By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com
January 12, 2010
Even with the economy showing signs of improvement, a new survey finds that job seekers are more worried about their prospects than a year ago, when the employment situation was at its bleakest.
Nearly half of those who called in to a job-search advice hotline were unsure about when they might find a new position, while one in six callers thought it would take a more than a year.
The survey was conducted among approximately 500 callers during the annual two-day free job search advice call-in held December 28 and 29 by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. Overall, more than 1,000 job seekers called in.
Eighty-one percent of this year's callers were unemployed, compared with 76 percent a year earlier. In 2007, 55 percent of callers were out of work when they called.
The overall confidence among job-seeking callers was much lower than a year ago. Only 12.4 percent felt they would be able to find a job in one to three months, versus 27 percent in 2008. The percentage of callers who thought it would take four to seven months to find employment dropped from 31 percent to 12.2 percent. The 15.5 percent who felt the job search would take more than 12 months was nearly triple the level of pessimism a year ago.
Along with the lack of optimism, there was a considerable amount of uncertainty. Forty-eight percent of callers were unsure about how long their job search might take, compared with 25 percent in 2008.
"The economy may officially be in recovery, but there are scant signs of a revival in the job market," said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "Employers are still shedding workers, albeit at a much lower pace, and hiring has yet to accelerate. Hiring is expected to pick up in the new year, but for those who have been jobless for an extended period, it is easy to become discouraged."
The Challenger call-in attracted many job seekers who have experienced prolonged unemployment. In fact, the median length of joblessness among callers was approximately one year. Nationally, the median length of unemployment stood at 20.5 weeks as of December, according to government data. That is the longest duration of joblessness in Bureau of Labor Statistics data going back to 1967.
Challenger is predicting increased hiringby mid-year. "It may not be heavy enough to significantly impact the unemployment rate," he notes, "but it will at least move us in a positive direction."
Challenger points out that companies are hiring now, to the tune of about four million new workers each month, on average, and says there are a lot of things people can do to improve their chances of being among those four million new hires. "The one thing they should not do is simply sit at a computer all day, responding to online help-wanted ads," Challenger advised.
Actions job-seekers should be taking include meeting people, whether it's in a job interview or a lunch meeting with someone who can provide advice and/or names of other people to meet. "Most jobs are going to be found through networking," Challenger says. "This is true whether you are a senior vice president of a Fortune 500 corporation or a welder."
According to the callers surveyed by Challenger, the hardest part of the job search is obtaining interviews.
"Getting an interview takes a lot of leg work, persistence and branching out through your network," said Challenger. "You may meet with ten people who are not hiring, before you get in front of a decision maker who is 'interviewing' for an open position. This more proactive approach to obtaining interviews is not necessarily easier -- in fact, it is much more difficult -- but it will be more successful in the long run."
Challenger says you can increase your chances of landing a job by adding new skills and knowledge through continuing education.
At the same time, it's important to realize there arescammersout there looking to take advantage of your misfortune.
Tricia of Apex, NC tells ConsumerAffairs.com that after seeing an ad on Monster.com, she contacted Career Training Solutions. The CTS ad, she says, stated that the company "would provide training in Payroll Administration, and that after successful completion of their program, hire you to perform payroll duties for clients they would secure. This employment offer was a guarantee in writing." That's not how it turned out, though. According to Tricia, "the culmination of this $520 7-month adventure is that CTS never had clients."
Emily of Brooklyn, NY says, "The American Career Center was a place that had promised me a career with the United States Postal Service. They claim to offer you a job once you have completed their program. The total for their classes was $500.00" She says she was told she passed the U.S Postal Examination but has heard nothing for seven months. "Recently when ever I try and call their number it appears to be that they have either changed their number without informing me or their number has been disconnected."
