Tag Archives: The economy

Minimum wage workers: White, a few managers, M.A. types

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Fast food worker, retail clerks and hotel maids all over the United States may be rejoicing today So are a few highly-educated people who work in minimum wage jobs.

During the State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour, pointing out that many live in or near poverty levels. Minimum wage workers currently earn about $14,500 a year if they work full-time, he said.

That increase if passed by Congress, could directly benefit one in 20 workers who earn hourly rates, or 3.8 million workers who were paid $7.25 an hour or less in 2011, the most recent data from the  Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The idea already has a slew of  support: Campaigns to raise the minimum wage have been launched in Maryland, New York and other areas, and 19 states already set minimum wages above the federal level.

Then I wondered: Who are today’s minimum wage workers? And where do they work?

About half of all minimum wage workers are young – ages 16 to 24 – and two-thirds work part-time jobs, according to BLS data. Three-quarters are white. That means 3.0 million whites earn at or below minimum wages, with Latinos are the next largest group: 720,000 are at those low levels.

Some  2.2 million minimum wage workers are either in high school or are high school graduates with no college education, according to the BLS. (The split is even between those who have yet to earn a high school diploma and those who got one.)

Yet some are well-educated:  6.5 percent, or 279,000 people have a bachelor’s degree or more and earn basic wages. One in ten of those have earned a master’s or other advanced degree, according to the BLS.  I picture them refilling fruit displays at Busch’s in Ann Arbor, Mich., after an HR manager told me about their highly educated job candidates who want to continue living in that pleasant college town.

The stereotype of the minimum wage worker flipping burgers and changing towels may be true:  Half of them work in the leisure and hospitality field, which includes restaurants. More than one-fifth of that sector’s hourly staff earn basic wages – four times the concentration of all private sector workers. That’s 1.65 million people in food preparation and service jobs, one fourth of all such workers.

The highest concentration of minimum wage workers live in Georgia, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Each of those states has about one and half times the rate of low-wage workers as the nation as a whole.

Even a few managers earn minimum wage: 48,000 people in the management business and financial operations occupations were paid the same rate as those they supervise!

So where are there a minimum of minimum wage workers? Mining, manufacturing and financial serves have hardly any. And only 2.2 percent of federal, state and local workers and 2.7 percent, or 157,000 people,  in professional and business services are at the bottom rungs of pay.  The average for all sectors is 5.2 percent of staffs paid minimum wage or lower.

President Obama also suggested indexing the minimum wage to inflation during his State of the Union Address. If the federal minimum wage had inched up at the same rate as the cost of living since 1968, it would be at $10.56 today, according to the National Employment Law Project, which applauded the president’s proposal.

Copyright 2013, Vickie Elmer

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Healthy hiring: AT&T, bars and many health care companies

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If you’re looking for a new job or a different employer or boss this year, there’s plenty of options available. If you want to target your search, we have some very good information to share – and some hopeful trends too.
The number of job openings has increased in seven of the last eight months, Simply Hired reported, and U.S. employers added 155,00 jobs in December, near the average amount created each month last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was enough that the Washington Post reported that the labor market is getting stronger, “but not particularly rapidly.” (The unemployment rate held steady at 7.8 percent, but rose for African Americans and adult women, according to the BLS.)
Job openings increased in all 50 metropolitan areas in December, reports SimplyHired, a leading job search engine. The report shows a 10.5 percent increase in job openings last year, based on its analysis of job listings culled from more than 30,000 sites. Some employers have thousands of openings in a number of cities.
Health care employers listed more than 300,000 job openings in December, more than twice as many as were available at tech companies or the education sector, Simply Hired reports. More than one-third of the top hiring companies last month were in health care or related fields, with jobs posted in close 50 locations. Most of the health care employers are regional, so their job opportunities won’t show up in multiple cities the way those at AT&T or Starbucks do.
The BLS data also showed strong growth in health care hiring last month.Health care employers added 44,500 jobs in December, more than any other category. One quarter of the health care hiring occurred at hospitals, and almost as many jobs were added at nursing and residential care facilities, the BLS table B-1 shows. The rest of the jobs were created by physicians’ offices, home health care concerns and other outpatient care centers.Two other sectors stood out in the BLS monthly jobless report:1. Leisure and hospitality employers hired 31,000 in December, a few thousand more than in recent months. Those new positions have turned up largely in restaurants and bars, which have added 38,000 to their payrolls in December, and an estimated 400,000 jobs in the last year.

Bars and clubs are adding jobs steadily. (Photo by Picture-Newsletter.com)

Bars and clubs are adding jobs steadily. (Photo by Picture-Newsletter.com)

2. The construction field grew by 30,000 jobs last month, some of them undoubtedly related to Hurricane Sandy repairs. More than a third of the jobs were created in residential specialty trade contractors like heating and plumbing companies, though non-residential construction firms gained 7,000 jobs

Yet if you’re not interested in building physical spaces, there still are plenty of opportunities out there. So who’s hiring now? The SimplyHired report names names and gives the largest employers with the most job openings in the 50 largest cities. Here’s a quick summary (with links to the careers pages of the companies listed):

  • Accenture – With 850 jobs in New York, 950 jobs in Washington, D.C. plus others in Chicago, this management consulting and outsourcing firm is growing.
  • AT&T - Shows up in the top 5 employers nationwide fairly regularly, with 14,026 openings, Ma Bell certainly is planning to write a lot of paychecks this  year.
  • Family Dollar Stores – the No. 1 employer adding jobs nationwide; 16,445 of them; the company is opening a new distribution center in St. George, Utah.
  • Great Clips - This hair care and cutting chain made the top 5 hiring employers nationwide this time, with more than 16,000 jobs. It needs plenty of help in Charlotte, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Portland and Phoenix.
  • HCA Healthcare - Hundreds of jobs, not all of them medical, in Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando, Houston and more.
  • McDonald’s - 13,487  jobs open nationwide, with clusters in Chicago and Cleveland. Don’t want to be a burger flipper? They’re hiring managers and HR consultants and facilities people.
  • Starbucks – hundreds of job openings, and among the largest employers with openings in Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento and of course its hometown of Seattle.

The biggest gains in job openings were found in non-profit and real estate fields, SimplyHired reported.  Professions including sales reps, educators, food staff and law enforcement showed double digit increases – most above 20 percent growth in openings in the last year.

And which sectors are slow enough for most job seekers to skip? Transportation and government sectors remain week, SimplyHired’s data shows. And the BLS indicates that transportation, retail and agriculture shed jobs in December.

So target growth sectors and companies and happy hunting!

Note: I am not endorsing these companies as a place to work, and suggest each job seeker complete some due diligence on the company’s fortunes and culture.

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Veteran sales staffers not so great at landing next job: BLS

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People who worked in sales jobs for years don’t do a great job of selling themselves into new positions, new research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

Among tenured people displaced from jobs in 2009 to 2011, sales people and office staff experienced the highest unemployment rates as of  January.  Almost one-third of them were unemployed, compared to 26.7 percent of all workers who were downsized after three or more years in the jobs, the BLS reported.

The finding that veteran sales people had trouble finding new jobs defies conventional wisdom that companies always are going to hire sales staffs – and that sales talent can be used to promote anything or anyone. The report does not explore what kind of sales experience those who lost their jobs had or why they remained jobless when others, say in professional fields, found new positions.

Retail and wholesale workers also had trouble finding new jobs, with only half of them landing jobs.  Maintenance and repair crew were most likely to restart work, with about two thirds of them collecting paychecks again, the BLS reported.

Nearly one in five of the long-tenured displaced workers came from the manufacturing field.

Managers and professional people also fared fairly well, with 60 percent back to work, more than most fields. (The data covers job losses in January 2009 through December 2011.)

Overall, 6.1 million workers were displaced from jobs they’d held for at least three years, down 12 percent from the total for the 2007-2008 period. (The veteran workers were among 12.9 people who lost their jobs to downsizings, plant closings and the like in 2009-2011.)

The number of three-year plus staffers who landed new jobs rose to 56 percent from 49 percent in the 2007-2008.

Another encouraging point: Among  full-time veteran workers who lost their jobs in 2009- 2011, 46 percent had landed jobs that paid the same or more than before – including about one in seven workers who earn 20 percent or more than before.

Now that’s fine salesmanship!

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Mistletoe and making dough: Wear the right shirt and attitude for holiday job

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This post was updated on Nov. 7, 2011

Zingerman’s Mail Order brings in about 300 temporary workers to send out sugarplums from Portugal and brownie bites from its Bakehouse. Toys R Us will hire some 40,000 temporary workers for its stores and distribution centers, and United Parcel Service and FedEx together could add 75,000 drivers, helpers and others.

‘Tis the season to work in retail, and it’s already Christmas time in the malls and Main Streets of America.

Almost 30 percent of retailers will add to their staffs for the busy holiday period and so will 10 percent of hospitality companies, about the same as last year, according to a new CareerBuilder survey of 2,600 employers.

That’s about 480,000 to 500,000 seasonal jobs, according to an estimate by the National Retail Federation, or maybe 627,000 positions based on a Challenger Gray Christmas estimate for this year.

While many of those jobs have already been claimed, one-third of the employers say they’re still adding staff this month and 10 percent will still be hiring in December, according to CareerBuilder.   November is the big month for hiring, according to Challenger Gray, which recommends going to the store and starting an in-person conversation with a manager.

So start now if you want a holiday job this year, but don’t go anyplace on a Saturday because most retailers and restaurants are too busy handling paying customers to consider potential candidates. Go on a weekday afternoon or another slow time.

Here’s three more  tips on landing a seasonal job:

  1.  It’s who you know and what you know.  Start your search at a store where you know someone or something, Challenger Gray suggests. “You should also target establishments of which you are a frequent customer,” CEO John Challenger said. If you are very familiar with the merchant, the store and the merchandise, show that clearly – by wearing their sweaters or shoes to the interview or commenting on their new line of hair care. If a friend works at the location 15 miles away, ask her to email or call the general manager the day before your interview and sing your praises.
  2.  Show success and customer-service savvy.  This may come from volunteering at a dance marathon or PTA fundraiser. It may appear in your leadership role in a student organization or working in your aunt’s shop on busy weeks.  But make sure it shows up in your application, even if the work was unpaid. Demonstrate your customer-focus mindset in the way you treat people before and after the interview, and if you see a row of books that needs straightening up or a person who needs assistance, jump in and do it.
  3.  Weekends and midnights – perfect! You must be available almost every weekend through New Year’s and some strange shifts that start or end at 1 or 4 a.m. If possible, be upbeat and enthusiastic about the chance to sell truffles or Teddy Bears at 6 a.m. every Saturday. Attitude matters – and so does availibility. People who are unwilling to work certain hours was the biggest turnoff to hiring managers in the CareerBuilder survey.

If you apply online as many retailers require, stop in at the store about three or  four days later. This helps you stand out from the crowd of candidates and allows you to show positive attitude and company attire.  “Have a three-sentence elevator pitch on why you’ll be a great employee ready,” said Shawn Boyer, CEO of SnagAJob.com. Then be prepared for a hello and a handshake or an impromptu interview.

MORE IDEAS / INFORMATION:

Home for the holidays? Here’s my WorkingKind post on making connections while you make merry.

Five tips for getting started on temping -in my Glassdoor piece.

 Fortune.com contributor Anne Fisher has advice on holiday hiring – and turning it into a permanent job.

If your company is sinking and you are starting to plan for your future, read my blog post first written for Borders Books staffers.

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5 ways to find job opportunities when hiring is scarce

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The hiring outlook for fall is looking cool and stormy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t locate work.

With the U.S. debt’s downgrade and worries about another recession taking root, hurricane damage and consumer skittishness, companies are not likely to hire in huge numbers. Job postings may be scarce in parts of the country, and service employers especially cut their hiring in August, according to the Society of Human Resource Executives Leading Indicators of National Employment. The monthly stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also have shown anemic job growth.

Yet you, like millions of unemployed individuals, are eager to start back to work. So don’t look just on Monster or at your local university career center – though don’t skip those either. Instead take “the road less traveled” as Robert Frost famously wrote, and find jobs before they’re posted. Here’s five ideas to get you going on the hidden job market:

1. Look for a new CEO or other senior leader.  This goes way beyond Steve Jobs at Apple Computer. More than 100 CEOs a month have left their jobs recently, Challenger Gray Christmas reports, with CEO turnover especially high in the health care and technology sectors. Each new CEO  brings in new people, new projects and new priorities. They may want their own team -  fresh faces around headquarters. Or they may need some independent contractors to help change the culture or inject some engagement and innovative thinking.

2. Search for earnings stars. Companies that are exceeding Wall Street’s expectations and growing in the United States, not just internationally, could be better bets for hiring, now or in coming months. This means companies such as Cisco, Dollar Tree and Nordstrom, which reported stronger than expected quarterly results. I watch for these at MarketWatch and in the New York Times; choose your own sites – including some local and regional ones. Watch for healthy private companies, those adding offices or new equipment or advertising in the founder’s alma mater football stadium. They may not reveal their financial fortunes directly, but you can see clues on their success in business weeklies, magazines or on some economic development blogs and sites.

3. Develop an opportunities antennae. Or find someone else who has one, and follow their tweets, their blog and their suggestions. These antennae are out there in front, sensing, locating new prospects and possibilities. Some of them work as journalists and some work in business development or sales. Cultivate this by looking three or four steps beyond today’s headlines and seeing the future changes, shortages and opportunities.

4. Walk around. Head to a business park or office building. Spend an hour or two going in and asking questions about expansion plans, potential job openings and more. Bring along a small notebook to jot down notes and some business cards or your pocket resume. Sometimes one business owner will send you to another that has recently said they want to add to her staff. Sometimes you will arrive just as they’re discussing the need for new crew. This approach, recommended by Richard Bolles in What Color Is Your Parachute, works – and it may develop your opportunities antennae too.

5.Befriend the connectors. You know the ones – the people who know everyone in the organization or whose Facebook friends number in the thousands. Some o them work as recruiters or in sales, others just used to be their sorority’s president or their hometown’s football star. Choose those who are gracious and generous with their contacts and by all means, start by identifying projects and problems where you could help them.

When your search includes face time and a variety of methods, not just one or two, your chances of success improve considerably.  So go where there’s possibilities and don’t slow down even if the economy does. Good luck!

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Freelancers cultivate Independence Day almost every day

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With Independence Day approaching, I’ve been thinking about how independent agents – like me – could celebrate and boost their independence. I mean financial independence, but also the freedom to read a great novel for 90 minutes in the afternoon.

For whether you’ve chosen to work as a free agent or taken the freelancer’s road because other avenues were closed to you, your work and life is so different from the Corporate Job. You are responsible for so much more as an independent contractor and yet your income could be less. So even as beach and summer fun beckon,  July 4th seems like a great occasion to consider our financial freedom and futures.

Part of my approach has been to grow my freelance writing career so I have several regular gigs; I write every other week for the Washington Post Capital Business and weekly for the Glassdoor.com blog. I hope to contribute regularly to Fortune.com . Now I’m trying to trade up on clients – so I end up with more higher paying assignments and better finished articles, too.

But I’ve also focused on some other ideas to rebuild my finances (after a divorce and leaving a full-time editing job). Here’s four of them:

  1. “I live an abundant life on a modest paycheck.” This became my mantra several years ago – and it still works for me. It helps me see my choices in a positive light. Living frugally seemed like a dear, old friend by the time the economy hit the skids. So I shop at the Kiwanis Sale and second-hand shops; see a lot of free theater, easy to find in a college town, or usher at nonprofits to get into some amazing performances. I use coupons and Groupons and restaurant specials – loved The Earle’s nickel and dime specials. I bring my lunch a lot, and say no to an event that is too costly or not worthy.
  2. I set clear financial and life goals. I want to buy a house – maybe this year! – so I’ve saved money for it steadily.  And I want to travel and encourage my children to travel – so I established travel funds for each of them (and gave them “travel money vouchers” for Christmas). It can start small – mine certainly did. Save $15 a week and at yearend you have almost $800, or shove away $50 a week and you’ve got $2,600 toward your dreams. An extra project – park more of it in your goal accounts.
  3. Develop your reputation – and your network. If you are flying solo, you want a reliable, well-tuned plane. So choose carefully your clients – and then exceed their expectations every time. Build your reputation for quality, integrity and reliability. Don’t be shy about saying no to work if you’re too busy or if the client doesn’t meet your standards or goals. That said, I also strive to create karma LINK and friendships  as I go – and expand my network of editors, writers and creative types who I know and like. Thursdays are my outreach day – I need to put that reminder back on my calendar so I have a nudge to network.
  4. Cultivate multiple options and careers. Writing is my main love and my profession, yet I also want some Plan B career options: training and teaching, selling Italian ice (and maybe soup), maybe even career coaching. I’m not going to depend on one media outlet or one career path as the only way to achieve my goals.

And on days when I think how much easier and more collegial life would be if I were back in a newspaper newsroom, I remind myself: Independence has its costs, and all the diversity and joys cannot arrive without a little loneliness and variety in income. Today, I realize many independent contractors and freelancers will celebrate Independence Day not with picnics or fireworks but with deadlines and marketing campaigns.  I’m marching in the 4th of July parade as CEO of Mity Nice and then may do a little reporting for the Observer. But I’ll savor my freedom to take a holiday or skip work on the day I choose.

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More signs the job market is warming up

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Even in a spring as full of gray chilly days with snow and sleet as this has been, eventually the tulips bloom and we start planting carrots, oregano and pepper plants. The U.S. job market may also be warming up nicely, with  268,000 jobs created by private-sector employers in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the highest since 2006.

The report Friday had other encouraging news too: More than 200,000 long-term jobless found work or consulting projects, or were otherwise not counted as unemployed. And every sector, except government and temporary employment, added jobs last month, with retail, manufacturing and health care showing especial strength in hiring.

Two months ago, in a blog post for Glassdoor.com, I listed seven signs of spring  in the job market, including some BLS numbers and hiring by small businesses for 12 months. Lately, more green is showing up in the hiring fields – and more flowers are preparing to bloom. So with hopes that my optimism will ring true in the months ahead, here then are seven more signs of growth in hiring:

  1. Companies are recruiting more HR people. Human resources job penings increased 34 percent in the last year, same gain as health care, according to Indeed’s blog. Companies hire HR people when they need help with recruiting or retaining talent.
  2. Some areas experience labor shortages. Recruiters say it is increasingly difficult to find well qualified candidates, according to the latest Society of Human Resource Executives LINE survey. In IT security, database administration and nurse practitioner openings, there are more jobs than job-seekers, according to CareerBuilder. The two-to-one ratio of jobs for candidate is a standout.
  3. The number of quitters has inched up. The proportion of job leavers now is higher than the laid-off, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. This is a big shift, and indicates people are confident they have other work options.
  4. Hiring on college campuses has increased. This year, 42 percent of college seniors who had looked for work has received a job offer by graduation, up from 38 percent last year, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. More seniors also were saying no to offers, holding out for something better or more appropriate.
  5. Metro unemployment rates keep declining. More cities are adding jobs, according to the BLS. And Indeed reports that 15 metro areas – from New York to Milwaukee to San Francisco – have one job for every candidate, meaning much less competition to land the opening you seek than a year or two ago.
  6. Job openings are more plentiful. SimplyHired experienced a 33.9 percent increase in postings in the year ended in April, CareerBuilder’s job listings rose 23 percent as companies hire staff “in nearly every role.” These openings will mean more hiring in coming months.
  7. Innovation seems to be increasing. Some jobs available today didn’t exist two years ago, and some  companies  hiring hundreds of people didn’t either. Think Etsy and Groupon and all those app makers. Think filmmakers for YouTube. Think about hiring on or creating another Google or Netflix in your city. Consider the virtual internships and start-ups showing up not just in Silicon Valley but in Saline, Mich., and Southern Georgia.

To be sure, there are concerns that could freeze some green shoots of hiring. High oil and gas prices are cutting hiring in the travel sector, SimplyHired reported. Initial jobless claims are rising, and many companies are sitting on the sidelines of hiring, or adding jobs outside the United States.  State and local governments continue to shed jobs and some are in danger of insolvency. We still have 13.7 million Americans out of work, and at current levels of hiring, it could take another five years to reach pre-recession unemployment levels, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Yet the pace of hiring is picking up – in the last three months it has averaged 233,000 jobs a month, double the rate of the previous three, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Small companies are being established and bringing on friends or part-timers to grow. Corporate profits are strong and many individuals have learned to grow gardens or their own jobs.

Call me an optimist, if you like, but the employment tulips have shown up in bright red and yellow and soon career roses and broccoli will bloom again – in the yards and lives of many.

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