The job market in New York and New England may be stirring.
Right Management recently conducted a survey and learned that 16 percent of respondents in the Northeast believe the job market in the region is getting better. Nevertheless, a majority of the respondents (56 percent) say the job market in the region is unchanged and 20 percent that it is getting worse.
On the surface, the findings are no surprise. After all, more people have been out of work longer than ever before. But compared with six months ago, the survey suggests the job market may be stirring, which practically no one in the Northeast would have said at the time. Now nearly one in six thinks the situation is improving.
From my personal experience, based on the people I am working with on a daily basis in New York, job seekers are reporting an increase in the number of conversations related to hiring. More employers seem to be willing and open to discussing hiring plans, even if they don’t have firm openings on the table right now.
There is also a possible psychological dimension. People who’ve been without a job for more than six months, about half the unemployed, may feel the job market is getting worse because their own situation is getting worse. But the reality is probably that the job market is sluggish and just slow to recover, but recovering it seems to be.
Nationally, 24 percent of Americans judge the job market to be getting worse. In the Midwest, West and South findings were similar to the Northeast, but sentiment was more pessimistic in the Mid-Atlantic.
Perceptions of the job market also varied according to age. Americans 35 to 44 years of age were least likely to believe the job market is improving.
On a positive note, those in the age bracket of 18 to 34 were most optimistic about the job market, with 23 percent thinking that the market is improving. This could be driven by more entry level positions opening up as the economy shows signs of improvement.
According to the findings, the lower the income, the more pessimistic people were about job prospects. Of those earning less than $25,000, 35 percent believe the job market is getting worse compared with only 13 percent of those earning $75,000 or more.
The reality is that while there are stirrings on the job creation front, jobs are not being created at the same level and at the same rate as the number of jobs that have been lost. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the job market needs to grow by 150,000 -200,000 jobs per month to stay abreast of new entrants. In 2010, 1.2 million jobs were gained, which is certainly a huge improvement over 2009, but not nearly enough to cover the losses. At the 2010 rate, it will take close to eight years to replace the jobs lost, without accounting for new entrants.
Similarly, pessimism reflects education level with 30 percent of those with high school or less reporting the job market is getting worse compared with just 16 percent of those with some college and 21 percent of graduates.
There were negligible differences by race, but Americans in large metropolitan areas tended to be more optimistic about the job market.
In our career management practice, candidates are selectively hearing from hiring managers and recruiters. These conversations have always caused a surge in optimism for job seekers. The Northeast is home to many of the industries that are seeing a resurgence in growth — financial services and capital markets, luxury goods, insurance, healthcare, IT manufacturing and life sciences are all areas that seem to be rebounding.
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Leslie Hild is vice president of career management for Right Management’s New York Operations. Right Management (www.right.com) is the talent and career management expert within Manpower. She can be reached at leslie.hild@right.com.
