Zero Unemployment????

How about the January unemployment numbers?  Don’t you just love to hear the “news” people throw those depressing numbers at us on a daily basis?  But before you scream, let’s look a little deeper at those numbers.

The unemployment rate is published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division of the US Department of Labor.  The rate is found by dividing the number of unemployed by the total civilian labor force.  On February 1st, 2013, the BLS published the most recent unemployment rate for January, 2013 of 7.9% (actually it is 7.923, up .074% from 7.849% in December, 2012).

On the surface, these new unemployment rates are scary to some and to others an indication there are plenty of candidates looking for work.  But, before you make a judgment, look a little deeper and consider some other numbers.

The unemployment rate includes all types of workers—construction workers, government workers, etc.  The unemployment rate for management, professional and related types of workers rate in January was 3.9% (this rate is the same as December’s 3.9%) and for people who have college degrees. the unemployment rate in January fell to 3.7% (down from Decembers’ 3.9%).

It’s important to understand (and your will hear very few of the pundits mention this) the unemployment rate, for many reasons, will never be 0%, no matter how good the economy is.  Without boring you, let me add that Milton Friedman (the renowned Nobel Prize-winning economist), is famous for the theory of the “natural rate of unemployment” (or the term he preferred, NAIRU, which is the acronym for Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment).  Basically, this theory states full employment presupposes an ‘unavoidable and acceptable’ unemployment rate of somewhere between 4-6% with it.  Economists often settle on 5%, although the “New Normal Unemployment Rate” has been suggested to fall at 6.7%.

If you will allow me to apply a ‘macro’ concept to a ‘micro’ issue, this rate applied to the category of Management, Professional and Related types of potential recruits, and/or the other main category of College-Degreed potential recruits, we find no unemployment!

So, my final point is this.  To secure the best talent for your organization requires a proactive plan to develop strategic recruiting partners.  As a recruiter, we recruit people who are happy, well-appreciated, making good money and currently working and we entice them to move for a better opportunity with one of our client companies.  Call us and let us help you develop a strategic and effective recruiting plan.

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