Despite the fact that debtors felt a little more positively about the economy potentially getting better in September, their opinion was markedly more negative in December. The survey showed that a larger majority of consumers, about sixty six percent, strongly felt that they will be reducing their personal spending and struggling more financially over the next six months.

Even though the executives surveyed were more likely to believe that the economy will recover in the next coming months, consumers remain wary. This might be chalked up to the fact that these obscenely rich millionaires don’t have much reason to worry about anything financially related any time soon. The current economic situation has almost every typical American stuck in cost cutting mode, with the exception of these top executives who sail in yachts and enjoy caviar while sick people are struggling to pay doctor’s bills. It seems as though debtors may have a more realistic take on the situation; most companies are planning to continue to aggressively search for ways to cut costs in the next year. Fifty two percent of these companies surveyed said this includes layoffs and pay cuts for the average American.

And despite the fact that executives remain footloose and fancy free, they concede that the unemployment problem in America will only get worse before it improves. After all, why cut their salaries when they can lay off the average Joe? For example, Walmart recently laid off 11,200 Sam’s Clubs Employees, choosing to outsource the positions for cheaper pay instead. And even if the recent studies suggesting that the jobless rate has been shrinking are correct, there is no denying that no new jobs are being created.

Obviously, this information has its effects on the collections industry. As a writer who focuses on this subject, I see more and more blogs and news articles about debt collectors growing more persistent and aggressive, and more and more bloggers complaining about collection agencies. According to them, debt collectors should be the only ones prospering in the economy. But clearly, they haven’t been. It just seems like these rich executives are the only ones doing that well. The simple fact of the matter is that when consumers just don’t have the money or the means to repay a delinquent account that they took out before their financial situation went downhill, things get tougher for both the debtors and the collectors.

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on commercial collection agencies.

In article four I wrote about what the job of a debt collector is like, and in article five I described the expectations that debt collectors are generally required to meet on the job. Now I will write about the perks of being a debt collector, and what the collections industry can expect to see in the future.

The important thing for any debt collector just starting the job to keep in mind is to hang in there: the amount of experience that a debt collector gains is directly proportional to their rate of success, and more success, means more money in commissions. There is much growth potential for collection agents, as collectors who are successful will usually get bigger accounts that come with opportunities to earn more money.

Additionally, employees who acquire additional experience, training and skills are also more likely to advance. The majority of debt collectors work forty hours per week, with some working evenings and weekends, others working part time. Generally, the work schedules of a debt collector are pretty flexible.

In the year of 2008, surveys showed that there were almost 411,000 collection agents. Twenty five percent were hired by businesses, nineteen percent were working for financial and insurance agencies, and eighteen percent were employed in the health care field. Experts predict the amount of debt collection jobs to grow at a rate faster than the average of all other occupations. It is projected to grow by an enormous nineteen percent from 2008 to 2018. These analysts expect that new jobs will be created in industries like health care and financial services, and that jobs will grow for both in house bill collectors and third party collection agencies.

Mallory Megan works for Rapid Recovery Solution and writes articles on medical collection agencies.