"If there are no jobs, you could always create some for yourself"

1. Of course, some people are able to start their own business or work for themselves. Before you do this, you should be able to answer at least two or three questions:
   First - what do you have to sell? It may be a product, a service, your own skills and knowledge.
   Second - who will buy it from you, how many of them are there and roughly how much will they be prepared to pay for the product or service you want to sell?
   Third - how much money can you raise to buy or rent any equipment or premises you need and how much will you need to live on while you wait for the business to start to make money?
   You might also consider setting up a co-operative with other people - that way you spread the risk [but also the rewards] and you may be able to draw on skills you don't have but which others do.
   For more advice on starting your own business see the section on this subject
2. Some people now say that the way the labour market is going we should all act as if we were self-employed. Each of us should think of him or herself as a product that has to be marketed to an employer. We should try to identify clearly what we have to offer an employer - skills, knowledge and experience, past achievement - and show how this can help the employer and his or her company. We should do market research the way a manufacturer does to find out who our potential "customers" are and what exactly they want of us.
   Then we should "sell" them the benefits of employing us - show what they stand to gain by doing so and how this will help their company do better what it now does or do new things. We should do this, even if they have not advertised a vacancy. Stop thinking in terms of what jobs there are, and start thinking about how you can persuade an employer to take you on by showing clear benefits in doing so. This is not literally self-employment of course, just a sharper way of making applications for jobs - many of which will never be advertised publicly anyway!