Posted by Ashley Ryall on Thu, Aug 04, 2011 @ 09:10 AM
There’s so much content out there about the current state of the U.S. labor market, how do you stay up-to-date about company layoffs, unemployment rates, and career advice? Maybe you’re using your morning newspaper or online newsfeeds. A few of us here at John Leonard like to search Twitter because just a small handful of real-time tweets provide the information we need to keep up with the current trends. Let me explain…by searching keywords for certain topics on Twitter, we keep up with the latest U.S. and local labor statistics and therefore more accurately understand our local workforce and better strategize how we will interact with those affected.
Below you will find a few highlighted bullet points from collections of tweets surfaced from different keyword searches.
Trends in the nature of tweets: Here we see very specific tweets shared with #career as the searched topic, all relevant to the state of U.S. and local labor market.
- What's wrong with the American job engine? As United Technologies Corporate Chief Financial Officer Greg Hayes said, "Sales have come back, but people have not.''
- Over the past 10 years, the labor force has grown by 10.1 million.
- Ten states added over 25,000 jobs each in the period from January to June 2011; Massachusetts at number 5 added 39,700 jobs in this timeframe.
- U.S. Paralegal careers are seeing strong hiring trends this year (medical and financial careers are among the top 6 also), reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, 2011.
Trends in the nature of tweets: This particular collection of tweets is a group of resources and articles focused on career advice, inspirational stories, career tips, and important resources for anyone looking to make a career change or start their career.
- Tips:
- Habits that make great opportunities happen: pay attention. Value curiosity and notice what makes peoples’ lives easier.
- Use social media to get a job: “In today’s world, not only do you need strong hard and soft skills, but you need to develop online influence. When two candidates look the same on paper and are both good communicators, the differentiator will be their online influence. “
- In the great words of JacPoindexter (@ValueIntoWords): “When it comes down to it, it's not who you know ... it's who knows what you can do and trusts you to do it!”
Trends in the nature of tweets collected here: “Here, we see tweets not only about companies and individuals affected by layoffs, but just as many tweets about how to handle a layoff and get back into the working world. In a way, the helpful tips and inspiration offset the negative news by sharing resources and support and encouraging a positive attitude,” says Temporary Division Consultant, Elyse Gonsalves.
- How to cope with job loss: evaluate priorities and immediate needs, assess personal finances, apply for unemployment and stay positive.
- Europe’s largest bank planned to cut approximately 30K jobs, which is about 4% of its global workforce.
- Job seekers all over the world tweet about their recent layoff experiences, asking for advice and support.
Your news feeds are updated almost every second with more real-time statistics and information that is shared with you, providing you what you need to know to be best prepared in this economy. What new information might you receive by conducting the same search two minutes later? And, what information collected at a particular moment might affect the way you portray yourself or conduct your business? Twitter the new oracle…agree/disagree?