By Dhiana Yezzi
With the fiscal cliff negotiations behind us
and despite the upcoming debt ceiling debates,
the employment outlook for 2013 should continue
its positive, albeit slow, pace.
After 34 straight months of job growth, the
positive trend is likely to continue. Employers
added 155,000 jobs in December, in line with
economist’s forecasts. Previous recoveries have
seen much more dramatic growth such as 1982-
1983 where 450,000 jobs were added monthly
after a difficult recession.
Unfortunately, because of the outsourcing that occurred earlier in the decade and the increase in automation, it is doubtful we will ever see numbers of that size again.
So where will the trends take us in 2013?
• America’s 78 million Baby Bloomers will begin turning 65 at a rate of one every 10 seconds (3 million to 4 million per year). Baby boomers will retire and those positions will become available to current job seekers. Which leads us to the fact that …
• By age 65, statistics show that two-thirds of all Baby Bloomers have at least one chronic disease and have seen seven physicians. So the health care sector will continue to be a top job generator. In fact, employers added 45,000 medical-related jobs in December and that trend should continue.
• Mass layoffs should become a thing of the past. Companies did lot of heavy cutting during the recession but have since held onto their core staff. While current employees are bearing a larger bulk of the work load, their jobs are relatively safe.
• The job prospects for trained workers such as welders, truck drivers and skilled machine operators should continue to grow. In addition, skilled workers such as accountants and engineers should see more prospects.
• Employee turnover will tick upward as the economy steadies and more employees decide to leverage their current employment into increased pay elsewhere.
• Although government hiring decreased by 15,000 last month, the United States large infrastructure deficit as relative to other countries should continue to create employment opportunities in construction and highway maintenance.
• Social media will continue to shape hiring and employment. With LinkedIn at over 146 million members with a growth rate of 50 percent in nine months, Facebook at 800 million users and Twitter averaging 230 million tweets per day, social media is and will continue be the an integral part of the job market.
So it appears that the extreme highs and lows of the recession are behind us and we should look forward to a slow but steady increase in employment. Now is the time to take advantage of the trends by developing new skills, remaining flexible and competitive while working within the changing economic climate.