College Courses.com Education & Career Blog

Earlier this morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released its September report on metropolitan area employment and unemployment. The findings from this report were somewhat divided, highlighting both positive and negative changes in the nation’s 369 metro locations. When compared with statistics from a year earlier, unemployment rates in September were higher in 184 areas, lower in 154, and unchanged in 31 locations.

Idaho Falls, Idaho had the lowest jobless rate at 1.3 percent, and three additional areas in Idaho posted the next lowest unemployment rates at 1.7 percent. Overall, 126 metropolitan locations registered jobless rates below 4.0 percent (down from 151 locations a year ago). September’s highest unemployment rates originated from El Centro, California (at 20.8 percent) and Yuma, Arizona (at 15.7 percent). These regions traditionally have higher jobless rates because of extreme weather conditions and an emphasis on agriculture. This past month, 18 metro areas in the U.S. posted unemployment rates of at least 7.0 percent. When compared with the national unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, 208 locations recorded rates below the U.S. average in September, 150 metros posted higher rates, and 11 areas reported the same rate.

According to the 2000 Census, 49 metropolitan areas in the country have a population of one million or more people. Of these nearly 50 locations, the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (AZ) region posted the lowest jobless rate at 2.9 percent. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Detroit-Warren-Livonia (MI) area reported the highest unemployment rate among large metropolitan areas, coming in at 7.7 percent.

Since September of 2006, payroll employment has risen in most U.S. metropolitan locations, with 311 areas reporting over-the-year increases this past month. (43 areas reported decreases, while 13 had no change in jobs.) The New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (NY, NJ, PA) region has had the largest employment gains since last year, generating 69,600 new jobs. Two areas in Texas had the next highest increases in payroll numbers. The largest over-the-year decrease in employment occurred in Detroit-Warren-Livonia (MI); the region suffered a loss of 34,800 jobs. Employment losses dropped off considerably after that, with the next highest loss only reaching 2,400 positions (in Flint, Michigan).

On the whole, the numbers from September revealed a relatively stable employment situation for most metro areas. Although the unemployment rates have risen a bit, payroll employment has increased overall. The Detroit region posted poor numbers all around, but that isn’t a huge divergence from previous months. If you live in the vicinity of Phoenix or Idaho Falls, the employment situation is looking good for you.

It is a well-known fact that returning to school to further your education will increase your chances of being hired. If you want to earn your degree from an institution nearby where you hope to work, consider applying to schools in Texas, California, and New York. According to the BLS regional employment report for September, which was released last week, these are the states with the most impressive growth in jobs.

Over the past few weeks, The Seattle Times has published two articles discussing our country’s aging workforce. According to these articles, baby boomers have the potential to change the face of retirement forever. Earlier this month, I wrote a post encouraging members of the baby boomer generation to extend their careers (if interested) and fight age bias by retraining for new jobs. Looks like someone is on top of things.

In the first installment of her two-part column, Liz Taylor describes how a “demographic tsunami” is about to hit the U.S. This cultural phenomenon will transform our current workforce and the way that citizens usually retire. 78 million baby boomers are now 43 to 61 years old, and the latter group is only a few years away from the traditional retirement age of 65. But with only 40 million members of Generation X ready to take the boomers’ positions, it is looking as though traditions may have to change.

With longer life expectancies and fewer savings, many baby boomers will have the ability (and the need) to work well into their 70s, and maybe even their 80s. Age bias is an issue now, but experts predict that this trend will die down, and employers will soon be looking to retain their older employees. Some organizations will have to adapt their standard 9-to-5 workdays and incorporate more part-time jobs, seasonal workers, phased retirement plans, and job-sharing.

Taylor’s second article, which was published today, offers a few tips for the revolutionary boomers. Even though the elimination of age bias sounds promising, the transition over the next few decades won’t be easy. Boomers will have to be open to change, as well as taking direction and management from younger co-workers. This generation of workers may also gravitate towards more meaningful work later in life. Instead of retiring, baby boomers are becoming social entrepreneurs by confronting cultural issues and working for non-profit organizations.

Toward the end of her second article, Taylor reiterates the fact that the road ahead for baby boomers will be difficult, explaining that “over the next decade or two, millions of us will transition to new chapters in our lives by recycling or changing what we’ve always done, or actually starting new careers.”

If you are a part of the baby boomer generation, and you want to prepare for the changes that are swiftly approaching, start researching the labor market now. No matter what field you are interested in, CollegeCourses.com features a variety of online and campus-based schools where you can supplement, enhance, and improve your current education.

If you are interested in a career in information technology, by now you’ve probably heard both sides of the ongoing debate.

The country’s IT employers are scrambling for more temporary work visas for foreign IT graduates, claiming that there’s a shortage of skilled domestic workers. U.S. tech workers are arguing the exact opposite — that there are plenty of available employees, just not enough good jobs. The nation’s IT workers believe that conglomerates are fabricating (or at least exaggerating) a worker shortage to keep wages for IT professionals down. The simple fact is that foreign employees will work for less.

It is difficult to confirm whether or not claims of an IT worker shortage are merely a political ploy to avoid hiring U.S. workers who’ll demand more money. But experts on both sides of the debate agree that something needs to change. The current system that’s in place allows IT companies to hire multiple foreign workers on a temporary basis with H-1B visas.

Earlier this year, several U.S. senators argued that some organizations were abusing this system to keep their own expenses down (and not to make the U.S. more competitive in the IT industry). Domestic workers are convinced that they are being turned down for jobs they’re qualified for because companies are looking to hire workers who’ll make less of a dent in their payrolls.

What’s more is that the pay for IT workers hasn’t increased since 2000. When adjusted for inflation, tech workers are actually making an average of $850 less per year than they were seven years ago. (Although the mean annual salary for computer workers still stands at $69,240.)

So while there’s proof that wages have stagnated in recent years, employers argue that the current unemployment rate among IT professionals in the U.S. (a low 1.8%) confirms that domestic workers are finding positions. Large organizations like Microsoft are also pointing to the 3,000 core technology jobs that they have to fill in the U.S. as evidence that the country needs to award more foreign work visas.

Aside from the relevant arguments that each side makes, there is one issue that make this IT debate even more confusing, and that’s the treatment of all IT specializations as one field. Some areas, such as software development, are generating multiple positions, while industries like computer programming are in a steep decline. (Programming jobs have dwindled 25% since 2000.)

So while you may not be able to resolve the debate between IT employers and the agitated tech workforce, you can increase your owns chances of securing a job in information technology. The IT areas with the most open positions in the U.S., as well as the most potential for growth, are as follows: software engineering, IT management (jobs up 50% since 2001), and network systems analysis.

Earn your degree in one the IT fields mentioned above, and you should be in a great position to find work upon graduation. Westwood College Online offers degrees in software engineering and computer network management, AIU focuses in network administration and computer systems, and University of Phoenix offers an MBA program in technology management.

If the employment situation report from August had you worried, then the numbers from September will definitely improve your mood. Remember when the U.S. Labor of Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a net loss of 4,000 jobs for August, the first drop in payroll employment in four years? Well, they were wrong. In the September news release that was posted this morning, there were revised numbers for August, which placed employment growth for the month at a surprising (and encouraging) 89,000 jobs. And if that wasn’t enough to excite you, payroll employment in September continued to grow.

The U.S. added 110,000 jobs this past month, which is a big improvement over the potential loss in August. The population of unemployed persons remained stable at 7.2 million in September, which in turn kept the U.S. unemployment rate at 4.7 percent. Unemployment rates for all groups (men, women, teenagers, whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians) stayed about the same.

Although the goods-producing industries combined for a net loss of 33,000 jobs in September, the service-producing industries generated 143,000 new positions. Construction dropped 14,000 jobs, while manufacturing lost 18,000. Professional and business services added 21,000 positions, education and health services added 44,000, leisure and hospitality increased by 35,000 positions, and government employment grew by 37,000.

Residential specialty trade contractors lost the most footing in the construction industry, with a decrease of 15,000 jobs in September. The major winners in the service-producing industries were accounting and bookkeeping services (+10,000 jobs), management and technical consulting services (+9,700 jobs), ambulatory care services (+15,900 jobs), hospitals (14,800 jobs), social assistance facilities (+12,000 jobs), food services and drinking places (+25,400 jobs), and state government education (+27,000 jobs).

The average workweek remained unchanged at 33.8 hours, and the average hourly earnings for American payroll workers increased by seven cents to $17.57. Over the year, average hourly and weekly earnings in the U.S. have increased by 4.1 percent.

If you are considering a new career, trends from September and the past few months all point towards the health care, hospitality, accounting, and criminal justice fields. The schools at CollegeCourses.com offer degree programs in all of these disciplines, so browse our listings for a school near you or an online program that you can begin right away.

The thought of baby boomers retiring has had economic analysts worried for years. Born between 1946 and 1964, the generation represents a good portion of the country’s population and an even larger portion of the American workforce. With the oldest baby boomers reaching retirement age in 2011, the U.S. has been gearing up for a major labor shortage for some time now. But is all this worrying premature? And has anyone ever thought to ask baby boomers whether they plan to retire once they hit 65?

AARP did, and a surprising 79 percent of those surveyed said that they planned to pursue some kind of work after the traditional retirement age of 65. The baby boomer generation wants the benefits and the income that working provides, and they also want to find interesting and fulfilling jobs where they can still learn something.

Some institutions, community colleges especially, are stepping in to prepare baby boomers for this transition. The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) recently received a $3.2 million grant to develop a nationwide program to retrain adults 50 and over. Community colleges will initially compete to run their own programs, and 15 will be chosen to receive funding. Five of these schools will serve as mentor institutions for the rest of the country.

Enrolling in a program at a nearby community college is a convenient and affordable way to refresh your skills or gain expertise in a new profession. If you are part of the baby boomer generation and you need or want to work through your 50s and well into your 60s, you are not alone. Refresher courses are a great way to land part-time and volunteer positions as well.

If you don’t want to wait for community colleges to develop and debut their retiree training programs, online education is another alternative that you can look into. Many online schools cater to adult learners who want to transition into new professions mid-career. If an online degree appeals to you, University of Phoenix, AIU, and Florida Metropolitan University operate some of the most well-known distance learning programs in the nation. Earning a diploma, a certificate, or an associate’s degree is another step that you can take before re-entering the workforce.

No matter what you decide, community, technical, and online schools are your best resource for current and concise training programs. There is a lot of talk about age bias in the hiring process, but in the face of an employment crisis, companies won’t ignore qualified candidates with strong work records and relevant training.

This will have to be a quick post, as the end of the workday is quickly approaching and I have little affinity for college courses and career talk after 5:30 p.m. Don’t worry, I still have some good news for you. The housing market is still looking pretty treacherous, but it turns out that some areas have remained stable in the real estate industry.

This news probably doesn’t sound that encouraging, but believe me when I tell you it is. Economists predict that the housing market will continue to plummet in the upcoming months, and major relief and recovery isn’t expected until 2009. That being said, if you are interested in the construction, real estate, and mortgage lending fields, these locations are your best bet for a stable living.

So, without further ado, America’s most stable housing markets are as follows:

1) Seattle, Washington
2) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
3) Columbus, Ohio
4) Dallas, Texas
5) St. Louis, Missouri
6) Cincinnati, Ohio
7) Atlanta, Georgia
8) San Antonio, Texas
9) San Francisco, California
10) Fort Worth, Texas

To take a look at the handy slideshow that Forbes.com compiled with the basic statistics and facts for each housing market, click here.

And that’s about all that I have to offer for today. The article linked above goes into a lot more detail about the markets themselves and the methodology behind the rankings. The stability of the markets is largely determined by the state of the local economies, new construction contracts, foreclosure rates, local credit markets, sales rates, affordability, and inventory.

In closing, several U.S. areas have remained strong in the face of the current economic downturn. So it looks like the housing market has a little fight left in it, and professionals interested in this industry shouldn’t call it quits just yet.