The Disappearing Job

One of the curious aspects of the so-called “economic recovery” is the fact that although many companies are doing better—some spectacularly so, it is evident that the jobs that vanished in 2008 or earlier have not come back yet.

My inclination is to believe that many of them never will.

This rather pessimistic outlook is based on some direct experience, some applied common sense—and the words of some leading CEO’s.

A recent survey of top executives posed this very same question. So, if we’re all doing so much better, where are the jobs?

The conclusion of the study was a rather incoherent aggregate statement that alluded to hesitancy on the part of corporate America to grow payrolls because of “volatility of the consumer’s expectations”. In short, the titans of business were not at all confident of their customers pulling out their wallets and purses en masse to keep the momentum going.

Fair enough, but one CEO, speaking on the condition of anonymity, stated a far more ominous cause. Namely, that existing workloads merely shifted to the survivors of the corporate bloodletting (all of whom were willing to double or even triple their responsibilities in order to save their jobs)---and that companies enjoying these ongoing savings were loathe to increase their expenses by hiring relief help.

After all, the continuing unemployment has not abated—and those holding jobs are mostly unwilling to risk leaving them for uncharted waters. So, in other words, to hell with the human cost of increased workloads, hours and stress. There are plenty of people on the sidelines willing to jump in.

And every one of the currently employed, harried as they may be—knows it. And so they endure.

The common sense piece refers to the natural “corrections” that occur in markets when prices are driven artificially high. A crash of some sort has to occur—and this most recent one is exacerbated by the technology that allows more to be done—ever quicker and with less human involvement.

My sense is that many companies were bloated with middle and even upper management layers. People who, though they worked hard and cared about their company, had little to do with either the direct PRODUCTION of the product or service—or the SALE of that product or service. These were the positions most vulnerable to elimination. What further insult to the loss of your job than to know that after a year or two, things are running just as smoothly---or perhaps even smoother than when you were on the scene.

At least on the surface.

Some of that waste is real—and anyone in a major corporation can tell you just who isn’t “pulling their weight” or about so-and-so being a major drain, a waste of space etc.

What the CEO’s don’t see—is that talented people—those whose skills were seen as indispensable when the budget axe dropped—are being taxed beyond their limits. The smart companies, on the other hand, may indeed be mean and lean---but the forward-looking, people-first firms know the physical limits that can be expected of their work force. These opportunistic companies will descend upon the ranks of the beleaguered and burnt-out, offering positions that may not even pay more, but ones that come with an exciting fringe benefit: the time to have a LIFE.

Entire industries are going through transition now—and the web/digital technology is a big part of it. Radio stations can displace local personalities with syndicated shows beamed to hundreds of markets simultaneously. Just one automated checkout aisle removes a job at the supermarket. And real estate is quickly making the “agent” a thing of the past. No one needs someone standing in the house declaring “here is the living room”. We can have 360-degree views of every room online and the commissions paid to realtors are becoming a point of negotiation more than ever before.


The future lies with new technologies, new products and services—and those willing to make the transition. At no time in our history has retraining been more vital. People will now change careers many times in their working lives.

Our kids are OK with this.

We, the old fart generation are not. We’ll cling to what we know—or perhaps those arenas where our present skill-set can be redeployed. This type of thinking will annihilate us.

Instead, we must embrace the new technologies, learn them, REALLY learn them—and then harness them to build the future.

Who knows what new industries will exist 10 or 20 years from now?
No, many of the old jobs are never coming back…..but how about those NEW ones?


If you’d like my blog in your box, just let me know: tim.moore@citcomm.com