Post-Recession Job Market

The past year has undoubtedly brought many changes and challenges to both employers and employees. Layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs have been widespread, thus contributing to a job market saturated with qualified candidates competing for fewer jobs. Despite this steep competition among candidates, employers struggle to find professionals with in-demand skill sets.

Along with these continued battles, employers face a new challenge: ensuring their companies are prepared when the economy does make an inevitable turnaround, which will give them a competitive advantage.

A new survey, the 2009 EDGE Report from Robert Half International and CareerBuilder, provides answers to many of the lingering questions surrounding today’s economy and job market: Where will jobs be added first in the recovery? What challenges will employers face in recruitment? How will compensation be impacted? And how will employers retain the talent they’ve preserved during this difficult time?

To take advantage of an improving economy, employers that cut staffing levels extensively are taking a close look at the core skills needed in new hires in order to rebuild their rosters once the economic recovery takes hold.

Fifty-three percent of employers said they plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, while 39 percent will add part-time employees, according to a new survey. Forty percent will hire contract, temporary or project professionals.

Here are several key other findings from the report:

Where jobs will be added first
Hiring managers currently consider customer service as the most critical to the company’s success, followed by sales, marketing/creative and technology. Public relations/communication, business development and accounting/finance round out the list.

When the economy does start to rebound, respondents said technology, customer service and sales departments will add positions first, followed by marketing/creative, business development, human resources and accounting/finance.

In the meantime, hiring managers continue to appreciate employees who can perform multiple functions. Employers cited multitasking, initiative and creative problem-solving as the most valuable characteristics in ideal new hires.

Retaining talent
Although many business leaders have plans to add new employees to their organizations in the coming months, they also have to consider how their decisions during the financial crisis have impacted job satisfaction and loyalty of their current staff.

Fifty-five percent of workers polled have plans to change careers, find a new employer or go back to school once the economy recovers. Forty-nine percent said that the most effective way to keep them on board will be with pay increases; in fact, 28 percent plan to ask for a raise.

Employers are aware that competitive pay and benefits will play a critical role in retaining talent. Forty percent of employers said that they plan to increase pay when the economy improves and 20 percent said they hope for better benefits and perks.

Continued challenges in recruitment
Although there is a greater pool of available talent among job seekers, employers are still having trouble finding qualified professionals for open positions: 47 percent of employers cited under-qualified applicants as their most common hiring challenge. Employers said that, on average, 44 percent of the résumés they receive are from unqualified candidates.

As a result, employers are open to paying for great talent; 61 percent said their companies are willing to negotiate a higher salary for qualified candidates.

A common complaint from job seekers is the amount of time the hiring process takes; however, this is one area where employers won’t budge. The average time it takes to recruit a new full-time hire is 4.5 to 14.4 weeks. Employers say that in order to avoid costly hiring mistakes, it’s necessary to take their time reviewing and screening a high volume of résumés, and also to carefully evaluate those invited for interviews

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Big Willie Style

Big Willie Style

By Seth Semilof
Photography by Keeney + Law

The impact of former Mayor Willie Brown can be seen on virtually every corner of this great city. Following the 2008 publication of his memoirs, Basic Brown: My Life and Our Times, brown reflects on what it is that makes San Francisco haute.

From the very beginning, Willie Lewis Brown Jr. was destined to make a difference.

He came to San Francisco in 1951 in order to make a difference in his own life, and he succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations. From the moment he stepped off the train from rural Texas, he began a rise to power that blended panache, raw talent, and boundless ambition. No politician dominated California longer or more completely than Willie. No politician was more flamboyant. And if you measure a man by the enormity of his progressive impact on the world, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men in the City by the Bay.

Yet as he moved through life, and through the glitzy restaurants and grandiose chambers where he held court, Brown’s origins were never far from his thoughts. He hailed from the humblest of beginnings: Mineola, Texas, a segregated small town full of people with segregated small town views. Willie Brown was too big for such a place. His escape route brought him west to the coast of northern California, a place where his race wasn’t the overriding factor, even back in the middle of the 20th century. “This city so welcomed me and made me feel comfortable and made me forget the color of my skin.”

Video: PBS

He says this from the lobby bar of the St. Regis San Francisco, his personal stomping ground, thanks to his residence upstairs. During the course of our conversations, men stop by to clap him on the back while thanking him for his hard work and impact; women demurely offer their hands while simultaneously offering praise. People are captivated by the man who is the father of modern San Francisco, the man who is so firmly rooted in the city he says he does not like to take vacations. His career path reflects his affinity. Rather than following the typical route of corporate lawyer-turned-politician-turned mayor-turned-senator or -governor, Brown’s steadfast love for the city of San Francisco, which developed seemingly seconds after stepping off that train, spawned a path that kept Brown in the city, making moves to help her prosper. It’s no wonder San Franciscans return the love.

For the past two years Brown has called the St. Regis home, and his choice to rest his head at night in the five-star condo-hotel is indicative of something much greater than his taste in real estate. The beacon of luxurious hospitality is located South of Market, a district that Brown is personally responsible for revitalizing. When Brown began his quest, he had a vision for San Francisco, the city of his affection, and he refused to rest until that image was brought to fruition. And then he put his money where his mouth was, choosing to live-work-and-play in the neighborhood he helped create. His residence in the St. Regis is evidence enough that the shoe-shiner from small town Texas not only made it, he made it big.

It was a long climb to the top, but the eloquent man’s strong mastery of style, both in spoken prose and classic gentlemen’s fashions, made that climb unforgettable not only to San Franciscans but to the entire nation. His celebrity extends well beyond the city, and he carefully cultivated his public image over the course of his decades-long political career. He is affably known as Da Mayor, as a man of the people, by the people, and for the people. He is also known for getting results, a trend that started when he first arrived in the city to begin his undergraduate studies.

The Early Years

for more info. head over to HauteLiving.com

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