thecareerbeat.com Blog

A job-board ad you won’t see on TV

There’s an interesting post today on ERE.net about the ad rivalry between Monster and CareerBuilder that’s been taking place every year during that big football game that many people watch for commercials.

The post includes this ad that CareerBuilder wisely passed on…

Thoughts?

Talk about a fun career…

Tracey Ullman has made a great career of impersonating people as a way to make audiences laugh.  Her characterizations sometimes make for a bit of satire — it’s not mindless humor.

The new show looks like another milestone for her, and I can’t wait to see it!  She gives a little preview in the clip below…

Video: Job market update

Here is a clip of my appearance last week on ABC News Now, talking about the latest unemployment report and the Yahoo! HotJobs survey results about job seeker pessimism:

ABC News clip

Some decent news on the December unemployment figures

One of the first headlines I saw after the government’s report on unemployment this morning was: “Job creation hopes dashed in December.” And the loss of 85,000 jobs was treated as a huge disappointment.

Really?! Did economists really expect positive job growth in December? The fact that the number was under 100K was still a sign that we’re going in the right direction, and the 4^th quarter monthly average (about 70K) is much lower than any quarter in 2009.

And the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised November’s numbers so that jobs were actually CREATED (+4K) was a big surprise.  I never expected to see a month in 2009 with an overall job gain.

Of course, losing thousands of jobs is still bad, and nobody is happy that the unemployment rate stayed at 10 percent.

But with more gains in health care (+35K), professional and business services (+50K), and temporary jobs (+47K), we have some hopeful indication that, overall, the job market is moving in the right direction.  It’s not as fast as many would like, but change is usually gradual.

And other factors may be adding to that gradual improvement in 2010:

• 1 in 3 hiring managers and recruiters said they expect to increase hiring in 2010 over last year. (Yahoo! HotJobs survey)
• Hiring will make moderate strides in January. Though job opportunities remain limited, January marks the third straight month that hiring will exceed layoffs on an annual basis in manufacturing and services. (Society of Human Resources Management)