News Supplement: Jobs and the Economy

This week's supplement to the IMDiversity.com Career Center AP New Headlines again places focus on the jobs and the loss thereof in the nation's continuing economic meltdown.

AP Economics Writer CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER reports that the number of new claims for jobless benefits increased by more than expected in mid-October, "and companies from Goldman Sachs to Yahoo have announced thousands of layoffs in the past few days as the financial crisis, tighter credit, rising foreclosures and myriad other woes take their toll on the economy."

And, of course, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan predicted last week that there's plenty more pain to follow.

Nonetheless, it appears that many people are showing "a remarkable...optimism despite economists' widespread expectations that a serious recession is brewing," says a related report by ALAN FRAM. According to an AP-GFK Poll, "Most expect the economy to generally be better and the stock market to be rising three months from now," but "Majorities also doubt unemployment will fall or home values will rise by then, and people are split over whether their personal finances will improve."

It seems that while most people believe that economic conditions will improve, they are prepared to have to wait for at least a year before "more jobs and higher real estate values" will start improving their own financial conditions on Main Street.

There seems little doubt that this optimism has much to do with election-year fever. As followers of the "hope and change" candidate, supporters of Barack Obama seem to project a somewhat rosier future. Forty-four percent of those polled said they think the economy will improve if Democrat Obama is elected, while 34 percent said it would get better if Republican John McCain wins.

In a sidebar, the candidates' own statements on jobless claims both tend to lay blame squarely on the Bush administration, and a second sidebar comapres their healthcare plans at a glance.

In light of this continuing bad news, the AP has also been running a series of practical nuts-and-bolts focused on navigating unemployment and belt-tightening. An additional piece explains upcoming IRS changes in 2009 that may raise limits on contributions to 401(k) and SEP plans. Also useful are writer David Pitt's "Tips for benefits enrollment season".

Another casualty of the economic crisis, adds Business Writer Joyce Rosenberg, may well be your usual year-end bonus or holiday gifts.

Need help making sense of all the wildly yo-yo-ing jobless claims news coming from the DoL? (And who doesn't?) Meltdown 101: Jobless Claims and the Economy (also by Christopher Rugaber) provides a series of succinct Q&As on how to interpret reported data.

See all the readings in the current supplement.

Career Center Blog Back Online -- and Tackling Layoffs

After taking a break in the late summer to reorganize a number of sections throughout our site network, the editors are resuming work on the blog.

This fall we'll be posting news about a number of new features, both new articles of interest and news about expanded tools in our featured jobs and jobs quicksearch sections.

Meanwhile, though, we are running a series of occasional readings with a particularly timely focus, as the economy continues to sag and the monthly employment reports do not look too good.

Through our partnership with the WSJ Career Journal, we're running a follow-up to this spring's feature, What to Do After a Layoff -- detailing "how to make the most of a devastating situation".

The piece offered a lot of good advice for how to organize your affairs when the worst happened. But as conomic conditions have continued to worsen since then, the new piece focuses on better advice still for this climate: Don't wait.

Layoff Rumors? Get Ready To Get Busy
What to do when the rumors start flying

Focusing on how to proactively prepare for the worst, the article's suggestions go beyond the basic, obvious checkboxes -- updating your resume, etc. The moment you get a whiff that things may not be 100% stable at work, it suggests, you'd do well to carefully start gathering the materials you would need to be accessible outside of the office, preparing a workspace and business line in your home, and other actions enabling you to "hit the ground running". When/if disaster strikes, you'll need to be ready on day one to "meet your new boss" (you) and have the resources to statr your new full-time job (finding one).

-- Finally, starting this fall, we'll be supplementing such features with occasional special focus reportage in our Career Center AP News Headlines section. Readings will focus on the big employment picture and trends, at both national and lcoal levels, as well as the areas and industries where there are continuing worker shortages.

So stop back soon.

Nearing Graduation and Still No Job. NOW what?

"School's out, you have that degree and you are ready to conquer the world. Only

one thing stands between you and your professional success: You don't have a

job. So now what? Should you begin a massive online resume campaign and then

wait for employers to call? Should you take any job you can get now and hop

around until you find one that fits? Should you enlist the help of a headhunter?

Should you ask everyone you know for a job?"

These are the timely questions explored in Pamela McBride's feature article, You're a Graduate and No Job - Now What?, from THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's Second Semester Super Issue, and they will likely resonate for a number of soon-to-be-grads who are struggling to fend off
senioritis, growing anxious about what lies ahead.

More so than in recent years past, many of our readers from the Class of 2008 who have not yet landed jobs after the campus recruiting are understandably uneasy about the mixed messages they've been receiving about their employment outlook. On one hand, official reports of a general economic slow-down are punctuated by news reports of a hiring drop across many sectors (not only clearly struggling ones like manufacturing and those directly affected by the housing bust) and rising unemployment in many states.



On the other hand, as Dr. Phil Gardner reports in his annual study of the Job Outlook for this
year's college graduates, there are bright spots on the horizon that should help motivated
new grads get a shot at launching rewarding careers. Shortages of skilled, educated workers in
areas such as IT, healthcare and secondary education have created a good range of opportunities for certificate- and degree-holders in these fields, according to numerous industry reports.

(However, taking advantage of the good, better-paying opportunities in these areas may mean
widening a search to jobs outside the most popular locations, looking at businesses in new
regions that could require relocation.)

In many other industries, however, the bright spot for new grads is the result demographic
trends: The retirement of workers from the "Baby Boom" generation that has been forecast for a number of years is now clearly upon us. As retirees leave the workforce, many employers are
retooling their approach to hiring to fill vacant positions with young candidates, sometimes
following a period of "probation" and additional training, or sometimes directly hiring out of their intern pool.



In fact, this year, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's annual Top Employers survey showed that many national organizations and smaller employers had planned robust college hiring
activities for 2008. Among the Top 100 hiring employers ranked in our survey, some indicated in our follow-up survey that they were still accepting applications from students and new grads
even after their campus recruiting was over for the season.

As a result, we are holding a spring 2008 Pre-Graduation Virtual Career Fair, creating a space to connect jobseekers with those employers who specifically told us they are still actively considering entry-level applicants for open positions.

Hosted on our site at www.black-collegian.com, the Fair is co-presented by IMDiversity.com, and all entry-level/student jobseekers of all backgrounds are welcomed, as are employers who use both THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online and IMDiversity.com.

The Fair begins March 15, and will be updated on an ongoing basis in the run-up
right until graduation at the end of April / beginning of May. Students who still need a
post-graduation job (or, in some cases, a summer appointment or internship) are encouraged to
make repeat visits to the Fair, as it is updated during this period, and review and apply to
open positions right away. Time is of the essence, in most cases, which is why we have
decided to circumvent our normal, paid job listings and publish the employer-provided,
direct-access links to the relevant open positions where students and grads still have a shot.

We extended our congratulations on making it through the school year, and our best wishes in
your search. We also encourage you to let us know if you land a position for an upcoming special feature we will be publishing.

March 15 - April 25, 2008 @ THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Online GO