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Job Support Group Leader Newsletter
August 2007
Job market talking points
One indicator of how an economy is doing is: "What do people think about it?"
The Conference Board is a business research association that conducts a broad range of studies to assist companies in decision-making. One of their many studies is on Consumer Confidence, a monthly survey of 5000 households that provides a basic measure of how people feel about the state of the US economy. The Consumer Confidence index for July was 112.9.
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: "The rebound in Consumer Confidence has catapulted the Index to its highest reading in nearly six years (August 2001, 114.0). An improvement in business conditions and the job market has lifted consumers' spirits in July." Note that confidence in the economy is close to the most recent highest reading of August, 2001, just prior to 9/11.
A Word about Minimum Wage
Recently, the US Congress approved an increase in the minimum wage to $5.85 from $5.15, effective July, 2007. To provide some perspective:
- # of people on US Payrolls, July 2007: 138 million+
- # of people earning minimum wage: 2 million (1.4% of the workforce)
- % of people who get pay raises above the minimum within 12 months of hire : 55%
- % of people at minimum wage who are teen-aged workers: 55%
So the number of people who may actually be self-supporting, non-teen aged workers is less than 1 million, and many of them can expect a pay raise. The US economy produces a lot of jobs, enabling people to move along to higher pay levels over time. As our economy gets closer to 4.0% unemployment levels, the minimum wage becomes less relevant as employers pay higher wages to attract staff. Job seekers have the advantage in a tight labor market!
Job search successes
Have a job search success story to share? Email your comments!
Special Announcement
What Color is Your Parachute? author Dick Bolles offers support and comments on Work Ministry in the 2008 edition of his upcoming book! Thanks for your support Mr. Bolles!
Connecting with employers
As your daily experience with Job seekers indicates, people need help with a whole range of issues for successful job searches. One area where you can be most helpful is the issue of what the job seeker wants. It's a key question for an employer too.
In a recent survey on job satisfaction released by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the top five contributors to job satisfaction, according to employees are:
- Compensation/pay
- Benefits
- Job security
- Flexibility to balance work/life issues
- Communication between employees and senior management
In fact, over the past four years, survey respondents ranked benefits and compensation/pay as the top two aspects most important to their job satisfaction. Employees aged 35 and younger and 36 to 55 consider compensation/pay rate the most important job satisfaction factor. Employees aged 56 and older indicated that feeling safe in their work environment was their top priority.
Prior to an interview, or in the course of discussion of a job offer, a job seeker should have a clear view of what is most important and ask the right questions when opportunities allow to assure that their personal goals can be met by a future employer. Your role in helping them sort out what matters can be very positive.
Alliance Partners
We support the following resources in service to job seekers:
- BPWUSA.org Business and Professional Women USA
- HACE: Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement
- Jobkabob.com: sell your skills, not your work history.
- Career Concepts USA: Job Fair resource
Have a success story or best ideas for job search to share? Send an email to leader@workministry.com.
Reminder:
Workministry.com has a growing list of job posts as well as continual improvement in resources for JSG Leaders and job seekers. Please make a
point of asking your group members to check the site, review the job posts and respond or send along to a friend, relative or former group
member.
Editor’s Note:
The Job Support Group Leader newsletter and message board are all about you. Our goal is to create a forum for
sharing information that helps you fulfill your mission. If you have feedback, ideas or suggestions for either the newsletter or the message
board, please send email to: leader@workministry.com.
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