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Who is hiring now? (According to ‘Zip’)

[larry@larrylitwin.com]

By ZipRecruiter.com

Job openings are still well below pre-pandemic levels, but they rose steadily in July and August – particularly in industries that have received an unexpected boost due to the crisis.

E-commerce sales growth has accelerated for several years.

And home improvement supplies stores are benefiting from the stay-at-home economy. Video game retailer GameStop made a debut on ZipRecruiter’s “Who’s Hiring” list in August buoyed by record sales of video game consoles and consumer electronics.

These 20 companies had the most job postings in the ZipRecruiter Marketplace in August.

1. Amazon

Examples of job titles: Driver trainer, package handler, operations manager, pharmacist, area manager, buyer, truck driver, merchandiser

2. Lowe’s

Examples of job titles: Assistant store manager-operations, loader, service associate, assistant manager

3. Oracle

Examples of job titles: Data architect, solutions architect, sales consultant, sales director, inside sales representative

4. DoorDash

Examples of job titles: Delivery driver, manager

5. Anthem

Examples of job titles: Project leader, business consultant, recovery specialist, pharmacy technician

6. Home Depot

Examples of job titles: Cashier, delivery driver, store support, merchandising associate

7. Walmart

Examples of job titles: Merchandiser, cashier

8. Humana

Examples of job titles: Engineer, analyst

9. GameStop

Examples of job titles: Retail staff, retail manager

10. Starbucks

Examples of job titles: Barista, shift supervisor, store manager

11. IBM

Examples of job titles: Mobile application developer,

systems administrator, data center technician, project manager, software engineer, designer, technical support representative, security analyst, help desk agent

12. Domino’s

Examples of job titles: Manager, delivery driver, customer service

13. FedEx Ground

Examples of job titles: Operations Manager, Package Handler, Courier, Technician

14. Walgreens

Examples of job titles: Pharmacy technician, pharmacist, pharmacy

typist, customer service, greeter

15. CVS Health

Examples of job titles: Pharmacist, pharmacy technician, registered nurse, warehouse associate, delivery driver

16. McDonald’s Restaurants

Examples of job titles: Crew team member, manager, human resources assistant

17. UnitedHealth Group

Examples of job titles: Analyst, medical coder, consultant

18. Wells Fargo

Examples of job titles: Mortgage consultant, customer success specialist

19. Deloitte

Examples of job titles: Consultant, engineer

20. TJX Companies

Examples of job titles: Merchandise associate, store manager

[larry@larrylitwin.com]

As seen in the Courier-Post on Sept. 27, 2020

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Advice from ‘The PR Playbook’

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A tip to succeed: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Check out Larry Litwin’s The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook for (all) Strategic Communicators. It is available from Amazon or Authorhouse Publishing.

[Questions: larry@larrylitwin.com]

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Finding a job in a recession

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By ZipRecruiter.com as seen in the Courier-Post on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020

Arecession can be a scary time to start a job search. But here are some tips to help you find a good job, even in the toughest job market.

1. Create a computer-proof resume

There is a strong chance your resume will be screened by a computer. So avoid fancy formatting, columns and tables, and ensure that your resume can be read by a bot.

2. List the right skills

Think carefully about the soft skills and hard skills you bring to a job. As a helpful exercise, you may want to list them all and explain why they are important.

If you worked at a restaurant before COVID-19, you might think your skill is food preparation. But chances are your job skills also include face-to-face communication, customer service, problem solving, time management and teamwork.

Clearly list your job skills in your resume, using the same language used in the job postings for which you are applying, where appropriate. A strong match between the skills on your resume and the skills in the job description will help you rise to the top of computer ranking algorithms.

3. Focus on growing industries

Nobody knows exactly what the future holds, but projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics have a strong track record of success.

For example, the Bureau’s 2008-18 projections correctly guessed which industries would grow and which would shrink 91% of the time.

Find the BLS’s most recent projections for the 2018-28 period at bls.gov/ooh.

4. Develop in-demand skills

When employers receive 100 applications for a single vacancy, objective criteria – like certifications and credentials – can help them decide. Especially now that in-person recruitment efforts are limited due to the pandemic, employers have to evaluate you on paper. Being able to list a recently earned Microsoft Excel certificate is far more compelling than merely listing “Excel skills,” for example.

The same goes for any software program or platform.

5. Stay positive

If at first you don’t succeed, try a different approach. Come up with a daily goal – say, a target number of job applications to submit – and reward yourself for meeting your goal.

Try a new search strategy every few days. Doing so can help keep things interesting and expand your search. Here are some to consider: • Search for employers with the greatest need. Using a keyword search, look for job postings where the employer reports an “urgent need” for candidates. Employers who need to fill vacancies urgently are more likely to respond quickly and agree to an immediate start date.

• Search for the best companies.

Search for job postings where the hiring company describes itself as being one of the “fastest-growing” or “top-rated” organizations in its industry.

• Search for household names.

Spend a few days exploring vacancies at large companies with household names that are always hiring across a wide range of roles.

• Search for well-funded startups.

Keywords like “venture capitalbacked,” “VC-backed” or “Y Combinator-backed” can find innovative, exciting companies that investors think may be the next big thing.

• Search for your terms related to your passions and hobbies. Do you love animals? Is music your hobby?

Are you passionate about nature conservation? Do you love listening to podcasts? An unemployment spell could be an opportunity to turn your passion into your career.

[larry@larrylitwin.com]

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26 industries that have added jobs

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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]

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Get hired after you quit

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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]

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The Dollar Bill Test

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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]

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Small biz ideas you can start from home

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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]

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Some small-biz ideas en route to entrepreneurship

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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]

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

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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]

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Benchmark – A definition

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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]