Both my father and father in-law grew up in a work environment when selecting a career and taking a job for life with a single employer was the norm.

In the decades beginning with the 1960’s and extended to today economic expansions (and contractions) coupled with increased pace of technological development this has changed.

Opportunity

Just like the housing market, the supply and demand equation has a very real impact on the continuity of employment as it relates to a single employer.

As the supply of jobs increases workers are more likely to move between employers taking opportunities of greater compensation or most often seeking increased satisfaction.

Likewise due to the economy, technology or other efficiency improvement methods the job roller coaster can cruise downward and for these periods the ability to remain in a single job for life might not exist.

The Economy and Technology

Job supply is often linked to the robustness of the economy but also strongly affected by technological and efficiency improvements in the way things are done (or perhaps not done any longer).

The rollercoaster up and downs in supply and demand over the decades since 1960 have been the single most impactful factor in replacing jobs for life with the more current environment of basically taking a job for the moment.

The change is the workforce from a high percentage of relatively stable long term employment to the current “gig” economy is evolutionary and did not occur overnight but it is becoming more the norm every day.

The Future

Given the cost to employers of managing turn-over and the shrinking work force (as a large portion of baby boomers retire world-wide) things may change.

It is very possible even with the economic and technological pressures we may see a return to a higher percentage of long term, lifetime association with a single employer simply because the worker supply will begin to .

I wonder?