Tag: Job Market

Generation Y: The Next Lesson to Learn

Over the last five years, there has been a lot written about Generation Y – the generation that is currently in their 20’s.  One of the topics that is most prominent about the Y’s is the development of helicopter parents.

If you haven’t heard about this it will probably come as a shock.  Helicopter parents refer to the parents of college students and recent graduates that take an extremely active role in managing the lives of their children.  This management typically involves the parent(s) attending meetings with the student and teachers and job interviews.  This can include the parent questioning hiring managers and even negotiating the job offer for their child.

For many people, the idea that a person would take a parent with them to a job interview is tough to grasp.  Other generations were taught to demonstrate independence.  This new generation is comfortable seeking the advice and guidance of others.

In recent years, much of the writing on Gen Y has focused on helping hiring managers from other generations understand and attract Gen Y candidates.  We had a significant labor shortage in many areas of our economy, and companies had to change to get the best people.

As our economy slows, this labor shortage is changing into a job shortage.  The job seekers won’t be in driver’s seat. 

In some companies, this could lead to a shift in their expectations of job seekers.  Hiring managers may not cater to Gen Y candidates that maintain a visible helicopter parent the way they did.  They know that there will be other candidates that fit the hiring manager’s expectations better.

Does this mean that Gen Y needs to stop listening to their parent regarding career decisions?  Of course not – a mentor in your career is very helpful.  What it does mean is that it is very important in a tight job market to meet the expectations of a hiring manager.  Don’t expect to be able to be a rebel or maverick (it’s a little weird referring to a person, that listens their parents to an exceptional degree, as a rebel). 

This economic crisis could be the defining time for an entire generation.  Gen Y will grow from this and become the leaders of tomorrow.  They will bring both an openness to the advice and guidance of others and an independence and work ethic that will drive success. 

Where is the Job Market Going?

With the current financial crisis, there is tremendous uncertainty in our economy. This is most obvious in the financial markets after Monday’s decline.  The markets are worried and investors react to increasing risk by selling.

Now the decline in stocks doesn’t directly affect the job market. In some respects, it’s more of a symptom than a driving force. Unfortunately, because it is a symptom of the risk in our economy, we have to recognize the risk to the job market.

The Credit Crisis

For most people, the credit crisis has had no direct impact on them. The people are feeling this are the people that need to borrow money, and in reality, these people are not individuals, but corporations. The auto industry just received $25 billion in loan guarantees from the government. In a normal economic climate, it’s unlikely this would have been necessary. They could have borrowed from private entities, but today, that money isn’t available.  Banks are very reluctant to loan money.

The biggest problem with the credit crisis is how it is stopping the expansion that should be occurring. With the decline in the dollar, manufacturing firms are finding it much easier to export, and much easier to replace imports. We continue to see the job market in manufacturing hold steady (outside of areas with heavy auto industry concentrations). What we’re not seeing is a boom in expansion. Manufacturing has been at capacity for a while, but new plants are not being built on a wide scale.

The cause of this is two-fold. First, companies can’t borrow because of the credit crisis. Second, there’s a fear that the economy will get worse and an expansion won’t be needed. The effect of these factors is to limit the growth in the parts of our economy that are doing well.

The Job Market

The New York Times had an article Monday about how the job market could be affected in a significantly different way as compared to past downturns. The article, “Does the Financial Crisis Threaten Your Job,” discusses how in past recessions, companies cut back unskilled positions most. Skilled positions tended to be retained as highly skilled workers were too valuable in the long term and too difficult to replace.

The article predicts that this downturn will be exactly the opposite. Individuals with Bachelor’s degrees and more advanced degrees will be hurt much more than the lower levels of our economy. This poses a significant challenge for college seniors, as the job market in December and May could be bleak.

How to Adapt

Dealing with a tight job market requires a lot more work. Start by networking very aggressively. Try to find a contact in the companies you are targeting that will refer you for a position. This can greatly improve your chances.

One of the most important aspects of your search is to have a strong positioning statement. This is the core statement of value that you bring to the table. Many job seekers state that they are good at a particular job or skill. In a tight job market, being qualified and capable aren’t enough. Companies focus on hiring the best talent. This requires standing out from your competition.

With our interview coaching, we focus on uncovering the accomplishments and experiences that demonstrate how an individual has been successful and has added unique value to their employers. If you’re having trouble doing this, get help.

In interviews, you need to expand upon your positioning statement. You can do this in the answer to the Tell Me About Yourself Question. You should also reinforce the value you offer throughout the interview. Job seekers that can’t do this well often interview once and have the process stall. They don’t get another interview and they don’t get an outright rejection. The process just grinds to a halt.

The reason for this is that the hiring manager doesn’t have a great reason to hire or reject the candidate. They can see the individual could do the job, but they can’t get excited about hiring them. Instead, they say they will think about the person more but nothing changes. Eventually, the company finds someone that gives a compelling reason to be hired – and they get the job.

Bottom Line: Work on developing your positioning statement with a compelling reason why you should be hired, focused on the value you will provide the company.

Where Is The Hidden Job Market?

There is currently a discussion on LinkedIn Answers about whether a hidden job market exists and the common belief that the majority of jobs are never posted.  I posted an answer, but a much better answer was posted a little while later by Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads.  CareerXroads does some great research of the job market and Gerry’s answer provides some excellent insight. 

The original question on LinkedIn was:

Does anyone have a statistic to back up the old 80/20 rule on networking? i.e. 80% of jobs are never posted

Here’s Gerry’s answer: 

The statement is not true. It never was but it arose as a legacy of the print classified culture pre-internet. In those days the Sunday classifieds section of newspapers defined "a published lead" and clearly they represented no more than 20% of the actual positions open. Today, more than 95% of all positions are published – primarily on the websites of the various firms that have approved them. The "hidden job market" has nothing to do with the opening being hidden – it is now all about the transparency of what the job really requires, the firm, the hiring manager, etc.

Networking is absolutely not about uncovering the "hidden market" as leads – that’s just a sadly misleading image that still sends job seekers down blind alleys.

For a job seeker:

  • Networking can be about sharing leads with others in a disciplined way so as to leverage the research of many.
  • Networking can be about obtaining unpublished information about the published leads to gain a competitive edge when interviewed.
  • Networking can be about identifying and reaching out to individuals in target firms where you have seen published leads or have reason to anticipate that a new opening will be approved…for one reason…to obtain permission for that person to be your "employee referral."

The real story about referrals is not that nearly 1/3 of positions are reported as being filled from employee referrals. Instead it’s that fact that so many positions are filled from so few referrals that is important. Nearly 1 of every 4 referrals results in a hire!

By my calculation [and I do have data] job seekers applying for a position with an employee referral are 70 times more likely to be hired than w/o one. (Even a third party recruiter putting forth several candidates is more likely to get his/her candidate past finalist to new hire if the candidate has an internal referral.)

It is better to say: The 20% of jobseekers who managed to find a job without networking probably took 80% longer than their colleagues who did. I would also suggest that they also 80% more likely to perform below average than their colleagues who network….and 80% less likely to know it.

The conclusion is pretty clear.  Make sure you’re networking to improve the information you have and utilize relationships to get referred into a company.  According to Jerry’s stats… getting a referral into a company improves your chances by 70 times!

Industries in Demand

National Unemployment and State Unemployment is only one facet of our employment picture.  Each industry faces a slightly different situation and the unemployment characteristics reflect this.

Manufacturing:  5.3% unemployment.  Looking at the data a little closer, unemployment in Petroleum and Coal Products is 0.2%.  Given the price of oil, it’s not surprise that anyone in that industry can find a job as oil companies try to expand production.  Furniture and Fixtures is a different story with 8.5% unemployment.

Unemployment is the health care field is also low, with 1.4% unemployment in hospital professionals.

Beverage and Tobacco production has a 9.7% unemployment rate, and Food Services professions are at 8.6%. 

Finally, the financial industry has an unemployment level of 3.7%.  That sounds great, and it is for many, but a loan officer or mortgage broker will probably find it tough to get a job right now.

Each industry has a different situation, and the situation varies by geography.  Smaller communities are more dependent on a small group of employers.  If one of these runs into trouble, it can hurt the entire community. 

* Statistics from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Where Are The Jobs

The national unemployment rate has been climbing.  Despite this, some parts of the country have very low unemployment.

In April 2008, there were 16 states with unemployment under 4%:

State

Unemployment Rate

South Dakota

2.6

Wyoming

2.6

Idaho

3.1

Nebraska

3.1

North Dakota

3.1

Utah

3.1

Oklahoma

3.2

Hawaii

3.3

Iowa

3.5

New Mexico

3.5

Virginia

3.5

Delaware

3.7

Maryland

3.7

Montana

3.8

New Hampshire

3.8

Arizona

3.9

U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics