IF YOU have been unemployed for an extended period of time it simply means it's time to pull yourself together, look at what you can do and 'reinvent' yourself.
That was the clear consensus coming from Gillian Rowlands, managing director of the human resources consultancy firm Hamilton Knight and Associates and psychologist Dr. Leachim Semaj who also specialises in human resource development.
In both their assessments of the unemployment situation here in Jamaica, they agreed that it was largely as a result of persons lacking the professional and technical skills required for available jobs.
"People often try to find what they lost in an earlier job but some jobs have disappeared forever. You have to try to learn different things so you can become more productive and competitive," said Ms. Rowlands.
"The job market is going through a tremendous transition. Many companies are now contracting employees. You have to reinvent yourself for new
opportunities.
"Look at where the demand is. Don't chase qualifications and skills that there is no market for," she advised.
"A lot of people don't know the rules for creating a job," says Dr. Semaj. "Look around you and see what needs exist and then look into the mirror and ask what skills do you have. If you can do just about anything it means you can do nothing. Your first job is to get skills and the easiest way to get skills is to work for free."
And working for free is something that many people are not willing to do even if they can't afford to go back to school, pointed out Dr. Semaj.
He further explained that in most cases unemployed people have violated certain rules. "First of all, they have not even checked what are the skills needed in their environment," he said.
However the effects of unemployment can be so devastating that people can become focused on their unemployment rather than finding ways of overcoming it.
"Depression is really pervasive when people lose jobs," says Ms. Rowlands. "This depression ranges from feeling low to going into deep depression. People are losing businesses. Some people go through a cycle."
L. B.
