A Coca-Cola Employment Market

Why does the US unemployment rate seem to stay about the same despite news that companies are hiring? Companies are hiring but the real hiring is mostly overseas!

Look at corporate hiring nationwide and you’ll see that the era of a global workforce is rapidly emerging. International employment markets are growing twice as fast as they are domestically.

Take a look at the latest labor statistics and you’ll see that U.S. jobs have been moving overseas for the past 10 years. Years ago, clothes and commodity items were the primary goods made more cheaply overseas than in the U.S. Now the products are software and high technology electronics.  Look at GNP data and you’ll also see that the products being made overseas are primarily being sold to the emerging markets of China Brazil and India – not in the U.S.

Think about it. The # 1 English speaking country in the world is now China!  If you want and easy to understand overview of the globalization of the world markets, watch this video featuring Tom Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcE2ufqtzyk

The reality of the new economy is that U.S. companies are going where there is product demand and big profits. Asia-Pacific sales soared 40% in the first nine months of 2010, compared with 17% in the U.S. 50% of corporate revenue in the S&P 500 in the last 2 years has primarily come from outside the U.S.  China is now the world’s 2nd largest economy!

Major global companies are focusing on the geography where they sell their products and tailoring products to meet local customer needs. A key factor behind this runaway international growth is the rise of the middle class in emerging countries.

By 2015, it’s estimated the number of consumers in Asia’s middle class will equal those in Europe and North America combined. Most of the growth over the next 10 years is happening in Asia.

The CEO of Coca-Cola estimates that a billion consumers will enter the middle class in the next 10 years, primarily in Africa, China and India. Coke is aggressively targeting those markets. Only 13% of Coke’s 93,000 global employees are in the U.S.

So where does this mean to you as part of the U.S. employment market?

1.     Begin to reinvent yourself to compete in a global market – get to know the “facts” of globalization and how they relate to you.
2.     Consider developing an in-demand product or service that can be digitally distributed in the U.S.
3.     Make what you offer REMARKABLE – become a specialist in something – general skills do not pay well.
4.     Understand that your income will almost always be in direct proportion to the number of people you serve.
5.     Use the Internet to help more people get what they want
6.     Understand Web 4.0 technologies for e-commerce – Musion developed a 3-D holographic projection system that Cisco Systems used to “beam” a couple of its executives onstage to deliver a speech. That was 3 years ago.

Where are you in understanding how to use technology or your skills to help people and businesses make money, save money or solve a problem?  It’s the key to your employment security.

Don’t focus on finding a job. Market how you can be a remarkable solution.