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Want fries with your job? The good news: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics's latest job growth prediction, the US economy will add millions of jobs for Americans with only a high school diploma.
According to the BLS, there will be 20.4 million more jobs in 2020 than there were in 2010. About 12.8 million of those jobs will require a high school degree or less. Many of those will be clustered in services. The country will need more healthcare aides to look after a rapidly aging population. There will be more work in food preparation, retail, and office administration. The graph below depicts the occupations requiring a high school degree or less that are expected to add the most jobs (from left to right).
The bad news? They don't pay well.
There are a few solidly middle-class jobs tucked in here -- a good salesperson for a wholesaler averages $62,000 a year. An administrative support supervisor takes home more than $50,000 a year. A carpenter makes $43,000. But most of these jobs offer between $18,000 and $30,000 a year. The pay for the jobs at the far left, which will generate the most employment growth, is particularly abysmal.
Jordan Weissmann of The Atlantic has more: Link
It used to be that composing a quality résumé and wearing pants to a job interview were critical to a successful job hunt. But that’s changing. Well, one of them is. Hiring managers are increasingly looking toward applicants’ web presence to gauge what they have to offer:
Instead of asking for résumés, the New York venture-capital firm—which has invested in Twitter, Foursquare, Zynga and other technology companies—asked applicants to send links representing their “Web presence,” such as a Twitter account or Tumblr blog. Applicants also had to submit short videos demonstrating their interest in the position.
Union Square says its process nets better-quality candidates —especially for a venture-capital operation that invests heavily in the Internet and social-media—and the firm plans to use it going forward to fill analyst positions and other jobs.
Companies are increasingly relying on social networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles and online quizzes to gauge candidates’ suitability for a job. While most still request a résumé as part of the application package, some are bypassing the staid requirement altogether.
Do you think that the age of the résumé is over?
Link -via TYWKIWDBI | Photo: Flickr user bpsusf
Most people who want extra tip money try to write something clever on their jars, but the geniuses over at Depanneur, a grocery store in Brooklyn, know just hot to get the dollars moving: make it a contest between two geek icons. Personally, I’d give my money to Alfred because he needs it more, but that’s just me.
Link Via The Consumerist
Professor Stephen Hawking is looking for an assistant. Originally, the job was to be for a technician who can maintain and troubleshoot his computerized voice system -and that’s still the most important part of the job description.
An informal job ad posted to the famed physicist’s website said the assistant should be computer literate, ready to travel, and able to repair electronic devices “with no instruction manual or technical support.”
Hawking has long struggled against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease which left him almost completely paralyzed.
He lost his real voice in a tracheotomy in 1985, but a wheelchair-mounted computer helps synthesize speech by interpreting the twitches of his face. The synthesizer’s robotic monotone has become nearly as famous as Hawking himself, but the computer — powered by batteries fastened to the back of Hawking’s wheelchair — isn’t just for speaking.
It can connect to the Internet over cell phone networks and a universal infrared remote enables the physicist to switch on the lights, watch television, or open doors either at home or at the office.
The updated job description also says the assistant will help with travel arrangements, lecture preparations, and dealing with the press. Travel is required. The position is funded by the University of Cambridge. Link to story. Link to job description. -Thanks, Shaun!
Got
a college degree but couldn't find a job? Not going to be a problem in
China!
The ever practical China's Ministry of Education has the perfect solution to college graduates that can't find jobs: eliminate the college majors producing unemployable people. Problem solved!
Much like the U.S., China is aiming to address a problematic demographic that has recently emerged: a generation of jobless graduates. China’s solution to that problem, however, has some in the country scratching their heads.
China’s Ministry of Education announced this week plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates, according to state-run media Xinhua. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which the employment rate for graduates falls below 60% for two consecutive years.
Link (Photo: Zhu Difeng/Shutterstock)
The job pays well, but the minimum education and work experience requirements are pretty stiff and you’ll have to relocate to Houston. Also, you must be small enough to fit into a Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA, the world’s leader in space and aeronautics is always seeking outstanding scientists, engineers, and other talented professionals to carry forward the great discovery process that its mission demands. Creativity. Ambition. Teamwork. A sense of daring. And a probing mind. That’s what it takes to join NASA, one of the best places to work in the Federal Government.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a need for Astronaut Candidates to support the International Space Station (ISS) Program and future deep space exploration activities.
Applications will be taken until January 27th. Link -via Metafilter
A Taco Bell marquee in Depew, New York had an unusual message Thursday that was photographed (and censored for the news audience) before it was taken down. Apparently, an employee had quit.
A co-worker of the supposed sign maker at Taco Bell/KFC tells News 4 that apparently Adam is the name of a shift manager at the restaurant who denied the worker the Fourth of July off after they had worked 22 days straight, despite allowing others to have the day off.
This is one of those things that the overwhelming majority of people would never do, but we have all thought about it at one time or another. Link -via Fark
Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the need for more skilled blue-collar workers.
In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We’ve elevated the importance of “higher education” to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled “alternative.” Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as “vocational consolation prizes,” best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of “shovel ready” jobs for a society that doesn’t encourage people to pick up a shovel.
In a hundred different ways, we have slowly marginalized an entire category of critical professions, reshaping our expectations of a “good job” into something that no longer looks like work. A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber – if you can find one – is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we’ll all be in need of both.
His purpose was to encourage support for industrial education through programs Rowe participates in, such as Go Build Alabama, I Make America, Discover Your Skills, and mikeroweWORKS. Read his entire testimony at the Discovery Channel site. Link -via reddit
While many folks are dealing with unemployment, those who still have jobs are putting up with more and more cutbacks. Little by little, our personal space at work is shrinking.
According to the International Facility Management Association, the average American office worker had 90 square feet of work space in 1994, but by 2010, that same worker was down to just 75 square feet of personal space in which to stretch out on the job.
Nor are office drones the only casualty of this spacial downsizing trend. Senior company officials have seen their offices shrink as well, from an average of 115 square feet in 1994 to 96 square feet in 2010. Oh, the humanity!
However, big offices are not the status symbol they used to be. Now it is a sign of status when a worker can do at least part of his job completely outside the office. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Annette Edwards, who has worked for years to breed the world’s biggest rabbit, and was recently in the news for having plastic surgery to look more like Jessica Rabbit, is looking for help. Edwards is holding auditions for the position of rabbit handler, to help with Alice, her rabbit that holds the world’s record for the longest bunny, as they made public appearances. Think you have the stuff for this £70,000 a year position?
Current Guinness World Record title holder Annette Edwards, 57, a real-life version of Jessica Rabbit, is looking for a handler to show big bunny Alice over the next year. Whoever gets the role can expect a life-changing year, travelling with Annette to far-flung corners of the globe.Already booked are personal appearances in Paris at the end of April on a television show and the heart of fashion, Milan, in May.
The two-and-a-half year old bunny also weights a whopping three-and-a-half stone so some
strength will be needed. The ideal candidates needs to be someone who can handle the rabbit and loves pets, with a big personality and not be shy in front of the camera.
The Salary Theorem proves mathematically that those who know more make less money. Therefore, if you know nothing, you should be fabulously wealthy! Link -via Digg
It’s kind of like that Crosby Stills Nash and Young song "if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with", but instead of love, substitute job.
Jeremy Caplan of TIME Magazine has a handy dandy guide to "job-crafting" that will (hopefully) turn the job you hate into a better one. For example:
Step 2: Diagram Your Day
To lay the groundwork for change, job-crafting participants assemble diagrams detailing their workday activities. The first objective is to develop new insights about what you actually do at work. Then you can dream up fresh ways to integrate what the job-crafting exercise calls your "strengths, motives and passions" into your daily routine. You convert task lists into flexible building blocks. The end result is an "after" diagram that can serve as a map for specific changes.Ina Lockau-Vogel, a management consultant who participated in a recent job-crafting workshop, says the exercise helped her adjust her priorities. "Before, I would spend so much time reacting to requests and focusing on urgent tasks that I never had time to address the real important issues." As part of the job-crafting process, she decided on a strategy for delegating and outsourcing more of her administrative responsibilities.
In contrast to business tomes that counsel managers to influence workers through incentives, job-crafting focuses on what employees themselves can do to re-envision and adjust what they do every day. Given that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it now takes the average job seeker more than six months to find a new position, it’s crucial to make the most of the job you’ve got.
Distraction is a film by Mike Stern, who probably didn’t have to listen to the boss’ favorite music while creating this. Still, you know he’s been through it at one time or another! Link -via YesButNoButYes
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupation Injuries, fewer people died on the job in 2008 than the previous two years. Still, some jobs are much more dangerous than others. Using statistics from 2008, here are the five deadliest careers.
1. Fishers
2. Loggers
3. Aircraft Pilots and Flight Engineers
4. Structural Iron and Steel Workers
5. Farmers and Ranchers
Yahoo Finance has the statistics on each job. There is also a linked slide show from Forbes looking at the top ten deadliest jobs. Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: Flickr user Sam Beebe / Ecotrust)
Last year, the state of Utah mandated a four-day work week for state employees. The salaries and number of hours each worker put in remained the same as the workday became longer, but offices were closed on Fridays.
After 12 months, Utah’s experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it’s Thursday). The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Altogether, the initiative will cut the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons a year. And perhaps not surprisingly, 82% of state workers say they want to keep the new schedule.
Even those who do not work for the state have benefitted since offices are open later Monday through Thursday. Other states and businesses are looking at the results and may possibly try the schedule out. Link -via Digg
William David, a developer for Ubisoft, decided the best way for him to quit would be through the same medium, but in a rather different style. The combination of style, music and message make this an entertaining experience and by the time I had walked my way through it, I myself was willing William on to do great things. His plans are to continue work as an independent developer.
You don’t accrue points, you don’t compete against anyone, and there are no advancing levels, but the music is awesome. Use the arrow keys to advance and quit your job. Link to story. Link to game. -via reddit
Ever wonder just how much that meeting will cost your employer? By entering the estimated average salary of everyone in the meeting, the number of employees and when the meeting started, you get to watch just how much money is wasted on these pointless get togethers. I can’t wait until this becomes an iPhone app you can stealthy bring to the meeting with you.
Link Via BoingBoing
Writing for Popular Mechanics, Claire Martin has a list of jobs that she thinks can only face increased demand in future decades, including undersea welder, digital detective, and battery engineer. Here’s the rationale for the latter:
Today, Gardner leads a team that designs, builds and tests batteries for hybrid electric cars at A123 Systems, a fast-growing firm based in Watertown, Mass. A123’s clients include Chrysler, GM and automotive upstarts Think and Better Place, and the company’s staff has jumped from 150 to 2000 in the past three years. Ann Marie Sastry, who directs the University of Michigan’s master’s program in energy systems engineering, says, “The DNA of the automobile is changing, which means the composition of the workforce has to change.” Sastry also runs her own battery company, called Sakti3. “We’re hiring,” she says. “It’s a great time to be a battery guy.”
Link via Instapundit
I posted this resume in my blog almost 2 years ago and suddenly is getting a lot of hits. I guess that with unemployment raising people are looking for good examples of resumes… and once you read this one, you can’t help but pass it on!
This is definitely a great example of how to do the best with the worst. The guy making the job search spent his last 10 years in jail for trafficking marijuana but he didn’t let that small detail stop him and he managed to make you see his past under a new light.
Some highlights of the resume are:
"… I co-owned and participate in the executive level management of 120 people worldwide in a successfull pot smuggling venture with revenues in excess of 100 million annualy..."; "I am well-traveled and I speak English, French and Spanish"; "References available from friends, family, US District Attorney, etc".
Seriously, his resume (published as an ad under "employment wanted" in Canada) is priceless and a great example of how you can come clean and even make something of it!
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by scbr.
Remember the story of how some Japanese firms base their hiring on a person’s blood type? An insurance company based in Salzburg, Austria is hiring people based on their astrological sign! Twenty part-time jobs were offered to those born under the signs of Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, Aries and Leo. Anti-discrimination groups protested, and government authorities are looking into the matter.
The company is, however, sticking to its guns and a spokesman explained that the move was based on statistical research rather than superstition.
‘A statistical study indicated that almost all of our best employees across Austria have one of the five star signs.
‘We only decided to continue with that system and hire the best workers,’ the spokesman said.
An investigation by Austrian authorities showed that there was nothing illegal in choosing the employees according to their star signs, as there was no discrimination according to existing laws about gender, age, racial and other equality.
Link -Thanks, Bill!
(image credit: Flickr user Atelier Teee)
