Tag Archives: Barack Obama

NEWEST EMPLOYMENT NUMBERS, “A PUNCH TO THE GUT”

Posted on April 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

The United States unemployment numbers for March have been released, and they are less than stellar. While continuing to trend in a positive direction, hiring slowed to a near crawl in the month of March.

Just 88,000 jobs were added to the United States economy dropping the unemployment rate to 7.6% a far cry from the predicted number of near 200,000 jobs being added.

“This is a punch to the gut,” Austan Goolsbee, former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Obama, said on CNBC. “This is not a good number.” 

A bigger factor in the rate dropping 0.1% from February to March may have been the number of Americans who left the workforce altogether. According to a report from the Huffington Post, 496,000 workers left the labor-force completely.

On top of this, the percentage of people eligible for work and looking for work fell to 63.3% its lowest figure since 1979.

The report states that the March report has yet to even feel the force of the “sequester” that is coming from the government, which is predicted to have a huge effect on the United States employment situation.

“Sharp cuts in government spending implemented March 1 are only beginning to show their ugly consequences,” Heather Boushey, an economist with the liberal think-tank Center for American Progress, said in an email. “While it’s too early to know what the full impact will be on the unemployment rate, government spending cuts are stealing wind from the sails of the recovery.”

Although trending in a positive direction, the numbers reported this past week speak volumes of the direction this country is headed. While a slow recovery continues to take place, government spending cuts that will come across the board will soon wreak its havoc on the United States jobs report. As spending cuts take effect, more and more organizations will not only cut hiring, but also even begin layoffs.

The optimism of any huge recover is slowly fading away as Americans exit the workforce in fear of the future.

Here at Crossroads Consulting we strongly advise against giving up hope. The jobs are out there, and we have a few of them! Please come over to our website and take a look at the over 50 job postings we have that we are looking to fill TODAY. If you’re not confident in your resume helping you grab that position you’ve always wanted, we have you covered there with our recommended resume service.

So now, there’s really only one question we have to ask you. Why haven’t YOU contacted us yet?

Remember, we’re here to put the “human” back into “human resources.”

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UNDEREMPLOYMENT

Posted on February 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

After last week’s State of the Union address from President Barack Obama, congressman David Joyce (1st term Republican, Ohio) was quoted on the current job market, and how he feels American’s aren’t well prepared for the market in front of them.

“We need to better prepare our workforce for the jobs that we have,” Joyce said. “There are three million jobs that go vacant each month in this country, so the idea of trying to better prepare our children for the workforce by reforming high schools and stressing technical degrees in engineering, that is something that intrigues me. It’s something that people in other districts hear from their people, who said we have difficulty finding competent workers.”

The website PolitiFact picked up on Joyce’s comments out of intrigue, and decided to do some research. Not willing to believe that in a country with a 7.9% unemployment rate that 3 million jobs could go vacant from month to month.

PolitiFact contacted Joyce’s office, who referred the website to these figures:

“Reports the office issued for previous months in 2012 indicated there were 3.8 million job openings in June, 3.7 million job openings in November, October , July,   May and March,  3.6 million openings in September and August, 3.5 million vacancies in January and February, and 3.4 million unfilled jobs in April,”

Joyce wasn’t wrong.

It is becoming an epidemic in today’s struggling economy that jobs are remaining unfilled. This is due to a believed “skill gap” in the workforce between employers and prospective employees. Currently, employers aren’t paying what prospective employees feel they are worth. With this in turn comes the underemployment number. Underemployment, if you are not familiar with the term, can be defined as people who are working in a lower capacity than they are qualified for, including in a lower-paid job or for less hours than they would like to work.

The current reported underemployment number in the United States sits at around 15%

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Is it possible that all these issues can be tracked back to simple supply and demand theory? There isn’t a very large demand for workers these days, but the supply of those looking for work continues to be at an all-time high. This allows prospective employers to pick and choose as they please, at the rates they wish to pay, with the skills they want to add to their teams.

The job market is always evolving. If you find yourself unemployed at the current time, we encourage you to stick with it, to keep building your resume however you can, and adding those skills that employers in your field desire. If you’re like the many other hardworking unemployed Americans, you are reading job ads daily, you know what companies are looking for. Always remember that unemployed time is NOT vacation time.

At Crossroads Consulting we continue to have over 50 job postings that we’re looking to fill TODAY across the nation. If you believe that your resume is holding you back, we can help you there too with our resume service.

As patriotic as we are, we want to see all of America back on its feet and in the workforce. This economy cannot recover on its own, but requires a team effort from everyone out there. Make your connections, including us, work them, and let’s get working together.

Remember, Crossroads Consulting is here to put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources.’

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SALES DROP – SPIRITS CAN’T

Posted on November 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

Despite what the results from the 2012 United States Presidential Election might tell you, with Americans re-electing Barack Obama, the US economy is a LONG way from improving.

According to a report at Bloomberg.com, for the first time in four months, U.S. retail sales fell in October.

It’s reasonable to attribute a small part of that drop to the devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to the Northeastern United States, and the country’s biggest hub in New York City, but that certainly wasn’t enough to account for it all.

“There’s probably some hurricane impact,” Neil Dutta, head of U.S. economics at Renaissance Macro Research LLC in New York said. “But when consumers are cautious they tend to spend more on staples than discretionary items, and that’s exactly what happened this month.” It was Dutta, who correctly forecasted the October decline in sales. “The broad story is that consumers remain cautious.”

While the 0.3% drop seems on the surface to be a small number, it continues to show that consumer confidence is falling, and by extension that’s less money is being pumped into the economy. The bad economy might also explain the drop in the auto-industry, an Obama favorite talking point during the 2012 election cycle. The auto industry saw its sales decrease in October by 1.5%.

The report of the drop in retail sales comes on the heels of the reported 7.9% unemployment rate in October, the second month in a row the US average has remained below 8% and still higher when the POTUS took office four years ago.

Some believe this drop will be an aberration with the prime shopping holiday-season rapidly approaching.

“As the holiday shopping seasons begins, Hasbro Inc. (HAS)’s retail customers are ‘looking forward to a good year,’ said David Hargreaves, Chief Operating Officer of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toymaker, during a conference call with analysts on Oct. 22. ‘Certainly consumer demand has held up pretty well. I think they’re sort of cautiously optimistic.’”

While the economy continues to languish somewhere between just being a soft economy and flat out recession, millions of Americans are still finding themselves out of work with no end in sight. In fact so many are depressed in their inability to find work; they have given up searching for it altogether. That’s why Crossroads Consulting can be so helpful in these extremely difficult times. We’re ardent optimists and we believe in the strength of America. We have not given up hope and believe that our best days still lie ahead. There needs to be cooperation in Washington among both Conservatives and Liberals to work together to resolve what issues we’re facing.

Don’t give up! Go out and make connections and then use them. Find online resources or professionals to help and use them. At Crossroads Consulting we have a plethora of job openings from all across the nation that we are looking to fill TODAY. If you’re not confident in your resume, there’s no reason to not let us have a look at it for you. We want to help you from step 1, to the day you walk into your new position. Let us help you as we, “Put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources.’

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NFIB INDICATORS SAYS SMALL BUSINESS NEEDS HELP PDQ

Posted on October 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

BY: Adam Gavriel

Despite the encouraging numbers regarding the United States unemployment rate, the lifeblood of the American business industry, small businesses, remains in a tough state. A report yesterday from Bloomberg Businessweek noted that even with the unemployment rate falling to 7.8% small business hiring slowed down as many owners said they were not planning on hiring or investing in new equipment.

According to the report, a lot of this is due to the uncertainty regarding taxes in the future of small-businesses, and until the election in November, we can expect this trend to continue. September marked the fourth time in the last five months that the National Federation of Independent Business’s optimism index fell.

As you can see from the September report above, 4 of the 10 important factors in determining NFIB fell last month, while two remained unchanged.

Despite the optimism highlighted by the unemployment rate dropping below 8% for just the 2nd time since President Barack Obama took office, deep below the economy continues to struggle. After conducting a survey, Bloomberg Businessweek noted that 17% of small businesses said it was becoming increasingly difficult to fill a job opening. While the number of respondents who expected higher sales held at 1%

The NFIB report was based on a survey of 691 small business owners. Remember that small businesses represent the overwhelming majority of U.S. employers. When small businesses are flourishing, so is America.

Crossroads Consulting, a small business ourselves, not only employs a few Americans, but looks to get the rest of America employed as well. Despite the 7.8% unemployment rate, and the even higher underemployment rate, Crossroads Consulting offers plenty of job opportunities that we are looking to fill nationwide TODAY. With our resume optimization, there is no reason not to come by and take a look at what we offer.

Remember, at Crossroads, we’re putting the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources.’

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UNEMPLOYMENT AS IT RELATES TO THE RACE FOR POTUS

Posted on October 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

After Wednesday night’s debate, where Governor Mitt Romney was declared the winner, President Barack Obama got what he would say is some good news Friday. The September jobs report was released, the United States jobless rate dipped below 8% for the first time since the POTUS took office. The US jobless rate, which some despute how they came to those numbers, is on the surface at its lowest point since 2009 dropping from 8.1% in August to 7.8%. The report also shows that the economy added 114,000 jobs although that number was 86,000 fewer than were created in July, and less than in June. The number also does NOT take into account the number of Americans who’ve stopped looking for jobs at all.

But the Labor Department on Friday revised their findings to reveal that the figures reported for August and July were a bit higher than they had previously reported. Continue reading →

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CAREER STORM PREPARATION

Posted on June 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

clip_image002BY: Adam Gavriel

Preparing for the Storm

A recent study has shown that just 36% of CEO members of the business roundtable plan to add workers over the next six months, which is down 6% from 42% when the same survey was taken three months ago. Obviously, this is NOT good news if you are one of the many Americans who find themselves unemployed at the moment.

Jim McNerney, the group’s chairman and CEO of The Boeing Co. tried to explain this dip in confidence by saying that there is “concern over increasingly persistent obstacles to a stronger recovery.” Mr. McNerney was talking about uncertainty over future tax increases and of course the financial crisis that is currently striking Europe.

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AMERICA – WHERE ARE WE HEADED?

Posted on September 23, 2011 | Leave a comment

 BY: Adam Gavriel

According to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll only 19% of potential US voters believe that the United States is heading in the right direction. The survey was conducted via telephone of 3,500 likely voters.

You may think that 19% is an abomination of a number and should be much higher than it is, however this measured 19% is the highest level measured in two months of weekly tracking by Rasmussen. On the other hand, this same 19% is down 10 points from last year’s confidence at this same date.

Confidence was at a high peaking at 40% until May 2009 when the number has been steadily declining since, roughly 5 months into Obama’s tenure as the President of the United States.

Conversely 75% of voters say that the country is heading down the wrong track, showing minimal change in the last few surveys conducted. Republicans feature a number as high as 91% while those not affiliated by a political party are also at a very high 82% Even Democrats are now above the majority with a 53% belief that the country is heading down the wrong path.

These confidence ratings seem to be in direct correlation with the unemployment rate of the US. In May of 2009 when the confidence index was at its highest, the US unemployment rate was at a staggering 9.4 percent. From May 2009 to September 2011 the unemployment rate has risen as high as 10.1 percent in October 2009 and as low as 8.8% in March 2011.

With no end in sight to the unemployment rate continuing to drop, American’s confidence in the path this country is currently trending towards may continue to drop.

Couple these numbers with the fact that only 14% of American’s believe that current economic conditions in the country are getting better, and among active investors, only 15% believe the same.

We can only preach the same things so many times before it becomes tired nonsense that is just spewing from my brain to the keyboard…much like the Republican GOP debate last night. Unemployment begins and ends with the people. The jobs are out there, but the confidence is not. Crossroads Consulting currently has 67 open positionson the website with more on the way.

If you find yourself like the normal American, and lacking confidence in yourself AND your country, then Crossroads Consulting can help you there too. Offering resume optimizationand interview preparation we are not only here to make sure you find the job you’re looking for, but to do whatever we can to help you get that job too.

Let’s connect so we can show you that here at Crossroads Consulting we are putting the human back into human resources.

Make sure to like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter!

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US UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS UNCHANGED

Posted on September 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

Reports are coming out today that the US unemployment rate remained at a very disconcerting 9.1% from July to August. This may come as not so much of a shock to most considering the turn the United States economy took in mid-to-late August. Even though towards the end of the month the Dow almost cracked above 12,000 it took a sharp plunge between today and yesterday back down to near 11,000. No surprise that this came after the job reports that have been coming out since the US announced the 9.1% unemployment rate.

Jerry Harris had this to add about the struggling job economy in the US and how it has affected the market recently: “The jobs number adds weight to the notion that we’ve been in a recession for four to five months,” said Jerry Harris, president and chief investment officer at Sterne Agee Asset Management. “I just can’t see financial institutions as an opportunity–I just don’t think they’re going to have the earnings power for a long time.”

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WEEKEND BLUES

Posted on November 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

When you’re searching for employment the weekends can seem to drag on forever…and I don’t mean that in a good way.

Over the 14+ years that Crossroads Consulting has been in business, we’ve seen it all. Lots of highs and now lots of lows.

When you’re working and busy, the weekends seem to go by in a blink as your thoughts get filled with the expectation of what you have in store for yourself when you get to your desk or on the road (as the case may be) on Monday.

However, when you’re out of work or things aren’t going well, the weekends can drag on as the feelings of nothing to do on Monday or less to do fills up the back of your mind.

How do I know this so well? Our earnings are down a HUGE amount and it’s created a gigantic problem for me too… What do I do to fix it? Where am I going to find any better jobs than the same ones that people out there are finding? How am I going to pay the bills?

Trust me…I’m feeling all of it too.

But you know what? I’ve decided that enough is enough.

I’m tired of the pity party. I’m tired of filling my head with excuses for my own failures and I’m tired of the Weekend Blues.

I’m doing something about it. To hell with the “bad economy.”

Joseph P. Kennedy, father of John F. Kennedy (or was it Bluto in “Animal House” I’m not quite sure) is attributed with being the first to say it, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Let’s make a pact together shall we?

We’re done feeling sorry for ourselves. We’re going to work together to turn this whole thing around.

We’re NOT going to wait for Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to fix it…not that they could anyway…You and I are going to fix it.

We’re going to fix it the way that every American hero has done it…With grit, determination and hard work.

Here’s an opportunity. At Crossroads Consulting I’m looking to hire some straight commission sales people to learn to be recruiters and together we’re going to pull this thing together and we’ll all be better off for it.

If you’re interested…especially if you are a disenfranchised Recruiter looking to get back in the game…get in touch with me at mitch@crossroadsconsulting.com.

If you just want a job…I can’t promise you anything, but I can do my best to help.

If you need work on your resume, we do that too. While other companies are charging $400-$500 for a resume, we’re charging $100. You can sign up for it here.

I’m suddenly channeling my own inner Bluto Blutarsky (<—Click this link for the video):

Now…who’s with me? LET’S DO IT!!!

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