Job Seekers need to change Strategy

The Staffing View

On business, the workplace and employee relations

_March, 2010

 

Plan B for Long-Term Unemployed: “Entrepreworker”

The Federal Reserve wasn’t very encouraging to job seekers last month, but it did inadvertently bolster the necessity of workers to think of themselves as entrepreneurs in today’s economy

At its February meeting Fed policymakers issued a forecast that said unemployment will likely stay high during the next two years and that it will take “some time” for the economy and the jobs market to get back to normal They did not specify how long “some time” would be, but a “sizeable minority” among Fed officials believes it could take five or six years for the economy to return to normal

That’s distressing for the long-term unemployed, whose finances are at a critical stage and their job prospects dim But it highlights the necessity for many people to change the way they think about themselves from “Me Jobseeker” to “Me Inc” The jobs in their fields may never return That means they’re on their own They need to view themselves as a business with services to offer and a market to exploit It means that while still on the lookout for a job, they think about what they can do that would be of value to anyone

It’s not an easy transition Not everyone has an MBA or experience in marketing and sales, let alone defining a service that would be purchased by others But unfortunately too many industries - from automobile manufacturing to financial services - have contracted so much that former employees need to find a way to create work on their own

It’s already happening around the country Few industries have collapsed as suddenly as the newspaper industry during the past several years, for example Thousands have been laid off from those companies But rather than move to other careers, many jobless journalists have banded together to create organizations such as the Chicago News Cooperative, a non-profit that provides news about Chicago to the New York Times, and ProPublica, a nonprofit website that produces investigative journalism

Reporters who work for those nonprofits are continuing to develop their skills and add more experience to their resume, and they’re paying their bills That has put them in a better position to qualify for a job opening at a for-profit news organization, if an opportunity arises and they’re interested Certainly, after what has happened among major news organizations, they realize that no jobs are permanent and they’re ready to move if it makes sense

Many long-term unemployed are approaching a sink-or-swim point with their finances Continuing to search for a job through networking and working with professionals such as employee staffing firms is critical But adopting an entrepreneurial attitude and generating income with their skills is a sound Plan B

With Economy and Jobs Down

State Tax Revenues Follow

As much as state officials work to improve local business conditions, the rise and fall of state tax revenues is still largely determined by what’s happening in the national economy If employers are cutting costs and employees are losing jobs, it will ripple across a state’s tax base in a number of ways

Such has been the case with the national recession and state revenues for more than a year The Rockefeller Institute of Government at the University of Albany recently reported that state tax collections fell 41 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, the fifth straight quarter on a year-over-year basis that revenues were down Sales are off for many companies so they are paying less in corporate income taxes To reduce expenses they’ve laid off hundreds of thousands of employees, so people are paying less in personal income taxes With incomes down, consumers are buying less and state sales tax revenues have slumped

Put them all together and you have a fiscal crisis Economists and revenue forecasters say the worst of the recession is in the past But some states in our service area are still waiting for their revenue collections to bottom out In Georgia, for example, revenues have fallen 14 consecutive months through January State revenues in New Hampshire were $41 million below estimates through January for the current fiscal year

According to the Rockefeller Institute, seven states reported growth for the fourth quarter including North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts North Carolina reported the largest growth in overall tax revenue collections at 114 percent But that was mostly attributable to a large gain in corporate income tax collections, which was the result of North Carolina's Department of Revenue initiative to focus on outstanding cases for the proper calculation of taxes due to the state Virginia and Connecticut reported large increases in terms of dollar value in corporate income tax collections, all due to some legislated changes

Similarly in Massachusetts overall tax revenues exceeded expectations for four straight months through January, but that’s primarily the result of a hike in the state sales tax from 5 percent to 625 percent The Bay State saw its sales tax revenues jump 208 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the same three months in 2008, highest among all states according to the Rockefeller Institute

Employers, employees and job seekers alike would be wise to monitor tax revenue performance in their states Even if the economic recession has ended, a “double-dip” is avoided, and year-over-year growth improves, tax revenues are likely to remain below prerecession levels for the foreseeable future, according to Rockefeller That could mean additional cuts in services, hikes in taxes or both

Back to Square One: Get the Resume Right

You’ve reached a point where your job search has gone on for months You’re starting to feel as though you’ll be permanently unemployed You’re networking, checking job boards, making calls, but it still seems as though employers aren’t interested Perhaps it’s time to go back to the beginning? What is your resume saying about you?

If you’ve drawn up a basic “here’s-where-I’ve-worked-here’s-what-I’ve-done-and-this-is-my-education” resume, don’t expect it to jump out among the hundreds that hiring managers are receiving these days for a single job opening Not only do you need to tailor each resume to the job that’s available, you also must establish what you have to offer

Employers are interested in your past as a way of insuring you meet their baseline requirements First and foremost when filling a position they want to make sure you’re someone who has done something that suggests you’re capable of doing what they need in the future Once you’ve made that initial cut, along with some staggering number of other candidates, how can they tell that you’ll be better, by looking at your resume? What’s your value proposition?

This is where the concept of a personal brand arises Consider the prospective employer a consumer in the business-to-business marketplace They’re interested in hiring someone who can provide a service Your resume should imply that you are someone with skills that are honed to meet the demands of the market It would state your capabilities, what you can produce and the benefits of that production to whoever hires you If that seems like you’re in sales, of course you are Hiring managers reviewing resumes are less interested in the positions you’ve held and more interested in what you can do for them

How do you back up your proposition? On a resume it’s by highlighting accomplishments You didn’t just hold a position as an account executive Under your direction sales with your accounts grew by 50 percent per year You didn’t just serve as a manufacturing accountant You installed systems that resulted in bottom-line savings to your company

Finally, the biggest brands in Corporate America have strong tag lines to help consumers think about them In your case, offer a clear simple description of what you do and your value proposition as an opening paragraph to your resume That will give hiring managers a handle to hold on your story Hopefully they won’t let go

Staffing Jobs Rebound

To twist an old saying, what went down, has come up Employment in the staffing industry suffered during the recession, just as it did elsewhere in the economy But in a good sign for the economy, it’s bouncing back strongly The staffing index of the American Staffing Association, which measures employment trends among staffing companies, was up 10 percent in February compared to the same month a year ago The index’s score of 80 was still 20 percent below its reference level of 100, set in June of 2006, but it shows the industry is on the rebound

That’s not the only encouraging report on staffing employment According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, temporary help employment increased by 52,000 new jobs or a seasonally-adjusted 27 percent from December to January, making it the strongest January in the 20 years BLS has been measuring temporary help Not only that, in the four months from October through January, more than 250,000 jobs were added by staffing firms

All of that is encouraging for the economy Staffing employment is considered a leading indicator If businesses are adding temporary employees to their payroll, it suggests that their sales are growing and the economy is gaining strength Employers typically contract with staffing firms early in a recovery to add personnel without creating full-time overhead That payroll flexibility protects them in the event that business does not recover as expected