With the current state of the economy, it’s important to keep track of important economic indicators such as the employment situation across the country. The national unemployment rate for July, released earlier this month, was unchanged at 9.5%. At first glace, this seems to be a very good sign as it looks in recent months that the unemployment rate is beginning to fall.
However, when you break down the numbers the situation is much trickier than first perceived. While the national average remains unchanged, employers cut 131,000 jobs in July with 14 states reporting an increase from June’s unemployment numbers. Additionally, 11 states posted rates of 10% unemployment or higher, though this is a decrease from 18 states in June. Currently, Nevada boasts the highest unemployment rate at 14.3% with North Dakota at the lower end at 3.6%. In general, the Midwest seems to be doing better than the country as a whole with unemployment rates well below the national average.
Another important employment indicator is weekly initial jobless claims. Jobless claims is the number of people filing new unemployment insurance claims, released every Thursday. Last week, jobless claims rose to 500,000. This continues a recently upward trend in jobless claims, indicating weakness in the labor market. However, it is important to note that this is still well below the highs of the recent recession.
The employment numbers are sending mixed signals to the public. While national unemployment is steady, the economy lost jobs last month. Yet fewer states are reporting rates over 10%. Jobless claims increased again for the 4th straight week, but is still well below last year’s numbers. Overall, the employment situations looks to be improving, but there is still severe weakness in the economy.
Marina GurlandRecruiting Coordinator – Legal Division
Some of you may have heard the term “The 99ers” being used to describe unemployed people who have used the maximum 99 weeks of unemployment benefits the government allows per person in this country. The previous high for number of weeks allowed for unemployment benefits was 55 weeks in the early 1980’s. Many Americans have exhausted the 99 weeks of benefits during this recession. Many of these same people are asking for more, claiming the economy is so bad that they are unable to find employment in this time frame. The obvious question is whether or not 99 weeks is enough. That is almost two years of unemployment benefits. Many jobless people claim that they aren’t being hired for jobs they are over-qualified for. If you were an executive before the recession and were forced to work at Walmart, would you do it? This is a deep issue that can be argued from many different perspectives. Each person in this country has a different situation that they live in and deal with on a daily basis. We are in the worst recession since the great depression. There are roughly 15,000,000 unemployed people in this country, battling for about 3,000,000 open jobs. The odds are obviously leaning quite heavily towards people remaining unemployed.
What do you think? Is 99 weeks an adequate amount of time to find a job in this economy? Take the poll on our home page!
Michael Denny Interactive Resources
What motivates employees most depends mostly on your age, but also where you live. In a recently published study by Kelly Services’ Global Workforce Index, it was found that 61% of Americans most desired a profit sharing/incentive based pay structure. Of working professionals between the ages of 18-29, 39% of respondents said they would be motivated to work harder if their pay was influenced by reaching performance targets, compared to 30% of workers between the ages of 48-65. The overwhelming majority of American workers (86%) said that employers should be responsible for their employees’ health and well-being, while 34% thought health insurance was the most important benefit.
Most intriguing is the divide between generational workers; here’s a rundown of key findings, sorted by age, from the study, including info-graphs. To read the study in its entirety, click here! (http://www.easyir.com/easyir/kellyservices/KGWIGlobal_Benefits_Perks.pdf)
Melody Yaghoubi Interactive Resources
By the time you finish reading this sentence, tens (if not hundreds) of stray thoughts will enter your subconscious and distract you from what you are reading. According to a study conducted by Simon Fraser University in Canada, the average continuous attention span for a literate human being falls somewhere between 8-10 seconds. What that means (in case you wandered off mentally) is that the average human being can only focus on a single object with no lapse for 8 seconds before a stray thought or shift of focus creeps into their subconscious. What does this mean for you as a job seeker? If you’re trying to land a job with a literate employer/hiring manager, you need to be able to sell yourself in those crucial first seconds. Although it seems unlikely, stray thoughts about your plans for tonight or wondering if you left the stove on could hurt your chances at landing a job. Here are some tips to help you stand out and keep employers focused on YOU during those crucial first seconds: In written communication, you can do this easily, by highlighting the most important and relevant information in your resume and cover letter. When it comes to the interview, those first eight seconds may seem miniscule, but you’ll be surprised at how long you can retain someone’s attention when you stand tall, smile, and project your voice effectively and confidently. Avoid umm’s and uhh’s; the person who is listening to you won’t hear that you single-handedly increased the company’s profits by 170%, but will notice that you have a hard time presenting yourself. Avoid distracting accessories or inappropriate clothing—the human brain has a hard enough time trying to pay attention without those big, shiny, monogrammed earrings dangling past your low-cut top. Distractions don’t end with accessories; poor personal grooming/hygiene and a disheveled appearance will easily lead the interviewer to forget about that great report you published and wonder why you don’t own a hairbrush.Practice speaking in front of a mirror and time yourself. It may sound silly, but taking out a couple of minutes a day and seeing yourself speak will help boost your presentation skills and make you aware of any changes you need to make. It may also be helpful to record yourself and watch the playback, making notes of ways to improve yourself.Selling yourself in a few seconds sounds impossible, but if you’ve ever watched a 30-second TV commercial and gone running to purchase that universal all-in-one remote control/microwave device, you know how effective and important those seconds can be!
Forbes.com recently wrote an article about how business leaders are judged by their body language. The author, Carol Kinsey Gorman, MD, explains that there are two sets of body language cues that followers look for in leaders: warmth (empathy, likability, caring) and authority (power, credibility, status). She goes on to explain the body language mistakes that women leaders tend to make, which includes “head tilting,” flirting, and weak handshakes.
Watch this video or read the full article to see the interesting list of body language mistakes (and improve your body language for your next meeting or interview)!
Stephanie Urban Interactive Resources
Bloomberg Businessweek has released it’s annual list of the Top Cities for New College Grads. With 30 cities on the list, the Southern region hosts the most cities on the list, including #1- Houston. New York City was ranked number 12 on the list.
Pictured (from Businessweek): The Top 4 Cities for New College Grads
1. Houston
2. Washington D.C
3. Dallas
4. Atlanta
Businessweek compiles the list by reviewing AfterCollege entry-level job postings, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on each city’s average annual pay and unemployment, and the cost of living in each city. Click here to see the complete list.
Believe it or not, we live in a time where having a working knowledge of the Internet and a handful of social networking sites can offer you a leg up on the competition in your search for employment. The internet provides an assortment of free digital property for you to put yourself out there for potential employers to observe. Some of these sites are more popular than others, yet almost all of them are very simple to sign up for. The internet is an extremely quick and easy way for people to check up on things you may have included on your resume. Sure you can put “internet savvy”, but why not also back it up?
It seems like every human being has a Facebook page so I won’t go too in depth with that site, although in my opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with having one page for personal use and one specifically for professional use. There are no boundaries as to what you can and can’t use these free services for. You could start a blog at one of many free blog hosting sites such as: Blogger, Wordpress, or Tumblr, specifically for your resume. Some employers are so busy that they won’t even open an attachment, so posting a link to your resume that is available online not only shows your previous work history but shows your initiative to actually find the space on the internet to have your resume out there. It’s a bigger step than you would think. The word “blog” itself may intimidate some people to a degree, so they think “blogging” is something particularly specific. The truth of the matter is you can use these blog hosting sites for whatever you want.
Having a presence on the Internet is becoming rather essential and is growing by the day. Twitter, for example, has its positives and negatives as most sites do, but what’s important for someone that wants to actually make good use of these social networking sites is to find out the positives that can help you market yourself. It’s true, Twitter is used by many people to let their followers know what they ate for lunch on a given day, but it can also be used for marketing and research alike. Twitter is the closest thing we have to live media coverage. It’s all about who you choose to follow.
A couple of years ago there was a massive brush fire in California. The fire fighters were “tweeting” about their progress live from inside the blaze. Amazing stuff. There are astronauts that tweet live from space! What does this have to do with you finding a job? It’s simple. Once you realize how useful a tool such as Twitter can be, you can then use it to draw interest to yourself as well as stay abreast of jobs, opportunity and pretty much everything else.
General up to date knowledge is also useful within an interview setting. At this point, virtually every blog has an option that will link your twitter to your blog or Facebook and vice versa. Again, having multiple accounts with any of these sites should never be looked down upon. The more digital space you occupy the better your chance of getting noticed and having a potential employer’s interest peaked by your “internet savvy”.
There are many other sites that are a must for job seekers. A staple for professional networking on the Internet is LinkedIn.com. As you can imagine in our recent economy, a lot of LinkedIn’s membership has become job seekers, but I can tell you from experience that many employers and recruiters faithfully sift through LinkedIn profiles and resumes for their next hire. If you are reading this and are a bit over-whelmed by starting up a new Facebook page, Blog, Twitter, or LinkedIn, don’t be. It is really quite simple and one very important factor in doing anything on the Internet is this: If there is something that you do not understand or cannot figure out: Google it. There is an answer for virtually every Internet and computer related question via the Google search engine. Good luck in your job hunt!
Recently, I was scheduled to meet a candidate with a pretty decent resume. The day of our meeting he showed up not at our scheduled time of noon, but at 9:30am. He said he was in the neighborhood. He was in his shorts.After our interview, he proceeded to email me for a good month, sending job postings from our company with subject lines such as: “submit me for this job” or “submit me for that.”This candidate’s resume could have mirrored Donald Trump’s and I still would not have worked with him. Why? Because he had no respect for my time, dressed unprofessionally when we met in person, and then acted in a manner which suggested that I owed him something.
This is not a new concept- but it is good to keep in mind that interviews are like dating. You want to make sure your putting you’re best foot forward at all times. It’s important to think of the interview as an introduction to a company. What if you spent as much time preparing for an interview as most people spend preparing for a first date? Be prepared to communicate clearly, share some basic background information, and highlight your best assets. Get the interviewer to fall in love with you and what you have to offer, and then walk out on a high note.When you go on a first date it is best to be:• Confident, not cocky• Smart, but not a know it all• Personable, but not a chatty Kathy• Dressed appropriately and in a presentable manner• Interested and engaged in the conversationIf you follow these basic dating rules as you go into your next interview, you just might land your dream job!
Good luck!
Stacie RennaStaffing Coordinator
Alec Brownstein, a creative professional in New York City, recently landed a new job by implementing what he calls “The Google Experiment.” Taking advantage of one of this decade’s biggest internet trends- “Googling” your own name- Alec bought a few Google Ad Words under the names of top creative directors in the marketing and advertising industries. After spending just $6 on the Ad Words, which directed the creative directors to his online portfolio, Alec was granted four interviews and offered two new jobs. He has chosen to work with creative firm Y&R.
We think this was a genius idea, but one that would probably only work in an open-minded industry such as the creative industry. Regardless, we are also sure that copy-cat cases of this “experiment” are sure to follow. What do you think?
Here is Alec’s self-made video summarizing his experiment:
We recently formed a LinkedIn group for professionals seeking new opportunities & networking in the New York City & Tri-State Area. Join our group today to post jobs, start discussions, and network with other professionals from New York, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, Central Jersey, Northern Jersey, Connecticut, and more! Professionals from all industries are welcome to join!
Expand your network! Join the New York City and Tri-State Jobs Group today: http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=3005272
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