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.