Your Greatest Weakness
I’m the type of person who relies on metaphors and analogies. It’s just the way I absorb information. So as the sun shone on my face this past weekend, I couldn’t resist comparing the first warm up of the season to the optimism of a reborn employment market. Just like Chance the gardener said in [...]
A Dan Pink Speaking Experience
A couple of weeks ago I was staring at my computer screen and in comes an Instant Message asking if I knew Dan Pink was speaking in Charlotte? The IM was from Jill, a work friend for over 10 years. I had no idea about the event, but I was excited. She sent me the [...]
January 2011 Jobs Report and Wages
Here are the job market and compensation numbers for January 2011 (based on the job report): Net gain of 36,000 jobs in the month (revised in March to a gain of 68,000) Analysts expected an overall gain of 149,000 Private sector payrolls increased by 50,000 Private service producing industries added 32,000 Goods producing industries gained [...]
The Train with No Known Destination
Last week news broke of Eric Schmidt leaving the CEO post at Google. He’s replaced by Larry Page. Speculation is that Schmidt no longer felt he was in control of the company. The triumvirate of Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt had become a duopoly of Brin and Page, the founders. The genesis of [...]
Picking the Best Team
“You wouldn’t believe it.” he says, although I’m sure I not only would believe it, but I can top it. “I was in first place in my league until Aaron Rodgers has a concussion and has to sit out. My back up was whoever the guy is from the Lions.” I pretended to listen, but [...]
As Time Goes By, Is the Economy Getting Better or Worse?
It’s time to look back two years ago and see what happened. The trough of the unemployment situation started October 2008 and abated some by April 2009. The losses in those months were historic: -554,000, -728,000, -673,000, -779,000, -726,000, -753,000, and -528,000. A normal really bad month is -250,000. These numbers were 3 times that. [...]
November 2010 Jobs Report and Wages
Here are the job market and compensation numbers for November 2010 (based on the job report): Net gain of 39,000 jobs in the month Private sector payrolls increased by 50,000 Down from 160,000 last month Worst performance in 10 months Analysts expected an overall gain of 150,000 September was revised to a loss of 24,000 [...]
Scared of Ideas or Open to Change?
He hears the alarm clock, hits snooze, and lays there for ten minutes somewhere between sleep and awake. “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edvard Grieg plays: He does what I think is one of the hardest things in the world to do, he puts the first foot on the floor in the [...]
Private Sector Jobs: A Lagging Indicator Showing 10 Months of Improvement
The last Jobs Report was all-in-all a very positive report. The numbers that came in blew away expectations and the revisions for the past two months also significantly improved those figures. Here is a chart showing the last 22 months. We have a long way to go, but growth, slow as it is, is ahead. [...]
October 2010 Jobs Report and Wages
Here are the job market and compensation numbers for October 2010 (based on the job report): Net gain of 151,000 jobs in the month Census work, which elevated the jobs report in the spring and then weighed it down over the summer is no longer a factor Private sector payrolls increased by 159,000 Four straight [...]