There are people starting their job search in despair because of high unemployment statistics. But as the saying goes, ”There’s statistics, more statistics and lies.” A better saying would be, “There’s statistics, more statistics and people.” That’s because numbers are intangibles while people are real and part of the cause and effect.
An example is inflation. The dollar has seriously eroded over the years in value we are told because of the Fed. It's a crime! Really? Well we have had inflated money for a century which holds its financial store value a realistic amount of time in an economy that has been basically booming. Under true gold money like in ancient Rome, 95 % of the people, however, were dirt poor.The statistics of inflation do not reveal the facts of a better life style for people because healthy inflation means liquidity and liquidity means business expansion.
Unemployment statistics are a maze too. What is the true unemployment? Well the really real rate is 22 % some say, not 9 %. Gee, then why did work abound under President Clinton when this adjustment in statistics would mean, if used under that President that true unemployment then was 12 %?
Leaving all this aside, what about the people who don’t deserve a job. We all hear about people who give up looking for work or are underemployed, but are you underemployed if you are a part time menial worker because you're an alcoholic. I know of a guy who won’t work for anyplace that has drug testing. “It's their problem I like weed, not mine.” was his reply.
What about the incompetent? If there are incompetent plumbers who do Three Stooges work where water shoots from the lights when you turn on the faucets, aren’t there then incompetent stockbrokers, bankers and financial analysts? Their unemployment becomes part of the statistics of woe to belabor a President, but is it President Obama’s fault that my Uncle Charlie was fired for choosing his customers’ investments by using a dart and the New York Times' stock page?
What this means for you, is don’t give up the ship. A lot of finding a job is attitude and zeal. Lions don’t catch antelopes by sitting around.
This naturally leads me to my conclusion, which deals with lions, wonder of wonders. I guess you could say, “There’s statistics, more statistic and animals too.” It used to be thought that the male lion was a worthless lump that slept and ate on the lioness’s work. Oh, he protected his young from roving males lions, but was that worth a paycheck? Then science discovered something to turn this on its head. Here I will use statistics to show that they are not without value, but they must be applied correctly.
Now the hyena and the lion are mortal enemies with the lion scavenging much more than scientists once thought. The hyena and lion eat from the same animal groups also which really puts the two species at a knife’s edge for survival. What was found out is that if you have 6 female lions and 30 hyenas fighting over a downed prey, the lions lose. When the full grown male lion shows up, the lions win.
In life, the lion is not a statistic to himself or herself. Neither are you. Discouragement keeps people out of the job market, but every downturn ends. It is not as bleak as it looks either because statistics don’t send out cover letters and resumes, check jobs boards and do interviews, people do. Statistics don't realistically take into account talent or the lucky breaks made by that extra effort.
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Jeffrey Ruzicka is a retired executive of a small company that specializes in industrial water treatment. He lives happily with his wife in Western Pennsylvania and is a contributing writer toFinancialJobBank,FinancialJobBankBlog,ConstructionJobForce, ConstructionJobForceBlog and Nexxt.
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