The best of times, the worst of times.

Finding a job in your chosen career can be difficult at the best of times. We are certainly not in the best of times! I have now been looking for full time work for almost four years (it will be four years next month.) Right now according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics I am technically in the involuntary part time workers category, and it is no fun. Sometimes I feel like I am in the marginally attached category (those who want to work full time, but have stopped looking because they feel like they can't/won't be able to find a job.)

Either way I am suffering, and so are millions of Americans. For the raw data some of you may be interested in the actual BLS report for July. It is rather dry to read, but here is what I take away... little has changed in the past year. Thats a bad thing! In the last year the stock market has gone up over 20%,  home prices have risen a little over 12%, home sales are up, and every month it seems that the private sector hiring is higher than the overall number. For example in July ADP reported that private sector hiring created 200,000 jobs, yet the overall number just released by the BLS was a gain of 162,000 jobs. So the quick math would indicated that the public sector lost 38,000 jobs in July. Initial analysis by CNN/Money seems to agree with me that this is not good. Bloomberg News also notes that hours worked and earnings were down slightly for the month. All of this adds up to bad news.

I realize that this may be an oversimplified example... but if the Federal Reserve still contends that the government should be spending more on infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, etc.) then instead of spending $85 billion per month to buy bonds, why can't they spend on infrastructure? Even $1 billion per month would make a difference.

Certainly some of the job loses in the public sector since the rescission began in 2008 were jobs that may have not been necessary... but we can't sustain this. The private sector can't hire all 12 million unemployed Americans. It certainly can't absorb all the unemployed/underemployed/marginally attached workers (I think that number is closer to 25 million!)

Yesterday I wrote about a disturbing trend to shift work to part time or temporary work. If we relay on the private sector to rehire all the people who want to work, this trend will get worse and so will the country as a whole. So while these are by no means the best of times, things will get a whole lot worse in my opinion if this trend continues.

To best position yourself remember to prepare your self for any opportunity with sound research about the company and industry you are interviewing with. Be prepared to make connections between your skills, abilities, and background to their position and situation. As always good luck, and fi you have any thoughts I would love to hear them.

Survey says...

It has been a while since I have found time to write, boy the summer has gone by fast. With many economic signs appearing to conflict, especially when it comes to employment, I thought I'd write about a phenomenon that hits a bit close to home. The trend (if it is that) of jobs shifting away from full time and towards part time (or even temporary.)

Over on CNN/Money Tami Luhby has an article on some of the latest employment data:
"Want a job? Good luck finding full-time work." Different from the monthly jobs numbers this article discusses the rise in part-time and temporary jobs. While each is not at all times highs set back in 2010 the increase is a bit unsettling.

If you take the glass half full approach you might see this as amazing, considering as Ms. Luhby describes all the things working against hiring (payroll tax hikes, sequester, the Affordable Health Care Act, and general weak economic growth.) It is amazing that any hiring has been going on... But the half empty view would suggest that companies are intentionally shifting to less and less full time employment to avoid not only health care, but benefits in general.

Now I don't think I would fall squarely in either camp... but as someone who currently only has a part time job I can certainly see the effects. Many of the employers who I am looking to find work with are slowing hiring or moving towards part timers.

Higher education has traditionally used somewhere between 30% - 40% part time workers for the actually teaching (when you combined adjuncts, lecturers, and graduate assistants.) So for me personally the change may not be as drastic, but for many other fields like engineering and information technology the switch may be alarming.

My bachelor's degree is in computer science, and while I never saw my self as a programer if I had chosen that field and been working for the past decade and a half I can't imagine I would be looking fondly on the prospect of now having to work project by project and get far less than what I was worth. I guess I don't see the incentive for the programmer or engineer to work to the best of their ability when they know they will be out of work when the project is done. I suppose if there were large incentives to complete the project within the timeframe maybe... but otherwise why should I effectively shorten my usefulness.

Now I suppose that if I do very good work I might get hired back for more contract work... but again with no health and retirement benefits the situation would seem untenable.