Trading Places

Uncle Sam needs you! More than 270,000 of you

Out-of-work Americans pining for a bright spot amid the still-bleak unemployment landscape should welcome news that the federal government is in need of new recruits. A lot of them.

The feds need to hire close to 273,000 people over the next three years to fill so-called “mission-critical” jobs across the U.S. and abroad, in part because more federal workers are inching closer to retirement age, a new survey of 35 federal agencies by think-tank Partnership for Public Service shows.

Perhaps not surprisingly, agencies in the public health and medical fields are in need of the most new bodies. A total of 54,114 people are in demand to fill positions in areas ranging from radiology to consumer safety, according to the study.

Job seekers should also look to the security, law enforcement, legal and administrative fields, all of which are projected to boom over the next few years.

Of course, as the Washington Post notes, the projections are just that – projections. Hiring campaigns could be slowed if more federal workers choose to put retirement off or if Congress refuses to put up the money to meet all the hiring needs. The government could also decide to outsource some of the jobs to contractors.

Still, the potential surge in full-time, government jobs should have many Americans dusting off their resumes in a hurry.

(An armed forces recruiting poster is shown outside the U.S. Armed Forces Career Center in New York’s Times Square in this March 6, 2008 file photo. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

Unemployment jumps, but is the economy finding its floor?

Markets might have rallied on relief that the jobs data this morning wasn’t worse than expected, but there’s no getting away from the fact that an 8.5 percent unemployment rate is an ugly number. The March jobs figures showed U.S. employers slashed 663,000 jobs in March. The unemployment rate was the highest since 1983. Here is some reaction from the market:

ROBERT MACINTOSH, CHIEF ECONOMIST, EATON VANCE CORP, BOSTON: “It’s telling you we’re in a deep recession and it’s still going to be a while to get out of it, especially on the employment side of things. But you have to keep in mind that this is a lagging indicator, we’re going to get bad employment numbers, along with the employment rate, even if the economy is starting to turn.”

PIERRE ELLIS, SENIOR ECONOMIST, DECISION ECONOMICS, NEW YORK: “The report does not contradict the growing notion that the economy is finding a bottom. Employment will not turn on a dime and certainly there’s no sign of strength, but at least it’s not getting worse and worse and worse.”

PETER KENNY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, KNIGHT EQUITY MARKETS, JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY: “It gives the market a sense that we dodged a bullet in the very, very near term. It’s positive in that it wasn’t a blowout number of more than 750,000. All the indexes are higher because the market is breathing a sigh of relief because it wasn’t a blowout of market psychology. It indicates a slackening of the rate of decline and leaves the bear market rally intact.”

Do you agree the economy has found its floor? If you’re an employer, have you done cutting jobs? If you’re employed, do you feel secure? If you’re unemployed, are you seeing any improvement in the jobs market? Let us know in the comments below.

from Shop Talk:

Free resumes from FedEx Office

Need we say more?

On March 10, the company that bought copy shop Kinko's will print 25 free resumes on high-quality paper when customers stop in at any of the 1,600-plus FedEx Office Print and Ship Centers in the United States.

"We understand that the economy has affected many people in a very profound way, and we want to help," Brian Philips, president and CEO of FedEx Office, told Reuters. "In January, nearly 600,000 people found themselves out of work. I understand that in February, by the time they add up the numbers, it could be worse."

Philips, who said hard copy resumes have not fallen out of favor despite the growth of online job search sites, admitted that there is nothing to stop a job hunter from getting free resumes at more than one of its stores.

"We weren't worried so much about people going to multiple stores and gaming the system. We just want to make sure people have access to this service in a time of need."

Some FedEx employees may be in line for the free printing services.

FedEx Freight, a unit of FedEx Corp, last month announced it was cutting 900 jobs at 130 locations. In December, the corporation said it was suspending its 401(k) match and forcing its salaried workers to take at least a 5 percent pay cut.

U.S. jobless claims surge

By Alister Bull

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped 32,000 last week, with all of the increase due to the impact of hurricanes Ike and Gustav, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 493,000 in the week ended Sept 20 from a revised 461,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the highest reading since Sept. 29, 2001, in the aftermath of attacks on New York and Washington.

“It is estimated that the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and the effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas added approximately 50,000 claims to the total,” the Labor Department said in a statement.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 448,000 new claims versus a previously reported count of 455,000 the week before.

Without Ike and Gustav, which pounded the Gulf coast earlier this month, initial claims would have been around 430,000 last week.

Trade the unemployment rate

It might seem a safe bet that the number of people out of work in the U.S. will head higher in September following the job losses on Wall Street. But even if that’s the case, it won’t feed through to the unemployment rate immediately. That’s because to count as unemployed, respondents to a government survey of households who are out of work must say they have actively looked for work in the last four weeks. Alister Bull discussed the vagaries of the unemployment rate in this analysis.

There might be fewer economists on Wall Street to forecast the September number, but you can place a bet on whether the rate will rise from August’s five-year high of 6.1 percent via our news prediction game on Hubdub.com. Click on the live graph below to jump to the Reuters/Hubdub marketplace.