The changing nature of jobs is cause for understandable anxiety. For individuals in career transition, or indeed for teens looking for their first job, the fact that employment is becoming so informal, ie outside of the scope of traditional contractural arrangements, means that there is little job security for many. According to the International Labour Organisation’s 2015 World Employment Social Outlook: The Changing Nature of Jobs Report; “fewer than 45% of waged and salaried workers are employed on a full-time, permanent basis and even that share appears to be declining“. It’s not like the old days when jobs were for life.

In Australia, the 2015 Department of Employment ‘Australian Jobs Report’ national overview, provides Australian Bureau of Statistics data outlining that “30% of workers are employed on a part-time basis, and women are over-represented in this area“. And whilst employment projections, as detailed in ‘Employment Outlook to November 2019’, indicate that; “total employment (in Australia) is expected to increase by 10%…the distribution of this growth is projected to vary across industries, occupations, skill levels, states and territories and regions“. Take, for example, the top projected industry sector; cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services, where casual part-time employment is prevalent.

Almost daily I read articles in the media, that are quite concerning, regarding the changing nature of jobs. For example, in an ABC Radio National discussion, Michael Brissenden argues that the future of work is increasingly digital, and asks: “will the next generation of Australian workers be ready to meet the challenge?” Jillian Kenny adds that almost 60% of university and 70% of TAFE or VET students are “studying for jobs that will be automated”, and Foundation for Young Australians CEO, Jan Owen argues that; “it wont be enough for students to know how to operate a smart phone; they’ll need to know how to build one”.

So what do we do with this knowledge? It’s not very encouraging to hear that jobs are precarious in many industry areas, so how can you be pragmatic about future choices?

The challenge for careers practitioners is to help individuals to process the information that is bombarding the media around the changing nature of work. CDAA professional member Carol Brown says that by working with clients in identifying and analysing a range of information about a problem, it is then possible to “arrive at a course of action that removes the gap” between their current situation and their desired future. What this means is that a career coach will use professional stills and resources to get you from point A to point B with a real time recognition of the changing nature of jobs in the local area, region and globally.

So my message is to say that the future need not be scary. Making sense of labour market information is part of the career coaching process and along with sound mentoring in self-awareness, resourcefulness, resilience, courage and perseverance, my clients are on track to fulfilling careers. You can be to!

Contact me on 0419 390 994 for an obligation free discussion of your career coaching needs.