The New Normal: Jobs Barely Won

Remember the days when finding a job meant scrolling through an overflowing career board, submitting a dozen resumes, interviewing with a handful of employers, and accepting a job offer just a couple days later? Oh, how things have changed.

The average length of time it takes an unemployed person to find work these days sits at 30.2 weeks—an incredible 17.5 more weeks on average than it took a job hunter looking for work back in 2001. While you may find a job eventually, it probably isn’t going to fall into your lap like it may have in years’ past—just one of many “new norms” for job seekers that have been created by the recession.

After the jump, we have put together a roundup of five new norms for those searching for jobs, which you can either choose to embrace or ignore at your own peril….

Screwed: 900 at Ford Motor Co.

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 1,777

The Ford Motor Co. Michigan Mustang plant is planning 900 employee layoffs… The Long Beach Unified School District will deliver 750 layoff warnings next month… Safe Air in Blenheim, a subsidiary of Air New Zealand, is facing 100 job cuts… The Georgia World Congress Center has laid off 27 employees in anticipation of lower convention activity… Merck & Co. Inc is facing a 15 percent staff cut, likely brought on by its acquisition of Schering Plough… The 1,000 layoffs planned for L.A. may involve workers of L.A.X., Port of Los Angeles, and the L.A. Department of Water and Power…

Recession Briefing: A Real Teeth-Grinder

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

In the wake of the recession more people are grinding and clenching their teeth, dentists say. A new survey by the Chicago Dental Society found that 65 percent of Chicago area dentists reported seeing an increase in jaw-clenching and teeth-grinding among patients in the past year. (Chicago Sun-Times)

“The ongoing Greek financial crisis is the same kind of crisis the United States might face a few years from now if we continue to make the same kinds of mistakes the Greeks have made over the last decade,” writes Anne Applebaum. (Slate)

Experts fear that a new wave of foreclosures will hit this year as prolonged unemployment makes it difficult for millions of homeowners to pay their mortgages — and many of them aren’t likely to get much help from a federal program aimed at keeping them in their houses. (Los Angeles Times)…

Why Entrepreneurs Aren’t Risk Lovers

Successful entrepreneurs need to have an outsized appetite for risk. They have to thrill to danger, relish the idea that they might lose it all with one roll of the dice.

Right?

Wrong, obviously, or we wouldn’t have written it that way. (Also, we probably would not have started a business.)

Many people have debunked those ideas, most recently Malcolm Gladwell, writing in the New Yorker. Using as examples Ted Turner and John Paulson, who famously made billions betting against the housing bubble, he argues that successful entrepreneurs are not braver than everyone else. Instead, they are very good at finding opportunities to minimize risk so they don’t have to be brave….

What Do You Know about the Brand ‘You’?

Personal branding is essential, whether you are just starting out in your first job, or moving up a rung on the career ladder. It’s something you need to work on so when you ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” you’ll know the answer and be able to communicate it clearly and concisely.

Some people confuse their personal brand with their “elevator speech.” The term “elevator speech” trivializes an important process that will help you understand exactly what makes you stand out from the crowd.

Your brand influences how important internal and external audiences, including your boss, your customers and prospects perceive you and what they think you have to offer them. Another way of understanding branding is that it’s the words you would want people to use in describing you.

Branding is what sets you apart from your competition. Let’s look at the brands of some famous companies and people. FedEx, for example, is positioned as the company that you can rely on to deliver your package by 10:30 tomorrow morning. Absolutely, positively. Google is the leader in search, and continues to be. The advent of new competition has hardly made a dent in its market share….

Screwed: 400 in Montgomery, Alabama

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s total: 781

In the Montgomery Alabama School District, 400 jobs may be cut due to decreased funding from the state for the next fiscal year…Yesterday, New York’s St. Vincent’s Hospital laid off 300 workers in order to prevent closure…In Tulsa, Oral Roberts University announced a “rightsizing” plan to lay off 50 non-faculty positions across several departments…In another round of school budget cuts, Stafford County announced plans to eliminate 31 employees by April 1…Throughout the Jackson Health System, hospitals prepare to announce widespread layoffs today, though the numbers are still uncertain…

Recession Briefing: Courtroom Drama

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

In this time of double-digit unemployment and shrinking benefits for those who do have jobs, courts are finding it more difficult to seat juries for trials running more than a day or two. And in extreme cases, reluctance has escalated into rebellion, experts say. (Los Angeles Times)

More waves of foreclosures will keep downward pressure on home prices in parts of the U.S. over the next several years, two new studies project. The studies both conclude that most efforts to modify loans with easier terms will delay, not prevent, the loss of homes to foreclosure. (Wall Street Journal)

Over the next six months, the federal government plans to wind down many of its emergency programs for housing. Then it will become clear if the market can function on its own. People in Elkhart, Ind., are pretty sure the answer will be no. (New York Times)…

Love Letters from the Recession

We get a lot of mail at Recessionwire, but this one, clearly intended for another recipient, caught our eye. With Valentine’s Day upon us, we thought we’d share:

Dear XXXX-

I want to read you a love poem, one of my favorite poems; a poem by the late poet William Carlos Williams. The poem is called This is Just to Say (1934):

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast…

Will the Millennials Be the Worst Generation Ever?

Is this the most depressing (or recessing?) story to come out about the downturn or what? We’ve all heard sad tales about lost jobs and lost homes, but Don Peck’s feature for The Atlantic is about a lost generation.

Citing a litany of statistics, studies and observations –mostly about past generations — Peck argues that this stretch of deep unemployment will shape the character of today’s young adults for the worse. They’re likely to earn less and drink more…

Screwed: 500 in Jordan School District

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 1,141

Utah’s Jordan School District will lay off 500 teachers and staff as well as increase class size to compensate for the decline in budget… Sacramento Transit is expected to announce a specific number of layoffs today, though 300 workers are said to be unemployed by the summer… New York’s Empire Aero Center is planning 203 layoffs by this coming May… Vestas Americas, the sales division of the Danish wind-turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, is terminating 114 U.S. jobs…