Strength and weakness is relative
As we have entered the 2nd month of the year 2025 there is little to cheer for the middle class households.
On one hand there is little hope for the pay to go higher as there is a glut in the job markets.
I know so many people who are on the verge of losing their job or have already lost it.
The challenge of finding a new job is not easy especially if you live in a country with a large population.
For every position on offer there are several candidates ready to take up the job.
Often these people are fresh from college and are ready to take up any job that comes their way.
This means the employer has 2 options either to fire the existing employee and give the job to the new employee or give the old employee an annual raise in accordance to his performance.
The challenges for employers
A lot of businesses are suffering as they do not have enough work to support their existing workforce and they still have to give out paychecks that they have to shell out every month.
Current mood is to trim down the expenses
An important expense and a sizable one at that is the money paid every month toward the employee salaries.
When the business is dull a lot of businesses fire their existing workforce and hire new talent.
It is Experience Vs the youth
Ideally an employee should become more valuable as he or she gains in experience however when the business has limited inflow of money and they are looking to trim down the work force the hammer usually falls on the employees who are experienced.
The way businesses sort whom to fire is in accordance to the salary an employee draws. Higher your salary higher is the risk you lose the job as someone with less experience or a fresher may be willing to take the job at a fraction of the current salary.
The employee can opt for a salary cut
It may sound strange and unusual to many however at times the employees have to forgo their annual appraisal, take a pay cut or even forgo their salary just to make sure that they do not lose their job.
The prices keep going up
Since a developing economy is greatly dependent on imports a weaker national currency against the US dollar can be a difficult thing to contend with.
Every time the currency slips against the dollar prices spiral up and budgets go out of hand.
Since most trade deals especially once involving deals like import and export contracts are based on national currency Vs USD even the slightest movement can be catastrophic for small export oriented units as suddenly the cost of the imported raw material goes up and then the wafer thin margins turn into a loss.
The result is that business units close down and a large number of people lose their jobs.
Some of these workers may have to sit at home without work for months or look for other jobs.
Finding a new job is never very easy
For those with limited skills finding a new job in a different field is never easy, especially when the employer has little time to invest in training the employees.
In such cases it is expected that the employee knows everything beforehand or learns it on the shop floor quickly.
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