With jobs scarce, are people looking for purpose in employment anymore?

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How many years of fatigue and punishment it takes to learn the simple truth that work, that disagreeable thing, is the only way of not suffering in life, or at all events, of suffering less.

–Charles Baudelaire

Last July, a Pew Research Poll offered evidence of what most of us already suspected: More than half the U.S. labor force had suffered some "work related hardship"—a layoff, a cut in pay or benefits, a reduction in work hours, a demotion. Statistics are suspect, of course, but there is reason to believe this one carries weight: Today, one of every four American wage earners is making less in real terms than did minimum wage earners in 1968. Youth in particular are hard hit; unemployment for 16 to 20-year-olds is a staggering 24 percent, and many recent college grads lucky enough to nail a job are chronically under-employed. For the first time in modern history young people are being cautioned to lower their expectations. As a teacher, I sense the growing trepidation. As the mother of two young adults, I feel it, powerfully, so powerfully that I've agreed to write a book on work and its meaning in the 21st century. I'd like your help, but first, some background.

On its face, "meaningful work" may sound elitist, an offshoot of late 20th century "professionalism" that encouraged the privileged few to "express themselves" through their jobs. And historically, the widespread demand for meaningful jobs is new, a consequence of developments stretching back barely a generation. But the decline of manufacturing and the rise of the knowledge economy created the conditions by which the pursuit and promise of meaning in one's job grew dramatically. And business experts tell me it continues to grow, that young people are more than ever striving to find meaning in work. Today, some employers exploit this trend, offering employees "meaning" as well as money, claims boosted by best-selling authors and motivational speakers who enthuse that meaning can be "made" for employees. Such claims should give us pause—we're talking about a job here, not a religious experience. And it's notable that the word "job," traced to its 16th-century origins, is defined as a mean and piddling affair, a crude way of turning a buck, not a passport to enlightenment.