Occupations with the Most Annual Openings

Occupations with the most annual openings are often not in occupations that are increasing in size. That sounds illogical, but the reason it is so is that there is a lot of turnover in occupations with the msot annual openings. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data is presented on CareerInfoNet whose url is www.acinet.org First click on "occupations" and then on "most annual openings; then change change to NJ

Job possibilities from Obama's Stimulus Plan

The December 21st issue of the New York times has a long article outlining preliminary plans for Barak Obama's economic stimulus package. To find the article go to www.nytimes.com and searh under "obama expands recovery plans" for ideas about possible job growth from the package: infrastructure, energy, healthcare, education, and information technology.

Watch Out For Employment Scams

We have all seen job ads that are really come-ons to training programs that you have to pay for. The Riley Guide to Internet Job hunting has a whole section titled "Scams and schemes in work and employment services" on how to watch out for these scams. Here is the link to the Riley Guide which is a fantastic resource for job-hunters.

Monmouth County Economic Indicators Nov 2008

Here is more information on the NJ Economy from NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development. It is the November issue of New Jersey Economic Indicators Monmouth County is in the central region

Green Jobs in New Jersey

The New Jersey Energy Master Plan has an estimate of the number and types of jobs that could be created by its implemenation. It is nice to see that they are mostly blue collar occupations. The report is a pdf file. Click here
Other links to the NJ Energy Master Plan are here

Workforce Studies Series from NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development

The "Burgeoning Economic Crisis: Challenge and Possibilities" by Yustina Saleh of NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development is the most recent study in the Workforce Studies Series. Highly recommended for people looking for a job. Issued on December 8, 2008. Other titles in series are: Finance Workforce, Pharma Workforce, Health Services Workforce, Advanced Manufacturing, Entertainment, Arts, Retail, Transportation, Logistics, Information and Communication.

Occupational Outlook Quarterly

The fall issue of Occupational Outlook Quarterly has major articles on jobs in the education industry and jobs in energy. The education industry is not contracting yet which makes it a relatively hot field, and the energy sector might get boosted by government programs to build infrastructure and build clean energy facilities.

US Census Statistics for Job-searching

Using Census Department Statistics To Help in Job-searching

The US Census Department (online at www.census.gov) publishes Local Employment Dynamics statistics that might help in your job search. One set of data is called QWI Online and it’s full name is Quarterly Workforce Indicators. The other set of data is called Industry Focus. Used together the data can answer such questions as:

What is the employment in a specific industry in your county
How many new jobs are being created in that industry.

Here is an example.

Say I want to find the industries in Monmouth County that have the greatest number of new employees over the previous year (the most recent data is 1 year old). You go to Industry Focus select “new hires” as the primary search criteria and Monmouth County, NJ as the geographical entity. (you can add other secondary search criteria). The resulting list shows the “722 Food Services and Drinking Places” as having the most “new hires”. You can then use the QWI Online to find out more detail about the kinds of Food Services and Drinking places (taking it down to 4 digit NAICS detail) for the subgroups of Full-Service Restaurants, Limited-Service, Special Foods, and Drinking Places. The data in this example are as follows;
722 Food Services and Drinking Places 5,775 new hires from 2006 to 2007
7221 Full-Service Restaurants had 2,891 new hires
7222 Limited-Service Restaurants had 2,189 new hires
7223 Special Food Services had 442 new hires
7224 Drinking Places had 253 new hires
A possible conclusion is that if you want to work in a restaurant, apply at full-service restaurants. Additional data is average pay of new hires; total employment in the industry sector.

What the data do not show are the occupations employed in these industries. For that you have to use the Industy-Occupation Employment Matrix from the bureau of labor statistics. The matrix shows the distribution of occupations in an industry and the the distribution of individual occupations across the all industries. The matrix can answer such questions as

What industries employ the most social workers
In the education industry, what is the range of occupations employed?

NJ Business And Industry Assoc Projections

On November 25, 2008, the NJ Business and Industry Association released a report on how business owners predict the NJ economy to develop in 2009. The only industry group that predicts growth is the healthcare sector. The full report can be viewed by clicking here I found this report by seaching the Regional Business News in the jerseyclicks.org database. The database is funded by the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative to promote economic develpment and job growth in New Jersey.

Infrastructure jobs or Unskilled jobs

Good article in today's New York Times (dec 9) about a problem with infrastructure jobs only going to skilled labor. New York Times is online full-text at www.nytimes.com Lots of bloggers are writing in about the utility of education and training programs for low-skilled workers; even basic literacy programs. What are the infrastructure needs of Monmouth County? Could some of these projects (Green industry) involve lots of training for presently low-skilled workers. The present planning to minimize the effect for the closing of Fort Monmouth seems aimed at retaining high-skilled jobs, but unemployment is higher in the low-skilled workforce. Could Fort Monmouth be turned into a training center for green industry work in central nj?

Become a Professor and Bulletproof your job

The library just got two new books on careers. First, "From Student to Scholar: A Candid Guide To Becoming A Professor" by Steven Cahn. Education is one of the few industries that is not downsizing...yet. This books outlines the steps to getting a job as a college teacher; a fast-growing occupation. How does tenure sound to you?

"Bulletproof Your Job: 4 Simple Strategies To Ride Out the Rough Times and Come Out On Top At Work" is a very long title. This book has lots of suggestions on how to become indispensible at work. (this sounds as good as tenure). Sections are titled: "Be Visible, Be Easy, Be Useful, Be Ready."

To reserve these books go to the Monmouth County Library website at
www.monmouthcountylib.org
or call the library at 866-941-8188

New Jersey Knowledge Initiative

Just in case you still don't know about it, all NJ people who have a library card from a NJ public library has free access to the New Jersey Knowledge Initiative databases which are ReferenceUSA (an online business directory) and three periodical databases: Business Source Premier, Academic Search Premier and Regional Business news. To get access go to Jerseyclicks.org
Click on "Custom" and select "New Jersey Knowledge Initiative. These databases are funded by the State of New Jersey to encourage economic development. The "help" sections of these databases are very useful. good luck

National Employment Law Project

During my lunch break today, I was listening to the Brian Lehrer show on wnyc-fm and I heard part of this great interview on unemployment insurance from Rick McHugh of the National Employment Law Project. Check out its website. There is lots of information about legal issues at work such as unemployment, medical coverage, labor market, immigration. Really a good resource.

A Recommendation: CareerJournal.com

I was looking for news to post on this blog and I started scanning the CareerJournal.com website. What a fantastic group of articles and news. Of course there is the depressing statistics from Bureau of Labor Statistics, but also intersting articles on the busy jobs of Career Coaches, school guidance counselors and employment agencies. Then there is an article on search engines; articles on networking. The website is interesting; try it out. It's free

Bureau of Labor Statistics December Statistics

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Employment Situation Summary for the nation. All industry fields show negative growth except for the healthcare and education industries. Click here for the full report.

I find the Table B-1 to be the most interesting with employment stats for industry sector. Here is the link to B-1

Databases for job-hunters and NJ Businesses

ReferenceUSA, Business Source Premier, Academic Seach Premier, and Regional Business News are available online to anyone with a library card from a NJ public library. Go to www.jerseyclicks.org ; then put in your library card and use the resources. ReferenceUSA is a business directory database allowing searches by NAICS, SIC, yellow page headings, location and size. The other databases are business and research databases. If you would like instruction, the help screens on these databases are good and you can also call me at the Monmouth County Library at 866-941-8188

Jobs in Collections

November 29th, 2008 New York Times has a good article on jobs in collection agencies; bill collecting etc. Not a very pleasant topic but a good place to find a job. To read the article go to www.nytimes.com and search under "collection agencies"