High Unemployment States - Difficult for IT Pros'
Newsletter Topics
- Highest Unemployment States Make Life Difficult for IT Pros
- Matching the Right Skills to the Right Job
- Interviewing Best Practices
High Unemployment States Makes it Difficult for IT Pros
Unemployment is over 9% in 8 states not a good sign for IT Pros employment and career opportunities...
As people continue to forecast an improvement in the economy, the latest BLS data shows there still are 8 states with unemployment number that are higher than 9%.
In the long run that is not good news for IT pros. First, companies in those regions do not have good prospects so they typically will not hire or invest in new systems. Second, those who have jobs in high unemployment areas are less likely to move to new companies because of uncertainty about the economy reducing the number of opening created by voluntary moves.
The states with the highest unemployment numbers are:
- Nevada – 12.0%
- Rhode Island – 10.8%
- California – 10.7%
- New Jersey – 9.8%
- North Carolina – 9.6%
- South Carolina – 9.6%
- Georgia – 9.3%
- New York – 9.1%
Add to that the influx of undocumented worker in California, Nevada, New York and New Jersey the employment picture looks like anything but positive. When will this turn around? If you listen to many economists, there is a new trend that they say is happening and this may be the norm for the next several years.
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Matching the Right Skills to the Right Job
The IT Job Description HandiGuide provides complete details on the most recruited IT positions. Each description includes a comprehensive list of the job responsibilities and the typical requirements for a qualified candidate. This resource will enable you to expertly organize and staff a world class IT organization, aligned to your business, without wasting hours of time "reinventing the wheel." The job descriptions are in editable Microsoft Word format and can be easily customized to meet your organizations specific needs.
Building the IT Staff your company needs to succeed requires offering the right jobs at the right salary levels. Only the IT Hiring Resource Kit provides the industry-standard job descriptions and up-to-date salary data you need to recruit top talent as effectively and efficiently as possible. The salary survey includes a list of the benefits provided by enterprises of all size. Is your company providing the right benefits.
This indispensable resource provides up-to-date salary data gathered through an extensive survey of businesses throughout the United States and Canada, plus polished job descriptions for the 73 IT positions surveyed. This proprietary information will reduce the time it takes to recruit top talent and ensure that you get the right person for each job.
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Interviewing Best Practices
Hiring is the most critical aspect of a CIO's role. For a CIO it can be fatal of they hire a new employee find out there is a mismatch.
Background screening is a critical part of the hiring process for the majority of organizations today, but it is even more essential in the current economy for several reasons. eJobDescription.com has found that a shortage of key skills is the number one challenge facing CIOs and IT functions. This may seem counter-intuitive at first given the news of continued high levels of unemployment and a "jobless" economic recovery. However coupled with many interviews with CIOs and HR professionals in end-user organizations, confirms that finding the right talent - the talent with the right mix of skills, behaviors and values to fit with the organization - is still a challenge. In fact, more applicants in the pool makes filtering and screening even more critical to ensure that time isn't wasted on candidates who aren't a good fit or who might not be qualified for the position.
Hiring managers understand that an interviewee's capability does not necessarily equal that they are a good fit. Capability refers to the skills, tools and experience that a person needs to successfully perform a job. It is no secret that most candidates exaggerate their abilities on their resumes and job applications. Things to look for are:
- Skills Definition - Good Job Descriptions - Do you know what skills are needed to perform the job and whether the employee possesses those skills? If they do not possess the necessary skills, how will the CIO help them to acquire them, and how long do you expect that process to take? It is in everyone's best interest for the CIO to set appropriate expectations for the employee from the beginning. This is especially true if the job requires special technical capabilities.
- Tools Definition - Good IT Infrastructure - Even if an individual has the skills and experience to do the job, do they have the tools to deliver peak performance? For example, a highly skilled and experienced web designer cannot build a website without adequate computer hardware and software. The tools do not have to be the most up-to-date, but a system that crashes can be incredibly frustrating and unproductive, even to the best performer.
- Experience - Just because an employee has the skills to do a job does not mean that they has the experience to apply those skills in his specific position. This is especially true for recent graduates, outside hires from different industries and internal hires from different departments. While the required skills may be similar from one job to the next, differing applications and terminology may require that the new hire take time to learn the nuances of his new position.