No doubt it is a tough job market out there. However there are some bright lights in several established and emerging new industries that are worth checking out:

Manufacturing

Recently on the news you may have heard that manufacturing, which has been in steady decline in the USfor years, may experience a comeback. Rising prices due to increased transportation costs, coupled with the weakness of the dollar may stimulate onshoring. As a result, many large companies are opting to expand their facilities within the US.

Executive Level Jobs

Additionally, according to the US Dept. of Labor Statistics, nationwide in 2008, the industries expected to generate the highest number of future executive-level jobs are high-tech, healthcare, business services, pharmaceutical/medical/biotech, and     energy/utilities.

Geographic Areas

Also according to the US Dept. of Labor Statistics 2008, there are some States that are holding fairly steady growth for the majority of job sectors. They include Texas, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Colorado.

Green Collar Jobs

If you Google green jobs, you can spend hours surfing through dozens of new job boards designed for those who are interested in jobs dealing with sustainable issues and the new clean-tech economy. Companies you will find range from wind farms to solar and hybrid car manufacturers to green buildings and other renewable energy technologies.

And according to TIME Magazines article titled: What Is a Green Collar Job anyway, John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all love green-collar jobs and claim their respective energy plans will create millions of new green-collar jobs in America.

A wise idea for the career industry changer in these market conditions is to evaluate those emerging and still-strong industries when strategically making a move.

There are lots of time saving products and services out there you could incorporate into your job search, but let’s keep it really simple. Here’s one I like that has to do with keeping track of your job search and career network – not only for a single job search but for your entire career.

Check out Jibber Jobber. Jason Alba is the president as well as the author of TWO books AND linked-In/Blogger/Facebook expert extraordinaire – no kidding. And from what I can tell, he has the ear of several industries – the ”career services” industry being the biggest one. Here’s how he describes Jibber Jobber:

“So what is Jibber Jobber? Is it a job search tool? Is it a networking tool? It is more like a personal relationship manager that allows you to do everything you need to do to manage a job search and optimize your network relationships – for the duration of your career!”

And BTW – a big THANK YOU to Jason for: A) liking, and B) blogging about… my ”phone networking secrets revealed” report. See it here.