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Nursing Hiring Slows--For Now
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (83)Buried in the Labor Department's jobs report on Friday was this nugget of information: "Health care employment continued to trend up in March (14,000); however, monthly job growth in the first quarter averaged 17,000 compared with 30,000 per month in 2008."
Healthcare hiring is slowing. That means a tougher path to a job than most healthcare workers and students had anticipated. Most have heard nothing but warnings about massive impending labor shortages thanks to the babyboomer generation aging and leaving the workforce, just as it needs more medical services.
Some industry leaders are a bit nervous that the current recessionary slack in hiring would discourage potential students or shave some of the size of educational programs.
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Government Job Applications Could Get Easier
Tweet Share on Facebook April 3, 2009 Comment (2)A bill introduced by two U.S. Senators this week would simplify the notoriously complicated process of applying for a federal job. Sen. Daniel Akaka and Sen. George Voinovich both indicated that the government is listening to the complaints of job seekers.
"Over and over, we hear of the problems in the federal hiring process. It takes too long; it is too burdensome, and so forth," Voinovich said in a statement. "The quality of technology has improved, but our processes have not. This does nothing to dispel any preconceived notions that the federal government is nothing but a bureaucratic system. It is time to convey to the thousands of men and women at all stages of their career looking for work that the federal government is more than just an employer, but a place where Americans can utilize and grow their skills in service to their nation."
Here are some of the things the bill would do:
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Chip Reid Does His Job at a Difficult Time
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (1)In a press conference today in London, CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid asked President Obama the final American-press question and the President told him: "My heart goes out to you." Reid's father passed away at the start of the G-20 news conference, but Reid's family encouraged him to remain in Europe--noting that his father would have wanted that.
Politico has the clip.
CBS reports that Reid said in a note to coworkers: "My father was my hero and I’m here to make him proud."
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Therapy Provided to Overstretched Librarians
Tweet Share on Facebook April 2, 2009 Comment (13)The job of a librarian seems pretty mellow. You spend your day padding down carpeted hallways lined by blessedly silent tomes, while speaking in near-whisper and commanding sobriety from book-addled children. (That is, no doubt, a largely unrealistic image constructed from a patron's perspective. I've only been on one side of the sign-out counter.)
Nevertheless, the job of a librarian has been pretty well transformed by this recession. Public libraries swept smoothly into the digital age by installing public computers and training librarians in computer use. Now, the computers are hot in demand by a job-seeking public. Librarians are donning the caps of career counselor and therapist to come to the aid of the anxious and jobless. That means that many of these librarians may need access to therapists themselves.
A NYTimes piece reports as much:
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The Hidden Job Market
Tweet Share on Facebook April 1, 2009 Comment (1)A guy I know recently spent a couple of months performing a rather intense job search without turning up a single job interview. Then a friend reached out and sent an E-mail on his behalf. An hour later, he had an interview lined up--for later in the day. At the end of the interview, he was offered a position that had never been advertised. All in all, about six hours from E-mail to offer.
That, I figure, is the power of the "hidden job market" that some job experts reference.
The fact is that even in a recession, layoffs require restructuring (or the reverse) and new positions are created. Companies still fire people who need to be replaced. There is churn in the market. But there's so much supply in the labor pool that companies often do not need to advertise their openings.
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