The Job Market: April 2009
I didn't make the time to blog about the job market last month instead making time to talk to job hunters and work on a new site (www.freejobsearchtips.info) and the re-launch of TheResumeUniverse.com.
So I have a little bit of catching up to do.
The State of The Job Market (sounds like a Presidential address) is pretty well known:
Job cuts in January were over 740000
Job cuts in February were over 640000
In March, another 633000 workers lost their jobs (ADP believes the number was over 700000; we'll see if the government revises the figures further downward in the next few months
All told, unemployment is reported at 8.5%. That does not include people who are no longer collecting benefits or small business owners who are no longer paying themselves.
Unemployment rates were higher in February than a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas surveyed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
In summary, more than 13 million people are counted as being out of work and there is little that I am seeing to indicate that the employment picture is improving. Understand that, although my office is hubbed in the Northeast, the work that our firm is doing in recruiting is national in scope. Every part of the country is being severely impacted in every almost every field except one--health care.
Clearly, the health care industry has enormous labor shortages. Positions available are not simply for physicians but nurse practitioners, people to work in hospital administration, pharmacists . . . the list is long and seemingly endless.
Professionals in the energy industry is another high demand area currently.
I think the next demand area is going to be consultants . . . temps . . . people working on a temp-to-perm basis.
You see, comes the summer, companies will be dealing with vacation schedules and work slippages (we have a project due by January and we're already behind on it. Let's get some people in to help). If we sat and one other thing, I think we will have turned the corner. If not, like Punxsutawney Phil (for my overseas readers who may not follow this uniquely American tradition--Phil is a groundhop used to predict whether winter will be short or long), we will be in for a cold winter this year and a tough year next, too.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2009 all rights reserved.
So I have a little bit of catching up to do.
The State of The Job Market (sounds like a Presidential address) is pretty well known:
Job cuts in January were over 740000
Job cuts in February were over 640000
In March, another 633000 workers lost their jobs (ADP believes the number was over 700000; we'll see if the government revises the figures further downward in the next few months
All told, unemployment is reported at 8.5%. That does not include people who are no longer collecting benefits or small business owners who are no longer paying themselves.
Unemployment rates were higher in February than a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas surveyed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
In summary, more than 13 million people are counted as being out of work and there is little that I am seeing to indicate that the employment picture is improving. Understand that, although my office is hubbed in the Northeast, the work that our firm is doing in recruiting is national in scope. Every part of the country is being severely impacted in every almost every field except one--health care.
Clearly, the health care industry has enormous labor shortages. Positions available are not simply for physicians but nurse practitioners, people to work in hospital administration, pharmacists . . . the list is long and seemingly endless.
Professionals in the energy industry is another high demand area currently.
I think the next demand area is going to be consultants . . . temps . . . people working on a temp-to-perm basis.
You see, comes the summer, companies will be dealing with vacation schedules and work slippages (we have a project due by January and we're already behind on it. Let's get some people in to help). If we sat and one other thing, I think we will have turned the corner. If not, like Punxsutawney Phil (for my overseas readers who may not follow this uniquely American tradition--Phil is a groundhop used to predict whether winter will be short or long), we will be in for a cold winter this year and a tough year next, too.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2009 all rights reserved.
Labels: 2009, The Job Market
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