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  Press Release
For Immediate Release
8/8/05
Contact: Roger Herman

Hidden Indicator in Jobs Report

On August 5th, The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in July 207,000 new jobs were created in the United States. This healthy number exceeds expectations.

The statement from BLS Commissioner Kathleen Utgoff includes the detail that "In July, temporary help services employment was flat and has shown little net change since April."

"The lack of growth in the temporary staffing numbers, as strong as that industry is today, is a powerful indicator of solid growth in the economy and in employment," said Roger Herman, a workforce trend watcher. Herman, CEO of The Herman Group, explained that "This measure confirms that employers are more confident and are now hiring full-time employees. They are moving away from the cautionary practice of using temporary workers as transitional labor.

Herman suggests that the shift in the type of employees being hired is another sign that we are comfortably out of the recessionary period and that the economy is in an important growth mode.

Ted Daywalt, CEO of VetJobs, a job-board connecting employers with veterans and their families, confirms this trend. "Our numbers are showing a substantial increase, from both employers posting jobs they’re eager to fill and from current and future veterans looking for meaningful, stable employment."

"We remember last summer, fall, and winter, when the temporary (contract) help market was very strong. This pattern is typical when coming out of a recession. What is happening now, and what we’re seeing in our numbers, is that the economy is pumping and we’ll see a lot more new jobs being reported in months to come," says Daywalt.

As workforce futurists, we of The Herman Group have been warning about this sharp growth for some time. In the firm’s weekly Herman Trend Alert and in speeches and consulting, Herman and his colleagues have advised employers to increase their employee retention efforts to counteract aggressive recruiting from competitors. "The intensity of activity has increased substantially," Herman reports, "from both employers looking for qualified people and from employees looking for new opportunities. The trend is in place and will continue to accelerate."

Herman is lead author of the business best-seller, Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People. This is the book that first warned of the shortage of skilled workers. Referring to this book, Herman said, "Our research shows that the labor shortage is here. Millions of positions are unfilled, while less-than-qualified workers wonder why they can’t get a job. The need for training and education—the re-tooling of our workforce—has never been greater. We must take action!"

Daywalt agrees. "Most of the employers using VetJobs to find qualified workers want to benefit from the high tech and leadership skills that comes from military training. They can’t find the people they need in the civilian marketplace, so they look to transitioning military and veterans to take advantage of the training and experience they have received. VetJobs is the Veterans of Foreign Wars job board and the largest of the military related sites."

With increasing emphasis on hiring full-time employees, competition will become more intense. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for skilled workers already far exceeds the available supply.

The Herman Group is a firm of consulting futurists concentrating on workforce and workplace trends and their implications. Emphasis is placed on employee selection and retention as critical strategies. Included in the firm are researchers, professional speakers, authors, and consultants. The Herman Group is based in Greensboro, NC, with affiliates in Sao Paulo, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Port Louis, Mauritius. Contact Joyce Gioia-Herman at 336-210-3548 or e-mail: joyce@hermangroup.com.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            


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