The state unemployment rate climbs to its highest point in 16 years. Job search woes around Beantown.
By Michael Del Rosso
BOSTON -- Getting a job these days may take a lot more than a little luck and perseverance.
By March, the state unemployment rate had jumped to 7.4 percent, the highest in 16 years. As the economy and labor force continue to show little or no signs of improvement, job seekers scramble to find work. But they should prepare for pitfalls.
At the MRI Network, a staffing firm on Boylston Street, recruiter Bob Hux said they're recommending sales positions to clients from all backgrounds.
"In a down economy, there's always the opportunity for sales, if you're good at it," Hux said. "A struggling company always needs more revenue. They get that through a talented sales person."
Sales positions are not that secure though, he said. Hux mentioned a theory called "top grading," in which the top 20 percent of a sales force makes 80 percent of the company's sales. The bottom 80 percent of the sales force constantly need improvement by replacement, he said.
A Boston.com article published in February suggested job seekers look toward the manual labor trades. The reasoning: "You may be able to outsource your accountant, but you can't outsource your auto mechanic," the article read. It made a case that, while higher education applicants are seemingly a dime-a-dozen, people who work with their hands will always be in demand.
There might be some truth to this. As of the year 2000, 40 percent of the state's labor force over the age of 25 had degrees beyond a high school diploma, according to MassBenchmarks.org, a quarterly journal of the Massachusetts economy.
But down at the bricklayers' union house in Charlestown, they are not taking any apprentices for 2009.
Training director Richard Forcione said he's been getting calls from "all walks of life" (people who Forcione wouldn't normally hear from) asking how they can apply to be a bricklayer. Normally, on the first week in February every year, Forcione would take applications and then accept around 80 apprentices for training. But he can't take on new apprentices until he finds jobs for the remaining trainees from last year.
"Last year we had about 220 that applied in our program," Forcione said. "We took 85 after interviews."
From mid-March until June 6, last year , Forcione trained 40 apprentices, he said. Then after this probation they signed into the local union, where they started their career. But as the economy began to take a dive in the summer of 2008 (and has continued to do so), Forcione wasn't confident he could find jobs for the remaining 45 trainees, he said. Forcione took no new applications in February 2009.
"[The other 45] are on hold," he said. "As soon as this economy starts moving forward, hopefully, we can revive the training period."
The Boston Carpenters' Apprenticeship and Training in Brighton reflects a similar slowdown.
While Training Director Ben Tilton has noticed an influx in apprenticeship applications, the union is holding off on accepting any new carpenters-to-be.
"We actually just reduced the [times when we take applicants]," Tilton said. "It used to be about every three months, but now we're talking about holding off for quite a while...lack of jobs makes it difficult to bring in new apprentices."
Even some sales, such as retail, will not prove to be good areas of attack.
"You have to look at what sectors are not doing as bad," Hux said.
Hux mentioned biotech and liquor sales were doing better than most. Afterall, people who lose their jobs are more prone to drink, he said.
But these industries aren't immune to the volatile economy like other jobs.
"Believe it or not, start-up companies with secured funding are the safest places to be right now," Hux said.
Companies such as these are guaranteed revenue for the next several years depending on their initial agreements with investors, he said. The money, which funds these companies, has been set aside and can keep a start-up company operational regardless of economic downturns.
Though start-up revenue would seem quarantined from the economic viruses infecting everything else, due to its indifference to the market, the investors who supplied these monies may not be.
When asked if some start-ups lost revenue because they were funded by investors who lost money in recent market crashes, Hux admitted:
"Ya, some have been affected by that."
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