New year, new jobs? Not really…
By Emily on January 4th, 2008Let’s just say that the newest payroll numbers from December weren’t a great way for the country to ring in the New Year. The U.S. gained 18,000 jobs overall last month, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics likes to phrase as “essentially” or “relatively unchanged.” I like to phrase this minuscule jump in numbers as BAD. But I don’t want to scare anyone away with my negative antics, so I’ll stick to reporting the facts and leave the drawing of worrisome conclusions to you.
I know that my post about November’s BLS report talked a lot about revisions, specifically how September’s employment numbers plummeted in the months following their initial release. I am happy to report that the revisions listed in the December press release were moderate. The number of jobs gained in October slipped a bit from 170,000 positions to 159,000, while November’s projected gains rose from 94,000 jobs to 115,000. So I suppose the revisions balance each other out. Based on the growth in October and November (which wasn’t stellar to begin with), you can see why an increase of 18,000 jobs across the entire nation isn’t exactly good news.
What’s more is that the unemployment rate in the U.S. has jumped from 4.7 to 5.0 percent in the span of just one month. In 2007, payroll employment increased by 1.3 million positions overall. In 2006, the country experienced a gain of 2.3 million jobs. Even though this past year’s economic downfall has been gradual, its effects are definitely being felt.
Some industries did make progress last month. Professional and technical services added 33,000 positions in December, which contributed to a total gain of 322,000 jobs over the year. Within this industry, employment in management and technical consulting services increased by 12,000 and administrative and support services (to buildings and dwellings) contributed another 19,000 jobs. The health care sector and food services, typically bright spots in the employment situation report, added 28,000 and 27,000 positions, respectively. In 2007, the health care industry gained 381,000 jobs, while employment in food services has risen by 304,000 positions.
The construction sector took a big hit in December with a loss of 49,000 jobs. Credit intermediation lost another 7,000 positions last month, and the manufacturing sector lost 31,000. Retail trade dropped 24,000 jobs as well. The average workweek held steady yet again at 33.8 hours, and the average hourly earnings of all U.S. workers increased by seven cents. The median weekly income for the country’s employees now stands at $598.60.
The employment situation report for the month of January 2008 will be released on February 1, so if the payroll numbers continue to trend downward, at least we get to deal with the bad news on the first day of the month. (And then forget about it…for a little while…maybe…let’s hope.) As usual, if you are in the market for a new career, I only have good, reliable things to say about health care.
Learn more about the nation’s fastest growing occupations…use the rankings for career guidance
By Emily on December 18th, 2007Earlier this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics updated its list of the 30 fastest growing occupations in the United States. The revised version of the rankings estimates growth in the country’s industries between 2006 and 2016, providing an intuitive guide for anyone who’s just beginning or reentering college, searching for a new job, or contemplating a career change.
Technology-based jobs had a strong showing on the list, with network systems and data communications specialists grabbing the top spot. The number of positions in this field is expected to increase by 53.4 percent between 2006 and 2016. Software engineers specializing in computer applications came in at number four, with a 44.6 percent jump in jobs anticipated. Computer systems analysts, database administrators, and computer systems software engineers helped round out the top 30 as well. All of these jobs were categorized as having very high annual salaries (at or above $46,360). These positions are most often filled by professionals with bachelor degrees.
Unsurprisingly, health care occupations dominated the rankings, as well as comparable positions in social rehabilitation and veterinary care. Personal and home care aides placed second on the list (at 50.6 percent projected growth), while home health aides were ranked as the third fastest growing profession. The placement of these two careers so high on the list is a direct result of the aging baby boomer population, a group that will undoubtedly need health care assistance within their homes over the next decade. Short-term, on-the-job training was cited as the most common source of postsecondary instruction for workers involved in both of these occupations.
Other health care positions that made the fastest growing list include medical assistants (#8), physical therapy assistants (#15), pharmacy technicians (#16), dental hygienists (#18), dental assistants (#22), physical therapists (#29), and physician assistants (#30). Social rehabilitation occupations such as substance abuse counselors, social and human service assistants, mental health counselors and social workers, and marriage and family therapists also placed high in the rankings. Veterinarians (#9) and veterinary technicians (#5) appeared within the top ten as well.
If you want to browse the list of promising occupations for yourself, click here. As a warning, the text in the HTML version is ridiculously tiny, so if you can’t burn holes through walls with your eyes, and you didn’t eat a lot of carrots when you were younger (yes, I continue to embrace my mother’s lies), you might prefer reading the text file. I was squinting for a good 15 minutes before I endeavored to find an easier version to read. See how I do all the work for you?
The BLS rankings provide a concise overview of the future of the U.S. job market. You will find significant statistics like the thousands employed in each field in 2006 versus projections for 2016, the percent change in positions anticipated, the median annual wage for each career, and the most common level of education or training that the professionals working in these fields possess. Even if you aren’t interested in these occupations specifically, it’s always important to have a grasp of what’s going on in terms of national employment. Popular fields will have busy facilities, and facilities need professionals from every type of industry to operate effectively. So happy degree/job hunting!
November’s payroll growth is stable, we’ll have to wait and see what happens with revisions
By Emily on December 7th, 2007It’s nearly Christmas time, and being that it’s the first Friday of the month, I figured I would try and brighten up your day with something truly special: the gift of a BLS employment situation report. I didn’t write it, or gather any of the information that’s in it, but I will summarize it for you. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics may do all of the heavy lifting, but they don’t organize the data into neat little tidbits for your reading enjoyment. On that note, I’ll stop rambling and start writing about what you’re really interested in…
The employment numbers for November are up! And October’s aren’t down! The employment situation report released this morning for the month of November shows that the nation added 94,000 jobs overall. What’s more is that the unusually high numbers from October (+166,000 positions) haven’t been dramatically revised…yet. I say “yet” because the numbers from September have been revised again in the latest payroll employment overview. Let’s review the month’s downfall:
Original projection for September: +110,000 jobs
Secondary projection for September: +96,000 jobs
Latest projection for September: +44,000 jobs
BLS employees seem to have a hard time making up their minds, or adding, and this doesn’t bode well for the longevity and accuracy of future reports. All I know is that the BLS report for November lists October’s revised job growth as +170,000 positions, which is great news if it stays that way through the next few months (and doesn’t take a turn for the worst like September did).
With solid job growth of 94,000 positions in November, the national unemployment rate has remained stable at 4.7 percent. Total employment in the U.S. increased by nearly 700,000 people to 146.7 million, which helped boost the employment-population ratio for November to 63.0 percent.
Professional and business services, which added 65,000 positions in October, continued to climb in November with another 30,000 jobs. In this sector, the computer systems design industry added nearly 12,000 jobs, while management and technical consulting services gained over 6,000. Health care and food services, which both typically contribute close to 30,000 jobs a month, added 15,000 and 17,000 jobs, respectively. These smaller gains were offset by growth in social assistance (+10,000), accommodations (+11,000), and retail trade (+24,000).
The big losses were no surprise, with industries related to home building and financing suffering the most in November. The construction sector lost 24,000 jobs, manufacturing employment dropped by 11,000, and the credit intermediation industry reported a loss of 13,000 positions. The average workweek remained the same (at 33.8 hours), while the average earnings for American workers this past month rose eight cents an hour. This sharp increase in wages brings the average weekly income for November to $595.89 and raises concerns about inflation.
Financial hiring set to hold steady in the first quarter of 2008
By Emily on December 5th, 2007According to a report released by Robert Half International yesterday morning, hiring in the financial industry is expected to hold steady through the first quarter of 2008. Robert Half International has been tracking financial hiring in the U.S. since 1992, and the staffing conglomerate’s findings are based on a recent survey of over 1,400 randomly selected CFOs.
Ten percent of the CFOs interviewed said that they expect to bulk up their accounting and finance staffs in the first few months of next year, while four percent reported that they plan to reduce their personnel. That leaves the country with an anticipated six percent increase in financial hiring in the first quarter of 2008, which is unchanged from the forecast for the fourth quarter of 2007.
The majority of the CFOs who plan to hire more employees cited rising company workloads as their reasoning, while 30 percent need more workers to cope with anticipated business expansions. Even though the predicted increase in hiring between this quarter and next is unchanged, competition among employers to attract skilled accounting and finance professionals is fierce. This demand has translated into higher salaries for staff accountants, internal auditors, and financial analysts.
In addition to these national statistics, Robert Half International has also released hiring forecasts for various U.S. regions. The West South Central region (which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas) has the strongest anticipated growth in financial jobs, with 14 percent of CFOs expecting to increase their full-time hires in the first quarter and only two percent predicting cutbacks. Hiring in the Middle Atlantic and the Pacific states (or NJ, NY, PA, CA, AK, OR, HI, and WA) is also expected to surpass the national average of a six percent increase.
The report breaks the projected trends in financial hiring for the first quarter of 2008 down into industries as well. The business services sector has the most anticipated growth, with a net 15 percent of CFOs planning to bulk up their staffs. The manufacturing industry has the potential for a nine percent increase overall in financial hiring.
Here is a graph that separates the hiring projections for next quarter into metropolitan regions. The strongest areas look to be Las Vegas, New York, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta.
The overall consensus from this report is that the financial industry is maintaining consistency in the face of a fragile economy. Some areas will have stronger growth in accounting and finance jobs than others, but taken as a whole, the national projections for hiring over the next few months are solid. These numbers do not illustrate the demand for qualified professionals in these areas either. If you have a reputable degree and a strong background in accounting or finance, you should have no trouble finding a position in your area that satisfies your needs.
California needs more qualified health care workers now, the rest of the country to follow
By Emily on November 27th, 2007A recent study completed by the Campaign for College Opportunity reveals that the health care sector in California is already experiencing a shortage of college-educated workers, a troublesome issue that is expected to plague all industries in the state by the year 2020. This shortage, paired with the inevitable retirement of highly skilled baby boomers in the health care field, is expected to place the health of Californians (and millions of other citizens throughout the country) in serious jeopardy.
Recordnet.com posted an article earlier this month that addresses this looming shortage and the concerns that many citizens have regarding the future of our nation’s health. According to the study introduced above, California’s over-65 population is growing much faster than other groups in the state and is expected to increase by 75 percent between 2000 and 2020. Compared with their younger counterparts, citizens aged 65 to 97 require four times as many health expenditures. Columnist Joe Goldeen writes that many health care professionals in California are in crisis mode, realizing that “the tidal wave of patients is only a few years away.”
With shortages already apparent in many facilities and industries, there seems to be no solution in sight for this potentially dangerous situation. The Campaign for College Opportunity study shows that allied health care fields are experiencing the worst shortages as of now. These types of positions represent 60 percent of health care jobs, and some examples include diagnostic medical sonographers, pharmacy technicians, surgical technologists, and medical assistants. Registered nurses are also notoriously in demand.
Right now, there isn’t enough capacity in California’s colleges to train and educate the number of people necessary to fill these jobs. Allied health positions often require a certificate, an associate degree, or in some cases, a graduate degree. While the state focuses on creating more training programs, your best bet is to do some research on the schools that do have openings.
California is certainly not the only state that is facing a major shortage of workers in the upcoming years, and many institutions are working towards broadening their resources and increasing the number of available slots in their health-related degree programs. So while you may encounter some obstacles to receiving your training in the health care industry now, just know that it won’t be difficult to find an open position once you’ve earned the appropriate certificate or degree.
Taking a second look at common career and workplace myths
By Emily on November 26th, 2007Whether you are new to the job market or experienced in the ways of the workplace, it doesn’t hurt to challenge conventional concepts and knowledge every once in awhile. In an article posted by the New York Daily News this morning, Carolyn Kepcher (a former Apprentice star) and Sheila Norman-Culp (a Worklife columnist) contest eight workplace and career myths that are often taken as truths.
The first myth they challenge is the idea that you have to have great grades in school to succeed as a professional. Although Kepcher admits that a high GPA will set you apart from your peers, she believes that ambition and drive are just as important. A smart employer will recognize this and look beyond your grades for other indicators of how you’ll perform in the workplace.
Second, the women dispute the idea that companies only hire ex-interns. While it is obvious that some organizations favor their interns when filling entry-level positions (Deloitte & Touche hire 90 percent of their former interns), some companies look elsewhere (only one percent of Accenture’s entry-level employees previously held internships with the organization). Internships are helpful, but there are other ways to land the job you want.
Myth Number Three: The highest paying offer is the best. Even though a competitive salary is a priority for many job seekers, you also want a position that caters to your strengths and allows you to grow. A high-paying job where you stagnate won’t help you in the long run.
The fourth myth that the article contested, that your first job doesn’t matter, surprised me. There is an explosive job turnover rate among young professionals today, and many American workers change jobs ten times before they even reach the age of 40, so I never stopped to think about the impact that your first job can have on your career. Kepcher and Norman-Culp believe that your first job will shape your future and that focusing your work in one field will build up your image as an expert in your industry.
The next two myths, that big companies are too impersonal and that small companies are too limiting, are both debated. Kepcher has always worked for big companies, because they offer more room for growth and advancement, but she also believes that a small organization can offer young workers more responsibility and faster pay increases.
The seventh myth is that it’s always better to work at a company’s headquarters. Although a job at HQ gets you closer to the action and the corporate decision making, it also tends to be a lot more competitive there. If you want to keep your distance from company politics, it’s better to seek out a position in a satellite office.
And finally, the article advises young professionals to emphasize their summer jobs on their resumes, because they actually do mean something in the grand scheme of things. Kepcher believes that even the most standard summer jobs (think food services and camp counseling) can help you develop invaluable skills in areas like sales, customer service, and time management. Advertise what you learned at these jobs because responsibilities that you held over the summer can translate into legitimate qualifications for more professional occupations.
To learn more about promising jobs that you may want to pursue in the future, read our overviews of careers in law enforcement, finance, and health care.
BusinessWeek rankings still big news, accounting firms still a great option for new college grads
By Emily on November 13th, 2007Nearly two months after BusinessWeek released its second annual ranking of the best places for new college graduates to launch their careers, the results from the report are still making headlines.
Just yesterday, the San Francisco Examiner published the article “College Grads Can Count on Accounting.” The piece focused on the fact that three of the nation’s Big Four accounting firms managed to nab the top three spots on this year’s list. Deloitte & Touche, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Ernst & Young were the big winners, and the last of the Big Four, KPMG, missed out on making the top ten by just one spot. Overall, the report profiled the top 95 companies in the country to work for as a recent college graduate.
BusinessWeek’s report, which you can find here, discussed the recruiting methods of various companies and how these tactics have evolved to cater to the needs and wants of Generation Y. Accounting firms have been especially effective when it comes to understanding what younger workers are seeking, such as meaningful work, constructive feedback, and positions of influence within the organizations they work for. These companies also actively transition their interns into full-time employees.
BusinessWeek credits accounting firms for being some of the first companies to rethink the recruiting process. The newest generation of workers maintains a relatively high turnover rate, with some young professionals averaging as many as ten jobs before they even reach the age of 35. The Big Four have spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out how to keep college grads happy on the job, and more importantly, how to keep them employed within their firms.
In addition to forward-thinking recruiting strategies that center around Facebook and rap videos, accounting agencies offer a lot of perks, like flexible work schedules. KPMG starts its summer weekends at 3 p.m. every Friday, Ernst & Young offers four-day weekends several times throughout the summer months, and PwC has introduced an extra 11-day vacation for all of its employees. Now those sound like policies that would make any job candidate more likely to accept a position.
The article on Examiner.com also talks about how these powerhouse companies expose young workers to all of the employment opportunities within the expansive accounting field. The size of these national firms and their numerous locations allow for a lot of advancement within the same organization. And since recent college graduates are notorious for not knowing what direction to take after they’re out of school, it’s great to find a first job that affords a lot of options for the future.
If launching your career at one of these companies sounds appealing to you, learn more about the accounting profession itself and what these types of jobs actually entail by clicking here.
Why two careers (or three, or four) may be better than one
By Emily on November 9th, 2007Work is one of the biggest stressors that we will encounter in our adult lives. Many people love what they do for a career, but tight deadlines, long commutes, and unreasonable bosses can begin to wear away at even the most composed worker’s sanity. So the idea of taking on a second career, especially when it isn’t completely necessary, sounds a little outrageous, right? Well, not exactly. There are millions of Americans doing just that—tackling two (and sometimes even three) separate jobs at a time. Known simply as “slashes” or “slash careerists,” these workers are opting to spread their talents among several industries, and they are loving the results.
The notion of holding more than one job is not revolutionary. The U.S. Labor Department reports that 7.9 million Americans hold multiple positions, and many of them for good reason: to make ends meet. But the slash career movement is about something else entirely. The term “slashing” gained a lot of momentum earlier this year when Marci Alboher published her book One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success (How the “Slash Effect” Can Work for You).
Alboher believes that slashing is more about exploring your different identities and controlling the direction of your professional life than paying your bills. Even though having multiple sources of income is a plus for many slashes, they experiment with careers for variety and to avoid burnout as well. For those of you who are wondering if slashing means you’ll have to take on an 80-hour work week, stop worrying. Most slashes work two positions part time or squeeze their entrepreneurial ventures in when their primary job slows down.
Slash careerists do not fit a certain mold, and they can be found in any industry. While we are familiar with the more common combinations, such as an actor/director or a writer/teacher/speaker in a specific field, there are also professor/consultant and philanthropist/art dealer slashes, or the more unorthodox psychoanalyst/violin maker that Alboher features in her book.
Even if the careers you choose to experiment with are unrelated, they may create unexpected synergies. Alboher uses a financier who also publishes poetry as an example. When the National Poetry Foundation needed a leader with a passion for poetry who could also manage a wealthy nonprofit, this slash careerist fit the bill. Alboher herself is considered a lawyer-turned-journalist/speaker/writing coach, and her monthly column and blog for the New York Times explores the trend of custom blending careers.
In an interview with BusinessWeek a few months ago, Alboher explained that: “Slashes are people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously. They’ve taken the notion of moonlighting and turned it on its head. Whereas moonlighting was something you did shamefully, slashing has cachet. From lawyer/chefs to mom/screenwriters and celebrity icons like Bono, rock star/humanitarian, slashes are appearing at all strata of society.”
So if you are feeling torn between two fields (think a registered nurse vs. a pharmacy technician or a law enforcement officer vs. a financial analyst), why not take the unconventional route and choose both? All too often people spend their lives feeling unfulfilled by their careers, so why not pursue both a white-collar position and a blue-collar job, a steady stream of income and a life-long passion? Slashing is transitioning into a legitimate career strategy…so take advantage, and start living your life in the slash lane.
U.S. payroll employment sitting pretty in October
By Emily on November 2nd, 2007For those of you who are unaware, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its employment situation report for the month of October this morning. If you’re really interested in the current job market, this is where you leave me to go read the report yourself. But based on the fact that it’s a Friday afternoon, and my assumption that most of you don’t feel like sifting through the information yourself, I’m here to offer you a brief (yet insightful) summary of the report’s findings…
First up is the big number, and that’s how many new jobs were created in October. According to the BLS, our country generated a total of 166,000 new positions last month. That’s impressive, especially based on the slumping real estate and credit markets and the totals that we’ve been posting lately. (Think 93,000 new jobs in August, which was initially reported as -4,000, and 96,000 additional positions in September.)
All of the other major categories stayed about the same. The national unemployment rate still stands at 4.7 percent, and total employment in the U.S. continues to sit above the 146.0 million mark. The labor force participation rate for last month, at 65.9 percent, was unchanged from September. In typical fashion, service-providing industries were responsible for most of the job growth in October, while goods-producing industries were responsible for many of the job losses.
The health care sector added 34,000 positions last month, food services and drinking places added 37,000, and professional and business services added 65,000 jobs. According to my best estimate, this latter number is why there is such a big difference between October’s job growth versus the payroll growth in July, August, and September. I look at enough BLS reports to know that professional and business services have been adding around 20,000 to 30,000 jobs a month. But positions in employment services went way down in September, so its recovery in October (with +34,000 positions) is what helped the industry as a whole net 65,000 new jobs.
Some of the biggest losses this past month came in manufacturing. The industry lost 21,000 jobs overall in October. Construction businesses only lost 5,000 jobs last month, which is most likely another reason why we were able to increase payroll employment by over 160,000 positions. During the summer months, losses in the construction sector were offsetting gains in other areas. In fact, the weakening housing and real estate markets have been putting a strain on this industry for awhile now, with the U.S. losing a total of 124,000 construction jobs since September of last year.
The average workweek for Americans remained unchanged in October at 33.8 hours. Average hourly earnings increased by three cents to $17.58, and weekly earnings rose 0.2 percent to $594.20.
And that’s about all that this BLS report yielded in terms of significant information. If you are frequenting this blog for career advice, I strongly suggest pursuing work in one of the many health care professions out there today. You may not read the employment situation report every month, but I do, and this industry has been showing solid job growth for a long time now.
If this summary helped you grasp the findings of October’s BLS report a little better, or you just enjoy someone else doing the work for you, be sure to visit the OnlineCareerGuide.com Blog again. I plan to rehash all of the BLS employment situation reports when they’re released on the first Friday of every month. I know, I know, it’s an exciting life I lead…
The U.S. Census Bureau reports on the mobility of our nation’s citizens in 2006
By Emily on October 23rd, 2007On Tuesday, October 16, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual Geographical Mobility tables, which document the migration of the country’s citizens in 2006. The Census tables are issued at the national and regional levels, and this year’s polling reveals that nearly 40 million Americans moved between 2005 and 2006.
The mobility tables are formulated to identify trends in the nation’s moving patterns. Movers are classified according to the following categories: age, race and Hispanic origin, marital status, educational attainment, labor force status, occupation and industry group, and income and poverty status.
Overall, the moving rate of U.S. citizens in 2006 remained unchanged from the previous year; it still stands at 14 percent. The West had the highest moving rate at 16 percent, followed by the South, the Midwest, and the Northeast (which topped out at 10 percent). It appears that renters were four times more likely to move than homeowners this past year, with 30 percent of all Americans living in renter-occupied housing changing locations between 2005 and 2006. Unemployed persons had the highest moving rate (at 24 percent) compared with citizens who were employed in 2006 or those unaffiliated with the labor force. 62 percent of the citizens who moved last year remained within the same county.
In terms of more career-related statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau offers detailed charts of moving rates among employed citizens, broken down by either their occupation or their industry group. For example, approximately 16 percent of those work in professional and business services moved in 2006. The moving rate for education and health services professionals stands at 12 percent. Those who worked in the leisure and hospitality industries between 2005 and 2006 had a 19 percent moving rate.
If you want to examine the tables more closely, or check the data listed for specific occupations, income levels, and age brackets, be sure to visit the home page for the 2006 Geographical Mobility tables and browse the numbers for yourself.