Glassdoor recently announced its 50 Best Places to Work list! The top 50 winners were selected by their employees – check it out!
http://www.glassdoor.com/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm
Guest post by Patrick Del Rosario
“There’s a recession going on? I thought that was over.”
While technically we’ve been out of the recession for a good long while now, job seekers can be forgiven for being a bit skeptical, because they haven’t really seen that translate to more work opportunities for them. And even when people do find work, there’s a larger question looming: how do I know I won’t just get let go again the next time there’s economic turmoil?
Luckily, the one bit of good that has come from this economic disaster is that we’ve been able to identify a number of jobs and industries that seem to be relatively unaffected by our recent troubles. And these aren’t the usual suspects—yes, it’s obvious that we’re always going to need doctors, nurses, and police officers, but those types of jobs aren’t for everyone.
That’s why we decided to find jobs that are on the upswing right now. If you’re just starting out or looking for a change, here are several careers that you might want to look into to see if they are right for you. All of the projected growth numbers are through 2016.
Mental Health Counselor. The number of people suffering from depression, trauma, and other difficult life issues has increased almost as much as the number of us dealing with weight issues, which has led to a projected growth in counselors of 30 percent. Hopefully the median pay will increase, too, because right now it’s at a fairly modest $38,000.
Financial Analyst. Wasn’t it the money people who got us into this mess in the first place? Well, apparently they didn’t hurt their job prospects at all by doing so, because the median salary for this kind of work is just over $77,000 and their numbers are expected to grow by 34 percent. Hopefully this time the people entrusted with helping businesses make smart investment decisions will actually do that—and find people who listen to them.
Skin Care Specialist. Looking at this job, which largely involves those people who work in spas and try to help us look good, you might find it hard to believe that we’re in serious economic trouble. I mean, who worries about getting facials when the economy is falling apart? Those looking for a career in this industry can rejoice in the fact that they’ll probably find a job (there’s 34 percent growth expected), then lament the fact that they’ll be making so little (under $30,000).
Dental Hygienist. Crave the comfort and order of working in an office all day but wish you could combine it with a job where you interact with people and help them out? Become a dental hygienist and you’ll have the best of both worlds with a career that is expected to grow by 30 percent in the next few years and has a median salary of over $62,000.
Performance Makeup Artist. Are you a whiz with outlandish makeup and artistic skin designs? Do you work well under pressure and excel at dealing with difficult personalities? Then you might want to consider a career as a makeup artist to the stars, whether that means turning Charlize Theron ugly or making Steve Buscemi pretty. Those who go into this line of work should have no trouble finding a job with 40 percent growth expected, and with a median salary of just under $37,000 they should be able to make at least a modest living.
Forensic Science Technician. Do you secretly have a desire to solve crimes using science and confront the bad guys with witty one-liners? Well, the only way you’re really going to be doing that is to become an actor on a TV show, but if you’re okay with just doing the crime-solving part, the forensic science industry is on the rise. 31 percent growth is expected over just a few years, and median pay right now is just over $48,000.
Personal and Home Care Aide. First the good news: people who like helping others (especially the elderly) around the house with personal care can expect to see a ridiculously high growth of 51 percent in their job market. What could be bad about that? The pay—the median salary is just over $18,000, which can only laughably be considered a livable wage.
About the Author: Patrick Del Rosario is a Filipino business and career ninja. He works at Open Colleges, one of the pioneers of Online education in Australia and one of the leading providers of human resources courses. Aside from blogging and being a business ninja, Patrick is an aspiring photographer. If you want to feature his writings on your site, connect with him at Google+ or at patrick (at) oc.edu.au.
Have you ever considered working with grantmaking foundations? According to the Dunn and Bradstreet database there are over 5,000 “grantmaking foundations” nationwide and they are growing at phenomenal rates.
Check out this article, which includes a list of the top 100 grantmaking foundations by asset size:
JobBait: Grantmaking Foundations
Interesting short article from MarketWatch which states that new numbers from the Labor Department show growth across several industries – including construction…YAY!
You can check it out here:
Hiring Spreads to More Job Sectors
Really interesting article here from Inc.com for those of you who may be contemplating starting your own business – but also helpful for evaluating emerging and growing industries with solid, long term projected growth.
Start a Business on the Cheap: 10 Growth Industries | Inc.com
Great article about the growing oil/gas/energy field – especially for those of us in Texas….
Want a job? Look to the energy field.
Check out the stats for trending industries by State… fresh off the press from The Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to these statistics a healthcare degree may be a good choice for the current job market. 
“The Fastest-Growing Jobs In The Recovery: What And Where They Are”
By Joel Kotkin and Michael Shires
Throughout the brutal recession, one metropolitan area floated serenely above the carnage: Washington, D.C. Buoyed by government spending, the local economy expanded 17% from 2007 to 2012. But for the first time in four years, the capital region has fallen out of the top 15 big cities in our annual survey of the best places for jobs, dropping to 16th place from fifth last year.
It’s a symptom of a significant and welcome shift in the weak U.S. economic recovery: employment growth has moved away from the public sector to private businesses. In 2011, for the first time since before the recession, growth in private-sector employment outstripped the public sector. More than half (231) of the 398 metro areas we surveyed for our annual study of employment trends registered declines in government jobs, with public-sector employment dropping 0.9 percent overall. Meanwhile, private-sector employment expanded 1.4 percent.
Instead of government, the big drivers of growth now appear to be three basic sectors: energy, technology and, most welcome all, manufacturing. Energy-rich Texas cities dominate our list — the state has added some 200,000 generally high-paying oil and gas jobs over the past decade — but Texas is also leading in industrial job growth, technology and services. In first place in our ranking of the 65 largest metropolitan areas is Austin, which has logged strong growth in manufacturing, technology-related employment and business services. Houston places second, Fort Worth fourth, and Dallas-Plano-Irving sixth. Another energy capital, Oklahoma City, ranks 10th, while resurgent New Orleans-Metairie places 13th among the largest metro areas.
To determine the best cities for jobs, we ranked all 398 current metropolitan statistical areas based on employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics covering November 2000 through January 2012. Rankings are based on recent growth trends, mid-term growth, long-term growth and the region’s momentum. (Click here for a detailed description of our methodology.) We also broke down rankings by size — small, medium and large — since regional economies differ markedly due to their scale.
The strong growth of the energy sector, and Texas, is even more evident in our overall ranking, which includes many small and medium-sized metropolitan areas. The top 10 fastest growers overall include such energy-centric places as No. 1 Odessa, Texas; second-place Midland, Texas; Lafayette, La. (fourth place); Corpus Christi, Texas (sixth), San Angelo, Texas (seventh); and Casper, Wyo. (10th).
The shift from public to private can be seen in the falling rankings of many of the most government-dependent economies. Outside of Washington, D.C. (where federal employment actually has continued to grow), Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md., took an even more dramatic tumble in our big city table, dropping 34 places to No. 46.There were sizable relative declines in the rankings of many state capitals such as Springfield, Ill. and Madison, Wisc. College towns, which had previously done well in the face of the recession, have also moved sharply lower in our rankings, due to a combination of state budget cuts and better performance elsewhere. College Station, Texas, plummeted from fourth last year on our overall list to 167th; Fairbanks, Alaska, slid from 15th place to 165th, Corvallis, Ore., tumbled from 40th place to 203rd place; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, dropped from 81st to 246th.
Budget constraints have also hurt military towns, which previously had been largely immune to the recession. Last year’s overall No. 1, Killeen-Ft. Hood, Texas, slid to 43rd place; Jacksonville, N.C., home to Camp Lejeune, fell to 102nd from 19th last year; and Lawton, Okla., home to Fort Sill, slipped to 274th from No. 20 last year.
In addition to energy, the technology sector has been on a tear. After a decade of tepid growth and some years of job losses, Silicon Valley has blown itself another huge tech bubble, this time driven by the social media craze and a surge in private-equity investment. In the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area, the number of information sector jobs is up 36 percent over the past five years; this year the epicenter of Silicon Valley jumped 22 places to No. 5 among the 65 biggest metro areas. The social media boom has also been very good for the San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City area, which rocketed 16 places to a solid 17th this year.
But much of the tech growth in the country has continued to flow to more affordable regions less dependent on venture investment. At the head of the pack is Austin, where Apple recently announced a large expansion, and Salt Lake City, No. 2 on our big cities list, which is a major destination for expansion for Silicon Valley firms such as Adobe, Twitter and Electronic Arts. Other big players benefiting from the tech boom include seventh-place Raleigh-Cary, N.C., which has been a consistent top 15 performer for the past seven years; Seattle, which rose 18 places to 14th, and Denver at No. 15.
Perhaps most encouraging of all has been the expansion of the manufacturing sector. In 2011 manufacturing expanded at three time the rate of overall GDP, according to Mark Perry of the University of Michigan-Flint, and the sector added 425,000 jobs, also outpacing the national average.
As a result, the fortunes of some of America’s hardest-hit manufacturing regions are improving. Columbus, Ind., rose from 235th overall last year to No. 3 on our list this year. Michigan is beginning to see some signs of new life: perennial cellar dweller Holland-Grand Haven rose a remarkable 202 places to 19th on the overall list. A slew of other Michigan cities rose more than 100 places, including Grand Rapids (64th place), Bay City (136th), Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills (199th), Muskegon-Norton Shores (219th), and Jackson (233th). It is a glimmer of hope in a region that has lurked near the bottom of our Best Places rankings for as long as we have published it.
Another group of big cities that may be seeing light at the end of the tunnel are some of the metro areas hit hardest by the bursting of the housing bubble. Miami, Fla., which ranks 21st among the 65 largest metros, Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (33rd), Phoenix (45th), Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif. (50th), and even Las Vegas (56th) began to show some signs of new life this past year.
So amidst all the good news, which big cities are still doing badly, or even relatively worse? Sadly, many of the places still declining are located in our home state of California, including Los Angeles (59th place among the biggest metro areas), Sacramento (60th), and, and just across the Bay from Silicon Valley, Oakland (63rd). Only the old, and to date still not recovering, industrial towns of Providence, R.I. (64th), and Birmingham-Hoover, Ala. (dead last at No. 65), did worse. And the glad tidings in manufacturing have not touched all the Rust Belt cities: Camden, N.J. (57th), Newark, N.J. (58th), Cleveland, Ohio (61st), and Detroit (62nd) still feature prominently near the bottom.
I was excited to be a contributor to this weeks FORBES careers article titled: How To Avoid The Resume Black Hole.
Kudos to FORBES for including my maverick approaches!
Here is an enouraging article from the Daily Tribune:
MONDAY DECEMBER 27, 2010 Last modified: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 11:35 AM CST
Texas employers add 19,100 jobs during Nov.
AUSTIN – Texas total nonfarm employment was up by 19,100 jobs in November, representing the addition of 192,100 jobs in the last year. The Texas unemployment rate rose slightly to 8.2 percent in November and continued to trend well below the U.S. unemployment rate for November at 9.8 percent.
The Texas unemployment rate has ranged between 8.1 and 8.3 percent during 2010.
“Texas employers have added jobs in eight of the last 12 months, setting the pace for the rest of the nation,” said Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Chairman Tom Pauken. “Most industries recorded positive growth over the year.”
Professional and Business Services increased by 5,600 jobs in November, adding 61,200 positions from a year ago. Leisure and Hospitality employment increased by 4,700 positions in November for a total job gain of 19,100 jobs since November 2009.
“Consistent job growth over the past year offers employment opportunities for Texas workers,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Ronny Congleton. “Staff at TWC and the 240 workforce centers across the state are committed to assisting those job seekers who remain unemployed.”
Employment in Education and Health Services increased by 4,300 jobs in November with a total of 47,900 jobs added in this industry since November 2009. Financial Activities employment increased by 2,000 jobs in November, adding 5,900 jobs over the year.
In November, Information employment increased by 1,700 jobs; Construction added 1,000 jobs; and Mining and Logging grew by 300 positions.
“Recent job growth has spurred an increase in the Texas labor force which has continued to expand for the third consecutive month, currently at 12.2 million workers,” said TWC Commissioner Representing the Public Andres Alcantar. “Job seekers should take advantage of the many services available at no-cost from their local workforce development boards across the state.”
The Midland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had the lowest November unemployment rate in the state at 5.3 percent. The Amarillo MSA had the second lowest unemployment rate in November at 5.7 percent, followed by the Lubbock MSA at 6.1 percent (not seasonally adjusted).
P.S. - Your name and email address will never be sold, rented, or given away. You have my word on it!
|
Mary Elizabeth Bradford
P.O. Box 298 * Boerne, TX 78006 * ph (830) 331-9398
maryelizabeth@maryelizabethbradford.com
© 2012-2014 Mary Elizabeth Bradford, The Career Artisan. All Rights Reserved.
