The Only Unemployment Rate I Care About is Mine.

by Duncan Mathison

The announcement by the Bureau of labor Statistics  that the Unemployment Rate is 10.2% is grim news indeed.  Of course, those in the news business who figure if bad news sells, worse news should sell even better have taken the “if you think that’s bad, look at this!” approach.  Brian Sullivan of Fox Business News suggests the real rate is 17.5% a story that has been circulated by others hoping to create even more of a dark mood.

But what does a number like the unemployment rate really mean to you and your job search?  Today, Martha forwarded a link to me of a really fascinating New York Times interactive chart, “The Jobless Rate for People Like You”  which shows that the unemployment rate for people with college education is nearly half of the official rate.  If you are a white woman, age 25-44 with a college degree, your unemployment rate for this year is an impressively low 3.6%.

But what does this really mean to smart people who are looking for jobs, particularly in the hidden job market?

If I am the one who is unemployed, my unemployment rate is 100%. So it is time to set down the newspaper, get off the news websites and get cracking on the job search.

Any employer who makes the “mistake” of broadly posting an open position will be ambushed by a-bazillion unqualified and over-qualified job applicants. If you are a good fit to do a job that is posted, go ahead and apply and assume your resume will float to the top. If it is a desperate long –shot, be prepared to be disappointed.  So why waste your time with long-shots?

Unlock the hidden job market.  Yes I know this is a shameless reference to our book. But really, your best shot is a dedicated focus on the hidden or unpublished job market. The best jobs have never really been heavily advertised regardless of the economy. But now, because employers do not have to heavily advertise for applicants, they are much less likely to advertise for any but the hardest to find employees.  The hardest to fill jobs are those that are just plain awful or those that have such obscure in-demand qualifications that qualified applicants are not looking for a job because they have one already. This means you have to be a lot smarter than the next unemployed person to find jobs that get filled before they are advertised.

Skip the headlines.  Pay attention to the right numbers. There is only one statistic you should care about – your unemployment rate.  If you are unemployed, only one right job offer will solve the problem. Prove to yourself you are on the right track to land your next job by making sure you are working with the right numbers that will get you to the right job.  Check out Chapter 4’s list of numbers. 

• 200 Suspect Organizations that could conceivably hire people with your skills
• 85-100 People you know
• 5-8 Meetings a week
• 5-10 Opportunities in the works (you think there might be a possible job there)
• 3 Offers
• 1 Job

I have gotten some heat that these numbers are impossible.  They’re not. Let’s assume that a lot of suspect organizations, people you know, opportunities and offers will be dead-ends. In fact the marjority will not pan out. But the job search today is a numbers game but not the numbers in the headlines.  Start counting. Start succeeding.

Tags: hidden job market, job search, On-Line Jobs, Over-qualified, unemployment, Unlock the Hidden Job Market

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Blog, job market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.