Only 88,000 New Jobs Added in March; Economists Predicted 200,000

A cynic might say that the news out of Washington, D.C. is rarely good but today that cynic would be correct. The U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly employment report today and the news was quite disappointing. The U.S. economy added only 88,000, nonfarm jobs in March. Economists had predicted an increase of 200,000. The biggest loser? Retail. In related news, fewer people started looking for work during the month so the number of unemployed people hardly moved (now 11.7 million) and the unemployment rate fell but only slightly from 7.7 to 7.6 percent.

Household Survey Data

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (6.9 percent), adult women (7.0 percent), teenagers (24.2 percent), whites (6.7 percent), blacks (13.3 percent), and Hispanics (9.2 percent) showed little or no change in March. The jobless rate for Asians was 5.0 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. Continue Reading

Vote for CollegeRecruiter.com in About.com Reader’s Choice Awards

I’m proud to announce that CollegeRecruiter.com has been selected as a finalist in the 2013 About.com Reader’s Choice Awards.  CollegeRecruiter.com has made it onto the final ballot for the best job site for students.  Between February 19 and March 19, readers can vote for their favorite job and career sites and blogs and the winners will be announced by About.com guide, Alison Doyle, on March 27th.

The About.com Reader’s Choice Awards showcase the best job and career websites and apps for job seekers and career changers. CollegeRecruiter.com is the only career site to have won the prestigious WEDDLE’s Award for Best Job Boards six years in a row and I’d love to add the About.com award to that list. These awards help us serve even more job seekers than the millions we do each year as the provide a sense of comfort to those who may not be familiar with us. Job seekers like any other user of any other site want to use reputable sites and these awards help them determine which niche job boards are reputable. Continue Reading

Private Sector Gained 582,000 Jobs in Q2 2012; California Led With 108,383 New Jobs

From March 2012 to June 2012 gross job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments were 7.0 million, an increase of 69,000 from the previous quarter, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over this period, gross job losses from closing and contracting private sector establishments were 6.4 million, an increase of 301,000 from the previous quarter.

The difference between the number of gross job gains and the number of gross job losses yielded a net employment gain of 582,000 jobs in the private sector during the second quarter of 2012. Continue Reading

Employers Add 155,000 Jobs in December; Private Sector Up 168,000

U.S. job growth slowed slightly in December as Congress fought over tax increases and spending cuts. In a nutshell, the report was quite positive as U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 155,000 last month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier today. Given population growth, that’s about how many jobs need to be added to the economy in order to keep the employment rate steady. In 2012, job gains averaged 153,000 per month, the same as in 2011. In December, employment rose in health care, food services and drinking places, construction, and manufacturing.

Health care employment increased by 45,000 over the month, with gains in ambulatory health care services (+23,000), in hospitals (+12,000), and in nursing and residential care facilities (+10,000). Health care added 338,000 jobs over the past 12 months.

Employment in food services and drinking places rose by 38,000 in December. In 2012, the industry added an average of 24,000 jobs per month, essentially the same as in 2011.

Construction employment rose by 30,000 in December, with gains in construction of buildings (+13,000) and in residential specialty trade contractors (+12,000).

In December, manufacturing employment grew by 25,000, with small gains in a number of component industries. In 2012, manufacturing added 180,000 jobs; most of the growth occurred during the first quarter of the year.
Within retail trade, employment in clothing and accessories stores fell by 19,000 in December, following gains that totaled 55,000 over the prior 3 months. In December, employment continued to trend up in automobile dealers and in food and beverage stores.

Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 7 cents in December to $23.73. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.1 percent. From November 2011 to November 2012, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 1.8 percent.

Most major indicators from the survey of households showed little or no change in December. The unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, was 7.8 percent, the same as the November figure. The rate has been at or near that level since September. In December, the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 12.2 million. Among the unemployed, 39.1 percent had been jobless for 27 weeks or more. The employment-population ratio, at 58.6 percent, also was essentially unchanged over the month, and the labor force participation rate held at 63.6 percent.

Among persons who were neither working nor looking for work in December, 2.6 million were classified as marginally attached to the labor force, about unchanged from a year earlier. These individuals wanted a job, were available for work, and had looked for a job within the last 12 months. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, was little changed in December from a year earlier at 1.1 million.

10 Careers That Didn’t Exist When You Were In Middle School

Annie Favreau

Whether you’re hunting for your first job or need to turbo-charge a career change, you want to pick a field with a good future.

One way to tackle this challenge? Choose a career in a new or evolving field. Thanks to cultural shifts, unforeseen disasters, and technological changes, there are job postings for careers that didn’t exist a decade ago. And these on-the-rise roles are often in such new territory that the job market isn’t (yet) drowning in competition.

Check out these 10 career choices that have taken off in recent years: Continue Reading

CollegeRecruiter.com Joins White House Summer Jobs Initiative to Help Create 250,000 New Jobs for Young Adults

President Barack Obama recently unveiled the Summer Jobs+ initiative, which challenges business leaders and communities to join the Administration in providing hundreds of thousands of summer jobs and pathways to employment for America’s youth. The initiative was created after Congress did not approve the $1.5 billion summer-jobs fund included in the American Jobs Act even though the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported:

• Even though July is normally the month when youth employment peaks, only 48.8 percent of youth between the ages of 16-24 were employed last July. That was significantly lower than the 59.2 percent of youth who were employed five years ago and 63.3 percent of youth who were employed 10 years ago.
• Minority youth had an especially difficult time finding employment last summer. Only 34.6 percent of African-American youth and 42.9 percent of Hispanic youth had a job last July.

The Summer Jobs+ initiative was created to help ensure that a much larger percentage of young adults find meaningful employment opportunities this summer and for years to come. As part of the initiative, the U.S. Department of Labor is creating a jobs bank to facilitate to help more employers and young people connect.

CollegeRecruiter.com, the leading job board used by college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities, accepted the President’s call-to-action by making a “Pathways Pledge” to help at least 25,000 low-income, young adults obtain insight into the world of work by connecting them with corporate and other employers.

“The employment of our youth through this exciting, new initiative is an issue which should transcend politics as there’s virtually no cost to the taxpayer yet huge dividends to the hundreds of thousands of young adults who will gain critical work experience starting this summer,” said Faith Rothberg, chief executive officer of CollegeRecruiter.com. “We are thrilled to be in a position where we can help bright, energetic, young adults across this country find meaningful work and we’re proud make such a significant contribution to the Summer Jobs+ Bank.”

CollegeRecruiter.com urges all employers, recruitment advertising agencies, high school guidance offices, college career service offices, libraries, workforce centers, job boards, and other sources of employment information to pledge their support to Summer Jobs+ by offering one or more of these resources:

• Life Skills: Provide youth work-related soft skills, such as communication, time management and teamwork, through coursework and / or experience. This includes resume writing or interview workshops and mentorship programs.
• Work Skills: Provide youth insight into the world of work to prepare for employment. This includes job shadow days and internships.
• Learn and Earn: Provide youth on-the-job skills in a learning environment while earning wages for their work.
• Jobs Widget: Add a free job search widget to your web site to make it easy for young adults to find great new employment opportunities.

If you have jobs which are suitable for 16-24 year olds, post them to http://www.CollegeRecruiter.com/rate-card/job-postings/ and we’ll include them in this great new initiative!

Must Interns Be Paid?

Whether an employer must pay an intern for their work depends on the experience they will receive. Although the Fair Labor Standards Act requires employers to pay at least the minimum wage to employees, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has developed six criteria for identifying which learners/trainees may be unpaid. Note that the DOL’s use of “learner/trainee” is equivalent to the commonly used term of “intern.”

The six criteria are: Continue Reading

Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.5%; Private Sector Gains 1.9 Million Jobs in 2011

Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining.

Household Survey Data

Both the number of unemployed persons (13.1 million) and the unemployment rate (8.5 percent) continued to trend down in December. The unemployment rate has
declined by 0.6 percentage point since August. Continue Reading

Facebook Embraced by U.S. Department of Labor to Help Students and Grads Find Employment

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced an innovative partnership that leverages the combined audience and expertise of officials from the U.S. Department of Labor, Facebook, the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, DirectEmployers Association and the National Association of Colleges and Employers to provide crucial employment resources to job seekers through the use of social networks. Continue Reading