Tech Skills, the Disconnect

There is a current Tech demand; tech unemploymently  low. The advertised job specifications broadcast an extensive 'Wish List' few candidates can satisfy.  It’s a continuing complaint: Employers who need skilled IT professionals say they can’t find people to fill their open jobs. But job seekers say it’s getting harder and harder to find a job. Why the disconnect?

Average U.S. tech salaries rose 2.6 percent during 2012, according to the latest Dice Salary Survey.  Employers are rewarding those with the needed experience and certifications at much higher rates.

With a ‘tight market’ on the Tech side, be sure to make the most of every applicable skill you have in your resume. Remember you are replying to a Wish List; you need be just good enough to get the interview invitation. The pendulum is on the candidate’s side — “if you have the right skills, of course.”  For the complete article, click here.

Unemployment Number Highly Flawed

Currently, 11.2 million people are considered unemployed. "I think a more reasonable number is about 18 million people," Hall said, a former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  It is too easy to be employed under the current definition, and too hard to be unemployed, Hall said Thursday on Fox News Channel's "Your World."

"If you do any work for money at all you are considered employed," Hall said. A laid-off engineer who helps his neighbor trim a tree and gets paid is considered "employed" even though his income is nowhere near his pay as a full-time engineer. 

To be considered "unemployed," a person has to have no work at all and be actively looking for work. But job hunters eventually run out of employers to send their resume to and run through all their friends who might have job leads. They then go into a "passive mode," checking want ads and seeing if anything pops up
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For more details about employment figures, click here.

Reality of long-term unemployment

Picture the scariest thing you can think of. It’s guaranteed it's not nearly as scary as the real scariest thing in the world. That's long-term unemployment. So how long is  L O N G ?  Well …

There are two labor markets nowadays. There's the market for people who have been out of work for less than six months, and the market for people who have been out of work longer. The former is working pretty normally, and the latter is horribly dysfunctional.

To see a detailed discussion of the current labor market and its associated job filling characteristics see the complete article here.

Stay strong when the search is long

As of Spring 2013 over half of those who are unemployed have been so for over 39 weeks, that’s 9 months, a long time looking and hoping.

Dr. John O’Keefe, of the Center for Peak Performance says stay strong and maintain the right attitude.  “Staying positive in any situation, especially when one is in transition, has several benefits. Your mind tends to work to achieve your most dominant thought, so if you keep your thoughts positive you will move in that direction. However, if you are negative you will move in that direction as well.

For some insights into staying positive in your job search see the complete article here.

US in Longest Stretch of High Unemployment Since Depression

Friday, February 17, 2012 02:09 PM  By: Greg Brown

The United States is experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression, according to a new study by the Congressional Budget Office.  U.S. unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression, writes CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf on the CBO Director’s Blog site.

For more information, go to the published article by clicking here.

August 2011 Employment Statistics

For the latest on-going trends in employment statistics, go the Bureau of Labor Statistics at: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm.

For viewing the unemployment statistics in your locality, go to the map link below and click on your state, county or city: http://kuzmich.com/employment/UnemploymentMap.htm