Upskilling is the key for survival amid downturn

The American employment sector is going through a complex and difficult phase. While some sectors are experiencing severe shortage of workers, some other fields have been in the news for mass layoff of its employees. Software engineers who had been drawing high salaries, mostly became the victims of such mass layoffs in the IT sector. Even tech giants like Meta, Twitter, Amazon and Twitter had to fire thousands of employees to survive the financial recession.

Meanwhile, severe shortage of workers is reported in factories and restaurants. You would be bombarded with opportunities if you are an electrician, welder, truck driver or a chef. Many may wonder at the irony of this strange situation where trained professionals who have earned high degrees are losing jobs while the skilled workers have been enjoying high demand.

As per the economic experts and scientists, the world has already entered into a phase of white caller recession. It is assumed that mass lay off in the white-collar sector is likely to continue in 2023 too. They would experience severe shortage of employment opportunities. Meanwhile, there will be lots of opportunities for the blue – collar workers.

White–collar vs Blue–collar workers
White–collar workers are employees who work in offices or firms as clerks and also in the administrative and management fields. Meanwhile, blue–collar workers indulge in skilled trade that demand physical labour. The easiest way to overcome the present situation is to erase the line that divides white–collar and blue -collar.

In 2018–19, the companies in the US had demanded to give white-collar training for blue-collared workers. However, now, white–collared workers are forced to learn a skilled trade in order to survive. The best way to find employment opportunities is to acquire training in skilled trade and constantly updating the skills column in the resume.

The age of upskilling
In order to survive this difficult financial phase, you could acquire training in skills even though it isn’t related to what you had studied. Many companies have realised the significance of ‘Learning and Development’ and are upskilling their employees. This is more profitable that laying off employees and appointing new ones.

For upskilling, you could rely on YouTube videos or free mobile applications of prominent companies. Adobe Captivate (elearning.adobe.com), Google Digital Garage (learndigital.withgoogle.com) and LinkedIn are some of the platforms that could help in upskilling.

Teachers
During the pandemic, learning got out of traditional classrooms and entered online mode. Everyone learned to take classes or attend sessions in digital platforms. However, teachers could become digital educators if they get trained in slides and animation. After retiring, the teachers could continue their profession by reaching out to hundreds of students in the digital mode. There are lots of employment opportunities in the fields that require digital skills.

The Indian scenario
India is one of the countries that would be directly affected by the recession in the IT sector. There had been significantly low opportunities in the Indian IT field, in the last six months. For the first time in the last three years, the number of IT professionals in the white–collar sector in the country has dropped below fifty percent. The IT companies are hesitant to recruit new employees. Moreover, this has affected campus placements too. There has also been significant drop in the annual pay packages.

“In the coming years, acquiring skills are important than mere degrees in the international job sector. The value of the worker would be determined by his constantly updated skills. Not just the newly appointed workers, but those who are already employed too should concentrate on upskilling to keep their jobs. Software engineers who acquire training in skills and regularly update them in their LinkedIn profiles get more replies and hits,” says Ryan Roslansky, CEO, LinkedIn.