What are the long range prospects of your current job, career; is it reliable, does it pay well enough? Will it get any better, or worse? What about the overall job market, do you think the quality, reliability and pay of jobs in general will get a much better any time soon? Many think that the job market has just recently gone downhill with the economic downturn, but are you aware of the severity of the declining job market way before the recession? Let's look at a few factors affecting jobs, even in top careers, as an income generating vehicle today.

Before the economy took a nose dive, are you aware that many companies were doing what they could to reduce employee costs by lowering benefits, cutting salaries and wages, and more. And for quite a number of years many employers have they been 'easing out' older workers in order to lower wages, insurance and pension costs? Gradually reducing the value of a job, even a career, as an opportunity for generating the income you want. What is happening to the value of the career choices and employment opportunities college students look forward to.

How long have major employers been reducing the job bank by sending jobs to countries with lower costs, of course with out concern for the employees they lay off? There appears to be no employee loyalty factor in large companies any more. And what about bringing in high skilled workers from other countries because they can pay them less to start?

How many companies are you aware of that now have very few full time positions? Now, most retail businesses don't pay benefits to most of their employees because they keep their hours below the required threshold. Usually only the managers are full time, receiving benefits, with everyone else pushed into a no benefit part-time job. There are many companies such a delivery services that are now sub-contracting the actual delivery work to independent drivers, so they get out of paying benefits and dealing with the equipment. And these are just a couple examples of how companies are trimming their labor costs.

The 'bottom line' has become the only guiding factor to corporate decision making. They have lost any sense of value for employees who have long employment history, it all comes down to a cost item on a spreadsheet. The employee is looked at no differently than the office supplies, "how can we get it for less?"

Everything has become more competitive as the world economy melds together. Certain products have been quite competitive for years, but now it seems as though most are. This of course puts downward pressure on wages, on top of the huge cost of benefits and insurance.

And have you noticed how the life-cycle of more and more products is getting shorter. And once a product drops in popularity, jobs usually go too. Then you are left scrambling for a new one. Have you ever figured out how long after getting a new job it takes to recover from the wages you lost while being unemployed? Many times you never really recover, you just take a hit and are living at a lower level because you are always playing catch-up.

Most of these changes in jobs were occurring before the economy dropped. So, what makes you think it will bounce back to something better when the economy recovers? It probably won't. Right now it is an employers market with jobs, too many people applying for the jobs will just allow supply and demand to keep the wages low. Employers only pay more when they have to.

Now workers are at the mercy of several factors that don't have anything to do with their efforts and loyalty. The economy, the employer, the stockholders, lower wages in the rest of the world, the life-cycle of a product, how competitive a company is, and so on. And with most households needing two full time incomes, what happens as pay and benefits are squeezed even more? The big question is, will there be any substantial recovery in the job market, in salaries, wages and benefits any time soon?

So what is the answer? Is there an answer for those who want more in life than being subject to so many outside factors? Consider this, when working as an employee, where someone else determines what your income is, you are left to do your best building your life with the money available. Is this the optimal way to live your life, to realize your dreams and goals, to provide your family all that you want? Or is it a restrictive, even backwards, way to conduct your life?

There is another way to live your life, the way most entrepreneurs do. You decide how you want to live your life, what it will include and what you do with your time - basically your entire lifestyle. Then, you go about to come up with a way to generate the income to support this life, in a way that aligns with your chosen life. With self-employment you can actually bring more control of your income flow to your side of the equation.

Look around, to the people you know, and those you have heard about, aren't the ones living a life with more choices and freedom the ones who are self-employed? Now, of course not all self-employed people are much better off than employees. How much time they must expend to generate a given amount of money can greatly affect both their income and time freedom. Some people who make large amounts of money, use long hours doing it, so when do they enjoy the life it supports?

If done correctly, in a way that blends with your life, self-employment can be the best route to supporting the kind of life you want.