The Wall Street Journal today reports the U.S. job market may bounce back quicker than in past recessions. That’s because, unlike the 1990-91 and 2001 downturns, a big chunk of job losses have come from the service-related industries that now lead U.S. employment.

Firms were unusually aggressive in cutting costs and cutting employment. The flip side of that remains to be seen, but it could mean that companies will be quicker to bring back people because they were more aggressive about getting rid of them. – James O’Sullivan, an economist with UBS

Comerica Bank economist Dana Johnson told the WSJ jobs could rebound quicker because it looks like the economy will also bounce back as it recovers, but an article from Forbes isn’t as optimistic.

Forbes says high unemployment could hinder recovery for consumption, credit and housing. Forbes considers the jobless recovery after the 2001 economic slump a good indicator that there could be another one following this recession. The article says this could be more likely because of companies’ tendency to cut back employees’ hours and rely more on part-time workers.

The U.S. unemployment rate has already risen to a level that is reminiscent of that in the 1981-’82 economic recession, and is likely to move higher and remain in double digits throughout 2010. This will prevent a rapid economic rebound, and is likely to heighten calls for a second fiscal stimulus package. – Forbes

Reuters reports similar jobless recovery findings, but also points out some good news for Midwesterners. The article says nine Midwest and South-Central states showed economic growth for the first time in almost a year.

Readings over the past several months indicate that the regional economy is on the mend. I expect the nine-state region to record positive growth, but with little or no job additions for the rest of 2009. – Creighton University Economics Professor Ernie Goss

From the Wall Street Journal:

Google the phrases job hunt and black hole and you’ll turn up 55,700 results. The reason for this confluence of terms, as any job hunter will tell you, is that applying for a position increasingly involves two phases.

Step one: Use the employer’s online application center to submit your carefully crafted résumé and cover letter. Step two: Sit and wait until the sun burns out and your bones turn to dust.

Behind the awesome silence, of course, is the miracle of automated screening. Getty ImagesRecruiters say the percentage of online applications viewed by an actual human being ranges from 5% to 25%. And while it drives job hunters crazy, there’s a good reason companies use so-called applicant-tracking systems to screen and rank candidates. Even in slow periods, your average coffee-stained corporate headhunter is scrambling to fill 20 positions at a time. Given the ease of applying online, recruiters are flooded with more résumés than they can possibly review. The largest retailers, for example, might receive more than a million a year, says Adrienne Whitten, of Taleo, a software outfit that powers the online career centers of nearly half the Fortune 100. And with rising unemployment, that avalanche of résumés is expected to double between 2007 and 2009. What overworked recruiter could resist the lure of software that promises to “quickly eliminate the hundreds of résumés from your mailbox”?

Until recently, it was easy for job hunters to game the system: The computer ranks you higher in the turnip pile if you tweak your résumé to include the same phrases found in the employer’s job description. But lately, spoilsport employers are ruining the fun, with sophisticated software that uses artificial intelligence. This newer technology can analyze the résumé of a top performer — say, Dennis in accounting who saved the company millions by eliminating doughnut Fridays — and find applicants whose résumés fit his “ideal candidate” profile.

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The Wall Street Journal’s Karen Blumenthal recently wrote an article outling key steps to take after a layoff–

Anything you’d add to this list?

One of the worst parts of being laid off is coping with fear and confusion about what’s ahead. You may not be able to control your exit. But you can make decisions about your money and how it will get you through the transition.

So what do you do? Take a deep breath; don’t rush to pull the kids out of piano lessons or soccer. Instead, start working on a new financial plan. The new stimulus package, which extends unemployment benefits and helps subsidize health-insurance costs, should help. Then consider these five elements that your plan should include:

Stay covered. Unexpected medical costs are the last thing you need when you’re out of work. The Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act, known as Cobra, lets many employees maintain their health insurance for 18 months if they pay 102% of the premium. That can be prohibitively expensive, but under the new stimulus law, unemployed workers who qualify pay 35% of the Cobra premium for the first nine months, with the government subsidizing the rest.

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The WSJ has an interesting article today about on-line job listings and why searching via internet can be so frustrating.  From the article: 

“If you’re launching an online job hunt for the first time in a while; take caution. What may look like an ad for employment may lead to something entirely different, like a hard sell for career services or job-training manuals. Or worse, it might be a plan by identity thieves to get you to share sensitive personal information via “phishing” expeditions. Some of the job postings — sometimes for positions long filled — also could be from recruiting agencies looking to collect résumés. The problem of job postings that aren’t what they seem is adding to the frustrations of the more than two million recently laid-off workers who are competing for an increasingly limited number of jobs. ”

“So how can you tell if a job posting is insincere? One sign is that it lacks details about the hiring company and position, says Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a nonprofit group in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., that specializes in privacy matters. Such an ad might describe an employer as a “major technology firm” rather than cite annual sales or say what kind of technology it produces. It also might offer a vague job description or list a salary range spanning more than $50,000. Genuine ads typically target applicants who have a specific amount of experience and pay salaries commensurate with their backgrounds, says Ms. Rigoli of the Fordyce Letter. If you’re unsure whether an ad is sincere, you can protect your identity when responding by providing a resume with a post-office box address instead of your home address, says Ms. Dixon. You might also list just your initials in the document and not your full name. Further, consider using a disposable email address to prevent spam from clogging up the one you normally use. If a business address or company name is provided, and it’s a name you don’t recognize, search for the employer’s Web site to learn more about it. You also can check for any complaints filed against it with the Better Business Bureau at bbb.org and consult with people in your network.”

In his first prime time press conference, President Barack Obama pushed the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan as a jobs creation plan. 

“That is why the single most important part of this Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is the fact that it will save or create up to 4 million jobs. Because that is what America needs most right now.

It is absolutely true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs. And breaking that cycle is exactly what the plan that’s moving through Congress is designed to do.”

What do you think?  Do you support the stimulus bill?  How do you think it should be changed? Do you think it will help save and create new jobs?

A few interesting articles and editorials:

New York Times: A Better Stimulus Bill

Wall Street Journal: There’s No Stimulus Free Lunch

Washington Post: Again With the Depression? Great. 

Chicago Tribune: Daley packs his list of projects before trip to Washington to push for stimulus package

If you are out of work and considering going back to school, you aren’t the only one.

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Midwesterners–particularly those formerly employed by the auto and machine-tool industries–are drawn increasingly to community colleges where they can be retrained for new jobs.

But abandoning the job hunt and going to school is not an easy decision. In addition to costs associated with not working and paying for classes, there is no guarantee of an offer at the end of the retraining process. Many businesses are shedding, not adding, jobs and that means newly trained employment seekers are competing against more experienced workers who were laid off.

The article concentrates on the employment situation in Rockford, which has a population of about 150,000 people. Once a national leader in manufacturing and industry, Rockford now has the highest unemployment in Illinois: 12.5 percent in December, up from 7.1 percent a year earlier. Currently, 19 percent of residents have at least a four-year college degree, compared with the national average of 27 perecent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

As millions of Americans languish in unemployment lines and pray they’ll see a paycheck soon, others are spending money to secure positions that don’t pay at all.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, a growing number of parents are paying consultants to find their college-aged and post-graduate children low- or non-paying internships, or are outright purchasing internships through online charity auctions. These parents argue that, with the job market seizing up, there’s no better way to get a foot in the door and their child on the fast track to future gainful employment.

Now, if you’re imagining this is a trend reserved for the East Coast’s upper echelons–think again. Brill Street & Co., based in Chicago, “places students only in paid positions and derives its profit by taking a percentage of their paychecks,” WSJ reports.

Brill thinks of its staff as “talent-agents” who guide their young clients through resume preparation, cover-letter writing and the job search. Considering the economic climate, it comes as no surprise that the number of the firm’s applicants have doubled in the past year, averaging 150 a week.

And Brill is not alone. Many consultancies, from online start-ups to national conglomerates, are capitalizing on the relentless ambition of the affluent young and the deep pockets of their parents. Some charge hundreds of dollars to take on clients and help them get the internships they want.

Would be willing to pay to help your child get an internship? Leave your comments below.

The Wall Street Journal posted a short video about Rockford’s high unemployment rate and its hope for the future.  From the website –”Larry Morrisey, mayor of Rockford, Ill., says his city is dealing with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. Still, he says there’s hope for its future as long as Rockford is willing to make tough decisions. This is the latest installment in the “Main Street Journal” series. “  You can find the  WSJ’s video interview with Morrisey on-line here. 

Rockford has had a rough go of it recently–in November, unemployment in the metropolitan area was up over 10 percent.

If you live in the Rockford area, we’d love to hear from you.  Have you noticed the high unemployment rate?  What’s it meant for you?