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The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Articles tagged 'unemployment'

Celebrating Successes

Celebrating Successes: Arlington Resources, Inc.



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My name is Patty Casey, and I am the President of Arlington Resources, Inc. in Rolling Meadows, IL, which specializes in the placement of Human Resources professionals for direct hire, contract, and temporary services. We are very supportive of the many people in job transition today – so much so that we have actively made it a passion of ours. We host two professional networking groups at our office, and I run a networking group in the community.

We have two areas of placement, including Human Resources professionals through Arlington Resources, Inc., and Accounting and Finance  professionals through Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Over six years ago, we started with our human resources group holding bimonthly meetings specifically to provide networking opportunities for those in transition. We meet so many great people in our profession, and we wanted to help as many people as we can and give back to the human resources community.

Editor's Corner, Industry News, Weigh In!

Disconnect Between Job Seeker and Employer Expectations



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Today, TalentDrive, an online resume aggregation search engine, released the results from its “Job Market Perceptions” survey. The findings uncover a widening gap between current employers’ expectations and job seekers’ actual skill sets. The survey was conducted to get a better understanding of current job seekers’ perceptions of their own skill sets compared to expectations held by hiring managers. Are candidates’ skills and employer requirements aligned? Results uncover key “skill gaps” between the two groups.

79,000 job seekers (86% considered to be actively seeking employment) were asked to assess their personal skill set and attitude toward the current job market. The results:

  • 71% were pessimistic about their career search, feeling they possessed the required skill set but were not getting hired
  • 37% were extremely frustrated, with no hope for improvement in sight
  • 34% unhappy with the environment, but starting to see signs of improvement

Employers were then asked if they had noticed a change in the quality of candidates since the recession’s start. The results: 42% of employers indicated that the recession had not only increased the quantity of candidates, but in fact they are finding more qualified candidates than in years past. These two results seem to contradict one another…

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ASA: Spike in Temporary Jobs Hits 20-Year High



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The American Staffing Association claims that continued growth in temporary help bodes well for overall job growth, a nod to the latest job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

In the new BLS report, data shows that:

  • Temporary help employment increased by 2.5%, seasonally adjusted, from November to December. Despite several sectors of the economy losing more jobs, temporary help services was one of the few industries that continued to add jobs during this period.
  • Steady employment gains have occurred in temporary help since a low point in July 2009; staffing has added 166,000 jobs over the past five months.
  • More new temporary jobs were created in December than at any comparable period in the past 20 years.
  • Seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment fell by 85,000 in December, with most losses in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade.
  • The overall unemployment rate remained at 10%.

“Businesses are reluctant to hire new employees until they are more confident in the economic recovery, instead preferring the work force flexibility offered by staffing firms,” says Richard Wahlquist, president of the ASA.

As such, he thinks the “consistent trend of temporary help job growth” is a positive sign for overall job growth in the near future.

Indeed, economist Hugh Johnson calls it a closely watched number because “temporary help will become permanent help.”

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Unemployment Drops On Lowest Job Loss in 2 Years



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Data Chart for NovRejoice. Do a happy dance. Say “Hallelujah.” Again. “Hallelujah.” The unemployment rate has dropped to 10 percent. Job losses for November were 11,000, the lowest since December 2007, the last month that the number of jobs in the U.S. actually grew.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which released November’s jobs numbers a few hours ago, also dramatically scaled back the numbers for September and October. Job losses initially reported for those months — 219,000 and 190,000 respectively — were revised to 139,000 and 111,000.

Economists had been expecting that November’s report would show job losses in the range of 114,000 to 125,000 and an unemployment rate unchanged from October’s 10.2 percent.

The numbers caught them off guard, with many cautioning that a single break in an otherwise unrelenting pattern of triple-digit losses may be a sign of a genuine turnaround. Or it may be just an aberration.

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Stanton Chase: Insights on the 9.7% Unemployment Rate



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The unemployment rate hit a 26-year high, reaching 9.7% in August.

That’s even more disappointing news considering that in July, the unemployment rate fell for the first time in 15 months. Perhaps the only bit of good news — if you can call it that — is employers cut fewer jobs in August than they did the month before.

The Labor Department said that August job cuts totaled 216,000. The industries hardest hit were manufacturing and construction, losing 50,000 and 65,000, respectively.

Looking forward, where do we go from here? What does the remainder of 2009 look like?

Will there be more cuts? When will things start to improve?

To get a national perspective into what’s taking place, here are some thoughts from several of the managing directors from global executive search firm Stanton Chase.

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663,000 Jobs Lost in March



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The nation’s unemployment rate rose from 8.1% to 8.5% in March. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last five months.

According to BLS data for March, professional and business services lost 133,000 jobs, while financial activities lost 43,000 jobs (finance is actually out 495,00 jobs total since an employment peak in December 2006).

The last time unemployment hit 8.5% was in November 1983, after peaking at 10.8% in 1982.

This video from Fox News calls it a “striking” reality:

In addition, a blog in the Wall Street Journal claims that unemployment may top 10% by early next year, but could even top 18%. “For people in this group, comparisons to the Great Depression (when 25% of Americans were out of work) may not look so wild even if overall economic activity is holding up better.”

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By the Numbers: Unemployment at 8.1% and Other Sad Figures



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Look Who’s Hiring!



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For 39-year-old laid-off working mom Lisa Lopez, it took more than nine months of searching before she landed a new job in Florida. And you’ll never guess where: at the local unemployment office!

There is “soaring demand” in many state agencies that distribute unemployment benefits and try to help laid-off workers.

State employment departments are reporting a doubling of the number of people coming into their offices looking for work.

David Socolow, New Jersey Labor Department commissioner, says his office sees “a lot of pain and a lot of difficulty in the labor market…as wait times are far longer than our customers want or than we want.”

His office has added 44 employees to the 150 who normally review new claims to see if applicants qualify.

And in Pennsylvania, the state Department of Labor and Industry has a total staffing of about 830 from the department’s usual permanent workforce of 600. By the time the department finishes its hiring, the staff will be nearly doubled to 1,100.

In Massachusetts, first-time claims for unemployment jumped more than 30% from a year ago. In many cases, these people held long-term jobs, never had to seek unemployment before, and “don’t have resumes because they have never needed them.”

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Worst Month Since December 1974



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Oh, what a month! The U.S. lost 533,000 jobs in November, the highest rate in 34 years (since 1974). This moves the nation’s unemployment rate to 6.7%; it was 6.5% in October.

According to fresh Labor Department data, economists had actually predicted a 6.8% unemployment rate for November — yet they only predicted that 320,000 jobs would be slashed.

Either way, this is bad news across the board: construction employment was down by 82,000 over the month; retail trade employment fell by 91,000 in November, with the largest job loss among automobile dealers (-24,000); and leisure and hospitality employment lost 76,000 jobs in November.

If you’re looking to transition to a niche recruiting business, perhaps healthcare is where you should look. In contrast to most industries, healthcare added 34,000 jobs in November and has increased by 341,000 so far this year. According to BLS data, the November gain reflected jobs added in nursing and residential care facilities, hospitals, and physicians’ offices.

So, what’s your niche? If it’s not healthcare (or going to be healthcare one of these days), what is your speciality and how are you faring in the face of this recession?

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Underemployment at 14-Year High



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What is underemployment? According to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, it now affects about 11% of our country’s workers. This includes part-time workers who want full-time jobs (“involuntarily” part-time workers) and jobless workers who want a job but are not actively seeking employment (“marginally attached” workers).

This 11% underemployment rate is the highest it’s been in 14 years, the report shows.