The Search: Some Rays of Hope for Job Hunters
April 27, 2010 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
FOR the first time in two years, many job seekers may have reason to feel hopeful. Employers are beginning to hire again — or at least think about it.
Sean Kelly
Although the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent in March, and many economists expect the rate to stay high for some time, there are now some very positive signs. And they go well beyond other government figures showing that employers added 162,000 nonfarm jobs for the month.
The shift is most apparent in job postings, which have begun to surge. Indeed.com, which collects job listings from thousands of sources, reported a 19 percent increase in postings in March, versus the same month last year.
The number of postings rose in 10 of 12 industry categories. (The only category that declined was health care, one of the few bright spots during the recession.) The industries that showed the biggest uptick in March openings were retail, up 42 percent; hospitality, 33 percent; and media and newspapers, 30 percent.
“The opportunities are growing fast,” said Paul Forster, chief executive of Indeed.com, which culls its information from sources like corporate Web sites, newspaper classified ads and job boards. Granted, the increases are coming from a low base, he said, but they are still encouraging.
Recruiters are also seeing signs of life in hiring. For one thing, said Bill Driscoll, New England district president for the recruiting firm Robert Half, “There are more people going to work on a temporary basis than there were six months or nine months ago.” That’s …
Read the original article at NYTimes