Unemployment 9.1 percent

It’s difficult to be optimistic about the bleak job market when , unemployment is stuck at around 9.1 percent but a survey just released by employment services firm ManpowerGroup offers hope for job seekers in many places around the country.

The survey reveals that the metropolitan area with the most optimistic forecast of all for hiring this fall is San Antonio, Texas, and there’s also the good news that employers in 45 states expect the bleak employment picture to perk up. In fact, hiring managers in dozens of metropolitan areas anticipate considerable increases in hiring, while others present a darker forecast.

ManpowerGroup surveyed more than 18,000 employers in 100 metropolitan areas to find out who’s hiring, who’s firing and who plans to maintain their current staff levels in the fourth quarter of 2011, October through December. Of the surveyed employers, 16 percent anticipate an increase in staffing levels in their hiring plans, while 11 percent expect a decrease in payrolls. The difference between those numbers provides what ManpowerGroup calls a net employment outlook of 5 percent–or 7 percent when seasonally adjusted, which is still up from 6 percent for the same period last year, but down slightly from last quarter. Seventy percent of employers expect no change in their staffing, and the final 3 percent of employers are uncertain.

Forbes.com slideshow: The best and worst cities for jobs right now While the outlook is positive overall, the one-point drop from the third quarter is the first decrease in nine quarters. “The numbers are not going in the right direction this quarter, and they are not as robust as we would have liked them to be,” says Melanie Holmes, a vice president at ManpowerGroup. “Employers are hesitant about hiring in this economic climate. They are remaining guarded, and that is reflected in these results.”

Still, “We do see some bright spots in hiring, especially in San Antonio, which has the most promising hiring outlook for the fourth quarter,” says Jonas Prising, president of the Americas at ManpowerGroup. “Employers in other markets in Texas, including El Paso and Austin, are also anticipating strong hiring increases.”

The San Antonio metro area enjoys a 17 percent net employment outlook, the percentage of employers that expect to add employees (25 percent) minus the percentage that expect to reduce their workforce (8 percent). Another 64 percent said they anticipate no change, and 3 percent didn’t know.
Forbes.com: 20 businesses you can start now “San Antonio has continued to see new jobs created, and new jobs brought to the region,” says Richard Perez, president and chief executive of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. “I would say that San Antonio is well positioned to come out ahead in the future as well because our cost of living remains low, making it a good environment for companies to increase their investment in jobs here, plus we have a very talented labor pool because we graduate more than 30,000 from our colleges and universities each year.”
The industry with the largest economic impact and largest number of employees in San Antonio is health care and biosciences, with more than 142,000 employees, Perez says. “This surprises a lot of people who think we are only a tourism town. One of every five workers is in the health care sector, and it has an estimated $24 billion economic impact here. We also have large manufacturing and financial services sectors. And yes, we have a significant tourism industry in San Antonio, with approximately 106,000 employees.”

The largest employers in the San Antonio area include the Department of Defense, whose workplaces include Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base. Combined they employ over 70,000 individuals. The largest corporate employer is San Antonio-based financial services firm United Services Automobile Association, with 14,800 employees. H-E-B Grocery Company follows close behind with 14,600 workers. AT&T, Toyota, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Valero Energy, Harland Clarke and Citibank are some of the area’s other major corporate employers.
Forbes.com: Best business quotes from the silver screen“San Antonio’s list of large employers is long and diverse,” Perez says. “We do not rely heavily on one area and that is by design. San Antonio has many industries that together keep us a resilient economy. We are fortunate to have many strong industries, and many strong companies with large employee bases.”

Employers in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers and Baltimore-Towson metro areas also anticipate a significant upswing in hiring for the next quarter.
Nearly a quarter of Cape Coral-Fort Myers employers reported positive forecasts, while 6 percent drew a bleaker picture. Sixty-nine percent said they won’t be changing their employment levels, and the remaining 3 percent are unsure of their hiring plans. With a net employment outlook of 16 percent, the southwest Florida metro area is the second best place for finding a job this fall.
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Baltimore-Towson employers are expressing similar sentiments. Twenty percent of that metro area’s hiring managers anticipate a bright fourth quarter. Meanwhile, 7 percent expect to decrease their payrolls, 71 percent anticipate no change and 2 percent are uncertain. This yields a net employment outlook of 13 percent and positions the Maryland metropolis as the third best place for finding a job this fall. Greensboro-High Point, N.C., St. Louis and Tulsa enjoy the same rank.

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Unfortunately not all cities are as confident about hiring. The net employment outlook in Spokane and Las Vegas is a far weaker -4 percent–and those metropolitan areas aren’t even the worst. The Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Fla., metro area yields a net employment outlook of -5 percent for the quarter.

The worst area of all for finding a job this fall is Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
Only 12 percent of surveyed Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk metro area employers plan to hire between October and December, while 19 percent expect to reduce their staff levels. Sixty-nine percent expect to maintain their current workforce. This yields a net employment outlook of -7 percent for the Connecticut metropolis.

“Although this quarter we are seeing relatively stable hiring compared with last quarter and even the year before, we are way below the double-digit employment outlook numbers we saw prior to the end of 2008,” Prising says. “With daily fluctuations in the market and mixed news reports about housing and consumer sentiment, employers are just plain uncertain about the future. Until they see a sustainable demand for their products and services, employers will not commit to hiring in big numbers.”

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Second Interview Tips

By Alison Doyle, About.com Guide

You’ve done it! You passed the first interview with flying colors and you just got a call to schedule a second interview. What happens next? How can you use a second interview as a means to get a job offer? It’s important to be aware that the company is seriously interested in you, or they wouldn’t have called. You are definitely in contention for the job! Here are suggestions on how to use your second job interview to help secure an offer.

Second Interview Tips

Get the Agenda
Sometimes, a second interview can be a day-long interview. You may meet with management, staff members, executives, and other company employees. Ask the person who scheduled the interview for an itinerary, so, you know upfront what to expect.

For example, at Microsoft the second interview process involves meeting with people from different product groups. Candidates usually meet with four or five people who are geared to provide an idea of what it’s really like to work for Microsoft.

Research, Research, Research
Learn everything you can about the company. Review the About Us section of the company web site. Use Google and Google News (search by company name) to get the latest information and news. Visit Message Boards to research what’s being discussed. If you have a connection, use it to get some insider information on management and staff, as well as the company in general.

Review Interview Questions and Answers
You may be asked the same questions you were asked during the first interview. So, review the questions you will be asked and brush up your responses. Like the first time around, it’s good to take some time to practice interviewing, so, you are comfortable with your answers.

Dress Professionally
Even if the workplace is casual, until you get the job, you will want to dress in your best interview attire, unless you are told otherwise. If the person scheduling the interview mentions dressing down, business casual attire would typically be most appropriate.

Lunch / Dinner Interviews
When you are scheduled for a full-day of interviewing, lunch and/or dinner may be included on the agenda. Dining with a prospective employee allows the company to review your communication and interpersonal skills, as well as your table manners. It’s important to dine carefully. The last thing you want to do is spill your drink (non-alcoholic, of course) or slop food all over the table. Order appropriately and brush up on your dining skills, and your manners.

What You Didn’t Say
Was there something you thought you should have mentioned during your first interview? Or was there a question you had difficulty with? The second interview will provide you with the opportunity to expand upon your responses from the first interview. Review the notes you took during the first interview, to see what you might have missed talking about and what you can clarify or add.

Ask Questions
When you’re invited to interview a second time, the chances are good that you are in contention for the position. It’s appropriate to ask for a copy of the job description to review, as well as to ask about the organization structure and how you will fit in.

Is There a Fit?
Sometimes, whether a particular job is a good fit is hard to define. I’ve been in a position where I had an uneasy feeling that I really didn’t want the job. It wasn’t anything I could pinpoint specifically, but, it was there. If a voice is telling you you’re that you are not sure about this job, listen to it. You don’t have to turn down the job, but, you can ask for additional meetings with staff, especially the people you are going to be working with, to make sure the job is a good fit for you.

If You Get a Job Offer?
In some cases, you may be offered a job on the spot. You don’t have to say yes, or no, immediately. It actually makes sense not to say yes right away, unless you are 110% sure that you want the job. Everything may seem perfect while you’re there, but, once you have a chance to mull over the offer, and the company, it may not seem as wonderful. Ask for some time to think it over and ask when the company needs a decision by.

Say Thank You
You have, I hope, already sent a thank note to the people you interviewed with the first time. Again, take the time to send a thank you letter (email is fine) to everyone you met with and reiterate your interest in the company and in the position.

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I’LL CALL YOU

How many of us have heard these famous last words at the end of a not-so-successful date? They remind me of Charlie Sheen’s character on Two And A Half Men. “I’ll Call You” was Charlie’s escape hatch which allowed him to quickly part company with his lady friends without a big confrontation. It was never genuine. Rather flip and dismissive. Which is why Job Seekers recoil when they hear the same words from a Professional Recruiter: “I’ll Call You.”

I understand the temptation to lump Recruiters in with the Charlie Sheens’ of the world. After all, today’s society has been conditioned to understand “I’ll Call You” to be the ultimate blow off. However, I can assure you, and the rest of today’s Job Seekers, that when we Recruiters say “I’ll Call You” we actually mean it! It may not be the next day or next week. But if your work history is strong, and your skill set relevant to our niche, we will eventually call you.

Most Agency Recruiters, like me, are driven by our clients’ immediate needs…critical positions which need to be filled ASAP by candidates who meet a very specific set of criteria. This explains why a highly-qualified Accountant will hear “I’ll Call You” when the Recruiter is working on filling Sales positions. Or why an accomplished Engineer will hear “I’ll Call You” when the Recruiter is handling several Chef openings. Or why the recent college grad will hear “I’ll Call You” when the Recruiter is seeking out CEO candidates. It doesn’t mean the Accountant’s or Engineer’s or College Graduate’s resumes were awful and that they “never find a job in this town again.” It simply boils down to timing.

I’ll admit we Recruiters see thousands of resumes a month. Even if we say “I’ll call you,” how do you, the Job Seeker, know that we won’t forget you three months from now? I’ve been asked by Job Seekers before:”Can I call you every week to stay in touch?” It’s a nice idea, really. But if I honored this request by the several hundred prospective candidates I’ve been in contact just in the last month, then you will legitimately be able to compare me to Charlie… *after* he lost his mind!
If you, the Job Seeker, wish to stay on a Recruiter’s radar for future opportunities, then you will benefit the most by supplying the following:

• an updated copy of your resume
• accurate salary history
• reasonable salary expectations
• markets for relocation
• list of tangible, measurable accomplishments
• aspirations for your next position
• three professional references
• an active cell number
• and a viable email address

A good Recruiter will enter every tidbit of this information into a profile he/she has created for you in their keyword-optimized database or tracking system. Between your resume and the above bullets, you have armed the Recruiter with the information needed to match you to upcoming positions. And when the right position matches up…then the magic happens. And unlike Charlie Sheen…the Recruiter actually calls! It may be in two weeks…two months…or two years. But the Recruiter calls.
Please don’t misunderstand. I do not mean that you, the Job Seeker, should completely drop out of sight after the initial phone screen with your Recruiter. I’ll confess that occasionally well-timed calls from active Job Seekers who want to update me on a new accomplishment or a changed email address, have been followed up with my query “By the way, may I run a new opportunity past you?” So in the end, the best way to treat “I’ll Call You” from a Recruiter is to view it as the beginning of a beautiful friendship. (Giving props to Bogey.) Not the dismissive end of a brief encounter. (Ala Charlie Sheen.) Your Recruiter likely wants to help. It’s just he/she may not be able to do so right now. But when that perfect project does come along with criteria that matches your background & skill set, then both you and the Recruiter will be…Winning!

Wendy Gawlik CPC

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July jobs numbers rise, but still weak

By Zachary Roth | The Lookout

The economy added slightly more jobs than expected in July, though not enough to ease mounting concern that a double-dip recession could soon take hold.

The Labor Department said employers added 117,000 jobs last month. Analysts had said that anything above 100,000 would be good news.

The awful numbers for June and May were revised slightly upward, to gains of 56,000 and 46,000 respectively.

Still, a day after the market plummeted amid concerns over slow economic growth and Europe’s debt crises, the news will likely do little to ease the concerns of investors or give hope to those out of work. Most economists believe the economy needs to add around 250,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with the rate of growth in the workforce.

The overall unemployment rate ticked down slightly, to 9.1 percent from 9.2 percent, but that was in part because of people who gave up looking for work after growing discouraged, and who are therefore no longer counted in the statistics.

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Study says mid-wage jobs hurt hardest by recession

By Liz Goodwin | The Lookout – 3 hrs ago

A study by the National Employment Law Project finds that middle-wage jobs–those that pay between $13 and $20 an hour–have been the biggest casualty of the recession. This year’s job market has 8.4 percent fewer jobs in that pay range than existed prior to the onset of the crash in 2008.

This is leading to an “hourglass economy,” the researchers write, with disproportionate numbers of Americans finding themselves at the top or bottom of the wage scale.

Most of the job growth since the recession has been in low-wage jobs, which shot up 3.2 percent in 2010, even as real wages for those workers have declined. The researchers say “retail salespersons, office clerks, cashiers, food preparation workers and stock clerks” have seen the fastest growth in available positions.

The economy has seen a 4 percent drop in higher wage jobs (those paying between $20 and $53 an hour) and a .3 percent decline in low-wage jobs since early 2008. But those wage sectors have still sustained a better recovery than mid-wage jobs have.

The lag actually pre-dates the ’08 collapse, researchers say, with mid-wage occupations such as machinists and pre-school teachers growing at a markedly slower pace than higher-wage and lower-wage jobs did. “Growing wage inequality in the United States is a phenomenon that’s three decades in the making, and which the recession

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Restaurant.com Welcomes New Restaurant Chain Locations

Company’s Q2 Partnerships Join an Impressive Base of 18,000 Restaurants Nationwide

Arlington Heights, IL (PRWEB) July 20, 2011
Restaurant.com announces the addition of six new restaurant chain locations to its rapidly growing program. The latest multi-unit partners include:
• Surg Restaurant Group – Restaurant.com is excited to welcome Surg Restaurant Group’s creation, Distil, with a fourth location in the Milwaukee metro area.
• Nicky’s Mexican Restaurants – Adding a creative Mexican taste from Louisiana, Restaurant.com welcomes seven Nicky’s Mexican Restaurants to the mix.
• Giordano’s – Serving Chicago’s Famous Stuffed Pizza for more than 35 years, Giordano’s has added its Rosemont, Ill. location to the Restaurant.com program.
• Tara Thai – The word “Tara” means water, commonly found in Thai folk literature. Tara Thai restaurants offer a unique and relaxing atmosphere, featuring a variety of underwater art. Seven east coast Tara Thai restaurants are now on the Restaurant.com program.
• Shula’s – Providence, R.I. is now home to the 13th Shula’s chain location on the Restaurant.com program. Named in honor of legendary NFL coach Don Shula, Shula’s 347 Grill offers everything from gourmet salads to fresh specialty fish, and exclusively serves Premium Black Angus Beef® burgers and steaks.
• Levy – Loft 610 in Omaha, Neb. is now the second Levy Restaurant location on the Restaurant.com program. Chef Ben invites customers to gaze out at Turner Park or cozy up to the warm glow of the stunning wine wall.
• Leona’s & The Hop Haus – Under the same multi-unit operation, Leona’s and Hop Haus have 14 Chicagoland locations on the Restaurant.com program. Both restaurants take pride in their cozy, family-owned atmospheres.

“Creating partnerships with chain restaurants is an exciting venture,” says Restaurant.com CEO, Cary Chessick. “Restaurant.com brings family and friends together, helping deepen relationships and create lasting memories one dining experience at a time.”

“Restaurant.com has certainly increased the exposure of Leona’s Restaurants and the Hop Haus to the city of Chicago and beyond,” says Marc Fishman, Leona’s and Hop Haus Marketing Manager. “With over 2.5 million appearances in search results, and thousands of tables filled, Restaurant.com has been instrumental in bringing first time customers to our business. Survey results have provided us with ‘spotters’ at all our locations, helping keep our operation team vigilant while increasing customer satisfaction across the board.”

Each new Restaurant.com partner has a custom web page on Restaurant.com, featuring a personalized description of the restaurant. The profile includes type of cuisine, menu items, décor, pricing, and hours of operation for each participating location. Restaurant.com partners benefit from the program’s extensive marketing efforts, which create greater exposure and increase customer traffic. The company never sends its restaurant partners a bill, only hungry diners.

The Restaurant.com program supplies restaurant operators with recurring custom reports that combine data from each chain location. Operators can evaluate total and individual location-specific program results with information such as profit estimates, number of tables filled, web page traffic and more. Restaurant.com also sends surveys to guests to collect feedback about their dining experiences. The survey data can be used to help modify menu items, improve and reward service, plus support in-house incentive and loyalty marketing programs. The company also includes consultative marketing services that reveal best practices, lessons learned and tips for more effective interactive marketing.

Restaurant.com has nearly 500 chain locations among its rapidly growing network of more than 18,000 restaurants nationwide. In 2010, the company filled more than five million tables across the country and generated more than $340 million in revenue for the restaurant industry.

Restaurant.com helps deepen relationships and create lasting memories one dining experience at a time. The company offers savings at more than 18,000 restaurants nationwide with more than 45,000 daily gift certificate options. Restaurant.com brings family and friends together to relax, converse and enjoy dining out. Restaurant.com customers have saved more than $500 million since the Arlington Heights, Ill.-based company was founded in 1999.

Gerry Oher
Restaurant.com

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How to Hire Great Employees (Not Great Applicants)

How to Hire Great Employees (Not Great Applicants)

By Mel Kleiman

The Problem with Behavioral Interviewing

Just as typewriters and record players have given way to desktop computers and handheld media players, outmoded employee selection systems need to be reinvented to take advantage of our new understanding of how to select employees in the 21st century.

Although behavioral interviewing was initially developed by industrial psychologists back in the 1970s, it is still in widespread use today. Predictably, during these past 30 years, everyone looking for a job has learned to expect interviewers to ask them about their past behaviors.

Just as we all learned what our teachers wanted to hear from us in school, prospective employees learned to deliver the answers interviewers want to hear. Ask, “Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult customer,” and all but the dullest applicant immediately understands that customer service is paramount and will respond to the question accordingly.

Every job applicant with a basic understanding of the interview process now knows that the most critical interview questions will concern past behaviors. The reason so many unsatisfactory new hire decisions are made is due to the fatal flaw in this system – specific past behaviors during specific past events are all but impossible to document or verify.

The continued reliance on the validity of behavioral questions has led to too many hiring decisions based more on the applicant’s presentation skills rather than on the person’s ability to perform on the job.

Great Employees vs. Great Applicants

Start hiring great employees (instead of great applicants) by shifting the focus from past behaviors to verifiable experiences and achievements. Begin by using an interview built upon the following five, essential questions. (To gain a sense of their effectiveness, as you read each one, ask yourself how you would respond if you were the applicant.)

Essential Question #1: “Tell me what you learned from your very first paying job.”

This is the first question interviewers should ask because our earliest learning experiences set the patterns and expectations for later experiences. (Hiring Hint: The story makes a lot more sense when you hear it from the beginning. Follow this up by asking them to talk briefly about each successive job and what was learned at each.)

Essential Question #2: “Which work achievements or accomplishments to-date are you most proud of?”

The achievements we value most reveal both our strongest character traits and our strongest desires. Identifying these speaks volumes about the kind of employee the applicant can become. (Hiring Hint: The number of achievements or accomplishments is not as important as the motivations that drove it.)

Essential Question #3: “On a scale from zero to ten, how would you rate yourself as a (job title) and why?”

Because we seldom see ourselves as others see do, the specific number is not as important as the fact that you will be able to verify if the applicant’s number is higher, lower, or the same as perceived by the applicants former managers or supervisors when you check references. (Hiring Hint: Would you rather have an employee who undervalues or overvalues their contributions reporting to you?)

Essential Question #4: “When we contact your former manager to verify your employment, what will he or she tell me about your last performance review?”

The answer will tell you a great deal about the applicant’s actual on-the-job performance, ability to take direction, and efforts to improve. (Hiring Hint: Phrased this way, this question will elicit the truth from 99% of applicants. For further verification, if you decide to extend a job offer, then ask for a copy of that review.)

Essential Question #5: “What would you like to ask me about the job or our company?”

The answers to this one reveal the applicant’s concerns and motivators or simply point out basic job information (benefits, hours, policies) that have not yet been communicated. (Hiring Hint: Follow this up by allowing the applicant one or two more questions for even more insight.)

Between Questions #3 and #4, ask all the other questions you’ve developed that help determine if the candidate is a good fit for the job, the department, and the company. After the interview, verify what you learned with this achievement-based interviewing technique through evidence-based selection criteria: thorough reference and background checks.

The further you can move your interviews away from outdated behavioral techniques and toward achievement- and evidence-based selection, the quicker your hiring effectiveness will improve. Like that great philosopher of our time Dilbert said: “Eighty-percent of a manager’s job is hiring the right people. The other 20 percent is leaving them alone so they can do what you hired them for.”

 

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WILL businesses ever start hiring again?

A Sign of Hope for More Hiring

By PHYLLIS KORKKI
Published: January 29, 2011

WILL businesses ever start hiring again? The numbers from last month — with unemployment at a painful 9.4 percent — didn’t seem to offer much hope.

But often, before hiring occurs, a job is posted on a Web site of some sort. If we look at job-posting numbers — a more recent snapshot of employers’ needs than the hiring data — the picture is more encouraging across a range of industries.

At Simply Hired, a job search engine, postings rose more than 50 percent last year over 2009, and they increased almost 70 percent in December 2010 over December 2009.

Simply Hired, which started in 2005, culls data from job boards and the Web sites of individual companies, newspapers, staffing agencies, government agencies and nonprofit groups. An average of about 5 million job postings are now on the site at any given time, said Gautam Godhwani, C.E.O. of Simply Hired — and that is approaching pre-recession levels.

It’s always possible, of course, that a company posting a job will decide not to hire someone after all. Or, it may not find someone with the skills it seeks. Still, the latest data offer reason for some optimism, Mr. Godhwani says.

Some people may be shaking their heads at this assessment. Almost half of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. They may have sent out hundreds, even thousands, of résumés, with little or no response, and despair of ever having paychecks and co-workers again.

The sad reality is that people who have been out of work for months have a harder time being hired than those who have been idle for mere weeks. And, beyond that, there are huge variations by geography and industry.

It is instructive to look at Simply Hired’s breakdown of job postings by industry and occupation. Maybe your field isn’t as moribund as you think — or maybe you can adapt your skills to a more vibrant industry, or move to an area where your skills are in demand.

Mr. Godhwani was surprised to see a huge rebound in postings for manufacturing jobs — up 94 percent in December 2010 over December 2009. Automotive job postings, which Simply Hired breaks out separately from manufacturing ones, were up even more — 137 percent — as automakers got back on their feet. Transportation-related jobs (involving the shipping of cargo, for example) rose by a staggering 337 percent.

Openings for financial specialists and accountants rose sharply in December over the year-earlier period. Other occupational categories showing big increases were lawyers, judges and legal support workers; office and administrative workers; and retail sales staff.

But many of these openings are clustered in certain metropolitan areas, and people looking for jobs outside those regions will have a harder time finding work.

Last month, areas with the most unemployed people per job opening were Miami/Fort Lauderdale (at 5 to 1) , Detroit, Sacramento and Los Angeles (all at 4 to 1), according to Simply Hired. Areas with a 1-to-1 ratio of unemployed people to job openings, and therefore offering a much better chance of landing work, included Washington, D.C.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Baltimore; Boston; Milwaukee; Minneapolis/ St. Paul; Oklahoma City; the San Francisco Bay Area; and Denver.

And certain cities are stronger in specific industries. For retail and wholesale trade, Seattle and New York are the best places to be; for media and telecommunications, San Francisco and New York are hot spots. For health care, you can improve your odds by heading to Boston or San Antonio.

Don’t restrict your job search to big-name companies. Employment by companies in the private sector rose by 297,000 last month, according to ADP, a payroll firm that conducts a regular employment survey. Companies with 500 or more employees were responsible for only 36,000 of that number. The lion’s share of the hiring was done by smaller firms. In general, ADP said, “nonfarm private employment grew very strongly in December.”

Over at Indeed.com, a big job search engine similar to Simply Hired, numbers are also on the rise. Retail, hospitality, transportation and manufacturing are all rebounding, said Paul Forster, Indeed’s C.E.O. (The New York Times is an investor in Indeed.com.)

Though real estate postings are up, they are “definitely recovering more slowly,” he said, and health care hasn’t grown as much as many other industries, “but that’s because it didn’t decline as much” in the recession.

A persistent problem is that many of the unemployed don’t have skills that are in demand, Mr. Forster said.

Want to get a job quickly? Just learn HTML 5 , a Web development language. It’s among the skills that employers now covet the most, along with experience in mobile apps, the Android operating system and Twitter, according to Indeed.com data.

Beyond seeking training in a high-demand field, job seekers may need to think about switching industries, moving to a different type of job within an industry, or relocating, Mr. Forster said. “People have to find a way to adapt their skills to the jobs available.”

E-mail: thesearch@nytimes.com.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 30, 2011, on page BU7 of the New York edition.
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What’s wrong with FACEBOOK?

What’s wrong with FACEBOOK?

I must admit, I have a Facebook page and over 225 ‘friends’ but mostly, I’m a Facebook voyeur. I really don’t think my daily routine is amazing enough for the whole world to know.

I enjoy a lot of the content I come across on Facebook. Last week there was a YouTube video of a concert that Kenny Loggins did in 1991 singing the song “Celebrate Me Home”. I love that song and it brought back some great memories. Through Facebook I’ve been in contact with friends from grammar school, high school and college who I haven’t spoken with in years.

There was a great time lapse video on Facebook showing the major snowstorm that just hit the northeast. DeSean Jackson’s punt return with no time left to put the Philadelphia Eagles ahead of the New York Giants was priceless. I’m a fan (or friend) of restaurants that send me coupons for discounts, and I have a friend who posts jokes almost every day that put me in stitches.

So what’s wrong with FACEBOOK????

Have you been sending out resume after resume and not getting any response? Have you had an initial phone interview and then no contact after that?  Well, Facebook might have something to do with that. Hiring Managers are regularly attending seminars conducted by Social Media Gurus who are expert in Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Four Square and others, to learn how to take advantage of informal information available on the net about YOU!!!

So there is a picture of you, out there, doing something foolish while you were out partying. Or maybe your last tweet was complaining about how terrible your college football team played (but you were using very colorful language). Maybe you posted a slightly off color video, or you are showing off your latest tattoo.

Prospective employers can and do try to find out as much as they can about you before bringing you to an in-person interview. It is illegal for employers to discriminate because of sex, religion, race, sexual orientation or physical handicap, but if this information is readily available on the net, a decision can be made without you even being aware.

I know of people who have been let go from their positions because of information gleaned off the net, or from someone’s cell phone. Brett Favre just got a fine ($50,000) for sexting a female employee of the Jets organization.

Recently, the partners of Gecko Hospitality were out for dinner at a national chain restaurant. We met a corporate recruiter there from another company. As pictures were being taken, he was quick to make sure his drink was behind him, and never in the frame of the picture.

So to be safe, be careful of the content you decide to make public. Could your posting be misconstrued? If you were an employer and you saw a similar post, would it affect the way you think about the person posting it. Be aware not only of pictures you post, but of pictures your friends might have tagged of you. Keep your settings private, only allow friends who you know to see your information, pictures, likes and dislikes.

Big Brother isn’t here yet, but he isn’t that far away.

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That Won’t Help Your Job Search

By Alison Doyle, About.com

A couple of messages in my In Box reminded me of what job seekers can do that won’t help their job search. The first one was from someone who told me that she can’t find any jobs to apply for because she doesn’t want to work for a recruiter and every company hires only through recruiters.

I told her that wasn’t the case and suggested she use LinkUp to search for jobs direct from company sites, create a LinkedIn profile and start networking, and use the job search engines to search for listings in her career field and location. She emailed back and said the first three jobs she found using a job search engine had recruiters as contacts. So she stopped looking.

Despite the fact that I had explained that a recruiter can help your job search and that there were 1019 (no exaggeration) other jobs that met her search criteria, she quit. Unfortunately, that’s not going to work in this job market. You need to spread a wide net and apply for as many jobs as you can find that are a fit.

In the second case, the person send me a lovely personalized email messages, along with a resume, reminding me that I had referred him for an interview for his last position. I hadn’t. I don’t know the person or the company and I don’t run an executive search firm.

The scenarios aren’t the same, but in both cases the job seekers were spinning their wheels and what they were, or weren’t, doing wasn’t going to help the job search.

What’s important when you’re job searching is to focus your job search, network with “real” contacts who can help, and to spend your time where it’s going to get your results. Take a look at these 10 steps to find a new job to make sure you’re using your job search time as efficiently as possible and focusing your efforts on helping you find a job, not hindering your chances.

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