With unemployment at 8.1%, here's where the jobs are

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This morning the stock market rose a bit even though the jobs numbers were worse than expected (this makes sense if you buy the idea that there is no logical explanation for daily market movements). Investors expected the unemployment rate to top 7.9% with 648,000 jobs lost in February and the actual numbers were worse -- 8.1% and 651,000, respectively.

But do you really care about government statistics? The simple fact is that if you're now unemployed you're scrambling to find a job and it's probably very tough. And if you have a job, you're worried you won't have it for much longer. I meet with several undergraduate and MBA students each week who are looking for help to find jobs. And the simple reality is that there are no easy answers. But I have three ideas.

Before offering these suggestions, it is worth emphasizing that if you do not have the skills or the interest in these kinds of jobs then these companies will be of no use to you. Also, with the hunger for jobs high, the competition for these positions will be fierce. And if you are trying to "transition" from another industry and you face competition from people within that industry, you will need to do a great job of convincing a potential employer that your previous experience in another industry is valuable.

Without further ado, here are three suggestions:

  • Go Green. Within the next two years the $787 billion stimulus spending is expected to create or save 3.5 million jobs -- 79,000 in Massachusetts where I live. $83 billion of that is targeted for green jobs. One company creating those jobs is Conservation Services Group (CSG), an energy-efficiency company, which has hired 50 employees in its main office. Because of the stimulus bill as well as several new contracts, it plans to add 200 more jobs in 2009. CSG currently employs about 400 and does business in 22 states.
  • Follow the money. Another suggestion is to look where venture money has been invested most recently. Companies that have received venture cash probably have solid business models -- otherwise they would not have gotten the extremely scarce venture cash. And those firms are likely to use some of that cash to hire people. This MoneyTree Survey gives you an idea of where that money has been invested most recently. It's not easy though -- you have to do some digging to get the names of the companies.
  • Go where the growth is. Finally, you can go where the growth is. I have been writing a series of Growth Matters posts on BloggingStocks that currently covers about 30 growing companies -- most recently, Evernote and MocoSpace. You could read each of these posts and if you're interested in the company, you could contact its CEO. I have no idea whether these companies are hiring, but if they're growing chances are they need people to manage that growth.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And things are really tough.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

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Last updated: February 10, 2010: 03:35 AM

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