate.  You can make very good money in these industries, but if your timing is off, it can financially kill you. Many people start a small successful company and assume the success will continue, wrong.  You need to stay ahead of the competition that will follow and stay on the leading edge, or sell out.

Next we’ll look at trying to get employed by a company or creating something on your own.