Posted on

26 industries that have added jobs

[Questions? larry@larrylitwin.com]

By ZipRecruiter.com

The U.S. economy lost 22 million jobs between February and April, and had only recovered 42% of them by July, according to the latest jobs report.

But not all industries contracted during the pandemic. Some added thousands of employees to meet surging demand for groceries, gardening supplies, hand sanitizer, sewing machines, ventilators, video game consoles, plexiglass sneeze guards and mortgage refinancing, among other goods and services.

Here are the 26 industries that have added the largest numbers of jobs to the economy since February:

1. Warehouse clubs and supercenters:

156.9K

2. Supermarkets and grocery stores:

95.2K

3. Building material and garden supply stores: 62.2K

4. The federal government (excluding the post office): 48.9K

5. Couriers and express delivery services: 45.7K

6. Local messengers and delivery and private postal service: 14.3K

7. Children’s and infants’ clothing stores: 10K

8. Tax preparation services: 8.3K

9. Mortgage and nonmortgage loan brokers: 6K

10. Surgical appliances and supplies manufacturers: 5.3K

11. Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals: 4.2K 12. Direct life insurance carriers:

3.9K

13. Department of Defense: 3.6K

14. Farm product raw materials wholesalers (including of grains and field beans): 3.4K

15. Animal slaughtering: 2.9K

16. Securities Brokerage: 2.8K

17. Claims adjusting: 2.8K

18. Consumer lending: 2.6K

19. Scientific research and development services: 2.4K

20. Miscellaneous computer and electronic products manufacturers: 2.2K

21. Soaps and cleaning compounds manufacturers: 1.9K

22. State hospitals: 1.7K

23. Direct property and casualty insurers: 1.7K

24. Sewing, needlework and piece goods stores: 1.6K

25. Plastics packaging

materials, film and sheet: 1.6K

26. Investment advice: 1.6K

Other jobs report findings

• Performing arts and spectator sports lost 12.8K jobs in July as fall and winter season events were canceled or pared back. That industry now employs fewer than half as many as it did last year (253.7K vs. 514.2K). State mass layoff notices for July read like a list of the nation’s top orchestras, theaters, opera houses and sporting venues.

• Several high-wage industries where jobs can be performed from home continued to struggle as businesses sought to defray pandemic-related revenue losses.

For example, employment declines continued in management of companies and enterprises (-12.2K), advertising and related services (-8.2K), computer systems design (-7K) and publishing industries (-6.9K).

• Employment in support activities for mining (-10.6k) also continued to contract, as anemic global demand thwarted a recovery in commodity prices.

• As of July, payroll employment was lower than its pre-COVID February level by 12.9 million jobs (or 8.4%). In other words, the pandemic has sent the economy back to 2014-level numbers of jobs. Payroll employment now needs to grow by about 2.6 million per month to recover by the end of the year.

[Questions? larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Get hired after you quit

[larry@larrylitwin.com for more info]

From ZipRecruiter in the Courier-Post on Sept. 6, 2020. By Zip’s Nicole Cavazos

If you’ve realized that quitting your last job was a mistake and you want to get rehired, all is not lost. You can redeem yourself with your ex-boss as long as you left on reasonably good terms. And even if you did not, you still might have a chance.

Here are five steps to make amends.

  1. Know where you stand
  2. Realize what went wrong
  3. Prepare your explanation
  4. Make your case
  5. Ask for a fresh start.

 

[larry@larrylitwin.com for more info]

Posted on

The Dollar Bill Test

[For more: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Dear friend and layout expert Rowan University Professor Claudia Cuddy, ret., came up with this many years ago. It remains applicable as you can see in The Public Relations Practitioners Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators (Chapter 12).

The Dollar Bill Test is simple:

Take a dollar bill and turn it on a page of copy. To pass the Dollar Bill Test, it must touch at least one copybreaker. If it does, your publication passes. If not, it fails.
Professor Cuddy has her own list of copybreakers to assure publications pass the Dollar Bill Test:

• Heads
• Subheads
• Pull quotes (Blurbs)
• Rules
• Initial (or drop) caps
• Shaded (screened) boxes
• Pictures
• Art (line art)
• Bullet lists

There is much more in The PR Playbook. For a copy, visit www.authorhouse.com

[For more: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Small biz ideas you can start from home

[For more, larry@larrylitwin.com]

As Steve Nicastro of Nerdwallet.com writes: (See the full story in Sunday’s (Aug. 30, 2020 Courier-Post)

Here are a few ideas for small businesses that can be run from home:

If you are a wordsmith

1. Blogger

2. Resume writer

If you love animals

3. Pet sitting or walking

4. Gourmet dog treats

5. Mobile pet grooming

[For more, larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Some small-biz ideas en route to entrepreneurship

[For more: larry@larrylitwin.com]

From the Aug. 23 edition of the Courier-Post  and Steve Nicastro of ziprecruiter.com comes these suggestions:

If you are handy:

  1. Start a general handyman business
    1. Get into appliance repair                                                                                                                  If you are tech-savvy:                                                                                                            3. Smartphone repair                                                                                                                 4. Web development

[For more: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Looking for a job from home during the pandemic? Some hints for you

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

This comes to you from Lauren Schwahn at NerdWallet.com (Courier–Post – 8/16/2020)

Here are four ways to .netune your athome job hunt.

1. Build your skills

2. Give yourself credit (Don’t be shy. Brag about your successes)

3. Highlight your adaptability and flexibility

4. Prepare for virtual interviews

Here it is in total:

1. Build your skills

These uncertain times boast at least one advantage for job seekers: Many re sources for online learning are now free or more a.ordable in response to im pacts of the COVID19 outbreak. So make yourself more marketable by learning or developing a skill, or getting a certi.cation (think mastering Excel or project management). You can .nd courses for just about any topic on plat forms like Coursera and Udemy.

“Then, put that bullet point on your resume. Even if they don’t have a formal certi.cation process, that’s still a big deal to say you invested that amount of time in yourself,” says Julie Kratz, foun der of Next Pivot Point, a leadership training organization.

This can be even more impactful if you’ve had a gap in work experience during the pandemic.

2. Give yourself credit (Don’t be shy. Brag about your successes)

Maybe you don’t meet 100% of the listed requirements for a position or you’re considering a new career path. Don’t let that stop you from applying.

Be con.dent and try not to apologize for or otherwise call attention to any thing you’re lacking, says Jeannie Kim, vice president of content at career site The Muse: “What you should do instead is really play up the things that you do have. Play up the skills you have that are in the job description. Play up the back ground that you have, and make sure that you’re telling the story of how you’re quali.ed to do the actual respon sibilities of the job.”

3. Highlight your adaptability

Businesses across the country are settling into new normals. That might involve recon.guring workspaces or learning to operate remotely. You’ll make a good impression by demonstrat ing you can roll with changes. How do you do that? Showcase personality traits and attitudes like .exibility, em pathy and creativity, known as soft skills.

“With people not able to be in the same place as their coworkers, being able to show that you have strong com munication and collaboration skills is really important right now,” Kim says.

Transferable skills are also crucial to mention, especially if you’re looking to change roles or industries. Those are skills that apply to a variety of roles and can include both soft and hard skills, such as sales, writing or leadership.

Previous telecommuting experience can give you a leg up, too.

“Experience managing a remote team would be huge right now because very few managers have managed like this,” Kratz says. “But even having suc cessfully contributed to a virtual team, especially if you can lead with the ac complishments you achieved on that team, would go really well.”

4. Prepare for virtual interviews

The interview process could be most ly, or entirely, virtual – even if the job it self isn’t. Standard interview advice still applies: Dress professionally, ask smart questions and so on. But you should also adopt a few new best practices.

If you’re granted an interview, ask the company what the process will look like. How long will it take? Who will you meet with? Will it be over Zoom, Google, Skype or something else?

Then do a dry run. Test the audio, video and internet connection on your device. Make sure there’s nothing dis tracting or inappropriate in the visible background. Get familiar with the soft ware so you’ll know where the controls are located.

For good measure, set up a mock interview with a friend who can let you

know how everything looks and sounds on the other end. Finally, tell the people you live with when you’ll need access to shared equipment and quiet, uninter rupted time.

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Benchmark – A definition

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

This comes to you from The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators by M. Larry Litwin (visit www.larrylitwin.com)

PR Play 4-2
Benchmark
• A standard for comparing similar items such as research findings,
the creative elements of a campaign, advertising results, etc.
• A point of reference – baseline. (A person or organization that
others aspire to match or exceed.)
• A standard for comparing products to determine competitors’
costs and quality with one’s own.

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Posted on

Benchmark Study

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

This comes to you from The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators by M. Larry Litwin (visit www.larrylitwin.com)

PR Play 4-3
Benchmark Study
A measurement of audience attitudes before and after a (strategic)
public relations campaign. A starting point (baseline) so that behavioral
change can be accurately measured.
Source: Eileen Weisman – The W Group – Houston, Texas

[For more info: larry@larrylitwin.com]

This comes to you from The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators by M. Larry Litwin (visit www.larrylitwin.com)

Posted on

How to answer the toughest interview questions

[For more information larry@larrylitwin.com]

From Kate Lopaze in the July 19, 2020 Courier-Post.

  • Think about (past) experiences and gather examples
  • Always keep the tone positive and professional
  • Do your homework in advance – Be prepared, part of the ABCs (Anticipate – Be prepared – Communicate clearly [no jargon])
  • Take a minute to organize what you want to say – Communicate Clearly, Concisely,Consistently, Calculatingly, Completely (Specifically and Simply) and Correctly
    [For more information larry@larrylitwin.com]
Posted on

HR managers want candidates to ASK these questions

[For more information larry@larrylitwin.com]

Thank you to Kate Lopaze of the jobnetwork.com for providing this in the July 26, 2020 edition of the Courier-Post.

  • Ask questions about the company you may be working for
  • Ask questions about the job you are interviewing for
  • Ask questions about logistics – what are the next steps after today
  • Questions NOT to ask
    • Salary: Sve this one for the next conversation – assuming there is one
    • Specific demands: Days you will need off or maybe you need a response within a few days
    • Do not ask personal questions of the interviewer
    • Simply show that you are genuinely interest in the job and you are fully engaged.
  • And – GOOD luck.

[For more information larry@larrylitwin.com]