Well the job market continues to be in a downward spiral. The business section of the New York Times is populated with one lay-off announcement after the other. Seems almost every fortune 500 company has had announced reductions in staff over the past 4 months. But what hit me between the eyes was the one piece of positive news. Sales of “SPAM” are at an all time high. So McDonalds’ store sales are growing by a high single digit growth, SPAM increases and Wal-Mart sales are up. So we as a nation are not only becoming unemployed, losing our health benefits, losing our houses while getting fatter and unhealthier at the same time. This makes the tailspin is even worst than imagined. Stimulus, please do your job!
As a community service we at Berman Larson Kane (www.jobsbl.com) have been holding free informational webinars for the job-seeking public free of charge. Another frightening statistic is that these programs are increasing attendance by large numbers every week. To view current and past programs: (https://jobsbl.com/jobs/coaching/webinars.php). It is a sign of the times that attendance on some weeks approaches 1,0000 per session.
Our little universe here at BLK continues to make headway into this dismal market. Our contracting division continues at a small growth rate as companies continue to hire temps instead of committing to direct hire employees. Our direct hire division is at 80% of quota with most searches being confidential in nature as firms look to upgrade under performing employees. And our corporate coaching webinar continues to generate a lot of interest.
So my predictions for the future continue to be optimistic. I believe that the job cycle will recover very early at the first sign of increased sales as I speculate that companies have over reduced staff during the past 18 months. I really hope I am right.