Well the DOL has confirmed our reading here at Berman Larson Kane https://www.jobsbl.com. The economy continues to create new opportunities across many sectors.

With over 200,000 new jobs created in March we remain optimistic, as we approach full employment. Although I know of many individuals that remain under-employed. Job prospects continue to improve each month.

We are finding an increasing percentage of job seekers with multiply offers with upward moving wages.

However, as we approach April 15th we here at Berman Larson Kane have seen a slight decease in job requisitions from 1st quarter highs. But are still experiencing a good percentage increase over April 2005.

Predicting the future trend? We continue to remain positive that the market will continue to increase at least through the remainder of Q2. The one wild card in all of this continues to be the price of oil.

And for those considering a career choice, junior accounting and finance jobs are very very competitive. This is one vertical that is experiencing a real talent war. Let the games begin!

March is the season for College basketball playoffs and this year it is another month of job madness. We here at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com/) continue to see a dramatic increase in the number of our clients that are hiring at a March Madness pace. This fast pace hiring was supported recently by the Department of Labors job creation numbers.

Hot areas include technology/finance/sales and a leading indicator that always suggests future hires is the increased need for recruiters. Competition for these skill sets is creating a war for talent with many job seekers having multi job offers from numerous employers. Another interesting trend is that the technology survivors of the dot.com era have seen a recent business surge creating a need to hire rapidly to increase/maintain their market share. The recent stigma of working for a dot.com has reverse itself back to being an employer of choice amongst some young technology professionals. We are all so lucky that our memories are so short!

As a staffing company we at Berman Larson Kane predict a continuing competition for talent. If these needs continue to accelerate we might even see employers willing to train US job seekers in needed skills. One word of caution, the wild card in this March Hiring Madness is the price of oil/bird flu and the always impending treat of terrorism. As for now job seekers should enjoy the competition on and off the court.

P.S. We are in day two and I am already out of the Basketball Pool because of putting my faith in our New Jersey/New York Colleges. Well we still have the best employment pool in the world…..Enjoy the bouncing ball and may your hoop dreams all come true.

And who will write tomorrows programs and administer tomorrow’s computer needs? Today’s NY Times reported that 1 in 75 students planned to major in computer science today, compared with 1 in 30 in the year 2000.

Why such a drop off in a career that the department of labor defines as one of the most rapidly growing fields during the next decade. How are we going to staff our corporate data centers if such a reduced number are planning to enter the profession. We at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com) have been staffing data centers and software developers for 25 plus years. The field has experience some severe recent declines after Y2K (non-event), the dot.com (bubble burst) & 911 (effects on employment). But the outlook today is that more IT professionals are employed in the field then during the height of the dot.com explosion. So what is going on? Why are so few entering the field?
I am very interested in hearing from any students or future students why they are passing on this wonderful fulfilling profession. Is it the dollars? Job prospects? Quality of Work? Software Developers type-casting? Looking forward to your responses. If you would like to respond in confidence my email address is larson@jobsbl.com

Ford, General Motors and Kraft have announced massive layoffs. Will this be the trend for 2006? We at Berman Larson Kane https://www.jobsbl.com are still predicting strong job growth for the reminder of the year. But this certainly puts a damper on our most optimistic projections.

In my attempt not to over react to these announcements. Although 10 –25% reductions are big numbers of layoffs since these firms all employ a 100,0000 plus. I am comforted by the fact that most of the job creation in this country over the past decade has come from small to mid-size employers.

My concern is will the economy be able to absorb these laid-off workers in a timely matter? I assume many of the autoworkers will need to be re-trained to secure wages at current rates. And the psychological stress that these workers will undergo has not one redeeming quality.

So where are my rambles leading me? 2006 should remain good for job creation. But the real growth will come from the small business that will continue to discover specialty niches in this changing economic climate.

Well the DOL has revised their November job creation numbers up. What a surprise. I knew that they were undercounting in November and I will predict that the December numbers will also be revised up in the not too distance future.

As for January we here at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com) are experiencing a steady flow of new orders but to-date are not experiencing a percentage increase over January 2005. This is not a disappointment because if the economy continues to produce new jobs at the same rate as 2005 all will be well in Mudsville and the unemployment rate will decrease rapidly as the supply of available talent is consumed by year over year job growth.

As for now, 2006 has a long way to go before we can all cheer. As for the state of Maryland and Walmart today’s news is another puzzle? Can’t we have health care, jobs and at least some sort of retirement program in the future? Life must of been simpler in a previous life time.

The New York City Transit Strike will put a damper on job hunting for all through out the day and night. As an outsider looking in; these labor negotiations puzzle me as I watch both sides put their opinion and logic forward. (https://www.jobsbl.com/)

#1 Don’t the Transit Strikers Realize that most of them have limited skills in the private employment market? One of my favorite indicators of employment security is not which company or union a person works for, but how transferable a worker’s skills are in the overall market. Although the Transit Workers perform valuable tasks for us commuters, they help keep the NYC economy flowing and they deserve a raise. They should really evaluate their skills and benefits with other private sector non-union workers. I know they will see how coveted and fairly paid they are compared to other laborers.

#2 Reduced Benefits for New Workers are Fair Negotiations In my opinion with the Transit Management offering to maintain benefit levels for current worker is a very fair proposal. Current workers signed on with the knowledge of great benefits as part of their decision process. As for new and future workers benefits. They can determine if it is a job they want based on the package being offered? And have the freedom to seek other employment and competitive wages and benefits.

#3 Taylor Law Fairness: As these unions go on strike the implications thought the region are very severe. For instance we at Berman Larson Kane have several contractors that work for our NY clients. These temporary workers will unfairly suffer during this holiday season because they are only compensated for the days they work. And even if they are able to arrive at work the strong possibility exists that limited to no work will be available if their supervisor is stranded do to the strike. So I am very much behind the two-day fines for each day on strike since this strike effects us all in the tri-state area and beyond.

#4 Percentage Raises Offered are Fair With our current high rate of unemployment and talent pool availablity to fill these jobs. The transit worker should accept the 9% offered by management and count their blessing since this will keep pace with the rate of inflation.

#5 Don’t Wipe Out the Good You’ve Done As a 30 plus year user of the subway system I have witnessed tremendous improvement in service over the years. Transit management and workers have done a wonderful job improving subway crime, sanitation & efficiencies. Don’t destroy the good will of the people by letting the greed, ego and power struggle of the unions get in the way of a fair settlement.

Transit workers for the moment look around at the unemployment lines and realize how many New Yorker’s would love to trade places with you. But the bottom line is NYC will survive this strike. We at Berman Larson Kane opened our business on April 1, 1980. What a April Fools joke was played on us “Day One of an 11 Day Transit Strike” the prime rate was around 20% and we all survived. To survival of all New Yorkers….”If we can make it here we can make it anywhere”.

Unemployment took a big jump in this last report. New Jersey job creation numbers were very weak. We here at BLK (https://www.jobsbl.com) are experiencing our best December in the last five years and perhaps the best in a decade.

So the paradox continues either our staffing programs are so good that we are increasing our job placement numbers in a declining market or the NJ DOL continues to miscalculate the Unemployment rate.

My ego and feeling are also in conflict on which is right. My ego wishes that the DOL numbers are correct and our BLK superior services are increasing market share in a declining market demonstrating again what a competent team of staffing professionals we employ. But the human/feeling side of me roots for the NJ DOL to be wrong so those that want to work can find work and that their sample remains statistically incorrect.

As we approach yearend with the excitement of the holidays and new year on the horizon, I continue to wish for full employment. So all who wish to work can and for a fair livable wage. May the employment Gods be with you all…..and I will always remember that the difference between recession and depression. In a recession your neighbor is unemployed in a depression you are unemployed. May we all experience nothing more severe than a short recession in 2006.

Today’s Headlines in the business sections of both the Star Ledger and the Record talk about weakness in the labor picture for New Jersey.
It is November and Thanksgiving is around the corner will the jobs materialize? We at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com/) continue to see a steady stream of new job listing and bookings for introduction to our services from existing and potential clients. This small sample from our office points to a much more optimistic picture than the NJ DOL numbers.
So either, our small sample is correct (I hope so) and the state’s employment number is incorrect. Which strikes my logical side since the chances of unemployment decreasing without new jobs being created seems improbable.

Why would fewer people be applying for unemployment if fewer jobs were available? This does not make sense. The more logical relationship is as the economy creates more jobs unemployment goes down. So what these DOL reports mean to me is something in not right. And I will continue to believe in our small BLK sample.

A quote from today’s Star Ledger “Rae Rosen, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the latest data continue an up-and-down pattern that “suggests New Jersey’s job growth could be slowing.” Joseph Seneca, an economics professor at Rutgers University and one of the state’s leading forecasters, said the jobs numbers “raise significant concerns” about the strength of the state’s economy, which since 2000 has failed to duplicate the robust growth of the late 1990s.” I feel that these weak numbers reflect more of our states dependency on the Pharmaceuticals and this industry was in its sunrise five years ago and now has matured in terms of creating new employment.

The only segments that had a net increase in net employment were the professional and business services adding 400 jobs (this number points to a flat result) and leisure and hospitality adding 3,700.

However this mix is not positive for the state economy. From 1992 to 2000, New Jersey added 186,200 jobs in professional and business services paying $58,000 on average. But during the last five years, the state lost 14,000 jobs in this sector while adding 40,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality paying $20,000 on average, according to the labor department.

So the bottom lines, if you are unemployed do not be discouraged by these government reports. We at Berman Larson Kane are confident that the sun is shining during these cold chilly days of fall/winter.

Two days of SHRM conference (http://www.gscshrm.org/Conference/index.htm)
And one day of NJSA (http://www.njsa.com) is how I spent this last week. The cool part of these three days is that attendance at these meetings is very much focused on the future. And although the SHRM members are very concerned with skill shortages and the aging of the work force the NJSA group sees this as a wonderful opportunity to increase business.
I had the honor of presenting a breakout session to the SHRM (http://www.shrm.org)
Group. My topic was the “Advantages of Partnership compare to Vendor Relationships with your Staffing Firm) the good news is that the few that attended this 7 AM session gave co-presenter, Bonnie O’Brien and myself very positive feedback. The bad news that I wish attendance was greater in numbers. But in all my years of doing presentations at conferences I have never had the honor of a 7AM start time. This is one ambitious group of learners.
The sessions that I attended as a participant gave me great insight into the pluses and minus of the job boards. Special thanks to Tony Lee from the Wall Street Journal for another thought provoking look at the online job communities.
I also had the honor of facilitating the all day NJSA’s (http://www.njsa.com) annual planning conference. This organization has accomplished so much this past year and as a member I can’t praise the leadership enough for all the work they have done. However, the one theme that became evident to me was that this association needs a larger presents in the job-seeker and hiring authorities communities. Although well known within the staffing community they have a tremendous challenge to get their brand outside of the staffing community. I know their current leadership and talented board members both old and new will make headway into these challenges.
As for the job market, we at Berman Larson Kane (https://www.jobsbl.com) continue to see a steady stream of new search assignments. And we remain confident that this demand will help all job-seekers have a wonderful holiday season.

Today’s release of job numbers for October confirmed that the economy has put the breaks on creating jobs. The 53,000 jobs created during October where even weaker once you factor in the construction jobs created by hurricanes and the ending of the machinist strike. These numbers should be cause for concern for all job seekers since they are so far below the average for the year of 185,000/month.

In contrast our month at Berman Larson Kane (http:///wwwjobsbl.com) was average. However most of the job placement took place at small businesses for both direct and temp hiring. This observation from our small BLK sample was confirmed by a story in the Wall Street Journal today that quoted “A survey of more than 1,000 small businesses found the number of employees hired per firm in October was the strongest in 30 years, said William Dunkelberg, chief economist at the National Federation of Independent Business. He said, “Hiring is very strong, sales are strong, profits were up big. It’s hard to find any problems out there.”” So as you can see our experience probably does not reflect the entire economy just that our BLK business was steady because of our client mix.

The one ray of sunshine on this fall day is that our leading indicators here at BLK are pointing up for the remainder of the year. We have signed during the past two weeks above average new hiring contracts, have received orders for additional contractors/temps and requests for product demos remain strong. All of these factors keep my outlook on employment bullish for the immediate future. And this should make for a grateful Thanksgiving.

So if you are a job seeker don’t pass over the small businesses as a source of potential employment. This is the center of hiring activity for now.