From the Herman Group newsletter: According to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Surveys, the US will have a year-over-year increase of about five percent with a record-tying 73 percent of employers keeping staff levels stable. Twelve of the 13 industry sectors surveyed report positive net employment outlooks, meaning employers in most industry sectors plan to add staff during the second quarter. The only sector expecting negative growth is Government, however with the passage of the recent healthcare legislation, we believe that may not be an accurate forecast. Moreover, among the 201 local metropolitan statistical areas surveyed, “94 percent indicate a positive or neutral net employment outlook, indicating cautious optimism is… Read More
Continue ReadingDouble Dip
The title of this post is one that brings pause to many people. Are we headed towards a double dip recession? I don’t think we can say one way or another quite yet. However, today’s numbers are not good: The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance surged to just below the 500,000 level last week, and have climbed more than 12% over the past two weeks, the government said Thursday. … The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 473,750, up 6,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 467,750. I have talked to many companies who are in a holding mode for hiring. Thankfully, I have not… Read More
Continue ReadingBattle Lines
I’ve been busy over the past week or two handling a myriad of business topics and tasks which has decreased my blogging time dramatically. One item has come up during this time at one of our customers – a battle of wills amongst managers. This is no small battle, it has turned into an ongoing war for which I am now in the midst of the battlefield. Without going into specifics, I can tell you where we start in these situations – motivations. The first place to look when there is interpersonal conflict within an office team is the motivation pattern for each individual. In the instance with our customer,… Read More
Continue ReadingGeography Matters
I just read an ad for a mid-level sales position. Interesting part was the location listed in the ad: Milwaukie, WI The hiring company is based in Fresno, CA which is, I suppose, in relative proximity to Milwaukie, OR. However, the Wisconsin town of the same name is spelled “Milwaukee.” In hiring, details matter. (And wouldn’t you think Monster would have a checker of some form for these errors?)
Continue ReadingWhy Companies Hire
From abcnews.com regarding the “jobs proposal” working its way through Washington: Obama’s proposal has an additional provision that would award $5,000 tax credits to companies that add workers in 2010. Honestly, has anyone in this administration ever run a private company? I’m no economist, but my experience is this – companies hire more workers when revenue increases (i.e. growth). One-time minimal tax credits do not spawn hiring booms. This fact puts the pressure solely on the sales department to find new prospects and close more deals in this depressed economy. No small feat.
Continue ReadingFastest Growing Employment Industries
I received a press release from IBISWorld with some interesting data about where the employment growth will occur over the next 4-5 years. Of course, I would be a bit skeptical about number 2 considering the recent announcements from the White House concerning the banking industry. Nonetheless, still an interesting picture: Rank Industry Employees 2009 Employees 2014 Annualized Growth 2009-2014 1 Voice Over Internet Protocol Providers (VoIP) 17,110 34,850 15.3% 2 Private Equity, Hedge Funds & Investment Vehicles 35,200 58,700 10.8% 3 Single Family Home Building 435,000 655,000 8.5% 4 Car & Automobile Manufacturing 50,756 73,950 7.8% 5 Environmental Consulting 122,922 176,519 7.5% 6 Multi Family Housing Construction 60,000 86,000… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Key Word Is Hiring
You don’t have to look far to find disconcerting news about the present economy. This AP story from one of our local papers lays out numbers that paint a vivid picture (emphasis mine): There were nearly 6.4 unemployed workers, on average, for each available job at the end of November, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday. That’s up from 6.1 in October, and a record high. There were 1.7 jobless people for each opening in December 2007, when the recession began. Job openings fell sharply to 2.42 million in November from 2.57 million in October, according to the department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. That may sound like… Read More
Continue ReadingA Real-World Economic Prediction
This story from abcnews.com carries some weight in terms of a real economic forecast. It isn’t good: More of America’s largest companies will shrink their staffs than will hire in the next six months, according to the latest survey of their CEOs. Nineteen percent of the CEOs expect to expand their work forces, while 31 percent predict a decrease in the next six months, according to a quarterly survey from the Business Roundtable released Tuesday. That’s slightly better than the 13 percent who expected increased hiring three months earlier. At that time, 40 percent forecast cuts. Granted, the trend is good, but the actualities are not. 2010 is shaping up… Read More
Continue ReadingTalent Is Dreadfully Cheap
How about this quote from Stephen King’s Danse Macabre (h/t JustSell.com): … talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work and study; a constant process of honing. Talent is a dull knife that will cut nothing unless it is wielded with great force — a force so great that the knife is not really cutting at all but bludgeoning and breaking… Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle.
Continue ReadingJobless Recoveries
Jobless recoveries is an all-too-frequent phrase in our modern economy. The 3.5% growth in 3rd quarter GDP is a bit misleading as the government poured money into the economy (cash for clunkers, first-time home buyer program, etc.). The hiring trend continues to be abysmal as somewhat expected as it is a lagging indicator. But is it becoming more of a lagging indicator? This article from Commentary Magazine makes an observation I haven’t heard elsewhere (emphasis mine): The underlying reason for increasingly jobless recoveries in recent decades can be found in Chart 5 of the New York Fed’s report. In the early 1980s, 51 percent of industries were undergoing structural change… Read More
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