Global job markets poised for revival after downturn
By Farah Nayeri
Bloomberg News Service
CLERMONT-FERRAND, France — Geraldine Favre joined the ranks of France's 2.4 million job-seekers in September, the same month that terrorists rammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Many job hunters launch a search with a flurry of activity and enthusiasm but experience a slowdown later on. Candidates who set goals, seek support and stick to their plans tend to be the most successful. But even the most ardent job seeker may experience some dips in activity. Here are seven tips to keep you on track. • Maintain perspective. When finding a new job is not as easy as you thought it would be, don't assume the worst. Get the facts. Base your actions on real information and evaluate what has worked and what hasn't. Take short breaks from your search to clear your head and regain perspective. • Use your support system. Sometimes the discomfort of not having found a job makes individuals withdraw from friends, associates and family. People want to help, but you have to tell them how. Talk to a friend or mentor; consider joining a support group or professional association, and take advantage of your network. • Stick to your plan. Your search should have begun with an evaluation of your past experiences and an assessment of your skills, interests and values, which led you to develop a plan with concrete goals and objectives. Stick with that plan. Review it regularly and make adjustments based on what you have learned. • Consider alternatives. Don't overlook other possibilities if your original goals do not materialize. You may want to investigate short-term or interim assignments where you can experience different industries and cultures without making a long-term commitment. It is also an excellent way to demonstrate the kinds of skills you have to offer. One of these assignments could turn into a permanent full-time position. • Surround yourself with positive people. Avoid people who see their unemployment as a glass half empty. Instead, spend your time around those who project a positive attitude and who support and believe in you. These people will be more focused on possibilities and positive outcomes. • Be optimistic, yet realistic. You want to strike a balance between euphoria and desperation. Most people who have struggled through an extended job search say they have hit low points, assessed the situation, asked for support and moved on. So can you. Getting hired requires mental preparation, the insight to recognize when you are getting off track and information to get a stalled campaign moving again. • Getting action requires action. Your activity level is a key indicator that you are moving closer to your goal. Stay organized, focused and determined and your job search will ultimately yield success. — USA Today
"It was the worst time," recalls Favre, who had just left a sports Internet company she helped start. "Interviewers were more confrontational. Some didn't even bother to follow up."
Strategies to keep job search on track
In January, the 24-year-old was hired by the marketing division of Michelin & Cie., Europe's No. 1 tiremaker. And she's still getting follow-up calls from other companies.
Six months after the attacks set off firings that threw 1.1 million in the United States and 500,000 in Europe out of work, companies are starting to hire again, lending hope to prospects of a global recovery, economists said.
The U.S. economy added jobs for the first time in seven months in February and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent, recently released figures show.
U.S. retailers had their biggest monthly sales gains in almost two years that month, prompting Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Green-span to say last week a recovery was "well under way."
In Europe, the German economy lost the fewest jobs in 14 months in February, while there were 5,000 new French job-seekers in January, the smallest increase in seven months.
"The worst of the crisis is past," European Central Bank council member Eugenio Domingo Solans said. "We will see a recovery."
The turnaround suggests that employment, which a decade ago recovered nearly a year after the economy pulled out of recession, now responds more quickly to rising growth.
"Labor markets are lagging a lot less," said Paul Donovan, global economist at UBS Warburg. "Companies are swifter to respond, because you have a lot more part-time and temporary workers."
Service companies, especially travel, leisure and airlines, are hiring to fill jobs lost post-September.
"We're coming out of the doldrums," said German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG's spokes-man Thomas Ellerbeck. "The hiring freeze is lifted."
Euro Disney SCA is adding 2,000 staffers to an existing 11,000 as it opens a new suburban Paris theme park. Southwest Airlines Co. plans to employ 4,000 this year, and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines will rehire 1,200 flight attendants it laid off as part of 20,000 post-September firings.
Financial services companies are also recruiting, though not enough to offset last year's job losses, which totaled 33,000 in the securities industry alone. Allianz AG plans to quadruple the financial advisers at its Advance Holding AG unit to 1,700 by the end of 2008. New Jersey's Commerce Bancorp will take on 8,000 workers by 2006 as it boosts its East Coast business.
Few new jobs are in manufacturing. French manufacturers shed a net 9,900 jobs in the fourth quarter, while payrolls at service companies rose by 36,300. Carmakers are the exception: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and DaimlerChrysler AG created the most jobs last year in Germany.
In some cases, people laid off by bankrupt companies are being taken on by rivals. UBS AG bought an energy trading Web site from Enron Corp., the collapsed U.S. energy-trading firm, and hired 625 former Enron employees to staff it. Groupe Seb SA of France is hiring some of the 4,400 people fired after rival home appliance maker Moulinex SA went bust.
"The general sense is one of optimism," said Reesa Staten, a vice president at the job placement firm Robert Half International Inc. "As workloads increase, often companies will bring in temporary workers until they feel confident enough to bring in full-time staff."
But many of the new jobs are less well paid, as companies seek cheaper staffers to trim costs.
"Wages are low, disgustingly low, for the secretarial market where I work," said 54-year-old Lureen Drackett, who lost her job at the City Council in Hackney, east London. "They're offering less than 15,000 pounds ($21,329) a year for jobs in London. I used to get 25,000 pounds."
Job-seekers who got the cold shoulder are now daring to turn down offers.
"I went for an interview yesterday, and decided not to take the job," said 40-year-old asset manager Marco Aquaviva, who has been on the scout in Rome for four months and decided he didn't want a sales job.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, such companies as Ford Motor Co., Merrill Lynch and Siemens AG fired tens of thousands of workers, sending shock waves through the global economy.
