BetterLearningBetterEarning™ | Get Better Work & Income - Teach Yourself Higher Paying Skills

Do you think it’s suspicious that the U.S. Department of Labor recommends which jobs will be most promising in the future? Does that organization know those things, or, is government hoping to steer future workers into roles they want filled? A surplus of qualified workers in a given industry drives labor costs down for these necessary but often unglamorous positions. If we’re considering new careers, we must realize many “good jobs” only pay the market rate and rarely offer opportunities for significant raises.

What’s a Commodity?

Commodities are basically the raw materials used in the manufacture of other goods. They all have a baseline market price that doesn’t vary much regardless of who produced them. For instance, a barrel of oil has a certain market price and a barrel from Kuwait would generally fetch the same price as a barrel from Alaska. Quality is a non-issue; commodities are assumed – for market purposes – to be identical. That barrel of oil from Kuwait is considered to be no better/worse than the barrel of oil from Alaska. Most agricultural products and minerals qualify as commodities.

The thing about commodities is that they are at the mercy of the market or current demand. A wheat farmer might say, “I’m only going to sell my grain for so many dollars a ton,” but he will never find a buyer if his price exceeds the current universal price for wheat. That’s why governments subsidize so many commodities. They need those producers to stay in business and production when the normal markets wouldn’t offer sufficient incentives.

Commodity Skills?

While governments subsidize many products, they rarely subsidize most careers. Our potential to earn a given amount of money in a certain type of job is limited by the going market price. We can earn no more than what employers are universally willing to pay. Sure, a nurse in a big city might make more than one in a town of a few thousand, but when costs of living and years of experience factor into the equation, the result would show a baseline compensation for nursing jobs.

We might choose to go into web design, healthcare, or even high-level computer programming but all those careers still exhibit a commodity-type payment system. What’s more, is that the universal price employers or clients are willing to pay now deflates from an international labor supply.

For example, I was researching freelance suppliers of web/multimedia design on guru.com. Two top-rated freelance groups both had the same quality ratings from all their clients, but the minimum hourly rate for one was $10 (USD) per hour and the other was $50 (USD) per hour. The difference? The cheaper of the two was located in Hyderabad, India, and the more expensive in the United States!

Success vs. Security

I don’t like the thought of my compensation potential being capped. If I work more and produce better work, I want to be paid better. The market values many skills at universal prices, however. Professional web design is professional web design. JAVA programming is JAVA programming. Nursing care is nursing care just like a barrel of oil is a barrel of oil. Take it or leave it.

If you want security and predictability, even at the expense of higher income potential, then stick with these commodity-type jobs. If unlimited potential and opportunities to get better income excite you, take a different route. We need to offer something unique and irreplaceable enough that we’re at liberty to set our own prices. When a unique product, service, or skill matches up with high demand and low supply, then we can break through market caps to earn what we deserve.

What can you offer as a potential employee or business owner that is hard to reproduce? What products and services do people pay more for? What do you need to learn and do to provide those products or services?

Sources:
Explanation of Commodities from Investopedia.com
Wikipedia: Commodity
U.S. Department of Labor: Tomorrow’s Jobs
Freelance Web Designer Profiles on Guru.com

©2009 www.betterlearningbetterearning.com™