Visit us at Booth #1 2/23 – 2/25/2011
Visit us at booth #1 at NASWA’s Winter Policy Forum from Wednesday, February 23, 2011 until Friday, February 25, 2011 at the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia. Continue reading
In today’s difficult labor market, unemployment is rampant, but even the “lucky ones” who manage to find new work are not left unscathed. For the first time since the early 1980s, wages for a significant portion of the labor force have fallen swiftly and sharply. According to the Labor Department, between 2007 and 2009, more than half of full-time workers who had lost their jobs and then found new positions reported wage declines. Of these workers, 36 percent reported that their new jobs paid at least 20% less than their previous positions. Moreover, it is likely that those who are currently unemployed and looking for work would be willing to accept lower wages in order to get hired. As a result, economists say that it will take years before the market wages return to their pre-recession levels. Continue reading
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the employment figures for the month of December, and there are encouraging signs for job seekers. The unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in December, and nonfarm payroll employment increased by 103,000. Since December 2009, payroll employment has risen by 1.1 million, which is an average of 94,000 per month. The main industries where December job growth occurred were in hospitality and health care. The leisure and hospitality sector added 47,000 jobs in December 2010. Since December 2009, this industry has added nearly a quarter of a million jobs. Continue reading
2011 has just begun, and with the new year comes reason to be optimistic about the job market, as well as your own job search. While, on the surface, the current employment market looks bleak with a 9.6 percent unemployment rate and over 15.1 million jobless Americans, there are positive signs moving forward. There have been 11 consecutive months of job gains in the private sector, showing steady improvement. Job cuts slowed significantly throughout 2010, with the total number of 497,969 being down 60 percent from the number of job cuts in 2009. According to the latest ADP Report of 2010, private employment gains in the month of December totaled 297,000. Continue reading
