-Written by Erik Sargent
One topic that always finds a way to stay relevant in the national landscape discussion is the job market around the United States of America, as people constantly look for new and improved work opportunities in their career.
At the end of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor releases a monthly job report, which helps paint a picture of what the current job situation in the country looks like, focusing on employment increases and decreases, as well as job availability.
According to the report for the month of February, the areas of work that saw major employment gains were construction, private educational services, manufacturing, health care, and mining. The unemployment rate for the month of February was also down from 4.9 percent in February of 2016, showing a slight change to 4.7 percent for this year.
The report also showed that the average hourly earnings for all employees in private nonfarm payrolls increased by six cents to $26.09, following a five cent increase in the month of January.
“It looks like month over month, all major industries have gone up in terms of job postings,” said Emily Underwood, Senior Account Manager at the employment search engine Indeed.com. “A huge increase has been in hospitality from February last year to February to this year, as those jobs continue to grow. With jobs like information technology, it’s still a very, very hot market and much needed market, but it looks like there has been a slight decrease in job postings.”
Indeed presents data tracking the number of job postings on their site, as well as areas where the job postings are available.
Along with the major increase in hospitality jobs, there was a major increase in jobs in the media, real estate, and retail industries. Education saw a -13 percent decrease in job availability from this time last year, and healthcare also saw a major drop.
In terms of the markets where jobs are hot, Indeed tracks how many jobs are posted per 1,000 people in the area. San Jose (CA) took the top spot with 63 postings per 1,000 people, with Salt Lake City (UT), Denver (CO), Raleigh (NC), and Indianapolis (IN) rounding out the top five.
“This is basically telling us that there are four jobs available per person in a city like Salt Lake City,” Underwood said. “It shows here that the unemployed person has jobs to choose from, and it looks like this is more of a job seekers market vs. an employer market. Down at the bottom of the list, for example, Las Vegas (NV) is 49th – it’s a one-to-one ratio. It’s a little bit more competitive for the job seeker.”
One job market that is currently trending upward is the moving industry, and a company that is looking to hire is the international moving company TWO MEN AND A TRUCK®. The franchising company kicked off their Career Move Month campaign at the beginning of March, an initiative to recruit more people to their growing system.
“Our goal with Career Move Month is to ramp up for our busy season by hiring at least 1,200 new team members across the country,” said Human Resources Director Sara Bennett. “We have part-time and seasonal positions available, but there is also plenty of opportunity for full-time and long-term roles in the company.”
The movement is focused on showing that while moving is the core of the industry, there is a wide-range of opportunities within the system.
“Career Move Month is an exciting time of year for us because it gives us a chance to showcase the opportunities that exist at TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® across the country,” said Bennett. “Many people don’t realize the variety of specialized roles that are available in our system. We of course have openings for movers and drivers, but there are also opportunities for positions in marketing, management, logistics, accounting, human resources, IT, and more.”
The national job report showed that professional and business services have continued trending upward, adding 597,000 jobs for the year. Industries like wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and government all showed little or no change over the last month.
The next job report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled for April 7, 2017.
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® 