A Note From A Recruiter’s Desk…

Job Numbers Released

As the new job numbers came out this week, I couldn’t help but wonder if we are really getting out of the so called “jobless recovery” or if we are simply turning one corner blindly to run right into a wall.

From a White House press release on April 2, 2010.

Payroll employment increased 162,000.  Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary Census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment.  Moreover, revised estimates now show a small job gain in January and a smaller job loss in February than previously reported.  As a result, for the first quarter of 2010 as a whole, job growth averaged 54,000 per month.  This is a dramatic change from the first quarter of 2009, when average job loss was 753,000 per month.

Nearly 50,000 of the 162,000 jobs were temporary government jobs, another nearly 50,000 were temporary jobs from the private sector leaving roughly 62,000 as actual permanent jobs. The minimal gains are nonetheless gains however, will not be enough to get us back to where we were before the recession any time soon.

From My Perspective

For every hourly, service industry job opening, there are at times hundreds of applicants. Upon reviewing an online resume submitted to me this week  a candidate wrote the following:

Job Skills:
i have no job skills for which the position i am applying for

This is a literal quote written exactly as the candidate wrote it on the online resume submitted and is all too common. The number of candidates without basic job skills is astounding! Most commonly I see candidates with no basic job skills including basic communication skills. I have literally seen applicants who misspelled every word on their resume except for the word “I”. In addition to lacking basic job skills, candidates often times have trouble holding a job for more than a few months at a time.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, there are a tremendous number of candidates that are overqualified for the positions they are applying for. For instance, a Line Cook openings may have a former Executive Chef apply for the position, Bartender roles are having former restaurant owners and consultants apply. In my personal experience, once hired for these roles, these newly minted employees last until a better opportunity comes along which for some is a matter of weeks or months. Can you hardly blame them! This could be good or bad depending on what your organizational needs are, but be prepared that they may only be with you for a short period of time.
The applicant in the middle is often times the elusive candidate, a diamond in the rough so to speak. When reflecting on the candidate pool for some hourly service industry positions, a few things have jumped out at me and seem to be much more exaggerated given the current economic conditions.

1. The education gap in this country is tremendous from one region to the next. (I am right now working in the Milwaukee-area market). Many high school students are not leaving school with basic job skills and when I say basic I mean even just being able to spell the simplest of words.
2. The younger generation (high school – college) has an entitlement mentality when it comes to employment, salary, benefits, etc. For many the idea of working hard to earn something is a foreign concept.
3. The underemployed in the country right now mask the true unemployment numbers and fail to show how dire the employment outlook really is in many markets.

These ideas are of course my perspective based on my personal experiences. There are always exceptions in any group and the ideas expressed here are generalizations.
There are no good or immediate answers to all the issues addressed here. However, I challenge everyone to think about education, if our youth continues to come out of the education system without job skills, we will continue to perpetuate the education gap. On the reverse side of this argument, it is important to teach our youth personal responsibility. Take personal responsibility to utilize the resources that exist to better oneself.
I believe the current economic conditions have changed the job market for a long time to come and it is important that we change our thought process to reflect the newly created reality (more to come on this newly created reality soon).
This is a note of reflection from my desk this week, I look forward to your comments.