There
is no clearer picture that the U.S. economy is a see-saw than in the job
numbers. After months of steady gains in job opportunities and hiring, November
reminds us all there are bumps on the asphalt playground.
On the plus side, job vacancies rose modestly by
47,000 in November for technical and health-care-related occupations, according
to a monthly report from The Conference Board.
“In November, demand for workers continued to be
positive, albeit moving at a disappointingly slow pace for the last few
months,” said June Shelp, vice president at The Conference Board. “November was
a surprisingly quiet month throughout the nation, with most states posting
small gains/losses in advertised vacancies.”
After an October that saw an increase of 14,700 job openings in computer and mathematical science
vacancies, November saw slimmer gains of 2,500, according to data in The
Conference Board report. Computer and math job categories have the lowest
supply-and-demand rates of any occupation at .26 more vacancies than unemployed
people.
Management job vacancies saw a decline of nearly
11,000 opportunities last month--a huge fluctuation from October that saw
increase of 20,200 management opportunities.
In similar vein to the management category,
unemployment in the United States rose last month. After
steady declines in claims in 2010, November saw a climb in the unemployment
rate to 9.8 percent. Temporary jobs and the health-care sector added jobs, but
full time retail jobs declined, according to data released by the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The silver lining in IT continues to be for
consultants and contractors. Here is how the BLS characterized what is
happening in that area:
“Within professional and business services,
employment in temporary help services continued to increase in November (+40,000) and
has risen by 494,000 since September 2009.”
Economic analysts with a macro focus on the total
jobs picture are not thrilled with the overall numbers. October was good month
for hiring, but the momentum did not sustain. Zacks Investment Research put the
overall picture into larger perspective on the financial blog Seeking Alpha:
“There are now 15.1 million unemployed Americans,
and nearly 42% of these have been out of work 6 months or longer. The labor
force grew by 103,000 workers--indicating an improvement in the jobs outlook
among workers--but the number of unemployed actually grew by 276,000 for the
month."
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IT Management News & Reviews 
