Archives for 2015

Oil Jobs Lost: 250,000 And Counting, Texas Likely To See Massive Layoffs Soon

December 4, 2015 by Guest Contributor

Crude oil just capped off a third straight week of declines, as WTI nears the $40 per barrel threshold. Goldman Sachs is once again raising the possibility of oil dipping into the $20s per barrel.

That spells more pain for the energy sector. Many companies have already slashed spending and culled their payrolls, but the total number of job losses continues to climb.

According to Graves & Co., an industry consultant, oil and gas companies have laid off more than 250,000 workers around the world, a tally that will rise if oil prices remain in the dumps.

“I was surprised it’s gotten this far,” Graves & Co.’s John Graves told Bloomberg in an interview. In an eye-catching statistic that highlights [Read more…] about Oil Jobs Lost: 250,000 And Counting, Texas Likely To See Massive Layoffs Soon

Saving Money on Small Business Expenses

November 24, 2015 by Guest Contributor

Running a small business can be tough. If you’re not careful with your expenses, you can easily go into the red. Thankfully, there are many things small businesses can do to save money. Below are five strategies for saving money on all your most important expenses.

Don’t Tie Up Too Much Money in Inventory

At home it often pays to buy in bulk but in business capital is usually scarce and if you are borrowing money capital is expensive. In order to be successful, you have to weigh the cost of capital against any savings for buying in bulk. So while it may appear that you are paying less for each item, you will probably be wasting money in the form of overstock. Instead, try to keep inventory to a minimum with “just in time” ordering i.e. only order new stock when you’re close to running out. It takes a little bit more work and logistics, but there are plenty of programs and apps that can make the task easier.

Minimize Fixed Costs

Fixed costs are things like rent, that [Read more…] about Saving Money on Small Business Expenses

Women Entrepreneurs Making An Impact Now

November 23, 2015 by Guest Contributor

These days almost every industry has its share of outstanding women entrepreneurs. The list starts at the top of the business food-chain with first-time women CEOs such as Mary Barra of General Motors and IBM’s Ginni Rometty. This is followed with more CEOs, in other fields such as education, social media, and the non-profit sector. In addition, woman entrepreneurial power comes in teams that are co-founding the next big thing. Here is a glimpse of this diverse group of women professionals with expertise, insight, and vision for innovating and trendsetting.

Mary Barra, CEO General Motors
This is a famous and powerful entrepreneur as the first woman to head a leading automotive manufacturer. Her tenure started out rocky at the height of scandal for the big automaker, but each year since taking the helm she has navigated the rough waters to calmer seas with the company numbers and image turning a corner. While she still has much work to do, she is a stand-out in 2015.

Ginni Rometty, CEO IBM

Thirty-five year veteran of IBM, Ginni Rometty rose from [Read more…] about Women Entrepreneurs Making An Impact Now

The Gig Economy Is the New Normal

November 19, 2015 by John Mauldin

By John Mauldin

An already-confusing employment environment grew even more complicated this past week. Many readers responded to my “Crime in the Jobs Report” letter with their own stories. Some confirmed what I wrote, while others disputed it. Some of the stories I read from readers who are stuck far from where they want to be in this job market were very moving. I think everyone agrees the labor outlook is uncertain. I sense a lot of nervousness, even from those who have secure jobs that pay well. In today’s letter, I’m going to respond to some of the observations and data that came in this week on employment.

As we will see, we have a right to be nervous. Big changes in the employment world are happening, and we don’t yet know how they will affect us individually. Analysts like me can say we’ll muddle through, but we must remember that not everyone will muddle at the same pace.

We will also take a look today at a growing new phenomenon: the gig economy.

Employers Want Gray Hair?

We talked last week about employers’ reluctance to hire older workers. Reader Steve Lange from Denver pointed me to a ZeroHedge article that questions this premise.

If you look at the BLS age breakdown for new jobs (Table A-9), you’ll see that workers aged 55 and over accounted for virtually all of October’s strong gains. That group added 378,000 jobs last month.

Meanwhile, the number of workers aged 25-54 actually declined by 35,000. That’s supposed to be “prime working age,” so any decline should ring alarm bells. And the numbers are more alarming if

5 Unusual Freelance Jobs

November 19, 2015 by Guest Contributor

In the new gig economy, the key to successful freelancing is having a variety of profit centers. Whether you choose to have several projects in one field, or work in a variety of fields, having an arsenal of freelance options will keep you successfully self-employed.

Here are 5 unusual freelance jobs that you can explore, or mix and match for extra cash.

Podcasting

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the podcast serial, podcasting has exploded as a way to communicate. These days, many businesses and individuals want to get into that game. If you have some technical chops, a great freelancing gig would be to offer your services as a podcasting engineer. You could both set up and instruct a client or you can be a weekly regular.

Blog Food Stylist and Photographer

Nowadays, the key to a successful blog or website are the photos. Clients are in need of someone who can come in and help create a visual brand for their food blog. If you have a knack for making a table look inviting, are able to make food look scrumptious on a plate and have the love and talent to create photographs of it all, this may be for you.

Truck for Hire

People are always looking to move things from place to place. Whether it is produce, merchandise, vehicles, small buildings or even just hauling trash to the dump. There are many options for freelancers to purchase a used truck and start their own hauling business. If you are hauling trash locally you won’t need more than a small truck. But, if you are considering hauling large loads locally or cross country you might consider starting with a used tractor trailer from a company like Arrow Truck Sales.

Professional Instagrammer

Instagram is the fastest growing form of social media in the city, and many companies like, airlines, media organizations, municipalities, tourist authorities, and other groups use it to post current photos. These companies need freelancers to take photos of landmarks, new installations, special events, and other points of interest.

E-Learning

E-Learning is the hottest trend. Learning about a new app, system, upgrade can help you create your own course. If you want to find clients looking to convert their material into an E-Course, E-Learning is a profit center that has not yet realized its potential.

The key to successful self-employment now is having a variety of gigs. Whether they are all related, or all different, mixing and matching unique profit centers will give you many options to realize your career dreams. Most importantly, your unique skills will always make getting up for work exciting and challenging.

A Closer Look at All Those New U.S. Jobs

November 12, 2015 by Elliott Wave International

U.S. labor force participation rate is at its lowest level in 38 years

A Closer Look at All Those New U.S. Jobs
U.S. labor force participation rate is at its lowest level in 38 years

By Elliott Wave International

Editor’s note: You’ll find a text version of the story below the video.

I was in the café of a bookstore recently and overheard a young man tell his friend, “It’s hard to get a job these days, even with a degree.”

Of course, this was just one comment, and anecdotes are not a substitute for statistics.

But much of the talk about the U.S. job market is that it’s far less robust than it use to be, despite a steady improvement in the official jobless rate since the Great Recession high of 10.0% in October 2009. This October, the official unemployment rate was 5%.

In truth, the real jobless rate would be [Read more…] about A Closer Look at All Those New U.S. Jobs

BLS Releases October Employment Figures

November 6, 2015 by Tim McMahon

Current Unemployment Rate Chart

According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data release on November 6th the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate for October is 5.0% down from September’s 5.1% which was down significantly from last October’s 5.8%. The “Unadjusted” rate is 4.8% down from 5.6% in July and much lower than January’s 6.1%. See: Current Chart

According to the BLS, the U-6 Unemployment Rate for October was 9.5%. U-6 unemployment includes short-term discouraged workers who have given up looking for work because they feel there is no work available for them.

However, since 2010, Gallup (the survey/Pollsters) have been doing their own employment survey using basically the same parameters as the BLS and they conclude that the current U-6 (which they call the “UnderEmployment Rate) is actually 13.8% down from 14.1% in September.

According to John William’s Shadowstats the government began underestimating unemployment back in 1994 when they changed the way unemployment was calculated since “long-term discouraged workers were defined out of official existence”. The new U-6 numbers only include short-term discouraged workers. The following chart shows their calculations for Unemployment based on their estimates of what it would be if unemployment was calculated the pre-1994 way.

Current Employment Data

According to the current Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the employment situation for the month of October 2015 was as follows: The number of Unadjusted jobs reported for October 2015 was 143.739 million. That was up from June’s previous peak of 142.836 million.

For more information see: Current Employment Data

Current Employment vs Unemployment Chart

When looking at employment vs. unemployment you would think that they would simply be the inverse of each other. Flip one over and you have the other. But the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) actually uses two entirely different surveys to calculate them. So by comparing them we can spot irregularities. See Employment vs. Unemployment for more information.

Historical Employment Data

In this chart we can see the historical employment figures from 1939 through the present. But in addition to the number of jobs we can also see the recessions shaded blue.

See: Historical Employment Levels for more information.

The misery index combines two factors that can make life difficult for people i.e. unemployment and inflation. High levels of price inflation (rapidly rising prices) will cause households to have difficulty affording the basic necessities while high unemployment will leave a high percentage of households without any income at all.

See: InflationData’s Misery Index.

Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate

The U-3 Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate is the standard unemployment rate that the government prefers to use since it presents a much rosier picture than the U-6. Go here if you would like to see the “Unemployment Rate” in table form.

Unadjusted vs. Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate

Although the Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate is often quoted by the main stream media (MSM) people often wonder how much fudging goes on in the adjustment process. In this chart you can see how the Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate compares with the Unadjusted rate.

Although it doesn’t appear that there is much “fudging” going on with the Seasonal adjustments that doesn’t mean the numbers are without problems. See Is the Government Fudging the Unemployment numbers for some alternative ways to get a better picture of the employment situation.

See Also:

What is U-6 Unemployment for more information about the different definitions of unemployment.
Current U-6 Unemployment Rate
What is the Real Unemployment Rate?

High Paid Miners Now Working at Walmart?

October 2, 2015 by Tim McMahon

September Employment Numbers Disappointing

Apparently U.S. employers cut back on hiring over the last two months. The expectation by economists polled by Reuters was that there would be a net gain of 203,000 jobs in September.

But when the BLS released their “preliminary estimates” for the employment situation for September non-farm employment rose by only 142,000 in September. And to make matters worse, August numbers were adjusted down resulting in the smallest Seasonally adjusted two month gain in over a year.

The BLS Commissioner’s report stated, “Job gains occurred in health care and information, while mining employment fell… The number of persons unemployed for less than 5 weeks increased by 268,000 to 2.4 million in September, partially offsetting a decline in August… Thus far in 2015, job growth has averaged 198,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 260,000 in 2014.”

So 2015 has averaged only 76% the job growth that 2014 had and at 142,000 September was only 54% of 2014’s average. 34,000 new jobs were created by healthcare, 31,000 came from professional and business services, 24,000 from retail trade employment, and food services and drinking places added 21,000 jobs. On the other hand, mining and mining support lost -17,000 jobs. So it appears all the high paid mining workers are now working at either McDonald’s or Walmart. Not a good trend at all!

See Current Employment Commentary for more information.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also released the newest unemployment data for September 2015 today. According to the BLS, the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate for September is 5.1% identical to August. The BLS reported the “Unadjusted” Unemployment Rate is 4.9% which is lower than August’s 5.2% . See Current Unemployment Chart for more information.

In our chart of employment vs. unemployment we compare them and although you would expect that employment and unemployment are simply the inverse of each other (i.e flip one over and you have the other) actually there are several anomalies in the data. Because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) uses two separate surveys to calculate the data it helps us see [Read more…] about High Paid Miners Now Working at Walmart?

Six Unexpected Payoffs of Having a Sales Job

October 1, 2015 by Tim McMahon

In an age where companies must use a wide range of different marketing tactics to compete, the salesman has somewhat of a bad reputation. While many salespeople are helpful professionals, many people think of the aggressive telemarketer or the high-pressure car salesman when they picture what it looks like to work in sales. In actuality, sales jobs can be extremely lucrative and the experience attained can offer professionals an extreme advantage in the job market. Here are six payoffs you might not expect to have when you start a career in sales.

Rewards Go Beyond Just Commissions

Whenever you take a job, you expect to be paid as long as you are performing. Most people know that the top-selling professionals who are working for the right company can earn serious coin by hitting their targets. While a good salary and fair commissions are important, you need to look beyond the money. Many companies will offer their top salespeople company cars, bonuses, cruises, trips for conferences, and other perks that will make life in and out of the office more [Read more…] about Six Unexpected Payoffs of Having a Sales Job

Six of the Most Dangerous Jobs in America

September 23, 2015 by Guest Contributor

Most people know they will be safe when they arrive at work, but that’s not the case for everyone. In order to keep a highly productive society, some of us have to do the extra hard and dangerous jobs. While there are dozens of jobs with some level of danger, these six often pose the most threat to worker safety.

Pilot

There are a variety of different jobs for pilots from flying small private planes in the bush to flying large jumbo jets from city to city. There is always going to be [Read more…] about Six of the Most Dangerous Jobs in America