Group items tagged

Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Samuel Peery quit a stable job as a vice president of marketing to start his own social-networking company. Unable to secure funding for his start-up, Mr. Peery, of Lehi, Utah, was left unemployed, with an unrealized dream.

How the Great Recession Reshaped the U.S. Job Market

"Fearing a shortage of qualified managers as business picks up, some companies are bolstering leadership-development efforts. Layoffs and training cutbacks in the past two years have thinned manager pipelines. And employers worry that baby boomers who postponed retirement during the recession will start to depart as recovering stock prices reinflate retirement funds."

"As the recession continues, unemployed people over the age of 50 continue to face steeper job hunting challenges than their younger counterparts. People over 50 search for new jobs for an average of 36 weeks or longer, compared to 27 weeks for younger workers. And while the overall unemployment rate has held steady, the rate for those over 55 actually rose from 6.8% to 7.1% accounting for more than 2 million people in that age group out of work."

The number of long-term unemployed workers has increased sharply since the recession began in December 2007.1 In the second quarter of 2010, about 46 percent of the 14.6 million unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or longer and about 31 percent were unemployed for 52 weeks or longer. This report focuses on the latter group - those who have been jobless for a year or more.

"Employers who snapped up top talent on the cheap in the depth of the recession should start worrying about defections, recruiters and management watchers say."

"Women were earning about 166 associates degrees and 135 bachelor's degrees for every 100 earned by men in 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Perhaps as a result, more women were employed in teaching, government and health care, sectors that held up better in the recession. The construction and manufacturing sectors, which often require less schooling, have shed millions of jobs in the last few years. "

At least twice a month throughout the recession, headhunters have dangled job opportunities in front of Ryan McAllister, an actuary for Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in Novato, Calif. "If I were ever unhappy with my employer, I could pick up the phone and find something else very quickly," says the 28-year-old Mr. McAllister. He joined the high-net-worth property and casualty insurer after graduating in 2005 from the University of California at Davis, with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics.

Recession-scarred families are still not ready to go out and splurge on vacation. In fact, many are still cutting back on their big summer holidays.

The U.S. has shed 7.2 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. How long will it take for the economy to replace them? And where will the jobs come from? The questions haunt people from the unemployed in San Francisco to officials in Washington. Glenn Atias lost his job as a $100,000-a-year statistician at a market-research firm in the Bay Area last summer when the work was outsourced to India. At 46 years old, he pores over job ads and online postings daily. "I'm stuck watching hundreds of thousands of people in my position grow in ranks each and every month," said Mr. Atias, who lives in Salton City, Calif., in a house worth less than the mortgage. When unemployment benefits run out, he said, "I literally don't know how I'll pay my mortgage, how I'll pay my health care."

The recession is complicating job hunts-and the lives-of two-career couples, particularly when one lands an offer out of town. The search for employment is forcing more couples into long-distance relationships.

Some companies are offering career counseling to customers who've lost jobs during the recession, hoping to help old friends and win additional loyalty when the economy recovers.

We all know people who were not laid off. These people can be described in any number of ways: as the "nervously employed" (Feller & Wichard, 2005), or as those suffering from "recession rumination" (USA Today, 2008), or, as they are referred to here, as the working worried. Whatever we call them, the number of people going to work each day hoping it won't be their last appears to be at an all time high. While news reports indicate signs of economic recovery, for most, this doesn't change their personal reality.

Solo entrepreneurs, freelancers and other self-employed professionals have always struggled to take vacations, and the recession is making it even harder. Being out of pocket can mean missing one of a diminishing number of business leads, and the rising tide of unemployed professionals has heightened competition for freelance work.

Finding a job in a recession is tough, let alone one that suits your background and interests. But a strong fit is important. Chances are you won't be happy if, say, you're an introvert and vegetarian working as a sales rep for a foie gras purveyor.

The recession is driving home a bitter truth about the 21st-century job market: A tidy, linear path to a secure career is increasingly hard to find.

Esquire created a riviting-if depression- look at the effects of the recession on the job market and wages

For a solid hour, Rick Rush repeatedly inserts a small piece of metal - the parking gear of a future pickup truck - into a slot, adds a spring and lowers hydraulic machines to bolt parts together and ensure they're properly placed. With 87 seconds to complete the tasks before each transmission casing glides by on a conveyor, the wiry 61-year-old toils with a purposeful hunch at a steady, brisk pace.

"As the U.S. jobs market digs its way out of the recession, gains aren't expected to be evenly distributed. But some of the hardest-hit regions may also see some of the best growth, according to a new analysis."

To change perceptions about your employment status, start with the way you network. When you have been out of work for a while, people in your network may feel guilty because they are employed and you are not, says Lavie Margolin, a career coach in New York City and author of "Lion Cub Job Search." You don't want them to feel sorry for you or to see you as defeated, so make sure you have something to offer them, whether it's sharing an article in a trade magazine, talking about an industry blog or mentioning a professional opportunity they may not know about, he says.