June 5, 2009

Finding hope amid the tough employment news

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Today, the U.S. Labor Department released figures indicating that 14.5 million people in this country are out of work. This adds up to a national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent in May, the highest it's been in the last 25 years and higher than the 9.2 percent estimate that many economists had predicted.

This comes on the heels of yesterday's Spring 2009 Washington Job-Vacancy Survey results released by the Washington State Employment Security Department, showing that statewide job vacancies fell from 50,593 last fall to just 32,635 in April -- a 35 percent drop over the last six months. The health care industry in the state, which continues to lead all other sectors in job opportunities, suffered a significant decline from 14,409 vacancies last fall to just 7,517 vacancies in April. Retail, professional and technical services, and manufacturing sectors all experienced drops of more than 1,000 vacancies over the same period.

All really bad news, I know; not a great way to end this job-search week. But, as I've said before, a positive attitude in the face of unrelenting gloom is crucial if you are ever to escape job-search limbo. If you know where to look, there are silver linings to be found -- even though those linings may be paper-thin.

For instance, while 15 out of 19 industry sectors covered in the Washington state spring survey experienced declines in job openings, four of them showed increases. The arts, entertainment, and recreation sector showed the greatest improvement, rising from 583 in the fall to 2,344 in the most recent survey, mostly due to an increase in seasonal opportunities in anticipation of the summer season. Other sectors with vacancy increases are agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (from 592 vacancies to 1,249); administrative and waste services (from 2,072 to 2,462); and a catch-all sector of "other services" (from 1,301 to 1,457), which include repairs, religious activities, grant making, advocacy, laundry, personal care, death care and other personal services. (For more information, see the full report.)

Like I said, not great news, but at least we're seeing some progress somewhere.

Far more encouraging employment signs, however, could be extracted from the national data. The Labor Department study found that the pace of layoffs shows signs of relenting, with employers shedding only 345,000 jobs last month, the fewest number of layoffs since September 2008. May is the fourth straight month in which layoff figures have shrunk, following the brutal January 2009 figure of 741,000 layoffs, the highest total in more than half a century. The federal report also showed that the number of people drawing unemployment benefits has dipped for the first time in the last 20 weeks and that first-time claims have also declined.

In a comment following the report, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis pointed out that President Obama's stimulus plan has already helped to stabilize the nation's retail and service sectors and added job opportunities in the education, health care, leisure and hospitality industries last month.

As Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research, recently told the AP about the latest national figures: "This tide is turning. We expect this trend of slower job loss to continue throughout the year." The report, he added, "supports the notion that the recession will end this year."

Amen to that.

Randy Woods writes about job-search tools, networking techniques and other tips to help you land your dream job.

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1 Comments

John on June 5, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply

I do not understand how 345,000 lost jobs is good news, by any measure.

Equally so, I do not understand how the recession is going to end before all those who lost their jobs are hired back. After all, it is the unemployed who are in recession, not the well off, who are actually enjoying lower prices and better service.

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