Take It or Leave It

I was fortunate to reunite with some old friends at a few different recent events and, naturally, the discussion turned to the current employment market.  Both were astounded when I declared that, even though the number of new hires I am seeing is going up slightly, pay rates are still running way below 2008 standards.  They were stunned to learn that a 40-60% pay cut from levels of four years back is awaiting those trying to regain employment as the drought slowly diminishes.

One friend asked me how could people accept jobs that were not paying them what they were worth and my answer was simple.  There are two options right now.  One is to accept the rates being offered even though they are absolutely devastating to some, and hope, that as things improve,  employers will realize your value and offer salary increases.  The second option is to remain on unemployment until it runs out then tap into whatever resources you have which will ultimately weaken your funds when you eventually become too old to work.

Choices are had to make and everyone has their own personal value system to adhere to.  This blogger will certainly never tell you how to make your own personal moves but I will urge you to think long and hard before rejecting a job opportunity.  From my work as a recruiter and career coach, I have seen too many people wait too long to jump back into the mix and ultimately end up settling for even less when things reached the point of no return for them.  Think long and hard and do some serious soul searching before you decide to take it or leave it!