Job Market

Jack Carr, manager of the Northeast Jobs Center office, has seen a lot of people down on their luck during his 31 years working in the state unemployment system, but nothing like the bad fortune of the last two years. "You have people who have put 20 or 30 years at a job, and now they're out of work," he observed. "You see so many capable people out of work. This is one of the worst (periods) I've seen. " Since the end of November, the Northeast office, part of the state's Department of Labor and Industry, on Grant Avenue just west of Ashton Road, has seen the number of unemployment claims jump from 4,500 to 9,500.

Barbara Price hurls statistics like darts, hoping that one or the other will strike home and make you start thinking about the changing nature of the American workforce. Like this one: According to a 1986 U.S. Department of Labor study, by 2000, a majority of all new jobs will require training beyond high school. And this: 83 percent of workers entering the job market between 1988 and 2000 will be women, minorities or immigrants. Yet few schools have begun preparing students - especially women and minorities - to meet the changing needs, Price said.

Ten years ago, students entering college were told to specialize. Today, students about to enter college are being told that it pays to have a well-rounded background. Companies today are looking for employees who will be able to adapt to changes, especially now with corporate mergers becoming more common, said Patricia Smith, executive director of Operation Native Talent, a program offered by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce that matches job seekers with prospective employers.

Representatives of business, education and government recently met at the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce in Media to plan a countywide symposium to discuss the county's job market and the need for job training in areas with a large demand for workers. The symposium was tentatively set for April 30. Among those attending the planning meeting were representatives of U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.); the Delaware County Intermediate Unit and Vocational Education Department; Delaware County Community College; the Delaware County Chapter of the AFL-CIO; Delaware County Council; the Delaware County Partnership for Economic Development; the Pennsylvania State Education Association, and a number of private-sector business people.

Arthur Shostak, a Drexel University professor and author, likes to talk about the future. On Thursday, he will discuss the job market in 2010 at the Center for Arts and Technology, 1580 Charlestown Rd., Phoenixville. Shostak's topics will include evolving relations between humans and machines, telepower, smart energy innovation and the dangers of job wars, mind wars and class wars. Shostak's credentials as a futurist include membership in the World Future Society and futurist consultant for several Fortune 500 corporations.

Leaning against car hoods and a brick wall, eight men chatted or smoked cigarettes in the cool of a morning that soon would start to sizzle. While much of the city slept yesterday, these few waited restlessly for a chance to go to work, a chance to risk their backs and their necks lifting, fastening or balancing on giant beams perhaps hundreds of feet in the air. But it was only 6:20 a.m., and the door to the two-story glass, iron and stucco...

MODEST GOOD NEWS for college students: An annual survey predicts employers will increase hiring of new four-year college graduates about 5 percent in the coming year. Demand for graduates with associate's degrees is expected to increase more sharply - by about 30 percent compared with last year's survey - and MBA hiring appears headed for an unexpected decline. The 42nd annual survey out Thursday from Michigan State University's College Employment Research Institute collects responses on hiring plans from more than 2,000 U.S. employers.

WASHINGTON - In in the latest sign that the economy is surging at year's end, unemployment claims have dropped to the lowest level since April 2008, long before anyone realized that the nation was in a recession. Claims fell by 4,000 last week to 364,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the third straight weekly drop. The four-week average of claims, a less volatile gauge, fell for the 11th time in 13 weeks and stands at the lowest since June 2008. While the economy remains vulnerable to threats, particularly a recession in Europe, the steady improvement in the job market is unquestionable.

NEW YORK - Encouraging economic reports pushed stocks higher Thursday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 61 points, its third gain in a row. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level since April 2008, the latest sign that the job market is healing. It was the third week in a row that applications fell. The Conference Board also reported that its measure of future economic activity had a big increase last month. It was the second straight gain, signaling that the U.S. economy was picking up speed and the risk of another recession was fading.

NEW YORK - Signs of a slowing economy dragged down the stock market Wednesday. Even the prospect of continued stimulus from the Federal Reserve didn't help. Major market indexes fell by 0.9 percent, their worst decline in two weeks. Small-company stocks fell even more, 2.5 percent, as investors shunned risk. The yield on the benchmark U.S. government bond fell to its lowest of the year as investors sought safety. Stocks opened lower and kept sagging throughout the day, hurt by reports of a slowdown in hiring and manufacturing last month.

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the U.S. economy has strengthened but still needs extraordinary support to help lower high unemployment. In a statement after a two-day meeting, the Fed stood by its plan to keep short-term interest rates at record lows at least until unemployment falls to 6.5 percent, as long as the inflation outlook remains mild. And it said it would continue buying $85 billion a month in bonds indefinitely to keep long-term borrowing costs down.

Can $14,000 per person help laid-off drug company workers find new jobs? That's the amount New Jersey's Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Monday that it would contribute to state employers in any field willing to hire former pharmaceutical workers, provided they add them before Sept. 30. The $14,000 per person is part of a $3.6 million federal emergency grant, which includes $1 million in on-the-job-training dollars that have to be spent by the September deadline.

Wall Street liked what it heard from Washington, as the stock market responded positively to an upbeat jobs report Friday from the U.S. Labor Department. February's unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, while payroll jobs grew by 236,000, with broad hiring in nearly every sector. The report sent the Dow Jones industrial average up 67 points, and the S&P gained nearly seven points. "The number was up more than expected," said PNC Financial Services chief economist Kurt Rankin.

The nation's payrolls added 236,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent, down from 7.9 percent, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday morning. Stocks rose as the news was released. Except for 10,000 government jobs lost, there was hiring in nearly every broad industry sector, including manufacturing, construction, retail, business and professional services and health. Education, typically a job generator, saw a decline, both in the private and public sectors.

NEW YORK - After barreling through a record the day before, the Dow Jones industrial average meandered higher Wednesday, edging up 42.47 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 14,296.24. An encouraging job-market report helped nudge the market and pushed bond prices lower. On Tuesday, the Dow blew past the previous all-time high, which it hit more than five years ago. The index of 30 big corporations has more than doubled since plunging during the financial crisis in March 2009. In the past, stock indexes have often drifted lower in the months after breaking through previous records.

The Philadelphia region's housing market may be turning more slowly than other areas of the nation, but turning it is. For the economy to pick up steam, residential real estate must play a major role. Not only does construction create jobs in many different industries, but when home prices rise, household wealth jumps and generates more confidence and spending. That trend is under way nationally, and even the Philadelphia region is starting to see conditions improve. One look at the recent national numbers and you see how far the housing market has come.

The recession is over and the job market is improving, albeit barely, but the psychological aftermath of the worst financial downturn since the Great Depression persists, according to a sweeping national survey by Rutgers University. The majority of those surveyed say they believe that there has been a permanent and painful change in the nation's economy. Gone forever, they say, are the ability of the young to afford college, of employees to feel secure, and of workers to land good jobs at good pay. "What this reflects is how wide and deep the whole shock was," said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, one of the study's coauthors.

No sale on school funding plan Pennsylvania students shouldn't have to wait in line behind corporations for a cut of $250,000 in additional yearly school funds. But that's Gov. Corbett's plan for public education. He wants Pennsylvania to swap 5,000 State Store jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in regular-as-clockwork revenue for a paltry education block grant divided among 500 districts. Corbett prefers to plunder public resources instead of finding permanent ways to fund vital services.