plus 1, Private employers added 187,000 jobs in January - msnbc.com

Private employers added 187,000 jobs in January - msnbc.com

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 07:00 AM PST

NEW YORK — U.S. private employers added more jobs than expected in January, underscoring views the employment picture is slowly improving.

The private sector added 187,000 jobs in January compared with a downwardly revised gain of 247,000 jobs in December, a report by payrolls processor ADP Employer Services showed on Wednesday. The December figure was originally reported as a gain of 297,000 jobs.

"Bottom line, even with the Dec downward revision, the two month average is a solid 217,000 and certainly a positive for economic activity," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.

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The January ADP figure was also above economist expectations for job gains of 145,000.

The ADP figures come ahead of the government's much more comprehensive labor market report on Friday, which includes both public and private sector employment.

However, ADP figures last month turned out to be much stronger than what the government report showed, adding to doubts about the reliability of ADP as a predictor of payrolls.

Even though most economic indicators lately have suggested the United States is picking up steam, job creation has been slow since the end of the recession in June 2009.

Analysts have closely watched data on private payrolls, which tend to show the bulk of new job gains.

Friday's Labor Department report is expected to show a rise in overall nonfarm payrolls of 145,000 in January, based on a Reuters poll of analysts, but a rise in private payrolls of 155,000.

A separate report Wednesday showed the number of planned layoffs at U.S. firms in January rose 20 percent from the previous month to 38,519, but the tally was still the lowest for a January since at least 1993.

Noting that January was typically a month of large job cuts, global outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in its report that the slowdown in job cuts that began in the latter half of 2010 appeared to be continuing.

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Job market is the mother of reinvention - Cincinnati.com

Posted: 02 Feb 2011 06:03 AM PST

Need a new job in mid-career?

Just reinvent yourself, baby.

Thanks to the punishing job market, it's become a favorite buzzword of the day, an optimistic-sounding, luck-changing option for the jobless and soon-to-be-jobless.

Don't just sit there being your old downsized self.

The reality of self-reinvention for the job market is, of course, much hazier and uncertain than any clich{inodot}d approach to finding work. It can be done, say career counselors and those who have been through it. But it's a slow, unpredictable process that can yield great rewards but is much like - yikes - work.

"There are no gimmicks, no panacea," said Elaine Sozzi, director of Westchester (N.Y.) Library System's WEBS career counseling program for 21 years. "Especially in an economy like this, when people think they have everything figured out and then have the rug pulled out from under them, reinventing yourself requires some serious reassessment of who you are and where you're going."

Reinvention - also known in the career field as, ugh, retooling or transitioning - is a process that probably will require soul-searching, clear-eyed prioritizing, tons of research, the acquisition of new skills in college or elsewhere, as much networking as one can stand, and at least a touch of bravery.

The idea is to take a deep breath and to evaluate all the skills and talents one can offer potential employers, skills acquired not only from previous jobs but from volunteer work, life experience, whatever. Then you consider the widest possible range of career options where those skills might be needed, including fields connected to what you've done before and fields you've never considered.

"We get so stuck, thinking, This is all I've done, this is all I know,' '' said Laura Persky, 47, of Larchmont, N.Y., a mother of two who wanted out of the high-pressure world of corporate marketing. "Often, your friends work in a similar environment. You don't think you can do something different, until you have to."

Persky, who now teaches business classes at Monroe College, received career counseling from a firm that helps people rediscover their skills for professional success.

In broad strokes, the process of reinventing oneself for the job market, as prescribed by career counselors, begins with a deep and honest self-assessment. What are your professional values? Are you most interested in salary, flexibility, autonomy, something else? What are your interests? What type of careers are best suited to your personality? What skills do you have? What skills can you acquire?

Many counselors start with personality tests and exercises that promote reflection and self-confidence.

"Reinventing yourself is about breaking down barriers and looking at yourself in new ways," said Diane Spizzirro of Success Image, who worked in the insurance industry before going back to school and reinventing herself. "Losing a job can be a real blow to people. They may question if they have any skills at all, so we have to build them back up."

Jaime Alpert, a fellow counselor at Success Image and a former corporate recruiter herself, said that reinvention requires the developing and nurturing of confidence.

"You have to convince yourself of what you can offer before you can convince a future employer," she said. "You have to become your image of what being successful is."

Career counselors stress that people looking to reinvent themselves professionally cannot isolate themselves at home, sending out resumes by e-mail. They need to network with other job-seekers, do volunteer work, reach out to professional and private contacts and follow-up on all possible leads.

"So many people sit at their computer, but it doesn't work," said Ginny Ruder of Scarsdale, a career counselor at Rockland County (N.Y.) Guidance Center who was an interior designer before reinventing herself. "You have to talk to everyone you know, try things by volunteering. The people I know who are getting jobs are enthusiastic - and it comes across."

In this job market, though, even enthusiastic and confident job-seekers who have embraced a process of reinvention may have to take lower-paying jobs than what they had before. Some people, career counselors say, may have to prepare to move again when the economy strengthens.