Oct 14, 2011
The perception resonating from the media is that unemployment is spiking and the state of the economy is declining. America is rapidly deteriorating.
People are gathering in the streets around the globe in support of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in an effort to drive home the message that there is a need to extinguish the “corporate state”. They say that corporate America is in fact ruining democratic America.
Every day we log online and see another blog from someone who is unemployed or read another article about a family living with nothing since both spouses lost their jobs. But is that the reality?
The Current Stats
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics on October 7, 2011, the unemployment rate was holding steady at 9.1%. This has been relatively unchanging since April 2011.
The same source also notes that the long-term unemployed account for 44.6% of the total unemployed, and 6.2 million workers have been jobless for 27 weeks or more.
Perform a Google search for the term “unemployment blogs” and you will find pages upon pages of them. The media is all over this one.
But how much of the hype is true?
The numbers don’t lie, and we don’t try to pretend they do. We also aren’t trying to hide the truth. There are unemployed people out there. We see it every day. But what we’re seeing in our industry is a slightly different trend.
TxMQ’s Experiences on the Subject
Again referencing the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job growth seen in the majority of business sectors included professional and business services, health care, construction, temporary services, technology, management and consulting, and mining. Job losses were most often seen in retail trade.
“The myths and realities of unemployment are in the eye of the beholder,” said Miles Roty, Account Manager at TxMQ. “This market defies definition, because it is different for each individual. The interesting viewpoint of the recruitment and staffing agency is that we see it all. We see candidates with great pedigree and profiles struggling, we see what could be viewed as marginal performers getting hired. I will not pretend that there are no people who are victims of circumstance, but it seems that for the skilled and/or willing – opportunity exists.”
TxMQ has actually seen a shift in jobs orders over the past year, increasing significantly above status quo.
Our newest addition, Corey Switzer, joined the engineering division of TxMQ last month as a recruiter and comes from a staffing agency that worked with general placement employees.
Corey has seen a significant increase in low-mid level contract work resulting in over a 100% increase in available jobs since late 2009, and at least a 40% increase in available jobs since last year.
“Direct hire opportunities have been plentiful, however, I have noticed that more and more direct hire opportunities are specialized, not lending themselves well to candidates with transferable skills,” she said
Basically in the world of direct hire, you either have it or you don’t when it comes to desired skill sets and employers have not been easily swayed from that mentality.
Because TxMQ is primarily in the contract staffing field, we see a variety of candidates cross our desks every day. And the people we encounter are usually rolling off one contract to start another one.
There hasn’t been an extreme influx of candidates who are desperate to get off unemployment and find a job. In fact, our recruiters estimate they are placing currently employed candidates about 70 percent of the time.
An Outside Take On The Issue
Throw a pebble and you will hit 50 people with different opinions on this subject,
Just today, I posed the question on the TxMQ Facebook page: Do you think the media is blowing unemployment out of proportion or is it as bad as they portray it.
I received two very different answers to this question.
It’s actually a LOT WORSE than they portray it to be….if we don’t remove the uncertainty that is stifling small business investment and if we don’t repeal Obamacare…, America will have its first generation that has it worse than the previous. I had a great career in IT doing consulting for insurance companies and financial services firms – UNTIL ‘someone’ started labeling them ‘fat cats,’ at which point those contracts dried up…, one of our Facebook fans wrote.
Another of our Facebook friends answered with the following:
I drove by the local AT&T store this morning right after 8am. There were at least 50 people waiting in line for the new iPhone… So, either the unemployed have too much disposable income, or the employed are not afraid of losing their jobs over buying a new phone… My conclusion? Things can’t be that bad.
The Bottom Line
So the bottom line is this. Because TxMQ is in such a niche market of high-end IT and engineering positions, it’s hard for us to step out of our own shoes and say what is really going on with unemployment as a whole.
After so many years of hardship, companies have cut as far as they can, and now a lot of pressure is being put on existing employees. Eventually the staff gets burned out and leave, or the company realizes that it’s time to add bodies in the chairs.
“It’s a shame that companies have to be pushed in that way sometimes to make the decision to rehire,” Roty said.
Business is not bad across the board – but companies now are more interested in the balance sheet and stock price than being focused on what they ultimately do best – focusing on their core business competencies.
Ultimately, that is how individual businesses grow, and the stock value slowly rises as true value is recognized. This is all tangible business value, rather than inflated Wall Street figures based on a rigged P&L statement for a company full of miserable employees – including management!
These ups and downs are occurring as our modern economic system figures out how to better balance the wealth of the world. There’s a great shift taking place and it won’t happen overnight. However, it is in process now and we are experiencing the growing pains it is producing.
Fasten your seatbelt and do your job well. Expect the best from your employer and remain positive about your prospects, whether you’re working or seeking.
About TxMQ
TxMQ is a leader in the IT staffing and solutions industry. We offer contract, contract to perm and permanent placement positions in a variety of industries.
Since its inception, TxMQ has specialized in Mainframe software and mainframe systems support offerings. As mainframe software and mainframe applications and subsystems like DB2, z/OS, CICS, MQ, and DB2 continued to grow in popularity, so too did TxMQ’s offerings.
These expanded to include technologies like virtualization solutions including Linux Virtualization, network Virtualization (Cloud Computing), and desktop Virtualization, as well as mainframe modernization.
As the web became more prevalent and a part of the enterprise, we followed IBM’s offerings and added skilled resources and SME’s in areas like WebSphere, BPM and SOA, including both Lombardi, and Metastorm (now a part of open text), as well as DataPower.
Contact us today at 716-636-0070 ext 29, or email wendy@txmq.com.
