Researching Job Market Trends

When choosing your new career, you will need to be aware of not only what is happening now in the job market – but what has happened over the past few years, and what these trends suggest is likely to happen in the future.

If you are changing career because you were made redundant, and there a few jobs available in your current career (or few that will pay you the salary you need) then you will probably not want to be in this same situation again in a decade. You will be older and wiser, but possibly less employable, unless attitudes to older workers change significantly. With the pace of change in technology and globalization of commerce, it is probable that many career choices that look appealing now will be gone with the winds of change in a few short years. So what factors should you consider?

You wouldn’t buy shares in a company just because the share price was low (or high!). You only buy shares if you have reason to believe the shares will increase in value. Likewise with choosing your career. What are the market forces that will shape the future economics of your career choice? Will the customers of your career “product” be getting richer, younger, further away, more educated, fitter, fatter, healthier, better informed, unemployed, out of jail? How will this affect the future value of your career? Will it make you more employable (and therefore richer)? More capable of coping with the technological, sociological, political and climate changes ahead (and therefore happier)?

If you’d like to read about how I made a successful career change, read How I Changed My Career.