Job Boards have news about the Economy

The Staffing View

On business, the workplace and employee relations

_July, 2010

 

What Job Boards Are Saying About the Recovery

As a staffing firm working with employers to recruit qualified permanent and temporary employees, as well as a placement company assisting individuals with their job search, we follow various indicators measuring the health of the economy For decades a closely watched gauge was the Conference Board’s Help-Wanted Advertising Index, a monthly count of job offerings in major newspapers across the country But with the rise of online job boards and social media, classified advertising in newspapers has plummeted and so has the usefulness of the Help-Wanted Index

In 2005 the Conference Board began counting advertised vacancies on job boards and by 2008 dropped the Help-Wanted Index Today it produces the Conference Board Help Wanted On-Line Data Series which measures the number of new, first-time online jobs and jobs reposted from the previous month on more than 1,200 major Internet job boards and smaller job boards that serve niche markets and smaller geographic areas

Since October of 2009 the new indicator has been increasingly positive Online advertised vacancies were unchanged in May at 415 million, following a 223,000 gain in April It’s a pause but not a setback from the climb that began eight months ago during which there has been an average increase of 118,000 new postings per month The gap between the number of unemployed workers and advertised vacancies nationally stood at 368 jobless men and women for every advertised vacancy, a figure that has dropped from 476 last October

According to the May report, online advertised vacancies were up 5,500 in May in the Northeast New York, after a very large increase of 23,600 in April, was unchanged Massachusetts rose 5,000 and New Jersey was up 4,600 The Massachusetts gain followed a larger 6,900 April rise and the New Jersey gain followed a much larger 17,600 gain Among the smaller states, job demand in New Hampshire was down by 3,900 and Rhode Island dropped 2,100

To the south, Virginia rose 10,300 to 167,800, its highest level since the Conference Board’s online data series begin in May of 2005 Maryland rose 8,600 to 127,600, its highest level since November 2008 But there were declines also among the more populous states North Carolina was down 9,900 and Georgia dipped by 6,400

While the Conference Board’s report is worth following, not all opportunities can be found on job boards At our MTSG offices from Georgia to New Hampshire we stay in close contact with our clients and we’re constantly screening job applicants to fill openings as quickly as they arise

 

World Cup Soccer and Workplace Diversity

During June and July many employers have discovered the solution to mind-numbing, sleep-inducing diversity films – World Cup soccer Rather than running a video in which the office oaf makes insensitive remarks about people from other countries, they’re creating a fun atmosphere by showing the soccer matches from South Africa

Not only is the tournament causing many people to spend a moment watching teams from around the world, it’s prompting spontaneous conversations among people of different backgrounds in the workplace While watching the matches they talk about the teams, the countries and each other in a manner that’s unforced

No doubt managers are also concerned about the games cutting into productivity At the same time, many companies are taking advantage of the opportunity by allowing office pools similar to basketball pools for the NCAA March Madness tournament

But the World Cup only comes along once every four years That means companies that are serious about fostering workplace diversity need to look for other strategies Here are some thoughts:

• Be sure the CEO is clear about the value of diversity to the organization In addition to the cultural benefits, identify the bottom-line gains the company can achieve through a diverse staff


• Think of diversity in broad terms that include age, gender and life experiences and not simply race or ethnicity


• Maintain a standard of excellence Creating a diverse workforce shouldn’t mean pressuring veteran employees to leave or settling for workers with lesser skills Make your company a great place to work and you’ll have a wide range of people to choose from – with good skills – when expanding your staff Keep looking for the best staffers you can find


• The point of fostering diversity in the workplace is to include different viewpoints in the management and operations of the company That means there will often be disagreements Work on communication in your company, encouraging a willingness to consider other views and preventing differences from becoming obstacles


• Continue to judge people by their value to the organization and not by their gender or race By keeping the daily focus on the mission of the company and the skills and experience each staff member contributes to achieving that goal, differences in age, sex or cultural backgrounds become secondary

 

Banking and Housing Weighing On Job Growth

There’s a consensus among economists that the recession ended around June-July of 2009, meaning it has been about a year since the recovery began But it’s taking some time for growth in permanent and temporary jobs to get rolling, largely because the linkage between housing, unemployment and bank credit has the economy chasing its tail

Without sharper job gains and lower unemployment the housing market will remain weak and foreclosures will continue With many banks still carrying high levels of delinquent mortgages on their books, they’re reluctant to lend money to small businesses, preventing them from investing in new opportunities With employers unable to expand into new markets and hire new employees, job growth is held down and high unemployment continues

Lower interest rates stimulated home sales and values prior to the recession But don’t look for that stimulus to do the same in the near term Mortgage rates are already below historical levels and according to Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economycom, housing will get worse before it gets better At a recent economic conference in Boston, Zandi said “We have more price declines to go over the coming year”

Which means the housing industry needs to clear out the baggage before it can start growing again Nationally, the amount of homes in foreclosure has increased every quarter since the third quarter of 2006 Mortgages that are 90 days or more delinquent have risen from about 1 million at the start of 2007 to nearly 45 million through the first quarter of 2010 Those numbers are distributed unevenly around the country, however In Massachusetts, for example, the housing bubble wasn’t as inflated as in other parts of the US, so the effects were less severe when it burst, according to Alan Clayton-Matthews, an economist at Northeastern University In the Atlanta market, on the other hand, housing prices dropped nearly 20 percent from their peak, according to a report by Wells Fargo Investments

China Trade

It seems all eyes are on the Chinese economy these days The US stock market gyrates upon good and bad news about Chinese consumers Government officials are urging Chinese leaders to loosen control of their currency to allow more US goods to be sold in China Meanwhile imports of Chinese products to the US have surged since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001

A new study by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank, has found that the rapid growth of US trade with China had had a severe impact on US workers and the domestic economy According to the study, the US is piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and the growing trade deficit has been a prime contributor to the crisis in US manufacturing employment Between 2001 and 2008, 24 million jobs were lost or displaced, including 91,400 in 2008 alone The computers, electronic equipment, and parts industries experienced the largest growth in trade deficits with China, leading with 627,700 or 26 percent of all jobs displaced between 2001 and 2008

While California and Texas have suffered the largest China-related job losses, according to the study, down 37,000 and 193,700 jobs respectively, as a share of total state employment the leaders are more local to our service area Here’s how they rank nationally as of 2008, the most recent study years

1 New Hampshire – down 16,300 or 235 percent

2 North Carolina – down 95,100 or 23 percent

3 Massachusetts –down 72,800 or 225 percent

7 Rhode Island – down 10,600 or 201 percent

17 Georgia – down 78,100 or 181 percent

26 New York – down 140,500 or 157 percent

32 Maine – down 9,400 or 143 percent

34 Virginia – down 51,700 or 138 percent