Thread: The job search

SDUT EDITORIAL

The job search

With work scarce at home, Americans looking abroad

Monday, November 23, 2009 at 12:02 a.m.

When the going in the U.S. job market gets tough, the tough get going – to wherever the jobs are. With the nation’s unemployment rate at a 26-year-high of 10.2 percent, many Americans are looking outside the country for professional opportunities. And they’re not looking back.

That’s the word from staffing companies and executive search firms who say that, these days, the job outlook abroad looks brighter than it does here at home. According to a recent article in USA Today, the most welcoming job markets include India, China and Brazil. Other American job-seekers are headed to Dubai and Singapore for jobs in engineering, management or consulting. According to a recent survey by the executive talent company Korn/Ferry, 54 percent of executives said they’d be either likely or highly likely to accept a position in a foreign country. Four years ago, in better economic times, it was just 37 percent. At MIT’s Sloan School of Management, 24 percent of 2009 graduates found employment overseas, an increase from 19 percent last year.

This is an encouraging trend. In fact, it might be more than that. For many people, it may be the secret to surviving a down economy. And Americans don’t have to leave the country, just their comfort zones. For those who suddenly find themselves unemployed, it doesn’t make much sense to wallow in despair and look for opportunities in cities and states where such opportunities are scarce. A better strategy is to do everything you can to remove self-imposed restrictions, such as the determination to stay in one place.

The best advice to young college graduates who are worried about finding that first job, or even more seasoned workers looking for a fresh start, is for them to go out and find the jobs they desire. Instead, too many Americans wait for the jobs to find them, and treat the idea of living in a certain city or state as a kind of entitlement. We cannot afford such things in times like these.

In this regard, the native-born could learn a lesson from immigrants, foreign students and anyone else who has the moxie to leave family, friends and everything familiar to them in search of a better life. There’s no doubt that many of our countrymen have gotten comfortable and now expect to be able to make a living wherever they’d like to live. In these times, that may not always be possible. And those who are willing to move to a new city – or even a new country – for their next opportunity are the ones who will be the most likely to succeed.

It has always been thus. And in a global economy, this is how it will remain for many years to come. It’s the new normal. The sooner Americans accept that, the better off they’ll be.

If there is one difference, this is it: Whereas once the people of world came to the United States, now more Americans are venturing out around the world. Let’s hope the world is as welcoming to these new arrivals as the United States has been to those who arrived on its shores over the decades. And let’s hope that, one day, the expatriates find their way home.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009 ... ob-search/

Lots of luck to anyone who leaves this country to find work. They will be met with anger and prejudice anywhere they go and murdering jihadists in the many countries overwhelmed by Muslims.

Personally, I'd rather become a temporary welfare recipient than leave the USA.