The Job Market

The Job Market February 2017 (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZKZm2_x1fs[/svp]
Views and a quick observation about the job market.

[spp-transcript]

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and leadership coaching.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions. NOW WITH A 7 DAY FREE TRIAL

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Are you interested in executive job search coaching, leadership coaching or life coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

The Job Market February 2017 | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Ep 681 My views of the job market and the data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

[spp-transcript]

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and leadership coaching.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

NOW WITH A 7 DAY FREE TRIAL

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Are you interested in executive job search coaching, leadership coaching or life coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

The Direction of Work (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWhLevsof7Q[/svp]
I wanted to coalesce my thinking about the direction of work.

 

[spp-transcript]

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and leadership coaching.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions. NOW WITH A 7 DAY FREE TRIAL

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Are you interested in executive job search coaching, leadership coaching or life coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

The Job Market December 2016

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, and his views on the job market.

“I have been blogging about the job market in the US and around the world since August 2001.”

What I write is not designed to be political or critical; they are my observations and sense of where we are and where we are going.

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December 2016

As we come to the end of the Obama Presidency, it seems like a good time to do a recap an analysis of the successes and failures of the past 8 years and come to some conclusions about the progress the nation has made.

CNBC recently reported that since the bottom reached in the US economy, the United States has created 5.7 new positions. Other surveys claim as many as 14 million new positions. That is fabulous news for those able to find work. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 94.7 million have given up looking for work. 14 million people now receive a disability check from the government.

However, when you start breaking down the nature of the work created, it seems much of the work has been in the form of “alternative work arrangements,” rather than full time or traditional jobs.

What the heck is an alternative work arrangement? It is a contractor or freelance work situation–it can be a contract technology consultant or Uber driver, a person who works on Upwork or a work from home employee attached to single firm. As a matter of fact, according to two professors, Alan B. Krueger (Princeton) and Lawrence Katz (Harvard), less than half of 1% (0,4%) of new positions fall into traditional work arrangements.

Yet, here is a basic fact . . . there is a disconnect in how people think and feel the economy is doing and what is being reported. It is the basic reason why our new President was elected. He tapped into the disconnect the fury that separated economic, political, urban and other elites from the rest of the country. Even though Secretary Clinton received many more votes than President-Elect Trump did, he won “fly over states” (Heartland of America states flown over by elites traveling from one coast to another) that rarely voted Republican (there are other reasons that have nothing to do with Russian hacking but that is for another time). He did so because he convinced people that he could improve the economy for people like them that had not benefited from the growth of jobs.

Diane Sawyer of ABC News did a show for “2020” called “My Reality,” that spoke to the conditions that many Americans experience. She traveled to Silicon Valley and elsewhere to speak with workers of different sorts about their experience. One heartbreaking story (at least for me) were the contract workers at Google who drove the buses in the morning and in the evening to shuttle Google employees to and from work. They were not paid for their time in the middle of the day when they were not driving so they slept in their buses and vans during those hours. Later, they went to another job for more work.

There were stories of the people who were working three part time job who dropped young children off at overnight day care where their children slept on mats with their blankies from home. Thus, when I read the December jobs report indicate 150000 new jobs created and the triumph on the face of politicians and financial pundits about an improving economy, I compare it with the report of the two academics and realize that may only be the equivalent of 50000 – 75000 new full time jobs created! GASP!

A friend who is a computer consultant told me about picking up three work-from-home gigs for firms in Texas, Washington, DC and Chicago. I asked a financial columnist whether these were treated as “jobs” in the report even though he was only doing 10-20 hours with each firm. Yes, three jobs were created for the purpose of the jobs report. Two governors and one mayor (DC, of course, does not have a Governor), claimed credit for his job.

Nick Corcodilos of “Ask The Headhunter,” recently wrote, “The jobs news is so contradictory that nobody knows — or will admit — what’s really going on. While the government, economists, banks and pundits spin a story that makes heads spin, I think the wisdom about all this is in the crowd. The people living, succeeding, failing, giving up, dropping out, scraping by and dying in this economy have a clearer picture of what’s really going on than what’s being reported.”

We are being hoodwinked and this is not unique to this presidency.

Until the US Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the number of full time jobs AND part time/temp jobs in its headline report, instead of leaving it buried in the U6 report of people who would like to work full time but are unable to find full time jobs 

“American voters have spoken and this bitter election has come to an end. Many monumental tasks face our new president, the economy, our Veterans, rebuilding our depleted military, health care, re-negotiating trade deals and bringing jobs back to America. But the biggest task facing our new President is healing our nation and bringing us together as one. But this task doesn’t belong to just him, it belongs to all of us. We must work out our differences, respect one another even if we don’t agree, treat each other the way we want to be treated. The Lord said “love thy neighbor, as you love yourself” . It’s time we start doing that even if we don’t agree with one another. We live in the greatest nation in the world, enjoy the best freedoms & liberties, let’s now remember we ALL are Americans and start treating each other with kindness. God bless each one of us, God bless our new President, and God bless America, I pray he helps us heal our nation’s wounds.”

Please: No comments about the last quote. 

 

(©) Jeff Altman, Asheville, NC 2017

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He now exclusively does executive job search coaching. 

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Follow me at The Big Game Hunter, Inc. on LinkedIn

The Job Market October 2016 | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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This is my report on the job market for October 2016, as released on November 4, 2016. It is not a political statement. It is simply to report to offer This is my report on the job market for October 2016, as released on November 4, 2016. It is not a political statement. It is simply to report to offer information about the job market in the US.information about the job market in the US.

jobmarket

[spp-transcript]

Let’s talk about the US jobs report for October, 2016 that was released on November 4th. 

The good news is that there were 161,000 new jobs created and that the headline unemployment rate went down to 4.9% from 5%. Even the U6 rate, which includes people who want to work full-time but are only able to find part-time jobs, declined to 9.5%. Private sector jobs increased by 142,000, of which professional services were 43,000, healthcare was 31,000, government, 19,000. There was a decline in manufacturing jobs of 9000. The labor force participation rate is it 62.4%

Generally, on the surface, it seems like a decent report for the US economy post-2008 . . . Actually, it is a typical one. Now, let me go beneath the surface, because, when you start digging into the report, there are some interesting stuff there that doesn’t get reported on the news that most people watch, listen to or read.

Beneath the Surface

Part-time jobs with the biggest component of the growth. Understand, that government revises its report, even on the fly. Part-time jobs deleted increased by 430,000. Full-time jobs went down by 103,000. When we think of the word, “job,” we think of full-time jobs. When the government uses the word, “job,” it defines it is someone who worked for at least one hour during the course of the month. 

Thus, it seems like what we are doing is creating an “uber economy,” with most of the jobs being created, being part-time positions.

The GDP seems to have grown at its slowest rate in 8 years. 94 million people are not working. There were 238,000 people who had jobs, but couldn’t go to work, because of Hurricane Matthew in the southeast.

Construction jobs increased by 11,000 jobs. Retail slowed down which was surprising, given the holiday season coming up. 

In the last period of time (I think it’s an 8 year period), 1 million new jobs were created that employ women and the government reports that 1 million went to foreign workers. One third of students are unable to make payments on their student loans.

I am mentioning all of this stuff because the rosy picture the government tries to paint isn’t the reality for most of us. People seem to be working 2 or 3 jobs in order to pay their bills or not pay their bills so late. So the Labor Department report becomes a mediocre report when you dig below the surface and adequate one when you stay on the surface.

Ahead

I’ll simply say that for you, as a job hunter, you need to keep your head up and not down. My belief is that we are going to be having a recession, probably next year. It could be the year after. That is because recoveries don’t go on forever. They do eventually come down. According to the government, this recoveries been going on for 8 years which is a long recovery. It is a mediocre one from a jobs and economic perspective but a recovery, nonetheless.

Ask yourself, “How long do you think this will go on?”

My encouragement to you is to make sure that your skills are up to date, that you are doing your networking now and not waiting until the very end where it is too late, you are getting involved, making sure that you are learning what you need to in order to make sure that you are marketable in case, and that you are not just simply focused on your job. You are thinking of herself as the CEO of your own business where you are responsible to the shareholders which are your family and yourself,

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

The Job Market October 2016

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uMrgVeOvBI[/svp]

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, and his views on the job market.

“I have been blogging about the job market in the US and around the world since August 2001.”

What I write is not designed to be political or critical; they are my observations and sense of where we are and where we are going.

This is my report on the job market for October 2016, as released on November 4, 2016.

Early in the report, I misstate the headline unemployment rate.  I should have said, “It went down to 4.9% from 5%.”

jobmarket

[spp-transcript]

Let’s talk about the US jobs report for October, 2016 that was released on November 4th. 

The good news is that there were 161,000 new jobs created and that the headline unemployment rate went down to 4.9% from 5%. Even the U6 rate, which includes people who want to work full-time but are only able to find part-time jobs, declined to 9.5%.  Private sector jobs increased by 142,000, of which professional services were 43,000, healthcare was 31,000, government, 19,000.  There was a decline in manufacturing jobs of 9000. The labor force participation rate is it 62.4%

Generally, on the surface, it seems like a decent report for the US economy post-2008 . . .  Actually it is a typical one.  Now, let me go beneath the surface, because, when you start digging into the report, there are some interesting stuff there that doesn’t get reported on the news that most people watch, listen to or read.

Part-time jobs with the biggest component of the growth. Understand, that government revises its report, even on the fly. Part-time jobs deleted increased by 430,000.  Full-time jobs went down by 103,000.  When we think of the word, “job,” we think of full-time jobs. When the government uses the word, “job,” it defines it is someone who worked for at least one hour during the course of the month.  

Thus, it seems like what we are doing is creating an “uber economy,” with most of the jobs being created, being part-time positions.

The GDP seems to have grown at its slowest rate in 8 years.  94 million people are not working.  There were 238,000 people who had jobs, but couldn’t go to work, because of Hurricane Matthew in the southeast.

Construction jobs increased by 11,000 jobs.  Retail slowed down which was surprising, given the holiday season coming up. 

In the last period of time (I think it’s an 8 year period), 1 million new jobs were created that employ women and the government reports that 1 million went to foreign workers.  One third of students are unable to make payments on their student loans.

I am mentioning all of this stuff because the rosy picture the government tries to paint isn’t the reality for most of us.  People seem to be working 2 or 3 jobs in order to pay their bills or not pay their bills so late.  So the Labor Department report becomes a mediocre report when you dig below the surface and adequate one when you stay on the surface.

I’ll simply say that for you, as a job hunter, you need to keep your head up and not down.  My belief is that we are going to be having a recession, probably next year.  It could be the year after.  That is because recoveries don’t go on forever.  They do eventually come down.  According to the government, this recoveries been going on for 8 years which is a long recovery.  It is a mediocre one from a jobs and economic perspective but a recovery, nonetheless.

Ask yourself, “How long do you think this will go on?”

My encouragement to you is to make sure that your skills are up to date, that you are doing your networking now and not waiting until the very end where it is too late, you are getting involved, making sure that you are learning what you need to in order to make sure that you are marketable in case, and that you are not just simply focused on your job.  You are thinking of herself as the CEO of your own business where you are responsible to the shareholders which are your family and yourself,

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Think Gigs!– Job Search Radio

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word-cloud-with-gig-economy-related-tags-408639913             Listen to Think Gigs

 

From Uber and Lyft to FreeLancer and Upwork, the gig economy has taken off. For you as a worker, you may be coming to groups with those changes. On the first episode in Job Search Radio’s new format, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the importance of facing gig work head on.

 

In returning from vacation, I decided to change the format of the show from one where I was finding people to interview to one where I share my advice and advice more freely than I was allowed to previously.

Every day, Monday through Friday, 5 to 6 minutes, 10 tops, you’ll be getting job search advice for me to help you find work more quickly.

This is the first show as I return and is not just simply design to help you earn additional income, but to head off any sort of difficulties you might have during the next recession. That’s because I believe the economic framework in the United States is changed… Let me make my case to you.

Think gigs.

And if you like today show, give it five stars in iTunes; given a great review; it’s can help other people discover the show.

If you have been paying attention, you’ve missed something that has been changing structurally in the US economy. That’s the change to part-time work that has become so prevalent.

If you take a look at the recovery (this isn’t a criticism of government policy or anyone politically), this is just an observation about how business has learned to cope with (1) the opportunities caused by changes in technology and (2) they’ll see the value in hiring full-time workers anymore.

What’s been happening more and more frequently is that companies are hiring part-time workers. That’s in the government statistics. Some of the gets buried in the notion of the U-6 report where the statistic talks about people who would like to work full time but are actually working part-time.

I question that a little bit now; part-time can be broken up into two categories. One is part-time workers; the second is the new gig economy. Free agents. Freelancers. People who are working whatever hours they need to in order to do a particular task.

Some might fall under the category of virtual assistants; some might be web designers who are working on an individual project. Writers, editors, a whole host of people. Recruiters. Coaches. People who are doing particular functions for specific people.

They are not working 40 hour work weeks. Some are working less; some are working more. Some may work 40 hours. They are self-employed individuals were part of this new gig economy.

What I expect is going to be happening with the next downturn is that this is going to be ingrained in the culture and ingrained in our society that much more.

If you think about it, if your business right now, you’re the headquarters building, you have buildings around the world where you are employing people. You are paying for benefits; you’re paying for that building; you’re paying for air conditioning and heat, for phone lines and computer systems… A variety of different additional things.

You are doing this even though you might need these people for a limited number of hours per week, a month or a year.

More and more firms, both small and large firms, and start to look at contractors, gig workers, people who are hired to perform a particular task. These people do it, are paid and move on.

You may complain, “Oh, it’s these people in India again, or in China or wherever.” But, you know, let me use myself as an example.

As I work on launching JobSearchCoachingHQ.com, I started looking at having some videos and the cost of having videos edited in the US was more than 10 times the cost of outsourcing it abroad. What would you do? You are buying close the made elsewhere. Don’t criticize me; you are doing the same thing except to do it with your clothes, your food and many other things.

That’s the trend I really see getting ingrained. Now, how does this affect you?

I want you to start thinking about things that you can do on the side or things that are part of your knowledge base that you can break apart that would create income for you in case the next recession, in case the next economic downturn or catastrophe affects you. Start now.

You can do research on sites like freelancer.com or upwork.com (that’s a successful company to elance.com and odesk.com) in any number of other sites where there is information and experiences with gig workers.

Thank you from the standpoint of what special skills you have that, if you were marketing yourself and your knowledge, how you would sell yourself on a contract basis.

So, for example, if you are an accountant, you might the tax returns. If you are an engineer, you might do design work for different people. If you are a programmer, you might write specifications or design documents.

What is it that you do that can be broken apart into component parts and marketed?

Go to the sites and just do it from the standpoint of research. Take some time to proactively think but don’t delay starting because gigs are going to be much more the norm in the future.

When I look at myself, my own background, and the work recruiters are doing, I am seeing more and more firms hiring contract recruiters, I am seeing sites that are paying for hourly work from recruiters. For example, there is one site I’ve seen where a recruiter sets the price (I have seen as low as $25 per hour in the US) for recruiting work. They are not paid a fee at the backend; they are hired to source, find and refer.

It’s happening everywhere, folks. You need to be ready for it. If you are an administrative assistant, obviously, you can do virtual assistant work.

Start thinking ahead. Start laying the foundation for doing work for others on a part-time basis NOW. That way, if the economy craters, if the recession hits, if you lose your job, you have the financial wherewithal to last until you find your next job. That may take longer than you think.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.= http://www.JobSearchCoachingHQ.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Some Government Data That Should Make You Concerned

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In this video, I fear some statistics that have been published by the US government that should give you good reasons to be concerned.

Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

The Job Market June 2016

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, and his views on the job market.

“I have been blogging about the job market in the US and around the world since August 2001.”

What I write is not designed to be political or critical; they are my observations and sense of where we are and where we are going.

======================================================================================================================================

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Have a question you want me to answer? Contact me through PrestoExperts

Small Business: The Sweet Spot in the Job Market

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The propaganda is consistent and it gives the advantage to big companies.

People tell me all the time that they want to work for a large company. Generally, they believe that there is stability working for such a firm that doesn’t exist in a start-up or small company.

It’s all propaganda.

Yes, in the last recession, small companies went out of business. But large companies fired hundreds of thousands of workers, including over 400,000 in technology in a two-year period. Does this sound like stability to you?

Read the reports from The U.S. Labor Department.

Ninety percent of all job creation is going on in smaller businesses.

Why are you only investigating large companies when the greatest opportunity to find work is with small companies?

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc. Asheville, NC  2016