Links in the economic chain

Assignment

Visit your nearest library and find sources on career definitions. Make a list of possible careers in which you might be interested. Compile a list in order of priority.

When you enter the labour market, you are a fully-fledged member of the economic cycle and your employer (if you are working for someone else) or your own business (if you are self-employed) will exert pressure to bear on you to achieve results.

Not only do you receive a bigger portion of the economy in the form of a salary/income, but you also plough back a bigger portion into the economy in exchange for products and services that you acquire. In this way you form an important link in the economic cycle of your country – and indirectly of the world economy. Yes, just like our country has an internal economic cycle, it also forms part of the bigger world economy.

Position in the labour market

The labour market can be viewed as a ladder on which you climb higher with every promotion until you have reached the highest rung.

Some employees prefer not to function in a management capacity and are then promoted and remunerated only within their own job levels.

If you own your own business, you are in your own employ. You are then the employer and might have people working for you – employees.

Talk to your parents and relatives who are already in the labour market and find out at what job levels they were appointed. Determine whether their salaries are linked to the posts they occupy and establish how many are self-employed. Report to the class.

[LO 1.1]

The investor

Most active members of the labour market at some stage or another make an investment or investments. In this way they not only try to increase their money, but also contribute to the economic cycle.

Examples:

• Buy a plot of land and sell it a year later at a higher price;
• Buy shares in a dynamic growing company at a relatively low price per share and sell it later at a higher price.
• Take out an endowment policy at a certain monthly premium.

Talk to your parents and make a list of more ways in which to invest money.

Retirement

On retirement you usually leave the labour market. If you made provision, you should now receive a monthly pension that should be enough for you to maintain your standard of living. People who have retired, still play a dynamic role in the development of the country’s economy. However, this role is generally more passive, as most people who have retired, prefer to have a peaceful life in this phase. They now become mainly consumers who no longer play a strong investment role in the economic cycle.

Assessment