The news today, although likely not surprising, certainly isn’t good. The national unemployment rate is up to 10.2 percent—the highest since April 1983.
However, couple that statistic with the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) LINE® Employment Report, which shows a net total 17.8 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector will add jobs this month and a net total of 15.8 percent of service sector companies will add jobs in November.
“Though November will mark the first time that year-over-year hiring expectations have increased in the service sector since February 2008, and in the manufacturing sector since August 2007, net expectations are low, reflecting a slow job market recovery,” said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM.
A slow job market recovery is actually, in my mind, good news. Slow recovery is better than a continued deterioration.
Also this morning, JuJu.com released its Job Search Difficulty Rankings report, indicating which cities challenge job seekers the least and most.
Least Difficult
1. Washington, DC
2. Baltimore, MD
3. San Jose, CA
4. Salt Lake City, UT
5. New York, NY
6. Hartford, CT
7. Denver, CO
8. Boston, MA
9. San Antonio, TX
10. Austin, TX
Most Difficult
1. Detroit, MI
2. St. Louis, MO
3. Miami, FL
4. Las Vegas, NV
5. Riverside, CA
6. Los Angeles, CA
7. Sacramento, CA
8. Portland, OR
9. Providence, RI
10. Birmingham, AL