In Friday’s news the Bureau of Labor Statistics says U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month streak of hiring above 200,000 and posting the smallest gain in eight months.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. “But the rate dropped because more people without jobs 
stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as unemployed.” (That’s from CBS News – and always appalls me because a lot of those people who ‘stopped looking for a job’ got excited and started their own ventures. But to the government it looks like they are discouraged and sitting on the sidewalk with a can of pencils.)
So don’t recent college graduates still just pop out of school and right into their first $85K job? Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case. This year’s graduating MBAs are finding a very uncertain job market in an economy that’s forced companies to delay hiring plans and maybe not even show up at the campus career fairs. Part of this is a somewhat stagnant business environment and part is that the MBA has lost some of its appeal to the business world.
Several years ago I met with a good looking young man who 19 months prior to seeing me, had graduated with his MBA from one of the most prestigious MBA programs in the country. He had sacrificed a great deal of time and money to get the degree, fully confident that there would be a selection of those $85K/yr jobs lined up for him. However, in 19 months of heavy interviewing, he had not been offered a position of any kind at any income figure. In working with him, it was quickly apparent that he came across as arrogant, condescending, and egotistical. Fortunately, with the pain of no positive results, he was quite teachable and we were able to change his personal presentation quickly and get the opportunities he had been seeking.
A now famous Yale University study reported that 15% of the reason for a person’s success is due to technical skill and knowledge, and 85% of the reason originates from that person’s personal skill; attitude, enthusiasm, self-discipline, smile, tone of voice, desire, and ambition.
This is why candidates with the best qualifications on paper frequently do not get the job. But what an opportunity to bypass those with perhaps more experience and better credentials. Take advantage of this insight to make yourself a top candidate. Maximize your “human capital” and find multiple job offers – or leverage those skills into your own exciting adventure where you make money and do the work you love.
I believe nothing coming out of Washington, including these job stats. One glaring omission is how many of these jobs are part time and how many offer benefits? Of the ones who do offer benefits, how many are still covering the family? The other part of the equation is the number of new unemployment claims is always larger than the so-called number of new jobs, yet the unemployment rate keeps going down. The number of people no longer looking for jobs is not a trackable number. The number the government is using is the number of people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. There are plenty of jobs out there, but who wants a job that pays $24,000 a year and no benefits? That will not pay for rent/mortgage, utilities and groceries unless you live in a camper and eat ramen noodles every day.
You are so right. Statistics coming out of Washington have little to do with our own daily success. It comes down to how we find or create opportunities for work that is meaningful and profitable.
Totally agree here Dan – TC, you make a great point that the way the government tracks jobs does not paint an accurate picture; however, I disagree with your assertion that a $24k job is one that ‘noone wants’. I think we need to reframe our thinking around that. True, $24k alone, without benefits is a toughy with a family BUT I believe this trend (jobs without benefits, etc…) is largely part of a shifting work model. The industrial age & benefit laden jobs are a thing of the past, the new normal will be jobs that do not come with benefits, and pay for results.
The challenge here is that businesses will still try to own 40 hours of our time while just paying for results and not offering benefits – and that, we should fight against. BUT – to the extent that these new opportunities allow us to leverage multiple opportunities in our key areas of strength – while ALSO giving us the freedom to pursue additional clients (so that we can find 5x contract opportunities at $24k a pop!) – they will be a welcome shift from the old (and totally unsustainable) model of trading time for dollars & benefits.