Yeah, it’s a cliche, but that seems to be the most accurate description of the job market at the moment. There are small signs, like this morning’s numbers, that could be at least in the neighborhood of positive. But the consensus is that employers are not in any hurry to hire people.
As this CNN Money story points out, we’re probably still a year away from seeing a significant move in hiring (emphasis mine):
“For the job seeker it’s probably not necessarily obvious right now that things are improving,” said Jennifer Schramm, the manager of workplace trends and forecasting for The Society for Human Resource Management.
Although anecdotal evidence suggest that hiring expectations will improve in the second half of the year, “we have to wait a few months to see if this is a trend,” she said.
The rate at which companies are cutting jobs has dropped dramatically, but the unemployment numbers are still stacking up.
This story says New York has 800,000 people out of work, the most in 33 years. Many states reported higher unemployment rates today: Tennessee, Georgia, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Michigan (yikes), among others.
If you’re in an unemployed state of mind, I recommend unemploymentality.com. Might be just the thing.
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