Many Unemployed Giving Up

In some U.S. states, nearly half of the job seekers who have stopped looking for work have done so because they simply don’t believe they’ll find anything. Indeed, the number of discouraged workers nationwide has more than doubled in the past year. This trend won’t be reflected in the widely publicized unemployment rate, as discouraged workers aren’t included among the unemployed. Still, in states as diverse as Mississippi, South Dakota, and New York, the span of this often invisible slice of workers signals a population losing its hope.

Most jobless people who have stopped looking for work are otherwise engaged–they’re back in school, taking on family responsibilities, or too sick to search. They, along with workers who have stopped because they’re discouraged, make up a group that the Labor Department calls the “marginally attached.” They’re included in some of the broader measures of unemployment, but they’re officially not part of the workforce. While discouraged workers make up about a third of the marginally attached nationwide, their numbers have been increasing.

Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi averaged the highest percentage of discouraged job seekers among its marginally attached–nearly 50 percent, compared with 32.6 percent nationwide. South Dakota ranked second after Mississippi, with 48.5 percent of marginally attached workers classified as discouraged. Florida, Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia, and New York followed in ranking for the highest rates of discouragement.

Discouraged workers are characterized by their perceptions. They don’t think work is available for them, or they believe they lack the necessary training to be hired. They may be convinced that employers think they’re too young or too old, or they believe that they face some other kind of discrimination that prevents them from finding work. And while there are discouraged workers in healthy economies, in a prolonged recession such as this one, worker pessimism tends to skyrocket.

The heights of discouragement in Mississippi are significant. “It says something about the situation in that state when half of the people with a relatively recent commitment to searching for a job have stopped because they believe nothing is available for them,” says Thomas Krolik, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi’s average unemployment rate was 7.9 percent. Add in all the discouraged workers, and the rate shoots up to 8.8 percent, a 0.9 percentage-point jump. Nationwide, the average difference between the unemployment rate and the rate of unemployed plus discouraged workers was about 0.4 percentage point. Michigan and New York also ranked high by that measure.

Charles Campbell, a professor of economics at Mississippi State University, says the state struggles with regions of particularly high unemployment, “where there really are no jobs.” Many of the residents of those regions lack the skills and means to find work in outside areas, Campbell says, so they remain unemployed.

In other states, the situation may be more obvious. In Michigan, the demise of the domestic auto industry has brought job destruction far outpacing the national average. Michigan’s unemployment rate for June topped 15.2 percent, compared with 9.5 percent nationally. Across the country, Florida has been hit hard by the housing bust, and unemployment in the state reached 10.6 percent in June.

But higher unemployment rates and lousier job markets alone don’t explain the high rates of discouragement. Connecticut, New York, and West Virginia have seen their numbers of jobless workers rise during the downturn, but their unemployment rates are all below the national average.

Several things could nudge job seekers toward hopelessness: negative media coverage of the job market; unsuccessful job searches among friends and family; their own long-term unemployment. Also, men are more likely to give up their job search because they’ve become discouraged–they make up 63 percent of the total group. Younger workers, blacks, and Hispanics are also overrepresented in the discouraged-worker category, according to the Labor Department.

The housing bust could be partly to blame. Workers may simply give up because there are no openings matching their skill set within their geographical area, Krolik says. If workers own homes they can’t sell, their ability to move for a new job is severely limited. The effect could be exacerbated by areas where homes are a particularly difficult sell or homeowners are disproportionately underwater, as those markets have also tended to see higher unemployment rates.

Whatever workers’ motivation, many economists are now focusing more on their results. Hoyt Bleakley Jr., a University of Chicago economist, says researchers are paying less attention to how many job seekers say they’re looking for work and more attention to how quickly they are actually finding it. With 4.4 million job seekers nationwide out of work for more than 27 weeks or more in June, “those numbers are pretty grim,” Bleakley says. “People who claim they’re looking for work are not finding it.” It’s hardly surprising, then, how many have simply given up looking.

By Liz Wolgemuth
Copyright: USNews.com

In-demand Jobs that Pay $40 an hour

Imagine one hour of work getting you a decent meal for two, a tank of gas, or two twenties in your pocket. Careers that let you rake down $40 an hour aren’t as few or far between as you may think.

Many of these careers are in growing fields, like health care, which means that companies across the country are hiring. With the right education — and a bit of career training — just about anyone can land a $40-an-hour job. Consider these great careers (with salary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics):

Art Director

This is a fast-paced, creative position. As an art director, you’ll design, position, and make art dance to your marketing tune. It’s all about eye-catching presentation of information, and with typography making a big comeback, this career puts you on the cutting edge of art and marketing at the same time.

An associate’s degree in computer graphics or design could get you started in the art field, but to make it to the coveted position of art director, you’re probably looking at an art degree with coursework in business. Career training for this job is intense, rewarding, and lets you move up the ladder.

Median Hourly Wage for Art Directors in 2007: $40.01 ($80,230 yearly)

Geoscientist

Too grounded for the arts? Geoscientists are some of the earthiest people around, and they work in one of the many fields about to take off, thanks to stimulus moneys coming down the pike. From searching for natural resources to cleaning up environmental disasters, geoscientists make going green possible for the rest of us. A bachelor’s degree in geology or geophysics is a necessity in this field, and many employers prefer a master’s degree.

This is a diverse field, which means that geoscientists can find work in a great many niches, both public and private. With so many specializations in this field (mineralologist, sedimentologist, paleontologist, volcanologist, and geochemist to name a few) career training is vital to landing the job you want.

Median Hourly Wage for Geoscientists in 2007: $40.43 ($84,100 yearly)

Computer Software Engineer

Computers are everywhere — and spreading. This means that computer software engineers can look forward to continued growth in the field, especially in health care niches. Programs need to be written to keep up with exponentially progressing technology and shifting markets and needs.

A degree in either computer science or computer engineering is required to enter this field. After getting that degree, computer software engineers still need to stay up to the minute with certifications and career training.

Median Hourly Wage for Computer Software Engineers in 2007: $41.18 ($85,660 yearly)

Mathematician

This career has numbers on its side. In their sweeping study of jobs in America, CareerCast found that mathematicians are at the very top — that’s right, mathematician is the best career in America right now. Mathematicians are extremely satisfied with their jobs, happy with their lives, and, of course, don’t mind that $40+ an hour.

A bachelor’s degree can get you started, but getting any further usually requires a post-graduate degree. From finance to physics, mathematicians find careers in any industry that deals with numbers.

Median Hourly Wage for Mathematicians in 2007: $43.72 ($90,930 yearly)

Pharmacist

Careers in health care (the only industry to show sustained growth — 30,000 jobs added a month on average in 2008) are a safe bet. Take a moment to count all of the pharmacies you pass the next time you’re out and about. Nearly every grocery store employs at least one full-time pharmacist. Add on the drug stores and hospitals, and you won’t be able to keep track on your fingers anymore.

Two years of college study is all that’s needed to be accepted to a number of pharmacy schools. A doctor of pharmacy degree (Pharm.D.) gets you to the important part: an exam for a pharmacist license. All pharmacists must become licensed to practice and pass state exams.

Median Hourly Wage for Pharmacists in 2007: $47.58 ($98,960 yearly)

With such a wide variety of $40-an-hour jobs out there, anyone can put their nose to the grindstone and land one of these highly lucrative careers. Get started on your degree — or finish it up — and start pulling down some great salaries in one of these hot careers.

by Karl Fendelander, FindtheRightSchool.com

When You Should ‘Dumb Down’ Your Resume

Kristin Konopka sent out nearly 100 copies of her résumé in January in search of receptionist work, but got only one callback. That’s when Ms. Konopka, a 29-year-old New York actress and yoga teacher, took her master’s degree and academic teaching experience off her résumé.

The calls started coming in. The slimmer version of her résumé landed in 30 in-boxes and earned her three callbacks and two interviews. “It definitely picked up the interest,” says Ms. Konopka, who realized quickly that people don’t “want to hire anyone who is overqualified.”

Securing work in a tight economy means more job seekers might find themselves applying for positions below their qualifications. Many unemployed professionals are willing to take paycuts for the promise of a paycheck. But to get a foot in the door, candidates are gearing down their résumés by hiding advanced degrees, changing too-lofty titles, shortening work experience descriptions, and removing awards and accolades.

In the past eight months, Jamaica Eilbes, an information-technology recruiter for Milwaukee employment agency Manpower, has had to weed out more overqualified résumés than usual from the stacks that cross her desk each day. “I’d never feel comfortable putting a really high-level candidate into a lower level position,” says Ms. Eilbes, who recruits for Manpower and other clients. “We don’t want to take you on if we think you are going to jump ship.”

But in recent months, Ms. Eilbes has seen more master’s and doctoral degrees at the bottom of résumés instead of at the top. She’s also seen candidates omitting or trimming job descriptions that showed they had substantial years of work experience. Résumés on which job descriptions taper off as they progress down the page raise Ms. Eilbes’s suspicions. “How do I know I can trust them later down the road if there’s something on their résumé they decided to take off so they could have a better chance at getting that job?” she says.

Still, for some professionals who find themselves constantly rejected despite decades of experience, scaling back the truth — or at the least, some of their experiences — can feel like the only chance at an interview.

Lenora Kaplan, 49, has 26 years of marketing experience but doesn’t want her résumé to show it. When she lost her job as vice president of public relations at a small Las Vegas marketing firm in January, Ms. Kaplan searched for work with little success. At an interview for a shopping-mall marketing-director position in February, she was told that the hiring budget had only enough for a junior-level employee and that her résumé showed she was overqualified.

Many of the jobs she comes across ask for far fewer years of experience than she has. “There is nothing to apply for” at my level, Ms. Kaplan says. She quickly realized her job experience was pricing her out of too many positions. Her solution: To try not to look as senior level as she really was. So she eliminated certain jobs and removed details about speaking engagements and board positions.

In some cases, job seekers are being told by hiring agencies to tone down their résumés if they want to get hired. When Bridget Lee, 29, moved to New York from Shanghai eight months ago and put her application in at three temporary agencies, she was told to play down her work experience before they would send her résumé to potential clients. The temp-agency version of her résumé changed titles like “manager” and “freelance trend researcher” to “staff” and “office support” and omitted entirely her title as partner of a small marketing agency. “It’s been a lesson for how I present myself,” Ms. Lee says.

Career counselors advise against making too many drastic changes. But they also say the demand for this kind of restructuring is on the rise. In the past three months, Tammy Kabell, a Kansas City, Mo., job-search coach, says more clients are requesting her help to “dumb down” their résumés, whether by changing job titles, playing down experience, or altogether omitting some impressive achievements. One recent client, a 61-year-old former chief learning officer at a tech company, insisted on omitting her C-level job title from her résumé. She was fearful her application would be weeded out by the Web search-optimization tools companies use to manage résumés.

Some résumé writers advise reworking a résumé into a functional one stressing transferable skills instead of past job titles and accomplishments. “Instead of focusing on the big achievements that might scare an employer away, you can spell out what you can bring to an employer in the next position,” Ms. Kabell says.

Of course, reducing your résumé to a skeleton of what it truly should be isn’t likely to land you the job you really want. While it took Ms. Lee eight months to get a call back for a job that matched her real experience, this month she landed a position as a temporary account manager — with potential for permanent work — at a New York design firm. The interview and job offer weren’t earned using her dumbed-down résumé, but rather with the original.

“You have to make those creative edits when it comes to short-term work, but in terms of long-term work, you have to stay true to your experience,” says Ms. Lee.

by Jane Porter
Provided By Wall Street Journal

Earn Six Figures Without a PhD or Law Degree

In today’s economy, it can feel as if there are few jobs to be had, much less ones with six-figure salaries attached. However, there are careers to be found in a range of fields that can boost your earning power. What’s more, you can achieve a high income without a doctorate or a law degree.

Of course, achieving a six-figure salary will always require hard work and motivation. There are no free rides or successful get-rich-quick schemes. Sometimes continuing your education is the best way to prepare for a new career.
Below are some steps that may help you take your current salary to new heights.

Consider the benefits of online education.
Online training programs offer an alternative to traditional in-classroom education that can be very appealing for working students. Pursuing an online degree, whether it’s a bachelor’s, associate’s, or higher, allows you to study from home, at your own pace, so you can keep your current job while training for a better one.

Scenario 1: Earn a two-year associate’s degree.
Believe it or not, there are some high-paying careers out there that you can prepare for with about two years of study. For example, court reporters are known to pull in six-figure salaries, and often train for their careers with just one year to 33 months of study. If you’re surprised to see this career on the list, consider that court reporters often take on freelance work in addition to their regular hours to significantly boost their incomes. While the average salary for a court reporter technically weighs in at about $48,000, many use freelance opportunities to top the $100,000 mark.

Scenario 2: See where a bachelor’s degree can take you.
Train for a career in fine arts, finance, or technology, and find high-paying careers in each area. Art directors average about $83,000 annually, with the top 25 percent earning over $100,000 per year. Many art directors hold a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. Some begin their careers as graphic artists in advertising, publishing, design, or film, and work their way up to the position of art director while proving themselves through experience and hard work.

In the financial sector, actuaries pull in hefty salaries assessing risks and their financial impacts while often working for insurance companies. The mean annual salary for an actuary is $95,420. A bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, actuarial science, or business should offer solid footing for you to embark upon this career path.

If your interests lie in technology and IT, consider becoming a Web systems manager. The mean annual salary for this career is $113,880, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The top 25 percent can earn over $136,000 per year. A bachelor’s degree is a common requirement for IT managers, along with a strong knowledge of computers and management practices. A degree in management information systems may be especially helpful.

Scenario 3: Looking beyond a bachelor’s — let education take you higher.
If you already hold a bachelor’s degree and are looking to advance within your current field, consider the options that might be possible with a master’s degree.

Becoming an educational administrator can be a great option for teachers looking to advance their careers with a two-year master’s degree. In most cases, a master’s in educational administration or educational leadership is required, as well as related experience in teaching or school administration.

A high school principal might expect to earn around $92,000 annually, according to the BLS, while a chief academic officer can earn over $140,000 per year.

Look into further career training.
Research your potential new career, what further experience you might need, and how to get it. In today’s fast-paced job market, current job skills are essential, especially if your career involves using computers or technology in any way. Many professionals remain at the top of their careers with short educational stints or extra certifications in their fields.

Do what makes you happy — the money will follow.
You’ve heard it from everyone from your mom to Oprah: Do what makes you truly happy, and the financial side of things will fall into place. While it may be difficult to swallow this notion when you’re about to leap into a career change, you will likely be happy you did, especially if you follow these guidelines.

by Patricia Cecil-Reed, FindtheRightSchool.com

Seemingly Innocent Ways to Ruin a Job Interview

In recent weeks, recruiters for Consolidated Container Co. have seen job candidates arrive up to an hour early for interviews. Other candidates have alluded to financial hardships while in the hot seat, and one person even distributed bound copies of documents describing projects he completed for past employers.

These sorts of tactics aren’t exactly winners.

In today’s ultracompetitive job market, even getting an interview is a feat. Yet recruiters and hiring managers say many unemployed candidates blow the opportunity by appearing desperate or bitter about their situations — often without realizing it.

“People are becoming a lot more aggressive,” says Julie Loubaton, director of recruiting and talent management for Atlanta-based Consolidated Container. “They often wind up hurting themselves.”

At an interview, you want to stand out for the right reasons. To do so, you’ll need to leave your baggage and anxiety at the door. For starters, wait until 10 minutes before your scheduled interview time to announce yourself. Arriving any sooner “shows that you’re not respectful of the time the hiring manager put aside for you,” says Ms. Loubaton, adding that a candidate who arrived an hour early made workers uncomfortable. “Companies really don’t want someone camped out in their lobby.”

Signal confidence by offering a firm handshake, adds Wendy Alfus Rothman, president of Wenroth Consulting Inc., an executive coaching firm in New York. Focus your attention on the interviewer. Avoid looking around the room, tapping your fingers, or other nervous movements.

No matter how you’re feeling, keep your personal woes out of the interview process, asserts Ms. Alfus Rothman. Instead, always exude an upbeat attitude. For example, if you were laid off, instead of lamenting the situation, you might say the experience prompted you to reassess your skills, and that’s what led you here. “You want to demonstrate resilience in the face of unpredictable obstacles,” she says.

Meanwhile, show you’ve done your homework on the company by explaining how your background and track record relates to its current needs, adds Deborah Markus, founder of Columbus Advisors LLC, an executive-search firm in New York. This is particularly important if the firm is in a different industry than the one you worked in before. To stand out, you’ll need to look up more than just basics on company leadership and core businesses. You’ll also need to find out — and understand — how recent changes in the marketplace have affected the firm, its competitors and industry overall. Read recent company press releases, annual reports, media coverage and industry blogs, and consult with trusted members of your network. “Companies that may have been performing well just a few months ago might be in survival mode now,” says Ms. Markus. “You want to understand how [they're] positioned today.”

Also, be sure to show you’re a strong fit for the particular position you’re seeking, adds Kathy Marsico, senior vice president of human resources at PDI Inc., a Saddle River, N.J., provider of sales and marketing services for pharmaceutical companies. Offer examples of past accomplishments — not just responsibilities you’ve held — and describe how they’re relevant to the opportunity. “You must differentiate yourself like never before,” she says. “You need to customize yourself and make yourself memorable.”

Sherry R. Brickman, a partner at executive-search firm Martin Partners LLC, says a candidate recently impressed her with this sort of preparation. “He knew the company’s product line and what markets it was already in,” she says of the man, who was interviewing for an executive post at a midsize industrial manufacturer. “He clearly and effectively explained how he could cut costs, increase sales and expand market share based on what he’d done in his current job.” The candidate was hired.

Be careful not to go too far, though, in your quest to stand out. For example, it may be tempting to offer to work temporarily for free or to take a lesser salary than what a job pays. But experts say such bold moves often backfire on candidates. “Employers want value,” says Lee Miller, author of Get More Money on Your Next Job … In Any Economy. “They don’t want cheap.”

Your best bet is to wait until you’re extended a job offer before talking pay. “In a recession, employers are going to be very price sensitive,” says Mr. Miller. “The salary you ask for may impact their decision to move forward.” Come prepared having researched the average pay range for a position in case you’re pressured to name your price, he adds. You might say, for example, that money isn’t a primary concern for you and that you’re just looking for something fair, suggests Mr. Miller. You can try turning the tables by asking interviewers what the company has budgeted for the position.

In some cases, you may be looking just for a job to get you through so you might consider a less-than-perfect fit. But if you aren’t really excited about an opportunity, keep it to yourself, warns David Gaspin, director of human resources at 5W Public Relations in New York. “I’ve had times where people come in and it’s clear that if they really had their preference, they’d be doing something different,” he says. “You don’t want to put that out on the table. Nobody wants to hire someone who’s going to run for the door when times get better.”

After an interview, take caution with your follow-up. If you’re in the running for multiple jobs at once, make sure to address thank-yous to the right people, career experts advise. Also look closely for spelling and grammatical errors. In a competitive job market, employers have the luxury of choice, and even a minor faux pas can hurt your chances.

If all has gone well, don’t stalk the interviewer. Wait at least a week before checking on your candidacy, adds Jose Tamez, managing partner at Austin-Michael LP, an executive-search firm in Golden, Colo. Call recruiters only at their office, even if their business card lists a home or cell number. Leave a message if you get voicemail. These days, recruiters typically have caller ID and can tell if you’ve tried reaching them multiple times without leaving a voicemail. “There’s a fine line between enthusiasm and overenthusiasm,” he says.

by Sarah E. Needleman – Provided By The Wall Street Journal