Greater Milwaukee Jobs

2 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS • September 10, 2015 A publication of Conley Media Distributed by: Conley Distribution 262-513-2646 ©2004 by Conley Media, LLC Waukesha County Independent and Locally Owned GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS is published weekly by Conley Media – Waukesha County, 801 N. Barstow St., Waukesha, WI 53186. Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without the written consent of the publisher. GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS assumes no liability for any error in copy or content. It is the advertiser's responsibility to be aware of the laws pertaining to employment advertising. Subscriptions are available for $34 (non-refundable) for a 6-month subscription. Call 262-306-5008 for information. Call Center Director: Cindy Shaske 262-306-5016 cshaske@conleynet.com Account Executive: Julie Sears 262-306-5008 jsears@conleynet.com Story Coordinator: Dan Muckelbauer 262-513-2626 dmuck@conleynet.com Production: Patricia Scheel 262-513-2690 GREATERmilwaukeeJOBS Volume 18 • Number 1 September 10, 2015 To place an ad: Call us at 262-306-5008 or fax us at 262-542-6082 deadline: Noon on Wednesdays ity of the U.S. economy, which has so far withstood distress worldwide: Tumultuous stock markets, a sharp slowdown in China, a perpetually struggling European economy and the start of a recession in Canada, Ameri- ca's largest trading partner. Yet the report also spotlighted aspects of an economic expan- sion that has been steady with- out being fully satisfying: Wage growth remains slight. And mil- lions remain relegated to the sidelines of the job market. Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, grades the job market as "good" but not great. "It's a solid B," LaVorgna said. "Definitely not an A." – 5.1 PERCENT UNEMPLOYMENT That figure serves as com- pelling evidence for why the U.S. job market is the envy of most of the industrialized world. The unemployment rate has dropped a full percentage point over the past 12 months, and for a good reason: More Americans are finding work. At previous times during the recovery from the Great Reces- sion, the unemployment rate had dipped only because many people had abandoned their job searches and were no longer counted as unemployed. Employers have added nearly 2.6 million workers since last year – about 764,000 more than the number who left the work- force to retire, start school or end their job hunts in frustration, according to the government's monthly survey of households. A 5.1 percent unemployment rate also fits the Federal Reserve's picture of a normal economy. And so it heightens expectations that the Fed will raise interest rates from record lows later this month. Maximiz- ing employment is one of the Fed's mandates. But the Fed must balance that task with its other mandate: To stabilize prices. And across the economy, inflation remains well short of the Fed's 2 percent target, at which point a rate hike would be appropriate. – 10.3 PERCENT Besides the official unemploy- ment rate, the jobs report includes a broader measure of joblessness: It takes account not only of people seeking work but also of part-time workers who can't find full-time jobs and other people on the fringes of the job market. This broader measure was 10.3 percent last month, relatively high for a baseline unemployment rate of 5.1 percent. When the unemployment rate was most recently this low, in early 2008, the broader measure was 9.2 percent. That gap between 9.2 percent in 2008 and 10.3 percent today translates into an additional 1.9 million Americans who are still barely getting by, testament to a job market has yet to fully heal. – 221,000 JOBS That's the average monthly job growth over the past three months. That average could rise later because economists say seasonal adjustment quirks could cause the August jobs figure of 173,000 to be revised up by 50,000 or more. Why do job gains of more than 200,000 matter so much? It's roughly twice the monthly influx of workers into the job market. It means that demand for workers exceeds the incom- ing supply and suggests that employers foresee continued customer demand. Tellingly, hiring in August shifted away from sectors with heavy exposure to the global economy. Manufacturers, for example, shed 17,000 jobs. The pace of hiring also slipped for business services. More than half the added jobs came from industries largely insulated from overseas turmoil: Government, education and health services. Their share of job growth nearly doubled last month from 27.1 percent in July. — 40.3 PERCENT That's the share of employed Americans older than 25 with college degrees. This figure has climbed more than a percentage point from 39.2 percent over the previous 12 months. Seven years ago, the share of college-gradu- ate workers was roughly 35 per- cent. The change points to an encouraging shift since the recession: American workers are increasingly better educated. College graduates not only earn more on average than non-col- lege grads, but on top of that, their unemployment rate is now a scant 2.5 percent – less than half the national average. —$25.09 The average hourly earnings have crept up just 2.2 percent over the past year to $25.09. see US JOB MARKET . . . page 6 US job market . . . from page 1 Note: We regret that, as of press-time, Liz Reyer's Q&A column is not available for publication this week. We expect her popular column to be available for inclusion in next week's issue of Greater Milwaukee Jobs. Thank you. Just outside my cubicle lies the Pit of Atrociousness. It's a cav- ernous chasm into which I toss the inane press releases and insipid workplace-related books that cross my desk each day. Some have called it "danger- ous" – a couple of colleagues fell in recently (R.I.P., Steve and Marsha), even though the Pit of Atrociousness is very clearly marked - but I find it a reason- able place to dispose of things like "HOT TIPS TO CATA- PULT YOU INTO THE PRO- FESSIONAL POWER- SPHERE" and "Success Through Sobbing." Usually any book or PR pitch that highlights a made-up word - like "performazing" or "reten- tionization" - is instant pit fodder. I recently spotted the word "unternship" on a release and was about to cast it away with an Olympic-caliber eye roll when I spotted a paragraph that made me pause. It described a company's untern who "did a Cherokee sweat lodge ritual in Georgia, ran a Tough Mudder race in Washington, D.C., lived with an Amish community in Ohio, hiked down the Grand Canyon in 120-degree weather, experi- enced a 10-day silent retreat near Fresno, snorkeled with sea tur- tles in Hawaii, built houses for the homeless in New Orleans, and is now in Atlanta doing community service." And I thought, "OK, what's all this untern business about?" It turns out that Golin, a Chicago-based communications firm, has come up with an inven- tive, and I'd add admirable, idea to promote the simple fact that experiences gained outside the workplace have significant value in the workplace. Golin CEO Fred Cook said he wanted to "give people a chance to go out and get some life expe- rience before they start work- ing." "So many people coming out of college, they do an internship every summer then move imme- diately into the workforce when they graduate," Cook said. "They're very educated, but they come to us with very little life experience. So we wanted to create an opportunity for indi- viduals to get that experience on our dime and then bring that back to work in terms of fresh ideas and new perspectives." And so the unternship was born. (Had they called it a "coolternship" or "radternship," this story would be at the bottom of the Pit of Atrocious- ness.) The company took applica- tions and, through an almost reality show-like competition, wound up hiring Akinbola Richardson, a 22-year-old Howard University graduate. His first three months on the job would be spent outside the office, traveling from place to place across the country, meeting people, experiencing things and blogging about it all for the com- pany's website. And travel he did. "Me going out there, meeting all these different people, travel- ing alone, it has really made me more confident," Richardson said. "Even my persuasive skills and creativity have improved. Being in different cultures, going out and getting a sense of the world. It gives you a sense of boldness and creativity, and it makes you grow as a person." As Cook alluded, young people tend to enter the work- force book-smart but unworldly. The lessons learned even in a short period of time outside the relatively protective cocoon of college are crucial. I asked Richardson about some of the more important ways in which he had grown, and the first thing he mentioned was quite simple: "Just day-to-day things like making sure I had all my stuff together as far as travel- ing. I had to be really safe and cautious that I'm getting to the airport on time. You have to be on point with all that stuff. There What if your boss paid you to have life experiences for 3 months? By Rex Huppke Chicago Tribune (TNS) see LIFE EXPERIENCES . . . page 6

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