I was out doing some nature photography this weekend and met another amateur while I was photographing some owls. He confided in me that he had just lost his job last week and asked me where I worked. From what I could gather he was a middle aged middle manager who transferred to a shaky company that couldn’t survive the economic downturn. He basically got no severance or anything. He was desperately trying to network with anyone he met to try to find a new job or a part time job to help carry him over.
My point is simple. People who are losing jobs are looking to bring in money any way they can. Some people are resorting to getting part time jobs, trying to make ends meet even if they lose benefits.
With this fiscal crisis many family budgets are tight. Stocks, pension and 401k plans are taking a beating. With balloon payments on mortgages coming due, people are looking to supplement their income by getting another job. Part time jobs are a great way to supplement a family’s income during difficult times.
So is this a trend with a potential upside for domain names and development?
Part time jobs
The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged in January at 7.8 million; however, this measure was up by 3.1 million over the past 12 months. Included in this category are persons who would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Data Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Division of Current Employment Statistics
To match income with their previous full time job, many will have to work more than one part time job. Furthermore those who have lost jobs may take part time jobs to make ends meet.
Search volume for part time jobs
Using Google Insights for Search, I checked the trend in search volume for ” part time jobs”
You can click the image above to see it in detail. Clearly there is an increase in search volume for part time jobs.
The bottom line is that this may be an area you want to analyse further and if you can find appropriate domain names, think about how to take advantage of this trend. With development, perhaps you can specifically target the part time job market as a niche. With decent relevant domain names, you can use this data to help market them to other domainers or end users.
By the way here is the photo of the Long Eared Owl I took this weekend.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m 3 months from living under a bridge myself, nothing out there and domain sales are zero in last 9 months.
Heres some of my photography for you to enjoy.
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=183497283&albumId=568120
Rob,
Sorry to hear that. I know its tough. How about selling some of your photos? They are good.
Thanks, yeah I tried that a few times with very little luck. Tough competitive market.
One thing I havent heard on the news is any studies on population growth and normal job demand. I think or assume we as a country and world in general are heading into a cituation where there will literally be too many people on the planet and nowhere near enough jobs/work to satisfy everyone. What do we do then? Just saying.
Actually Rob, strangely enough I did see some statistics on that though I wasn’t sure about the source and their agenda so I didn’t include it.
They did seem to show statistics at least for the US that job growth/creation was not keeping up with population growth over the last year.
Not enough jobs, not enough food, pollution are all potential outcomes of unchecked population growth. We live in a finite space in this planet but we act like we don’t