Since the recession began in 2007, a little more than 7 million jobs have been lost. That number continues to rise as companies like Sam's Club and Verizon announce additional job cuts for 2010. According to a recent report, 1 in 5 men in the U.S. between the ages of 25 and 54 is currently unemployed. And while these things may be true, has the job situation ever been as bad as job analysts and the mainstream media have claimed? Simply put, no.
Job analysts have stated that although the employment situation has begun to turn around, growth is still sluggish. Some government officials are even suggesting that we need another stimulus package to create more jobs. But that simply could not be any further from the truth. As a matter of fact, I doubt if we ever even needed the first stimulus package. But I, like so many others, believed it was necessary in order to get this country back on track. That was before I gathered the facts, however. From day one, job analysts and the mainstream media have focused solely on one side of the story: job cuts. As a result, many jobseekers have become discouraged and have given up looking for work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 929,000 discouraged workers in the U.S. in December 2009, up from 642,000 in 2008. Those discouraged workers were not looking for work because they believed there were no jobs available for them. But according to Bureau, employment opportunities have been booming in a number of sectors. Since the recession began in 2007, the healthcare industry has added 631,000 jobs. Of those jobs, 267,000 of them were created in 2009, and 22,000 of them were created in December 2009. Ambulatory health services added 179,000 jobs in 2009, home healthcare services added 74,000 jobs in 2009, and outpatient care centers added 13,000 jobs in 2009.
Online job search site Indeed reported that social media and mobile tech jobs showed their strongest growth in 2009. The 10 fastest growing opportunities of 2009 included Twitter, Cloud Computing, iPhone, Facebook, Corporate Social Responsibility, Blogger, Pediatrician, Hospitalist, Social Media, and Speech Language Pathologist. Indeed also reported that in November 2009, jobs in education grew 38 percent, hospitality grew 20 percent, retail grew 17 percent, and real estate grew 4 percent. Online global job marketplace oDesk reported that freelance writing jobs grew 500 percent between April 2008 and April 2009. Those jobs included article writing, blog writing, business writing, editing services, technical writing, and translation services. And if freelance writing isn't your cup of tea, there are plenty of companies hiring hourly writers to work from home.
As of last Thursday, there were 1.6 million searchable jobs on CareerBuilder.com. Positions in sales accounted for 56, 359 of the jobs, management positions accounted for 55,628 jobs, healthcare accounted for 54,028 jobs, customer service accounted for 30,364 jobs, and information technology accounted for 24,813 jobs. Monster.com also boasts millions of jobs listings. And the list goes on and on. So my point is this. Yes, there have been massive job cuts. But employers are still hiring. As a matter of fact, a lot of them have never stopped hiring -- a far cry from what we've been hearing for the past year. The only way to know for sure what's really going on with the job situation is to get out there and start looking again, not simply just reacting to what you hear in the news. To conclude, in the words of rap group Public Enemy, "Don't believe the hype!"
Originally posted on RUSE the.magazine.
