Posts Tagged ‘employment’
Small Businesses Still Hired in November
Friday, December 5th, 2008
Even in the current economic environment, a recent survey found that small businesses are faring better than they may think.
Small businesses increased their staff levels by 0.26 percent last month and 3.3 percent for the year so far, according to payroll administrator SurePayroll.
“We are big believers in small business resiliency but even we were a little surprised to see that U.S. small businesses managed to hire new employees in November,” said Michael Alter, SurePayroll president, in a statement.
SurePayroll polled more than 20,000 small businesses, finding that they hired more while also paying less for salaries. The average paycheck fell nationwide by 0.39 percent, and has fallen by 2.6 percent so far this year.
“We had anticipated a slowdown in salary declines, but higher employment clearly is allowing employers to hire talent for less money,” Alter said.
When SurePayroll asked a smaller sample how the economic downturn affected them, about 43 percent of them said that business has not been affected negatively. In addition, 4 percent of them even said they were doing better.
More than half of those businesses said they now feel optimistic about the economy, though other businesses surveyed in different studies revealed a growing pessimism.
In a Discover Financial Services survey conducted last month, about 65 percent of small businesses rated the economy as ‘poor.’ A third of the polled business-to-business owners also said they had cash flow issues in the preceding 90 days.
In addition, the National Federation of Independent Business found that positive outlooks from small business owners in August and September led to “recession level” feelings in October.
“October … would seem to be the proverbial ‘nail.’ Case closed. Tough times ahead,” the economic report stated.
Meanwhile, Alter had also considered news of a developing recession that month.
“It would be truly remarkable if small businesses could still manage to grow on average,” Alter said in SurePayroll’s October report. However, he had also likened small businesses to Rocky Balboa: “beat them to a pulp and they will keeping fighting.”
Tags: christina lee, Discover Financial Services, economic downturn, employment, National Federation of Independent Business, small business, SurePayroll
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How To: Get a Manufacturing or Wholesale Distribution Job After College
Monday, October 27th, 2008
A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers revealed that in light of an economic downturn, employers plan to hire 1.6 percent less college graduates than they anticipated in August
But while more than half of the 146 organizations surveyed also said they planned to cut hiring, the study revealed stark differences in hiring expectancies between the manufacturing and distribution industries. While manufacturing industry plan to hire nearly as many college graduates as they did two months ago,the distribution and utilities industry expects to hire 17.6 percent less.
The association typically conducts its job outlook survey annually, said Andrea Koncz, its employment information manager. Researchers felt compelled though to poll the respondents again for more than a week in October, seeking more up-to-date information.
"We kept hearing more bad news coming from Wall Street," Koncz said, "and with the original projections in August… we didn’t feel comfortable going with that."
Despite expected cuts, today’s employers still plan to hire 1.3 percent more college graduates than they did from the class of 2008, In response to the study’s findings, Heath Weems, National Association of Manufacturers director of education and workforce policy, and Phyllis Russell, Power Transmission Distributors Association Foundation executive director, talked with goWholesale about these industries’ abilities to hire and how college graduates can find jobs in both.
The Current State of the Industries
In general, manufacturers are downsizing unless they export or carry a product with a niche, Weems said. He attributes this trend to increasing global competition, though he also argues that its full impact has yet to be seen.
In a National Association of Manufacturers survey conducted three years ago, 81 percent of manufacturers responding said they faced a moderate to severe shortage of qualified workers. About 65 percent of them said also that they could not find enough scientists or engineers. Not much has changed since, Weems said.
Meanwhile, because of their close ties with manufacturers, distributors are just as affected by the economic downturn, Russell said. But college graduates can also look forward to a number of job openings to come, due to, at the very least, the number of baby boomers retiring.
"This year’s tough everywhere, but that is not a long-term trend," she said.
"Homework" Assignments for College Graduates and Industries
From a manufacturer’s perspective, "just because you’re unemployed doesn’t mean you’re employable," as Weems said.
A lot of positions available in the industry now require some sort of post-secondary training, by either working toward a two-year degree or participating in some other credential program. The great question then becomes, "How do we target resources to the unemployed to give them the training and skills employers are looking for?" as Weems said.
With that, the time for an answer is now. Since training programs take anywhere from six months to two years to complete, Weems says that the manufacturing industry needs to make them more readily available as soon as possible.
"If we don’t try to address those challenges now, we’re going to be back to where we were before, in need of those skilled workers. It’s going to hurt our ability to rehabilitate."
Meanwhile, Russell assures college graduates that they still have a number of job opportunities available – but they cannot wait for them to come knocking.
College graduates first need to look beyond the bigger distributors, to the smaller ones located outside of the cities.
"We still hear from many industrial distributors that they are hiring, that they are interested … that they are looking for folks," Russell said. "But those companies are not always located in the biggest cities."
In such an economic environment, college graduates also need to be assertive. They need to be seeking employment in those smaller distributors, for they "are not going to be showing up necessarily at college career days," as Russell said. Graduates can also still approach the bigger distributors, or any distributor they wish.
"If you know that you’re prepared for walking in and introducing yourself, not waiting for those openings, but rather saying, ‘this is the work that I want to do’ … that is tremendously appealing for an employer."
Bottom line: whether college graduates want careers in manufacturing or distribution, they must understand the industry and develop the necessary skills. As for the industries themselves, they may need to prepare themselves as well for the class of 2009’s arrival.
"Now may be a great time to snatch up some talented graduates," as Modern Distribution Management said last week .
Tags: Andrea Koncz, christina lee, college graduates, distribution, employment, Heath Weems, manufacturing, Modern Distribution Management, NAM, National Association of Colleges and Employers, National Association of Manufacturers, Phyllis Russell, Power Transmission Distributors Association Foundation, PTDA
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