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Over 100 years ago, Congress passed an act designating the 1st Monday of September as a national holiday to thank the contribution made by American workers to the strength and prosperity of our country. While the past few years have been economically challenging for the majority of workers, Labor Day provides an opportunity to take a well-deserved break, relax and plan for the Autumn employment changes.
Ironically, the next job market report comes out at the beginning of the Labor Day Weekend on Friday, September 2nd and will be a statistical indication of how flat or robust job growth has been in August. However, it is important to remember that August is traditionally a slow hiring month and while everyone is hoping for increased growth, the statistics may not reflect the “normal hiring averages”.
While it would be nice if the statistics or trends or anything else could provide an absolute view of what the job market will be like for the remainder of 2011, there are a few certainties that can help in planning your job search strategy.
• Total hiring normally picks up after Labor Day until Thanksgiving. Summer vacations are over, kids are back in school and business is more focused on results.
• Total hiring normally slows down from Thanksgiving until after New Year’s. The combination of holiday mentality, end of budget periods and the desire to postpone end-of-year employee costs means that response time from companies is slower.
So, you have approximately 10 weeks to capitalize on the employment opportunities that exist and those that are prepared stand the best chance of being successful. Here are a few tips that may help.
1. Review, revise and update your resume. It’s a great time to try a fresh approach on detailing your skills and abilities. Upload a new resume to InsuranceLawJobs.com so that employers searching the database will find a current resume. This also enables you them to see that you are currently interested in new opportunities.
2. Sign up for job retrievers on InsuranceLawJobs.com to make sure you’re notified of every new opportunity as soon as it is posted.
3. Create or update your LinkedIn profile and expand your network of contacts and group affiliations through the site.
4. Review and expand your network of contacts that may be able to help. Identify those key contacts that you haven’t seen for awhile and make a point to call them or get together with them for coffee or lunch.
5. Identify business networking groups in your area or profession and make a point to attend meetings or events. These groups generally increase their activity beginning in September.
6. Make a point to do 1 thing different that will introduce you to new people. For example, take a class or volunteer at a civic or community event or become involved with a relevant alumni group (eg. school or past employer).
Finally, remember that often candidates pull back from looking for opportunities after Labor Day also. Once children are in school and year-end bonuses (if any) begin to loom, many candidates tend to remain in their current jobs which means that the competition may drop off. Less competition combined with better preparation may mean a successful career change.
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