Tim McMahon, Editor of UnemploymentData.com

My grandfather lived through the Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany--to say he was an original “gold bug” would be an understatement. I began reading his “hard money” newsletters at the age of 16 and the dividends from gold stocks helped put me through college. I began publishing the Financial Trend Forecaster paper newsletter in 1995 upon the death of James Moore editor of Your Window into the Future and the creator of the Moore Inflation Predictor©. FTF specializes in trends in the stock market, gold, inflation and bonds. In January of 2003, I began publishing InflationData.com to specialize in all forms of information about the nature of Inflation. In 2009, we added Elliott Wave University to help teach you the principles of Elliott Wave analysis. In January 2013, we began publishing OptioMoney. Connect with Tim on Google+.

Fastest Growing Occupations

April 4, 2012 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its list of the 20 fastest-growing occupations. As you would expect several are in the health services field, after all, those aging baby boomers are going to need health care. Yesterday we looked at the New Job Creation estimates in terms of pure numbers. In other words, which jobs would have the most new positions. Today we are going to look at which jobs are growing the fastest in terms of percentages.

As you would expect some positions are on both lists, like home health aides 69% growth and 706,300 new positions over the decade and personal care aides with 70% growth rate and 607,000 estimated new positions. Unfortunately, although both jobs are growing rapidly and will need hundreds of thousands of new people to fill all the positions, the average annual salary for both positions is only about $20,000 per year.

One high paying profession with a high growth rate is biomedical engineers with a 62% growth rate over the decade averaging $81,540 per year in 2010. The fourth, fifth and ninth fastest growing professions are in the building industry and all three are entry-level positions as a carpenter, brick mason and plumber – Helpers. These positions all pay in high $20,000’s and can lead to positions like the 19th fastest-growing position of brick mason and block mason which is estimated to grow by 41% over the decade and in 2010 paid an average of $46,930 per year. Other construction trades that made the list was reinforcing iron and rebar worker with a 49% growth rate over the decade and a 2010 average salary of $38,430 and glazier (glass installer) with a 42% growth rate and a $36,640 per year average salary.

Medical and related positions that are slated to grow are physical therapy assistants (46% growth and $49,690/yr.), physical therapists (39% and $76,310/yr.), physical therapy aides (43% and $23,680/yr.), diagnostic medical sonographers (44% and $64,380/yr.), occupational therapy assistants (43% and $51,010/yr.), medical secretaries (41% and $30,530/yr.), marriage and family therapists (41% and $30,530/yr.) and even veterinary technologist positions are expected to grow 52% over the decade and average pay in 2010 was $29,710.

Other fast-growing positions are expected to be interpreters and translators with 42% growth expected and an average salary in 2010 of $43,300. Also, meeting, convention, and event planners are expected to grow by 44% and earned $45,260 per year in 2010. So if you are looking for a higher paying job it may pay to look at fastest-growing jobs rather than jobs with the most potential vacancies.

One job that is so new the Bureau of Labor Statistics isn’t even tracking it yet is that of a Social Media Manager. This position is rapidly growing as companies jump on the Social Media bandwagon. If you enjoy using social media like Facebook and Twitter your skills are in demand. You can help companies with their Facebook and Twitter by monitoring online communications and making companies more “personal”. Find out more about how you can become a Social Media Manager.

BLS Issues New Job Creation Estimates

April 3, 2012 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has just released its latest revision of its annual Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH). This is a great resource for those interested in changing jobs or for students trying to decide on a career. The OOH lists job descriptions, average salaries and estimates of the number of new jobs that will be created between 2010 and 2020. Obviously when choosing a new career it is best to be in a position that has increasing demand rather than finding yourself in an industry such as buggy whip maker where finding a job becomes increasingly difficult. If your position is in demand and supply is tight the natural progression will be increasing salaries, bigger signing bonuses and more benefits as companies compete for the limited number of candidates available.

According to the most recent data from the BLS, many of the new positions with the best salaries are in the health care arena, which makes sense in a time of aging Baby Boomers. For instance the number one position with the greatest increase in demand is for Registered Nurses. The BLS estimates 711,900 new nurses will be needed during the decade between 2010 and 2020. Plus, the salary of registered nurses is the highest of any of the top 20 growth positions with a median annual salary in 2010 of $64,690.

Click for Larger Image

Unfortunately, many of the other growth positions are [Read more…] about BLS Issues New Job Creation Estimates

Internships Can Help

March 31, 2012 by Tim McMahon

As a student or someone with limited job experience internships can be a wonderful way to gain experience and get your foot in the door even if you initially work for free. In medieval times finding a job was easier. If your father had a profession you were expected to take over the family business and go into that profession. However, if the family had too many sons or didn’t have a family profession the youngster (often at the age of 13 or younger) could become an apprentice to a professional in need of some help. The young apprentice would be given the most menial of tasks, starting with sweeping up the shop or doing other tasks that the “master” didn’t want to do. Then slowly he would be given increasing responsibilities until by the age of 18 he would be able to perform the vast majority of what the master could do. This system of training worked well and even Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice in a printing shop.

Today we send our children to school where hopefully they will learn to read and write and eventually get into college. Once they graduate they are on their own but depending on their major they may not have a single marketable skill. After all, how much demand is there for underwater basket weavers, or psychology majors? Even if you major in a profession like engineering or drafting where there is a defined job path it is often difficult to break in to the profession without any experience. And that is where internships come in. [Read more…] about Internships Can Help

How U.S. Unemployment Rates Compare to other OECD Countries

March 16, 2012 by Tim McMahon

Unemployment rates in the U.S. in January were 8.3%
See: Unemployment Rate Chart
Which is very similar to the average Unemployment rate in other OECD countries. The OECD area average unemployment rate was 8.2% in January 2012, having remained basically unchanged throughout 2011. The Euro area was significantly higher at 10.7% reaching a record high since the start of the global financial crisis. It has continued to move higher since June 2011 while the U.S. has decreased from 9.1% to 8.3% during the same period.

Austria remains lower than the rest of the Euro area (and the U.S.) with an unemployment rate of 4.0%, Luxembourg has a rate of 5.1% and Germany has 5.8% compared to other Euro area countries like the Slovak Republic at 13.3%, Slovenia 8.2% and Finland 7.5%. The dubious honor of the highest unemployment rate in the OECD goes to Spain with an unemployment rate of 23.3%.

Among non-European OECD countries, the unemployment rate fell slightly in Australia (to 5.1%), Mexico (to 4.8%) while it increased slightly in Japan (to 4.6%) and Korea (to 3.2%).

New data for February 2012 show that the unemployment rate for the United States was stable at a seasonally adjusted 8.3% (following five consecutive monthly declines) while it fell by 0.2 percentage point in Canada (to 7.4%).

Unadjusted U-3 unemployment in the U.S. in February was 8.7%
See: U-6 Unemployment Rate for information on the broader unemployment rate calculation.

Median Weekly Earnings $764

January 24, 2012 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the results of their 4th quarter 2011 wage and salary survey today. Data on usual weekly earnings are collected as part of the Current Population Survey, a nationwide sample survey of households in which respondents are asked, among other things, how much each wage and salary worker usually earns. The BLS surveyed a representative sample of the 101.5 million full-time wage and salary workers and determined that the mean (not seasonally adjusted) earnings were $764 per week. Annualized that would be $39,728.

Wages varied by race, gender, age group and profession. As would be expected, persons employed full time in management, professional, and related occupations had the highest median weekly earnings with men earning $1,274 and women earning $946. Men and women employed in service jobs earned the least, $578 and $440, respectively.

Education also played a part in the median wages. Full-time workers age 25 and over without a high school diploma had median weekly earnings of $444, compared with $641 for high school graduates (no college) and $1,158 for those holding at least a bachelor’s degree.

Wages also varied by age with the highest wages going to those in the oldest age group. Among men, those age 55 to 64 had the highest median weekly earnings at $1,029. While those slightly younger ,45 to 54 had the second highest at $993.

Earnings by race are also tracked, with Asians having the highest median wages at $880, Whites at $786, Blacks at $621, and Hispanics at $534. These numbers do not take into consideration education, language abilities or occupation. Women had median weekly earnings of $688, or 81.6 percent of the $843 median for men. White women earned 81.4 percent as much as their male counterparts, black women earned 91.1 percent as much as their male counterparts, Asian women earned 80.3 percent as much as their male counterparts and Hispanic women women earned 90.4 percent as much as their male counterparts. Interestingly if you take 80.3% of the Asian male wage you get $706 for Asian women which is more than the $621 for Black men.

The BLS uses the “Mean” rather than the average. A “Mean” determines the amount the middle person in a group makes. So if you have five people earning $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and $50,000 the mean would be $30,000. In this example the average would also be $30,000. But the reason the BLS uses the mean is because it eliminates the effects of high income wage earners. For instance if you have five different wage earners earning $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 and then you have Mitt Romney earning $21 Million. The mean is still $30,000 but the average is $4,220,000.

World-Wide Hourly Compensation Comparison

December 21, 2011 by Tim McMahon

The 2010 worldwide hourly compensation cost comparison is finally in. So we can see how the wages stack up between 34 different countries. Not surprisingly many European Countries have higher employment costs than the U.S. because of their massive social programs. This of course makes them less competitive in the world market. Surprisingly, in 2010 the U.K. actually had lower total employment costs than the U.S. Of course when it comes to standard of living, Wages and Social programs are only half of the equation. The other half of course is the cost of living. A low cost of living country doesn’t need the same wages in order to have the same standard of living.

Let’s look at the wage levels in various countries [Read more…] about World-Wide Hourly Compensation Comparison

The Difference a Degree Makes in Unemployment Levels

November 18, 2011 by Tim McMahon

The Difference a College Degree Makes

We’re always told by our parents that we need a good education in order to get a good job. And that we will make more money if we have a good education. But these days we hear of unemployed college graduates camping out in New York city and protesting Wall Street because they can’t find jobs. So let’s take a look at the numbers and compare the unemployment rate based on eduation level. In the following chart we will look at four educational levels. The first level are those people with less than a High School education. The second level are those with a High School diploma. The third level are those with some college education or an associates degree. And finally those with a Four Year College Degree.

As we can see from the chart above, obviously the unemployment rate is the highest for those with the least education… as we would expect. Logically if you were an employer you would lay off the least educated employees first because they are more readily replaceable. We can even tell by the numbers the actual difference a high school education makes. The average unemployment rate for the period from 1992 through October 2011 for High School graduates was 5.5% while the average for those who didn’t graduate from High School was 9.2%. So simply by getting a High School education, you decreased your odds of being unemployed drastically with the actual difference being 3.7%. But if you look at the chart you will see that a High School education was even more valuable than that. The real benefit of being able to get a job is when jobs are scarce, so even though the average difference was 3.7% during bad times, i.e. when the overall unemployment rate is higher the difference climbs even more.

First, let’s look at the difference just a high school education makes. [Read more…] about The Difference a Degree Makes in Unemployment Levels

North Dakota Jobs Booming

November 17, 2011 by Tim McMahon

While the unemployment rate in most of the United States hovers around 9% an unlikely sounding state is booming. The current unemployment rate in North Dakota of all places is just 3.5% according the September report of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Nationwide, the rate is 9.1%). An oil boom has sprung up and immunized residents from the most severe recession in decades. Wages are up, and work is plentiful. It’s almost like being on a totally different planet. People are sending resumes and getting multiple job offers within a week. Why? [Read more…] about North Dakota Jobs Booming

World’s Most Weird and Wonderful Jobs

November 11, 2011 by Tim McMahon

By Isabella Woods

As many of us are only too aware, we spend a lot of time at work. According to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, the average Brit spends 1,530 hours a year working, while the average American spends even longer – a back-breaking, finger-hurting 1,896 hours every year.

Things are not going to get better either, according to Paul Macro of the actuaries Watson Wyatt. ‘For a long time, it was a common belief that rising prosperity would allow each generation to retire earlier than their parents,’ he says. But reality has now bitten. It means saving more or working longer.

With these sobering thoughts in mind, perhaps it’s time that we started considering how we make all those years of slog a little more interesting. Do a little digging, and it’s easy to discover some unusual, if not downright bizarre, employment opportunities.

Banana gasser

Not quite as Nazi as it appears, banana gassing is a process to help ripen the fruit ready for sale. After being picked, bananas are shipped while they are still green to help reduce the potential for bruising. On arrival, they are taken to hermetically sealed chambers where they are surrounded with an ethylene gas to encourage their ripening. The process can take three to eight days, with the gasser using a computer program to determine the volume and amount of exposure needed. [Read more…] about World’s Most Weird and Wonderful Jobs

Compensation Costs Up in September 0.3 Percent

October 29, 2011 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the compensation costs for U. S. civilian workers on Friday October 28th. Wages and salaries are up 0.3% or roughly 1/3rd of 1% for the month. This represents 70% of the total of the cost of maintaining employees. The remaining 30% of the cost comes from benefits and they rose 0.1% over the month.

On an annual basis, employment costs have risen 2.0% for the 12 months ending September 2011. This is compared to an annual inflation rate of 3.87% based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U. This is the most widely used measure of inflation. So even though costs rose almost 3.9% wages only rose 2% leaving the average wage earner 1.87% worse off than last year. This of course is not as bad as the nearly 10 of the working population that is currently unemployed.