The Rise of "Gig Academy"

Like the title of this blog says, if you're in academia or any other sector for that matter, I'm sorry to say but don't get your hopes up if you think you'll land a cushy job where you'll work for the rest of your life and retire with a nice pension. That time period is long gone. 

According to Adriana Kezar, a professor of education at University of Southern California, she describes the current employment trend in higher education:

“A cheap and deprofessionalized workforce, fissured workers through outsourcing, automation and uses of technology to reduce labor costs, offloading reproduction costs onto employees, an ethic of micro-entrepreneurship, and managerial control over labor supply and demand.”

She continues to explain how, within the last two decades, there has been a seismic down shift in the number of tenure track positions that are available. In the past, the higher-ed faculty composed of 70% tenure-track faculty whereas today, the number is less than 30% and they were replaced by short-term and part-time faculty. 

What does this mean for the young EL educators out there? 

If you're currently thinking of getting an advanced degree in teaching ESL, I highly encourage you to do a cost-benefit analysis. Let's say you took out an education loan of $30,000 with 5% interest. Let's say your take home check is $2,500 per month (avg hr. wage in California is about $25-30) and you keep $1,000 after rent and other necessities. Out of that $1,000, you'll mostlikely be spending another $500 for food and leisure. After that you'd only be left with $500 to pay off your debt. If you're able to put in all $500 each month, you'd be able to pay off your debt in 6 yrs. However, you won't be saving any money. When if you put down $250 every month, that'd take you 12 yrs... That's not even considering the inflation. No matter how much you might love teaching, this financial situation would not help you down the line. You'll become burned out. I know because I have many colleagues who have anxiety due to our profession's  financial uncertainly. 

If you just started teaching, continue learning new skills and diversify. Don't just limit yourself to education and teaching ESL. You need to arm yourself with a variety of practical skills so that one-day when the higher education system collapses under its own weight, you'll be able to survive on your own with new skills you acquired. Learn finance like investment, real estate, stocks, entrpreneurship, and anything else that you might find interesting. It's never too late but one thing is for sure, the time will not stop for you. 

If you have any comments or if you have any of own experience dealing with employment uncertainties, I would love to hear from you! 😄

Keep hustling everyone and keep bringing happiness to people. 

Thank you for reading. 

-Kaz

Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/10/10/you%E2%80%99ve-heard-gig-economy-what-about-gig-academy