Back in the distant past, when I was looking for work instead of trying to avoid it, the main problem was one of choice. The unemployment rate was around 2 percent, and employers were almost desperate to find workers. So my contemporaries and I bounced heedlessly from one occupation to another in search of something interesting. I could have taken almost any kind of employment that did not demand good eyesight or serious qualifications. We had no notion that the jobs would ever run out. The classified advertisement sections were always full of new ones.
Fast forward fifty years, and when this week's local weekly paper arrived in the mailbox I found myself looking at the section called "Employment Opportunities." Although I am not in the market for employment right now an idle curiosity made me leaf through the four pages of small ads. We keep being reminded that the unemployment rate is 6-10 percent now, depending on who you believe, and much higher for young people. So what choices are left for someone who wants to find paid work?
Based on my admittedly rather sketchy research, here's my career advice in two words: medical billing. That's where the opportunities are. Half a century ago most employment on Long Island was in agriculture, engineering or fishing. Now our main industry is medicine. Instead of fields and factories we have medical parks. On a recent drive I started counting. In seventeen miles I passed twenty-two medical office complexes and professional parks, encompassing every "ology" you could possibly imagine and some you would rather not, plus seven chiropractors, and two large hospitals. Also scattered along the highway for emergencies were several establishments for the walking wounded, advertising "Instant Medical Care," plus four funeral homes and eight attorneys to deal with the failures of all the rest. The local Yellow Pages confirm that this is no illusion. Physicians occupy twenty pages, the largest single category after auto repair.
So it makes sense that the employment ads are dominated by medical billing, because that's the most important thing. You may not be cured, but you will most certainly be billed. The second most common category of employment advertised in the local paper was for medical secretaries, and after that for legal secretaries, which again makes perfect logical sense.
Then came food service jobs - there's obviously a symbiotic relationship here that we don't need to spell out - and a surprising number of openings for counsellors of one kind or another: we seem to need a lot of counselling. The remaining ads were for miscellaneous occupations like school bus drivers and dancing instructors. I also saw several ads for town planners, which was surprising because Long Island where I live shows no signs whatever of any planning of any kind at any time. But perhaps they're just starting now.
My generation was lucky to have so many employment choices and so little pressure to compromise. I would find it hard to choose something from the job offerings in this week's newspaper, and I doubt whether any of the employers would have me. It's rather a sad thought that I have become essentially unemployable and that my only way back into the labor force would be to learn the secret art of medical billing.
Copyright: David Bouchier