Markets Change; Jobs Get Cut... But New Opportunities Open Up
from the don't-fret dept
It seems with the various industries we talk about that are under pressure -- such as newspapers or record labels -- people are extra concerned about lost jobs due to changes in the market. Not surprisingly, those at risk find the whole thing very unfair, and often lash out at some of the causes of the changes, but it's quite natural for jobs to go away when markets change. What's left out is the fact that those same changes almost always tend to create or enable many new jobs. Jack Shafer, over at Slate, is pointing out that journalists and newspaper execs shouldn't necessarily bemoan the loss of jobs in the industry, noting a long list of other industries where market changes meant a massive loss of jobs at one time or another, and no one's really complaining about the death of the slide-rule industry. So the next time you hear someone complaining about job losses in an older industry, feel free to note just how many new jobs were created thanks to the same tools (these days, often the internet) that caused that market shift in the first place.Filed Under: job losses, market changes
