Online Careers Blog

2008-10-06

Friday morning marked the release of September's employment situation report by the BLS, as well as the ninth month in a row that the country has posted a net loss in jobs. Not our most impressive feat. The loss of 159,000 positions is a lot harder to ignore than cuts in previous months.

On the bright side, the health care industry is still generating employment opportunities, but these gains slowed some last month, with just around 17,000 jobs added. Most of these positions were in ambulatory health care services. Local government education added another 16,000 jobs. The mining industry added 8,000.

Most of the job cuts in September were typical, save for the leisure and hospitality sector (-17,000), which includes food services and drinking places (-4,800 jobs). Up until the last few months, food services and drinking places had been one of our nation's more resilient employment industries.

The manufacturing, construction, and retail trade industries topped all others in jobs losses with 51,000, 35,000, and 40,000 positions lost, respectively. Professional and business services employment decreased by 27,000 positions, while the transportation and warehousing and financial activities sectors both posted double-digit losses in the thousands.

The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers declined by 0.1 hours, while the average pay for these workers rose another three cents. Average weekly earnings in the U.S. in September totaled $610.51.

2008-09-19

According to a press release issued by ClearLight Partners yesterday; a deal between the private equity firm, Chicago Growth Partners, and online education powerhouse DeVry Inc. is now finalized; awarding ownership of U.S. Education Corporation over to DeVry. Talk of the business trade began in July, with Reuters reporting that the acquisition would further DeVry's plans to diversify itself within the health care field and expand its pre-baccalaureate offerings in the discipline.

U.S. Education Corporation owns and operates a number of private career colleges across the Western United States including Silicon Valley College, Western Career College, American Institute of Healthcare Technology, and Apollo College. These schools combine to educate close to 9,000 students annually in the areas of nursing, ultrasound and pharmacy technology, veterinary technology, dental hygiene, medical and dental assisting, and much, much more. With this recent purchase, DeVry has certainly gained more authority within the allied health care training industry.

If you've been following the BLS employment situation reports as of late, you know that health care is one of the only sectors that's been able to weather the current economic downfall successfully and continue to create jobs for U.S. workers. And this move on the part of DeVry cements the fact that health care is becoming the industry that students should look to if they want job stability and a plethora of opportunities in our tumultuous market.

DeVry's new acquisitions, such as Western Career College and Apollo College, are excellent choices if you are looking to earn a degree or a certificate that will help you move ahead in allied health care. There are also a variety of other options for you to research right here at OnlineCareers.com, whether you are searching for a campus-based program or a curricula that's strictly online.

As an additional resource, if you're located in the California area, the California Wellness Foundation has launched a new site called HealthJobsStartHere.com. This project is just one example of how the state's attempting to grow interest in the industry, as health care is California’s fastest-growing employment sector. You can find a ton of useful information about jobs in various fields, salary standards, local training programs, financial aid opportunities, and the experiences of real-life health care workers on the website, so be sure to check it out if you're at all interested in this line of work.

2008-09-18

As is usually the case, there are bright spots even when the overall national labor market stumbles. Today we're bringing a hiring boom in West Virginia to your attention. The West Virginia Manufacturers Association held a job fair in the Charleston Civic Center yesterday in a bid to find workers able to do skilled manufacturing work. Reports the Charleston Daily Mail:

The manufacturers are hiring because of a boom in the energy sector, a shortage of skilled labor and an anticipated increase in retirements. West Virginia's unemployment rate in August was 3.9 percent, down from 4.2 percent in July. The nation's jobless rate last month was 6.1 percent.

2008-09-16

Arizona State University has announced it is substantially expanding its offerings of online education degree programs by making ASU Online and Extended Campus the school's fifth campus. ASU Online currently carries 28 bachelor and master degree programs that will be available to students not only in Arizona but also nationwide and across the world. Among the currently listed online programs are Bachelor of Applied Science in Fire Service Management, Bachelor of Science in Environmental Technology Management, and Master of Advanced Study Degree in Geographic Education.

"We are creating another avenue for access to ASU for time and place bound students, underserved populations, and those seeking a more convenient way for a higher education," says Vice President and Executive Vice Provost Mernoy Harrison, the leader of ASU Online.

2008-09-08

Data released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a loss of 84,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.1%.

The job losses cut across most industries but once again hit manufacturing especially hard. 61,000 jobs were lost in that industry.

Trade, transportation, and utilities lost 35,000 jobs, with two-thirds of the cuts in the retail industry - mostly among auto dealers - and another third in wholesale. Surprisingly, considering the mortgage crisis and the decline in home sales, building material and garden supply stores added more than 5,000 jobs. Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores also saw a growth in jobs.

The job losses were trivial for transportation and warehousing (just over -4,000), leisure and hospitality (-4,000), the information industry (-3,000), and Financial activities (also -3,000), while professional and business services took a huge hit, -53,000 jobs. The losses in that industry were driven by a decline in jobs in the employment services sector (-53,000), especially temporary help (-37,000).

On the positive side, educational services grew by 16,000 jobs and health care added another 26,000 jobs. Finally, federal, state and local government all added jobs while the United States Postal service shed almost 7,000 workers.

But all is not bleak for individual job seekers, even if the overall job market is contracting. For example, the IT Jungle reports that the IT Hiring Index predicts continued if slowing hiring in the IT sector through the end of this year. SurePayroll claims that small business have increased their hiring by 2.4% year to date, in part because of falling salaries. Online retail giant Amazon.com has hundreds of job listings on its website in Washington state according to Seattle Post-Intelligencer (548 to be specific, although the listings go all the way back to mid-June in 2007. 279 jobs were listed in September and August this year). Amazon is also hiring hundreds of workers at its Kentucky fulfillment centers.

There is a number of different career paths that continue to provide opportunity for workers at different educational levels. Skilled trade workers like welders, plumbers and electricians appear to remain in in strong demand, as do white-collar jobs such as accounting and various high-tech jobs.