Wednesday, June 30, 2010

American Workforce’s Incoming Generation Most Diverse, Startlingly Least Educated

6/22/2010 By Roy Maurer

Seismic changes in the racial makeup of the U.S. population have led to the American labor force’s incoming generation being the most diverse in history, while at the same time being the least educated, leading to a dire forecast for the nation’s global competitiveness.

A group of panelists discussed this and other related issues at “The New America Policy Summit on the Changing Demographics of a New Generation,” sponsored by the National Journal Group in association with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) June 17, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

Pointing out that two-fifths of the Millennial generation, or Gen Y—the generation currently entering the workforce—is non-white, according to 2009 statistics, SHRM President and CEO Laurence G. O’Neil stated that the demographic change will “have huge implications for our workforce, our education system and our domestic policy.” He added that “SHRM’s 250,000 members, HR professionals from every industry, are on the front line of this change every day.”

The panel exchange that followed included a presentation by William H. Frey, demographer and senior fellow for the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, and lively discussion about education reform, workforce training initiatives and racial inequality in American society.

Based on the 2000 census, the U.S. workforce (generally ages 25 to 64) is in the midst of a sweeping demographic transformation. From 1980 to 2020, the white working-age population is projected to decline from 82 percent to 63 percent. During the same period, the minority portion of the workforce is projected to double from 18 percent to 37 percent, and the Hispanic portion is projected to almost triple from 6 percent to 17 percent. By 2042, the U.S. population will be more non-white than white, making it a majority minority population.

This demographic shift can be traced to two primary engines: Larger numbers of younger Americans are ethnic minorities, and increasing numbers of white workers are reaching retirement age, together making up the so-called “browning” and “graying” of the population. The aging of the Baby Boomers, who are beginning to enter retirement, and the influx of immigrants, mostly from Latin America and Asia, will generate major change ramifications to the labor force for years to come.

“As these largely white Boomers retire, the working-age population will decline by about 5 million whites, and the rest of the working-age population will gain about 15 million minorities, 90 percent of which in the next decade will be Hispanics,” Frey said.

The educational attainment of the fastest growing segments of the new labor force is especially startling. Just 39 percent of Hispanics in America in 2010 have a high school education, and only 13 percent are college graduates, with dropout rates in the Hispanic population particularly high.

Substantial increases in those segments of America’s young population with the lowest level of education, combined with the coming retirements of the Baby Boomers—the most highly educated generation in U.S. history—are projected to lead to a drop in the average level of education of the U.S. workforce over the next two decades unless the educational level of all racial and ethnic groups is improved.

The projected decline in educational levels coincides with the growth of a knowledge-based economy that requires most workers to have high levels of education. At the same time, the expansion of a global economy allows industries increased flexibility in hiring workers overseas. As other developed nations continue to improve the education of their workforces, the United States and its workers will increasingly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage, the panelists said.

Businesses “are looking down the pipeline to see where they’re going to get their workforce, the skills that those individuals are going to have, what their success rates are going to be in post-secondary education, and they’re very concerned, because they do see the changing demographics,” said Karen Elzey, vice president and executive director of the Institute for a Competitive Workforce at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “The question is, What role can [businesses] play in being able to support effective policies that allow them to get their workforce here? If they can’t get their workforce here, they’ll go [elsewhere] and get it,” she said.

Larger corporations are embracing the demographic changes, Elzey said. “They see the need to have a more diverse workforce and the value that a diverse workforce will bring to them in terms of the clients and vendors they are going to work with,” she said.

Corporate America has begun to adjust to labor force changes with an increased use of contingent workers, telecommuting, and workplace flexibility and diversity initiatives, she said.

On the other hand, American companies are struggling to find native-born workers with an expertise in science, engineering and math and “will look for the best and the brightest from wherever they can find them,” she added.

Roberto Rodriguez, special assistant to the president for education on the White House Domestic Policy Council, addressed the Obama administration’s education and workforce reform goals, including pushing for 60 percent of the population to hold college degrees by 2020, a 20-point uptick from 2009 rates.

“We clearly must do better,” Rodriguez said, by raising the bar of the quality of the workforce through strengthening workforce training and remediation for displaced workers and shoring up the nation’s community college system.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

U.S. Could See Hiring ‘Heat Wave’ in May

5/7/2010 By Theresa Minton-Eversole

More unemployed Americans might have a better chance of finding a job this coming summer than in the summer of 2009 if May 2010's expected hiring "spring fling" is any indication. May 2010 hiring activity in the manufacturing and service sectors could reach levels not seen in three years, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey report released May 7, 2010.

Signs are growing more positive this month, with LINE employment expectations indices for both sectors at levels not seen since 2007,” said Jennifer Schramm, SHRM manager of workplace trends and forecasting. “The percentage of manufacturing companies that are hiring is the highest since October 2007; in the service sector, since June 2007.”

Good workers are getting slightly harder to find, too, with more employers in April 2010 reporting a higher level of difficulty with landing top-level talent than in 2009. In addition, new-hire compensation continues to increase. For the third consecutive month, the rate of new-hire compensation in April 2010 rose on an annual basis in both sectors.

The LINE Employment Report examines four key areas: employers’ hiring expectations, new-hire compensation, difficulty in recruiting top-level talent and job vacancies. It is based on a monthly survey of private sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service sector companies. Together, these two sectors employ more than 90 percent of the nation’s private sector workers.

EMPLOYMENT EXPECTATIONS
Manufacturing
Service
In May, for the seventh straight month, hiring will increase in manufacturing and services on an annual basis.

+48.7

+37.0

RECRUITING DIFFICULTY Manufacturing Service
In April, the index for recruiting difficulty rose in both sectors compared with a year ago.

+18.9

+14.2

NEW-HIRE COMPENSATION Manufacturing Service
The rate of increase for new-hire compensation in April rose on an annual basis in both sectors.

+7.2

+10.9

Source: SHRM Leading Indicators of NationalEmployment(LINE), www.shrm.org/line.


Employment Expectations

Despite problems in the labor market, hiring looks much better in May 2010 than in recent months. The manufacturing index improved by a net of 48.7 points, which means a net 43.9 percent of companies will hire in May 2010, compared with 4.8 percent that conducted layoffs in May 2009.

The service sector hiring index rose for May by a net 37.0 points; a net 54.4 percent of respondents will add jobs in May 2010, compared with a net 17.4 percent that added jobs during May 2009. Even with the positive numbers, the unemployment rate is expected to remain elevated throughout 2010. The sharp rise in the LINE hiring indices is also a reflection of poor job market conditions from a year ago.

Exempt, Nonexempt Vacancies

LINE statistics cover exempt (salaried) and nonexempt (hourly) vacancies. Changes in the number of job vacancies can be one of the earliest indicators of a shift in the balance between labor supply and demand.

In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 18.7 percent of respondents reported increases in exempt vacancies in April 2010 (24.5 percent reported increases, 5.8 percent reported decreases). This represents a 22.2-point increase from April 2009 and the ninth consecutive month that exempt vacancies are higher than those of the same month the previous year.

A net total of 23.7 percent of manufacturing respondents reported that nonexempt vacancies increased in April 2010 (31.9 percent increased, 8.2 percent decreased). This represents a 28.6-point increase from April 2009.

In accordance with federal data, this suggests that manufacturers are adding jobs slowly and that demand for production is improving.

In the service sector, a net total of 16.6 percent of respondents reported increases in exempt vacancies in April 2010 (25.9 percent reported increases, 9.3 percent reported decreases). That is a 28.6-point increase from April 2009 and the ninth consecutive month that exempt vacancies are higher than the previous year.

For nonexempt service positions, a net total of 29.1 percent reported increased vacancies in April 2010 (36.9 percent increased, 7.8 percent decreased). This marked a 31.0-point increase from April 2009. Increased demand for positions in the service sector might be driven in part by the health care industry, which added 27,000 jobs in March 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

New-Hire Compensation

The continuing high rate of unemployment and a large pool of job seekers in the market have given many companies the option of reducing the wages and benefits they are offering new hires in an effort to control costs. But the LINE statistics show that new-hire compensation continues to increase incrementally, noted Schramm.

“April marked the third consecutive month where new-hire compensation rates were up on a year-over-year basis,” she said.

In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 4.9 percent of respondents said they would increase new-hire compensation in April 2010 (6.1 percent increased, 1.2 percent decreased). That is an increase of 7.2 points from April 2009.

In the service sector, however, a net total of 1.3 percent of companies decreased new-hire compensation in April 2010 (3.4 percent increased, 4.7 percent decreased). That still represents a net increase of 10.9 points from April 2009, when a net of 12.2 percent of service companies decreased new-hire compensation.

The low rates of change in the two sectors indicate that most organizations are keeping new-hire compensation rates flat and that people landing new jobs are continuing to accept lower wages and benefits as the labor market remains weak.

Recruiting Difficulty

LINE’s recruiting difficulty index measures how hard it is for firms to recruit candidates to fill the positions of greatest strategic importance to their companies. Even though small numbers of respondents are having a harder time finding top talent, the level of difficulty has risen compared with a year earlier.

For example, in the manufacturing sector, a net of 0.9 percent of respondents had less difficulty with recruiting in April 2010 (8.8 percent reported more difficulty, 9.7 percent reported less difficulty). This is still a sharp net increase of 18.9 points from April 2009, when a net of 19.8 percent reported less difficulty with recruiting.

In the service sector, a net of 6.5 percent of companies had less difficulty recruiting in April 2010 (10.4 percent had more difficulty, 16.9 percent had less difficulty). This was a modest increase of 14.2 points from April 2009, when a net total of 20.7 percent of companies had less difficulty with finding top talent.

“Improved hiring is likely what’s behind the slight rise in the LINE recruiting difficulty index,” said Schramm. “More employers [are] reporting difficulty filling their “A positions” compared to this time one year ago.”

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

LINE: April Hiring Should Reflect Recent Economic Improvements

4/2/2010 By Theresa Minton-Eversole


Buoyed by incremental improvements in the U.S. economy, manufacturing and service-sector companies will hire more workers in April 2010 compared with a year earlier, according to the latest Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey. Although these hiring trends are positive, they are an indication of just how poor hiring conditions were in 2009.

Hiring is up on an annual basis for the sixth month in a row. In April 2010, the percentage of manufacturing companies that expect to hire will reach a level not seen since June 2008. In the service sector, the percentage of companies that expect to hire is the highest since July 2008.

In addition, recruiting difficulty continues to increase, according to the survey results, with more employers reporting difficulty landing top-level talent in March 2010 compared to March 2009.

New-hire compensation also rose slightly in March 2010. For the second consecutive month, the rate of new-hire compensation rose on an annual basis in both sectors.

The LINE Employment Report examines four key areas: employers’ hiring expectations, difficulty in recruiting top-level talent, new-hire compensation and job vacancies. It is based on a monthly survey of private-sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service-sector companies. Together, these two sectors employ more than 90 percent of the nation’s private-sector workers.

Employment Expectations

Manufacturing

Service

For the sixth straight month, hiring will increase in April 2010 in both manufacturing and services on an annual basis.

+52.4


+42.9

Recruiting Difficulty

In March, the index for recruiting difficulty rose in both sectors compared with a year ago.

+19.0


+26.6

New-Hire Compensation

The rate of increase for new-hire compensation in March rose on an annual basis in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

+2.4


+2.6

Source: SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE), www.shrm.org/line

Employment Expectations

In February 2010, employers took 1,570 mass layoff actions involving 155,718 workers, reported the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on March 23, 2010. The number of mass layoff events fell by 191 from the prior month, with manufacturing events hitting their lowest levels since August 2007.

Hiring in April 2010 will provide a better picture for job seekers. The manufacturing index improved by a net of 52.4 points (a net of 37.9 percent of companies will hire in April, compared with 14.5 percent that conducted layoffs a year earlier). The service hiring index rose in April 2010 by a net of 42.9 points (a net of 37.4 percent will add jobs, compared with a net of 5.5 percent that conducted layoffs a year earlier).

Even with those positive numbers, the unemployment rate is expected to remain elevated throughout 2010.

“Improved economic factors in the early months of 2010 compared to the dire employment conditions of the same time last year have resulted in increased year-over-year hiring expectations for the sixth month in a row,” said Jennifer Schramm, SHRM’s workplace trends and forecasting manager. “However, even with these increases, the rate of job loss during the worst months of the recession was so high that it will take many months and even years of sustained job growth to bring unemployment down significantly.”

Still, April 2010 marks the tenth straight month that more companies will hire rather than cut jobs in manufacturing (48.3 percent will hire, 10.4 percent will eliminate jobs), and it is the 12th straight month this has occurred in the service sector (46.5 percent will add jobs, 9.1 percent will cut jobs).

Recruiting Difficulty

“More employers are also reporting increased difficulty filling the jobs of most strategic importance in March compared to the same month one year ago,” Schramm said. LINE’s recruiting difficulty index measures how difficult it is for firms to recruit candidates to fill the positions of greatest strategic importance to their companies.

For the 13th consecutive month in March 2010, this index recorded single-digit response levels for those reporting increased difficulty with recruiting. In the manufacturing sector, a net of 2.3 percent of respondents had less difficulty with recruiting (6.6 reported increased difficulty, 8.9 percent reported less difficulty). This is still a sharp net increase of 19 points from March 2009, when a net of 21.3 percent indicated less difficulty with recruiting.

In the service sector, a net of 2.9 percent of companies in March 2010 had increased difficulty recruiting (9.6 percent had more difficulty, 6.7 percent had less difficulty). This was also a substantial increase from March 2009, when a net total of 23.7 percent of companies had less difficulty finding top talent.

New-Hire Compensation

“After a long stretch of decline and for the second month in a row, the LINE new-hire compensation index also increased on an annual basis in both the manufacturing and service sectors,” Schramm noted.

In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 1.1 percent of respondents said they would increase new-hire compensation in March 2010 (2.8 percent said they would increase, 1.7 percent said they would decrease). That is an increase of 2.4 points from March 2009. In the service sector, a net total of 0.4 percent of companies raised new-hire compensation in March 2010 (2.3 percent increased, 1.9 percent decreased). That is a net increase of 2.6 points from March 2009, when a net of 2.2 percent of service companies decreased new-hire compensation.

Bur the overall low rates of change in both sectors indicate that most organizations are keeping new-hire compensation rates flat and that people landing new jobs are continuing to accept low wages and benefits as the labor market remains weak.

Exempt, Nonexempt Position Vacancies

Vacancies for salaried jobs increased in March 2010, according to the LINE report. In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 11.9 percent of respondents reported increases in exempt vacancies in March 2010 (22.8 percent reported increases, 10.9 percent reported decreases). This represents a 20.2 point increase from March 2009 and the eighth consecutive month that exempt vacancies are higher than those of the same month the previous year.

In the service sector, a net total of 12.0 percent of respondents reported increases in exempt vacancies in March 2010 (21.0 percent reported increases, 9.0 percent reported decreases). That is a 23.3 point increase from March 2009 and the eighth consecutive month that exempt vacancies are higher than the previous year.

Vacancies for hourly jobs also rose in March 2010 for both sectors. A net total of 21.3 percent of manufacturing respondents reported that nonexempt vacancies increased in March 2010 (30.4 percent increased, 9.1 percent decreased). This represents a 30.5 point increase from March 2009.

In accordance with federal data, this suggests that manufacturers are adding jobs slowly and that demand for production is improving gradually. Industrial production rose for the eighth consecutive month in February 2010, according to the Federal Reserve.

For nonexempt service positions, a net total of 23.3 percent reported increased vacancies in March 2010 (32.7 percent reported increased vacancies, 9.4 percent reported decreased vacancies). This marked a 31.7 point increase from March 2009. Increased demand for positions in the service sector might be driven partially by the retail industry, which saw its sales rise by 0.3 percent in February 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Business Week's "Fed’s Bullard Says U.S. Is ‘About to Turn the Corner’ on Jobs" Article

"March 22 (Bloomberg) -- James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said the nation’s job market is “about to turn the corner” after the deepest slump since the Great Depression.

“We’re about to turn the corner on jobs,” Bullard said today in an interview with CNBC. “I think we’ll get some good months of jobs reports coming up very, very soon. We’re looking for March to be strong.”

Bullard repeated his view that the central bank’s pledge to keep rates low for an “extended period,” affirmed last week, creates the perception policy makers have a specific date in mind for increasing borrowing costs.

“The extended period language is putting us in a box,” he said. “People are interpreting that as a date certain when we will raise rates.”

The Fed will hold the target rate for overnight loans between banks at its current range of zero to 0.25 percent through the first nine months of the year, according to the survey median. The rate will rise to 0.75 percentage point by the end of the year.

Bullard said he expects a “reasonable” economic recovery, though not a “roaring recovery.”

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said last month the U.S. economy is in a “nascent” recovery that still requires low interest rates to encourage demand by consumers and businesses once federal stimulus fades."


Wellisz, Christopher. Fed’s Bullard Says U.S. Is ‘About to Turn the Corner’ on Jobs. Business Week. 2010 Mar 22 [cited 2010 Mar 22]. Available at http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-22/fed-s-bullard-says-u-s-is-about-to-turn-the-corner-on-jobs.html

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

U.S. Salary Increase Budgets Barely Matching Inflation Survey shows lowest level in 25 years

2/15/2010 By Stephen Miller

With total salary increase budgets in the U.S. barely exceeding inflation, even top performers might be disappointed to discover that their 2010 raises—in many cases following a year of frozen compensation—are only keeping up with cost-of-living increases, according to The Conference Board’s Salary Increase Budgets for 2010—Winter Update report.

Projections for 2010 show that salary increase budgets in the U.S. will be below 3 percent for the first time in more than two decades, and projected 2010 salary structure adjustments for all categories of employees are not expected to top 2 percent—well below the inflation rate (2.6 percent) forecast by The Conference Board, a not-for-profit business research association.

Salary increase budgets—the pool of money that a company dedicates to salary increases for the coming year. It is represented as a percentage of current total base pay.

Salary structure adjustments—the changes (usually annual) to the salary structure of a compensation program. Organizations make these adjustments to the minimum, midpoints and maximums of their pay ranges to account for changes in the cost of living generally, and to changes in the salary markets within their industry.

“Compensation professionals usually make sure that the salary structures move in lock step with inflation in order to ensure that structures represent market rate for jobs,” says John Gibbons, human capital program director at The Conference Board. “They budget increases in a particular year to reward great performance, allowing earnings to exceed inflation and move people up through the ranges. Salary ranges also represent employers’ anticipation of what the job market will require. Projections of near zero percent in real terms mean that employers are making the assumption that the salary market is simply not going to move up, regardless of increases in the cost of living.”

“U.S. workers will continue to face downward pressure on their salaries and wages,” predicts Linda Barrington, the association’s human capital managing director and co-author of the report. “Without the purse strings loosening on financial rewards, employers are going to have to rely on other ways of engaging employees—especially top performers—in order to keep their companies competitive.”

Historical Low

The revised median forecast of salary increase budgets for 2010 stands at 2.8 percent for all U.S. employee groups except executives (2.75 percent). This is the lowest level in the 25-year history of The Conference Board survey.

This historical low is consistent with historically low growth in government compensation measures. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Employment Cost Index, total compensation in 2009 grew by 1.5 percent while consumer prices rose by 2.7 percent—meaning that, adjusted for inflation, total compensation fell by almost 1.3 percent. The Employment Cost Index’s increase is the lowest since the BLS survey began in 1982; prior to the 2009 recession, the 12-month change never fell below 2.7 percent.

------------------------------------------------
Adjusted for inflation, total compensation
fell by almost 1.3 percent in 2009.
------------------------------------------------

“Despite five months of improvement in The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index suggesting that a turning point in job growth is on the horizon, recovery in compensation is probably a few years away,” says Gad Levanon, associate director for macroeconomic research at The Conference Board. “In the previous three recessions, compensation began accelerating only several years after employment bottomed. High levels of unemployment allow businesses to limit raise demands from existing workers and hire workers from unemployment at lower compensation levels.”

Expectations Revised Downward

The Conference Board’s Annual Salary Increase Budgets Survey, conducted in November 2009 among 285 U.S. organizations, represents a sharp drop from the 3 percent median forecasted for salary increase budgets in April 2009. More than a quarter of respondents (27.7 percent) said they had already changed their originally projected total increase budget for 2010. The median projected total salary increase budget for this group, 2.5 percent, is lower than that of respondents overall. Compared with their original median projected increase budget, the current median projected 2010 salary increase budget for these respondents is 0.5 percentage point lower than what they report as their original forecast for 2010.

The highest forecasted median salary increase budgets for 2010 are in consulting services—3 percent for all employee groups except nonexempt hourly, which stands at 2.85 percent. The second highest projections are reported in the trade sector, with all employee groups at 3 percent except nonexempt hourly (2.5 percent). The lowest 2010 increase budgets are in the banking industry (2 percent).

Bonus Budgets Slightly Higher

For merit increase budgets forecast for 2010, the median is 2.5 percent in each employee category for all industries. This compares to lower 2009 medians of 2.1 percent for nonexempt hourly, 2.38 percent for nonexempt salaried and 2 percent for exempt employees.

The median merit increase budget for executives in 2009 was zero. The highest median projected merit increase budgets for executives are in energy/agriculture, manufacturing and trade, at 3 percent.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

HR Goes Green!

From Mediapost.com, this article was posted today to highlight the impact that green efforts make on attracting, hiring and retaining new employees.

Beyond Green PR: Green HR
by Greg Menken

With the rise of green consumers, many businesses have turned their attention to communicating their eco-virtues to these customers.

However, as companies vie for "greenness" among external stakeholders, they must not forget their most important audience -- their own employees.

It is well known that happy employees make for happy customers, because satisfied workers turn out the best product.

Companies compete on many factors to attract and retain employees, from salary, benefits, vacation, culture, etc. Today, the eco-friendliness of employers is increasingly impacting job satisfaction and employee recruitment.

More than ever, current and prospective employees are placing greater emphasis on how green their employers are, and companies that respond to this trend stand to attract and retain the best talent.

According to research by Harris Interactive, 36% of American workers would be more inclined to work for a green company, while 59% believe their companies aren't doing enough to improve environmental performance.

Research by the Kenexa Research Institute found that companies supporting sustainability initiatives increase employee engagement levels. These initiatives increase employee pride, overall job satisfaction, and willingness to recommend their employer as a good place to work. Another report from Brockmann and Company shows that companies with sustainability programs have higher customer satisfaction, higher employee satisfaction and higher revenues per employee.

Perhaps most importantly, research finds that younger employees are the most eager to work for eco-friendly companies. As our nation's demographics quickly change, companies will come under intense pressure to compete for these younger workers.

While the Harris Interactive report showed that 52% of baby boomers would like their employers to be eco-friendly, greater than 67% of Generation Y workers wanted the same. A MonsterTRAK survey showed an astounding 92% of young workers would choose to work for an environmentally responsible company.

As baby boomers phase out of the workplace, more and more workers will seek out green employers, giving these companies a competitive hiring advantage over their non-green competitors.

Moreover, the Harris Interactive report showed that nearly a third of workers would be willing to sacrifice salary for the satisfaction of working for a green company. Again, Gen Y workers align much more strongly on this point than baby boomers, with Gen Y workers willing to sacrifice 6.2% of salary, as opposed to only 2.5% for baby boomers.

This evidence makes it clear that companies must take their green marketing beyond their external audience and engage their own employees and potential employees. By extending green marketing beyond PR and into HR (human resources), companies will attract better staff, achieve greater worker satisfaction, and increase profitability.

To do so, companies must implement strategic communications plans for their HR audience, just as they would for customers. Effective worker-oriented green communications plans must provide clear direction, explain the personal stake each employee has in the program, make employees part of the process, and establish recognizable goals that can be rewarded.

By targeting workers with a green message, a business will attain the highest possible level of engagement among staff, earn a reputation as a green (and great) place to work, and achieve the strongest competitive position when recruiting the next generation of talent.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Where the Job Market Will Open Up

If your interested in finding the most qualified professionals for upcoming opportunities at your company, check out O'Donnell Staffing Research's recruitment services and how they benefit you and your business.

Check out the article below about potential employment openings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Where the Job Market Will Open Up

Worrying about competition for talent probably isn’t your biggest concern right now. But it’s coming, especially in some industries and for some job titles.

The U.S. Labor Department released its report on 10-year projections for job and industry growth. Here’s what’s in the report.

First, as just about everyone knows, the manufacturing sector will continue to drop, even after a loss of about two million jobs in the sector over the last year, and they are unlikely to return.

Total employment is expected to rise in the next 10 years by 15.3 million, or 10.1%. That’s better than the 7.4% increase in the most recent 10-year period, but the numbers can be deceiving, since the recession dragged down the numbers so badly in the most recent 10-year period. Plus, we’re starting a low point in employment, so there’s a lot of room for growth.

Construction. The number of jobs will rise by 1.3 million, but even with the increase, there will be a percentage decrease when compared with the job market as a whole.

The service sector. Expect 96% of job growth to come out of this sector in the next 10 years — in particular in professional and business services, and health care and social assistance. Jobs in health care, which grew even during the recession, will skyrocket.

Which positions will see the most growth? The Labor Department projects increases of:

  • 72% for biomedical engineers
  • 53% for systems and data analysts
  • 50% for home health aides
  • 41% for financial examiner
To view the article by J. Giuliano at HR Morning click here.