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Today's job report was somber at only 36,000 new jobs. The numbers literally cold comfort for the 13.9 million Americans looking for work,with some blame for the cold weather that slowed economic activity. What do people do whose skills are simply declining in demand ? One option is move to higher speed economies of the two speed economy, as this piece from Wharton suggests. The US being the slow speed economy and high growth countries like China,India,Brazil being the high speed ones.
Let me explain what it feels like to be in a high speed economy from waiting for chicken malai tikka at a barbecue in Delhi last month. It was rather late and folks did not want to wait for called in delivery so had showed up for the take out. At fairly expensive pricing . if you go by purchasing parity , there were at least 7 people waiting with an average of an hour's wait for take-out as you watched the guy in the front putting all manner of barbecue into the clay oven. As one huge order seemed to take too long the customer apologized to others waiting saying that an impromptu party had been suddenly organized and 30 people had showed up and this was a post Lohri ( a festival that has nothing to do with barbecue at least traditionally) celebration. Others waiting grumbled at the longer wait.
Contrast this scene with the best chicken wings takeout in your US town on this Super Bowl Sunday. Not many impromptu orders for 30 people I would guess. Not to say that the aggregate US consumption of chicken wings on Sunday will be less than previous years but the boom that you might see in India in a comparable restaurant business is simply not possible here.
So is there opportunity for anybody with restaurant food value chain skills ?
Sure and its just a question of figuring out a way of participating in these high speed economies and this applies to every skill that's looking obsolete in the US today.