Here’s what I mean by the “unhappy at work paradox” — and heck, this seems a good Labor Day topic.
- The U.S. unemployment rate is somewhere between 4.9 and 9.7 percent, which is generally pretty low.
- Global unemployment is higher than that, although still less than about 20 percent — but youth unemployment is rising dangerously.
But, employee engagement globally is dropping — for a half-decade or more. U.S. employee engagement is pretty much in the toilet.
This is the “unhappy at work” paradox: via the unemployment stats, there seemingly are jobs out there for people — but once people get into them, they’re usually not engaged in ’em. What’s happening?
Unhappy at work: The baseline “Gig Economy” situation
If you want to consume some more employment numbers, consider the rise of the Gig Economy. I personally think most people don’t really understand major economic numbers and just quote the ones that bolster their specific point of view. I’m trying not to do that here, but I’m only human, you know?
The whole idea of “The Gig Economy” is people doing something themselves, or patching together different types of work, because the old-fashioned corporate contract isn’t jiving with them anymore. When…
