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Where are the Global Jobs?

A look at the industries that are most active in the global employment market

MGV Staff Report (Posted August 6, 2007)

Anti-globalization forces may not think so, but there are many ways in which globalization is of great benefit to the average individual. While it is generally seen as a trend that benefits big governments and multinationals at the expense of regular people, ordinary individuals can also gain considerable benefits from the globalization trend. The trick is recognizing those benefits and being able to take advantage of them. Finding this page is a sure indication that you are taking your steps in the right direction. IMDiversity and Minorities Global Village are designed to help you reach your goal as a global worker. Globalization can open up horizons and opportunities that could not otherwise be widely available to a lot of diverse people.

People today have so many opportunities to choose from when it comes to job and career and travel choices than had been normally available to them before the new globalization trend. Previously, when it came to finding work and making a living, most did not think or look beyond their immediate environment. Global employment opportunities were mostly the preserve of high professionals before the current trend. Ordinary people (most blue and white-collar workers) traditionally looked beyond their immediate environment – country or region – for employment only in dire situations caused by poverty or war.

While war and bad regional economic situations may likely continue to be a motivating factor for many people to seek greener pastures elsewhere, globalization is ensuring that these do not have to be the chief reasons why people look beyond their immediate surroundings for work and leisure. People with different skills are increasingly in demand all over the world and a lot of companies are able and willing to look beyond the local labor market.

Globalization has brought about a relaxation of the rules restricting worker movement around the globe. Governments eager to attract highly skilled workers into their countries are giving concessions to the firms that bring in such workers. The hi-tech boom that took place in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s depended a lot on the importation of engineers from countries like India into the United States. Today some of those engineers have created their own hi-tech companies that are either working independently or in partnership with well-known American and other developed-world firms, such as IBM, to create joint-venture manufacturing and software development in places like India and elsewhere using local labor.

In fact, globalization means that you do not have to leave your immediate surroundings in order to secure employment elsewhere. This relative freedom of choice for location is what distinguishes the global worker from others who may be driven by factors such as social and political strife to relocate. Greater than half of the global job opportunities that exist today do not require the worker to relocate. Telecommuting makes it possible for a worker to remain in one city, country or region to work for an employer in another.

It is not only highly specialized professionals who are needed as global workers. Today there are opportunities for all grades of workers in almost every field. If you are a journalist or into media work, there are opportunities in Radio: From Asia to Africa employers are looking for good radio voices. The Chinese international broadcaster employs a good number of British and American sounding radio announcers. In Nigeria, for instance, most of the radio stations in the capital city of Abuja employ announcers whose voices are almost indistinguishable from American radio jocks. The same trend is taking place in television where people are needed not only at the front anchor desks but in the background as technicians designing and implementing the many programs that go on air. It is possible to find work as a regular reporter or correspondent for media houses operating on an international scale. Good reporters with ability and understanding in international situations are always in demand. International news agencies are quietly recruiting good local reporters who fill the numerous stories that they feed a hungry media worldwide.

Another area of strong employment for global workers is in communications and Information Technology. With the explosion in IT over the past decade and a half and increasing deployments and innovation in Internet systems and telephony, there is an increasing demand for workers in this field in different parts of the world, especially in Africa and parts of Asia, where the needed skills are in short or inadequate supply, to help implement Internet connectivity and build out communication systems. The deployment of mobile telephone systems is moving rapidly in Asia and Africa. Employers in these places are interested in people with expertise and are willing to hire foreign talent to help put the local business on the map.

Global employment is not limited to the highly skilled professionals. The good news for blue collar and lower skilled workers is that not only highly trained professionals are being sought after by global employers. Regular white and blue collar workers are also in demand. Oil companies operating in such far-flung places as Nigeria and Malaysia are in need of laborers or roustabouts to work in usually dangerous off-shore rigs or, as in Nigeria, in politically troubled environments. Airline operators in Nigeria hire trained stewards and hostesses as seed for quality growth of their local staff. In China, domestic fliers are often actively recruiting foreigners as cabin attendants on their local and international routes.

The big oil companies and associated smaller – not so well known – service companies are hiring global workers willing to travel to remote locations to work. Global employment is not limited to big multinationals. There are a lot of small and medium sized companies that need people with requisite skills to help them rapidly implement their programs.

Many job seekers may find the prospect of global employment daunting, but it is really not that much more difficult to find work as a global worker as it is to do so locally with a local firm. What it takes for all successful job seekers is focus, a game plan, the will to persevere, and yes a bit of luck.