Job Search Jam Sessions: January 2012

Thursday, January 19, 2012

People Reading: A Positive Edge

Hello Acton Networkers,

The agenda for this Friday's Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) meeting will feature our speaker Clare Harlow. The facilitator for this week will be Barb McKee. We will devote the first hour, from 10 to 11 AM to the following agenda: Welcome, Landings, Announcements, New Member Introductions, and Needs & Leads. Please arrive early, so we can start on time. Our speaker will present in the second hour, starting at 11AM.

Speaker: Clare Harlow

Speaker Topic: People Reading: A Positive Edge

Do you ever wonder why people act the way they do or why it's so easy to communicate with some people and so difficult with others? In this workshop, we'll look at one of the most important elements of communication: people! Using the DiSC Personal Profile framework, participants will learn how to identify the four behavioral styles that are present in all of us. Tools for recognizing different behavioral styles, "people reading," will be given. Participants will have a chance to discuss how they might use these skills in daily communication with family members and co-workers, and in their job search.

About Clare Harlow

As a Career and Life Coach, Clare helps people discover what they really want to do and design work that matches their personality and lifestyle. With warmth and humor, she offers personal and group coaching as well as classes and workshops on Career and Life Planning, Communication Skills for Adults and Teens, Work Life Balance, and People Reading using the DiSC Personality Profile. Whether individually or in a group setting, Clare inspires and motivates her clients to take charge of their lives and define success on their own terms. Her motto is "It's Your Life, Make it Work!"

Schedule for HNG Meetings :

February 03, 2012: Mark Sullivan "Procrastination in the Job Search"

February 17, 2012: Carl Harvey "What is Stopping You? How to Risk and Succeed in the Job Search in a Down Economy"

General Information :

The networking group meets in Hopkinton, at St. John the Evangelist Church parish hall. The meeting occurs, from 10 to 12 noon, and will meet the first and third Friday of the month. The parish hall has a capacity for 250 people and there are plenty of parking spaces in the parking lot and on the street. Around the perimeter of the parish hall are rooms to allow us to have focused network groups or for any other purpose we need. We chose the first and third Friday to allow everyone to attend the Acton Networking Group or any other networking group, if they wanted, on the Friday we do not meet.

We will maintain our close affiliation with Acton Networkers by using the same list-server to share information between the groups. Any e-mails specific to the Hopkinton Networking Group (HNG) will be indicated in the subject line either by "Hopkinton Networking Group" or "HNG"; this way anyone attending these meetings will know the e-mail is intended for them.

We will follow the following Agenda i tems:

· Welcome
· Landings (with doughnuts)
· Announcements
· New member introductions
· Needs and Leads
· Speaker(s), Workshop, or Focus Group
· Cleanup

For those new members who give their introductions , this is what we would like to know:

· Name
· Skills and Value Statement
· Where have you been?
· Where are you going?
· Your title
· Your target companies
· Geography of search
· Name and e-mail address

If anyone wants to join our team, please let one of us know. We could always use the extra help and input for ideas.

Directions : St. John the Evangelist, 20 Church Street, Hopkinton, MA 01748

Take Rt. 495 North/South and get off Exit 21A. Go through three traffic lights. Colella's Supermarket is on the right at the third traffic light. The first street after the third traffic light is Church Street, take a right turn. The church is on the right. Go around to the left of the parking lot and go into the side entrance of the parish hall.

Depending upon where you live, perhaps you may want to use Mapquest for a more direct route.

Regards,

Hopkinton Networkers Group (HNG) Coordinators :

· Sandra Cipriani sandraopps@comcast.net
· Gil Krispien g.krispien@verizon.net
· Barbara McKee barb6635@comcast.net
· Ralph Sabatino ralphsabatino@ymail.com
· Salpi Sarafian ssarafian@rcn.com
· Marilyn Johnson marilyntjohnson10@gmail.com
· Vincent Rocheleau vrocheleau@hotmail.com

Friday, January 13, 2012

Current Schedule for HNG Meetings

The Hopkinton Networking Group continues to meet on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month at St John the Evangelist Parish Center. The current schedule of presentation topics is as follows:

January 20, 2012: Clare Harlow "People Reading with DiSC"

February 3, 2012: Mark Sullivan "Procrastination in the Job Search"

Febrary 17, 2012: Carl Harvey "What's Stopping You? How to Risk and Succeed in the Job Search in a Down Economy"

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Nearly three years of a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1

Sent to you by Steve Sherlock via Google Reader:

Nearly three years of a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1

via Economic Policy Institute - Feed by Heidi Shierholz on 1/10/12

Today's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of job openings decreased by 63,000 in November 2011, to 3.2 million; also, October's job openings were revised down by 43,000. In November, there were 13.3 million unemployed workers, an improvement from 13.8 million in October (unemployment figures come from the Current Population Survey and can be found here). Therefore the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 4.2-to-1 in November, a slight improvement from the revised October ratio of 4.3-to-1.

To put this figure in context, the highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1, and in December 2000, the month the JOLTS survey began, the ratio was 1.1-to-1. While the job-seekers ratio has slowly been improving since it peaked at 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009, today's data release marks two years and 11 months—152 weeks—that the ratio has been above 4-to-1. A job-seekers ratio of more than 4-to-1 means that there are no jobs for more than three out of four unemployed workers, no matter what job seekers do. Furthermore, the lack of job openings relative to unemployed workers is in no way limited to particular industries such as construction—unemployed workers dramatically outnumber job openings across the board, in every major industry.
MORE: Sort through updated graphs using data from today's report
The fact that we have had a job-seekers ratio above 4-to-1 for 152 weeks underscores the crucial need for continuing extended unemployment insurance benefits, which now last a maximum of 99 weeks. There are currently 5.6 million people in this country who have been unemployed for more than half a year, up from 1.2 million in 2007. As the job-seekers ratio shows, what's happening is not that millions of workers have become lazy, unskilled, or unproductive; it is that there are not enough jobs available. With the Congressional Budget Office projecting an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent at the end of this year, continuing federally funded unemployment insurance benefit extensions through 2012 would extend a lifeline to the families of millions of long-term unemployed workers, and generate spending that would support well over half a million jobs.
With research assistance from Natalie Sabadish and Hilary Wething

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Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A solid step in the right direction for the labor market

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A solid step in the right direction for the labor market

via Economic Policy Institute - Feed by Heidi Shierholz on 1/6/12

This morning's release of the December 2011 employment situation report, which marked four years since the official start of the recession in December 2007, capped off 2011 on a positive note. Both the establishment survey and the household survey showed improvement – the labor market added 200,000 jobs, hours and wages were up, unemployment ticked down, underemployment dropped, and the duration of unemployment spells declined. This is a step in the right direction.

MORE: Sort through updated graphs using data from today's report
However, it will take many years of reports this strong or stronger to bring the labor market back to health. The jobs deficit of the 2008-09 period, defined as the number of jobs lost since the recession started plus the jobs we should have added to keep up with the normal growth in the working-age population, remains well over 10 million, and at December's growth rate the United States will not recover its pre-recession unemployment rate until 2019.

Despite relatively strong month, December caps off two years of little improvement in the labor market

Two years ago, in December 2009, the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent, and it is now 8.5 percent. How much improvement does that drop actually represent? Given weak job prospects, many would-be workers dropped out of (or never entered) the labor force over this period, a trend that reduces the measured unemployment rate but does not represent real improvement in employment. If the workers who comprise the drop in the labor force participation rate (from 64.6 percent to 64.0 percent) over the last two years were counted as unemployed, the unemployment rate would be 9.5 percent now instead of 8.5 percent.
The trend in the employment-to-population ratio, which is the share of the working-age population that has a job, also illustrates the challenge. This measure increased from 58.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 58.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, a tiny change and well below the 63.3 percent average in the first quarter of 2007.

Long-term unemployment

The share of unemployed workers who have been unemployed for more than six months decreased in December to 42.5 percent, an improvement but still not far below its record high of 45.5 percent in March 2011. (By comparison, in 2007 the share averaged 17.5 percent). The number of workers unemployed for more than six months decreased by 92,000 in December, to 5.6 million (compared with a 1.2 million average in 2007). The fact that we still have large numbers of long-term unemployed is unsurprising given that there have been over four unemployed workers per job opening since January 2009.

Hours and wages up

The length of the average workweek increased in December to 34.4 hours, restoring hours to where they were last spring. Average hours have thus far made up just three-fourths of what they lost in the first 18 months of the downturn (average hours were 34.6 in December 2007 and 33.7 at the low point in June 2009).
Average hourly wages increased by 4 cents in December and have risen at a 1.9% annualized rate over the last three months. This remains far below the pre-recession growth rate (3.4 percent from December 2006 to December 2007), as persistent high unemployment has exerted strong downward pressure on wage growth. With hours and hourly wages up, average weekly wages grew more strongly at $3.70, and they have risen at a 3.1% annualized rate over the last three months.

Demographic breakdowns

Unemployment in December was 8.7 percent for those age 25 or older with only a high school education, and 4.1 percent for those age 25 or older with a college degree or more. While workers with higher levels of education have lower unemployment rates, all education categories have seen their unemployment rates roughly double over the downturn, a trend running counter to the notion that there is high unemployment because employers are unable to fill their demand for workers with higher education credentials.
Considering additional breakdowns by age, race/ethnicity, and gender, we find that all major groups of workers have experienced substantial increases in unemployment over the Great Recession and its aftermath. However, young workers and racial and ethnic minorities have been and continue to be hit particularly hard.

In December, unemployment was 16.7 percent among workers age 16–24, 7.6 percent among workers age 25–54, and 6.2 percent among workers age 55 and older (up 5.0, 3.6, and 3.0 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession in December 2007).
Among workers younger than age 25 who are not enrolled in school, unemployment over the last year averaged 21.3 percent for those with a high school degree and 9.2 percent for those with a college degree (reflecting increases of 9.3 and 3.7 percentage points, respectively, over the annual average of 2007; 12-month averages are used here since seasonally adjusted data are not available for these series.)
Unemployment in December was 15.8 percent for African American workers, 11.0 percent for Hispanic workers, and 7.5 percent for white workers (up 6.8, 4.7, and 3.1 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).
Men saw a much larger increase in unemployment during the recession, but have seen relatively stronger improvements in the recovery. The unemployment rate reached its pre-recession low in late 2006 and early 2007, at 4.4 percent for men and 4.3 percent for women. Male unemployment peaked at 11.2 percent in October of 2009, and has since fallen to 8.7 percent. Female unemployment continued to rise for another year, peaking at 9.0 percent in November 2010; it since has fallen to 8.3 percent.

Industry breakdowns

As has been the case for more than three years, budget crises at the state and local level hurt state and local jobs growth. In December, state government employment was flat, and local government employment dropped by 14,000 jobs. Over the last year, state and local jobs have declined by 20,000 per month on average (-5,000 state, -15,000 local), an enormous drain on the recovery.
Most of the private sector gains in December were in service-providing industries: Private service-producing industries added 164,000 jobs while goods-producing industries added 48,000 jobs. Construction added 17,000 jobs in December, after staying essentially flat on average for the last year, while manufacturing gained 23,000 jobs, after adding around 3,000 on average for the prior three months. All of December's manufacturing gain was in durable goods.
Retail added 27,900 jobs in December, in line with its average growth rate of 25,800 over the prior three months. Couriers and messengers saw an outsized gain of 42,200, but, according to BLS, that growth may have been due to the seasonal-adjusted model not properly accounting for increased online purchasing during the holidays. Employment in couriers and messengers was likely overstated by around 40,000; without this blip, total payroll job growth in December was only 160,000.
Restaurants and bars added 24,000 jobs, slightly off the industry's average of the prior three months of 30,000. However, employment in restaurants and bars is now just 20,000 shy of being back up to pre-recession levels. Health care added 22,600 jobs, below its average growth rate of 27,600 in the prior three months. Temporary help services declined by 7,500, well below that sector's average gain of 13,600 in the prior three months.

Underemployment

The "underemployment rate" (the U-6 measure of labor underutilization) is the BLS's most comprehensive measure of labor market slack. It includes not just the officially unemployed and the marginally attached (jobless workers who want a job and are available to work but have given up actively seeking work), but also people who want full-time jobs but have had to settle for part-time work. This measure decreased in December from 15.6 percent to 15.2 percent, in large part due to a 371,000 decline in the number of involuntary part-time workers to 8.1 million. In December there were 23.8 million workers who were either unemployed or underemployed (the 8.1 million involuntary part-time workers plus 13.1 million officially unemployed and 2.6 million marginally attached). Racial and ethnic minorities have been particularly hard hit by underemployment.

Conclusion

This report shows the labor market ending 2011 on a better track, with good gains across almost all dimensions, but job growth needs to be even stronger to get the nation on a fully productive track. To get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate in four years – by the end of 2015 – would require adding around 320,000 jobs every month between now and then. Expectations are that sustained robust job growth is at least a year off. The U.S. workforce can't afford to wait. The ongoing crisis in the labor market calls for substantial additional stimulus to generate jobs.
— Research assistance by Nick Finio, Natalie Sabadish, and Hilary Wething

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

Most minimum-wage workers are not teenagers

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Most minimum-wage workers are not teenagers

via Economic Policy Institute - Feed by David Cooper on 1/4/12

One common misconception about minimum-wage workers is that they are mostly teenagers, working part time. In fact, of the roughly 1.4 million low-wage workers who will benefit from Jan. 1 minimum wage increases in eight states, roughly 80 percent are at least 20 years old and 78 percent work at least 20 hours per week. The percentage of affected workers who fit the false stereotype of teenage, part-time workers is a mere 12 percent.[1]

Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington all raised their minimum wage to adjust for inflation. This "indexing" of the minimum wage ensures that the real value of the lowest-paid workers' wages does not shrink as normal costs of living go up. More than a million workers will benefit from this increase.

For more information on minimum-wage workers, indexing the minimum wage, and the economic effects of minimum wage increases, see Fix it and forget it (2009) by EPI's Heidi Shierholz.