Nearly Half of Americans Re-Evaluating Career Path

BELLEVUE, Neb., March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bellevue University, an award-winning leader in educating adult learners, today released the results of a U.S. consumer study that revealed nearly half (47 percent) of Americans are re-evaluating their occupations.  This shift by working adults to new vocations is directly related to the fact that, across the nation, there are a number of industries in decline.

• One in four Americans say they are re-thinking their occupation because few jobs exist in their declining industry; they must switch careers to enter a growing field.
• With money tight, Americans who have been out of the workforce for several years have decided to go back to work to supplement the family income. Women are leading this charge – 1 in 10 women (11 percent) report returning to the workforce to help make ends meet.
• During the down economy, 12 percent of working adults have decided to start their own business.
• Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of working adults are unhappy at work. They report wanting to change the type of work they do because they want to find a job doing something they actually enjoy.

Market research firm IBISWorld Inc. published a list of 10 industries in America that had the steepest decline in revenue during the last decade and are forecasted to further contract through 2016.  Also according to a research report issued by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, hundreds of thousands of low-skill jobs in manufacturing, farming, fishing, and forestry have been permanently destroyed because the recession has further prompted employers to either automate those positions or ship them offshore to take advantage of cheap labor.  Overall, the report projects 637,000 jobs in the Manufacturing and Natural Resources industries will meet such fates by 2018. 

"Declining industries dislocate workers en masse. Unfortunately, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than one million people are or will be displaced across industries that are waning in America," said Dr. Mary B. Hawkins, president