According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 340,000 new jobs have been created during the last two months. Furthermore, anecdotally, I have noticed that many of our clients have significantly ramped up hiring in the last few months (especially technical employees such as engineers and IT professionals). Unfortunately, few are prepared for this momentous recruiting increase.

As a result, we recommend a 360-degree audit of hiring company’s staffing needs including:

1. Full assessments of all departments requirements for the next 18 months.
2. Thorough evaluations of talent needs and comparisons to the current marketplace landscape including manpower availabilities versus their competitors’ needs and current efforts.
3. Researching new methods for securing talent within the organization.
4. Increasing the recruiting prowess of hiring managers.
5. Brainstorming sessions to discuss actual and projected regulations and how they will affect abilities to secure key talent in the future.

To assist hiring companies, we have prepared a list of 12 key tips we recommend for recruiting.

Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php to learn more.

How strong is the jobs market? On Wednesday, payroll-processing firm ADP reported that last month was the weakest private sector hiring month since last September with only 119,000 jobs created. However, today the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that the U.S. economy added 165,000 jobs last month, more than the 148,000 expected by top economists. This supposedly dropped the unemployment rate to 7.5%. Who is right?

Whichever figures you decide to follow, REAL UNEMPLOYMENT remains very high! If you total: a) unemployment (11,700,00 for April = the same as March) b) those working involuntarily part-time (7,900,000 for April = an increase of 278,000 over March) and c) those who just gave up looking (2,300,000 for April = the same as March), you have a total of 21,900,000 or an increase of 300,000 over March! This is about 16% of the workforce that is either unemployed or underemployed!

My consultants regularly answer the phones of these great Americans who are eager to work, but don’t have an opportunity to do so. Just a walk back home yesterday down Broadway showed many small businesses that had been there in the last few months now out of business! What politicians regularly trumpet, but fail to grasp is small businesses are the real engine for jobs growth creating almost 70% of the net new jobs over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, many of the current policies run contrary to what small business owners need to succeed and add new jobs!

Though the unemployment rate dropped to 7.6% and employers are hiring more readily across the U.S. the results are mixed. For example, in Illinois, the unemployment rate stands at 9.5%. Furthermore, only 14 out of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas have more jobs now than they did before the 2008-9 recession! Moreover, 6 out of those 14 are in Texas according to researchers at the Brookings Institution.

On a positive note, job gains were in:

1. Professional and Business Services, which added 51,000 jobs in March.
2. Health Care, which continues to grow, and added 23,000 last month.
3. Construction, which rose by: a) 18,000 last month and b) has added 169,000 since last fall.
4. Leisure and Hospitality, which has added: a) 13,000 last month and b) 262,000 over the past year!

Another positive sign is, for the first time since the financial crisis, U.S. employers are expected to soon reach their yearly allotment of 85,000 H-1B visas. The last time employers reached this limit in less than a week was 2008. Though this is for foreign workers, this is a quasi indicator of hiring demand for technical workers.

Several recent studies have revealed an increasing shortage of skilled technical talent. For example, a recent report conducted by Crain’s Chicago Business, revealed that: a) demand for tech workers continues to rise and b) the unemployment rate for tech workers is less than 4%. In fact, for some specialty tech professions unemployment is NONEXSISTANT! As a result, many employers have had to resort to signing bonuses and other unique perks to woo talent. For example, Fred Lee, Chief Technology Officer of Chicago-based Enova, an online payday lender that plans to add 50 tech workers this year to its Chicago staff of 1000 employees said, “There’s a tech talent war that’s happening.”

No worries; we can deliver top-notch R&D, scientific, IT and engineering candidates from Staff to C-levels (e.g. CTO or CIO). Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/qualification-technical-recruiting.php for a detailed list of our specialties and terms.

Unlike most recruiting firms, which just “float” resumes (i.e. haphazardly send numerous resumes to you in hopes that one meets your needs), our very systematic 3-STEP PROCESS ENSURES YOUR NEEDS WILL BE MET!

This proven 3-step process includes:
1. Meeting your key representatives on location to develop a comprehensive NEEDS ANALYSIS doctrine. This extensive consultative process includes both: a) reviewing stated job descriptions and b) uncovering hidden employment necessities unique to your corporate culture. The cornerstone is brainstorming to expose additional parameters, which may not have been considered, based upon the distinctiveness of your work environment and limitations of the current labor pool. We spend unlimited time on this very important step before moving forward because this provides the roadmap of your search and ensures surfacing only those candidates who truly meet your unique needs!
2. Engaging in an exhaustive process of SOURCING all viable candidates including: a) employing our 100,000 candidate internal databank b) utilizing all relevant mass databases (e.g. LinkedIn, where I personally have almost 2000 direct connections) c) uncovering all related industry associations and utilizing their internal databases, contacts and jobs posting sources and d) directly recruiting candidates from agreed upon competitors.
3. Applying thorough BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS on all finalists including: a) face-to-face interviews b) reference checking c) confirming educational credentials and d) applying our trademarked Accu-checkcriminal and civil investigation process. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/accucheck.php for more information on this unique practice. Assisting us is former FBI agent Tim Pitchford who utilizes the “trapline” network of retired FBI agents to comprehensively cross-examine your finalists to uncover any “skeletons” in their past.

Furthermore, we also offer STAFFING AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONSULTING. This includes acting as a strategic advisor to share some of the best recruiting and workplace practices worldwide to streamline your staffing methodologies. This will greatly improve your probability of attracting the key talent you desire. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php to view some of our best practices.

If we can be of service to your organization, clients or colleagues, please forward this information. Also, please let me know if I can answer any additional questions.

As Big Data becomes a fixture of office life, companies are turning to tracking devices to gather real-time information on how teams of employees work and interact. Sensors, worn on lanyards or placed on office furniture, record how often staffers get up from their desks, consult other teams and hold meetings.

Businesses say the data offer otherwise hard-to-glean insights about how workers do their jobs, and are using the information to make changes large and small, ranging from the timing of coffee breaks to how work groups are composed, to spur collaboration and productivity.

The caveat is workers have to become more and more cognizant of their actions. Otherwise they risk being disciplined or laid off. This is especially true during these tough employment times when about 16% of the workforce is either: a) unemployed b) underemployed (e.g. involuntarily working part time) or c) has just given up looking!

Talking Points for the month

1. 157,000 (+2,000 from December) non-farm jobs added in January. But unemployment rate up to 7.9%!
2. 22.7 million ( Same as December)= 12.3 (+100,000 from December) mil. Unemployed + 8 (+100,000 from December) mil. Involuntarily working part-time + 2.4 (-200,000 from December) mil. who are not even counted = 22.7 million workers who are either unemployed or underemployed or 16% of all workers! = 1 in 6 workers still unemployed or underemployed in the January BLS figures!
3. BLS said that the National Unemployment rate stayed the same at 7.9% (revised upward from December) in January. This was the 5th straight month below 8% after 43 straight months of 8% or above!
4. Illinois unemployment rate was 8.7% (same as November) in December (Projected).
5. The gains were across the board: a) Health Care continues to add jobs and rose by 45,000 in January (- 22,000 from December, but over the year has added 320,000) b) Retail added 33,000 c) Construction rose by 28,000 in January (since a low in January, 2011 has grown by 296,000 jobs) d) Wholesale added 15,000 jobs in January (since a low in May, 2010 has added 291,000 jobs) and e) Mining added 6,000 jobs in January (has risen 23,000 over the last 3 months).
6. Transportation and warehousing dropped 14,000 jobs in January and manufacturing stayed the same!
7. How bad is it?  With only 157,000 jobs created in January, it will take over 10 years to make up for the 7.9 million jobs killed off by the recession. Many of them are not coming back!

If you get a chance, I’ll be live on WGN Radio on Saturday, December 29th from 12:30 to 1 p.m. CST (720 on the AM dial) discussing a new, lower-cost alternative (10% of the cost) to outplacement for displaced workers, called World2Work™

You can also listen in to this broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.wgnradio.com/about/listen/ and then click on “Click here to listen live” towards the top of the page.

Lastly, please let me know if I can be of assistance.

Here is a tip that can help you with your job search CandidateTips 6-9-09-Interviewing Tip #1 A-MPEG-4 Improved NTSC for CD

Seventy-one years ago, our country joined World War II after being attacked at Pearl Harbor. Because the worldwide jobs market continues to be assaulted, we may be dragged into another international calamity, global depression.

Beginning the week was a report from the Institute for Supply Management that the U.S. manufacturing sector fell back into contraction last month and employment weakened sharply. Ending the week was today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that stated that even though: a) the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7% and b) 146,000 new jobs were created last month, there are still 22,700,000 Americans that are either unemployed, under-employed or just gave up looking and are not even counted by the BLS unemployment rate!

Our firm, in partnership with several leading experts, has decided to take action to address this crisis! We are developing a new, trademarked, low-cost alternative to outplacement, called World2Work™. Currently, only a few companies offer outplacement, to only a small sampling frame of displaced workers and with only very limited results. One of the major impediments is outplacement’s high cost (e.g. $10,000 or more per person). Instead, I stepped back in history to my social work days to borrow some ideas from the highly successful Alcoholics Anonymous http://www.aa.org program, which fosters self-help using both small groups and sponsors. Research shows that over a long period of time A.A. has succeeded in helping exponentially more people at a far lower cost than one-on-one therapies.

Adapting A.A. to job hunting, we will deliver: 1) small group training to 10-20 subjects at a time 2) 1/10th to 1/20th the cost of outplacement to mass layoff companies (so they are more willing to offer it to greater numbers) 3) a formula for selecting and employing “sponsors” (i.e. fellow attendees) to jointly apply the tenants of the program and 4) comprehensive job hunting instruction involving four modules that attendees will simultaneously revolve through during the one-day session including: a) core training (e.g. based upon both http://www.strategicsearch.com/real-benefit-exercise.php and http://www.strategicsearch.com/interview-preparation-tips/interview-preparation-tips.php ) b) speech and on-camera skills (Key: the most important part of landing a job is selling yourself in the interview and delivery is an integral part of that success) c) resume development advice and d) research guidance including optimal use of online resources and job boards plus future homework that will guide attendees towards mastering the four modules and landing their next job.

Though no one can master job-hunting during one session, our main goal is to provide the necessary tools and self-help framework (e.g. sponsor) to ensure continued future success. Furthermore, our research shows that many related experts currently exist across the country. Unfortunately, they lack standardization and interconnection. Our hope is, with the success of this program, we will attract many of these resources under one umbrella and standardize the delivery model to more quickly and efficiently address the needs of the growing masses of job seekers.

The 171,000 increase in jobs reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today was only the tip of the iceberg. We have noticed over the last few weeks an exponential increase in search inquiries. This has been across the board and across the country ranging from several CIO positions to many hardware and software engineers to even an R&D chef, which is a position no one has inquired about for several years!

Unfortunately, countless companies have significantly reduced HR staff over the last few years. Furthermore, they have demanded a lot more from the remaining staff. This has over burdened the Personnel department and created a recruiting vacuum in scores of organizations. As a result, I recommend that all hiring managers sharpen their recruiting skills. One tool I have to offer is the 12 Commandments of Recruiting. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php to learn more.