Issue 7:1 - Sunday, January 1, 2006

The Veteran Eagle is a newsletter for veterans, transitioning military, their family members, and friends and supporters of VetJobs.

VetJobs is exclusively endorsed and proudly sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

This month's Veteran Eagle is sponsored by: BNSF Railway and TECHEXPO Top Secret

Contents:

1. Message From The Top
2. Career Call on Radio Sandy Springs
3. Labor Shortage Is Going Global
4. VA Disability Claims Soar
5. Military Related Job Fairs for January
6. National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of December 28, 2005
7. Significant Events this Month in Military History

HAVE YOU REFRESHED YOUR RESUME SO EMPLOYERS KNOW YOU ARE AVAILABLE?
With the improved economy, most employers will not look at a resume over 30 days old. You should refresh your resume every two weeks!

Thank you for reading this VetJobs Veteran Eagle newsletter. If you like this newsletter and what VetJobs and the VFW do to assist veterans and their family members find employment, please go to www.Weddles.com and vote VetJobs for the WEDDLE's User's Choice Award.

1. Message From The Top

Welcome to 2006 and the seventh year of service to veterans and their family members by VetJobs in conjunction with the Veterans of Foreign Wars! We look forward to continuing to serve you throughout 2006. VetJobs is seeing record numbers of jobs being posted with new employers continuing to join who want to reach the veteran and transitioning military candidate market.

I predict that 2006 will be a banner year for candidates seeking employment. The employment market for 2006 has emerged as a seller's market which will make it harder for employers to find good, qualified candidates. For the last five months I have been hearing employers complaining about labor shortages throughout the United States. The labor shortage situation is only going to get worse.

But to understand where the American economy is going, let's take a quick look at where we have been.

Many politicians made great issue in the last presidential campaign that during the recent recession, median-income numbers fell slightly. While technically true, what they did not talk about is this has been the pattern during every recession and immediate post-recession period since the Great Depression. What is really important is the long-term trend. When one examines the long-term trend data objectively, there is no room for argument. The data clearly demonstrate that the middle class has not been shrinking or losing ground as some would have you believe. The facts confirm that the middle class has been getting richer.

As discussed in the Wall Street Journal (12/21/2005 Pg A18, Great American Dream Machine, Stephen Moore and Lincoln Anderson), the Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve Board reported that over the last three decades the typical American family experienced a rapid growth in their income and wealth. Now, nearly six out of ten households own stock and two out of three own their own homes! And for the first time ever, the average family net worth (assets minus liabilities adjusted for inflation) exceeds $100,000. The median family income has climbed to an all time record of $54,000.

This is incredibly positive news which not unsurprisingly in the current political climate the national mainstream media has ignored. The media has barraged us with misleading and gloomy stories taunting stagnant wages, claiming a growing income gap between rich and poor, the disappearing middle class, and rising poverty in America. The reality is quite the opposite. The press coverage reminds me of Mark Twain's comment: "If you don't read the daily newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the daily newspaper you are misinformed."

Let us review some real facts. The Census data from 1967 to 2004 provides the percentage of families that fall within various income ranges starting at $0 and going to $100,000 plus. While most families in the 1960s were single income earners and many families today are dual income families, the trend is significant. These data show (adjusted for inflation) that in 1967 one in 25 families earned a real income of $100,000, whereas now one is six earn $100,000. The percentage of families with incomes of $75,000 a year has tripled from 9% to 27%. The data showed that virtually every income group rose in real income. The current 12.7% poverty rate is the lowest coming out of any recession in the last 25 years. In fact, the unemployment rate during this last recession was the lowest of any since the great depression! This huge move out of lower incomes and into middle and higher incomes proves that upward mobility is the rule, not the exception, in America today.

Reinforcing this data is the current unemployment report. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Unemployment rates were lower in November 2005 than a year earlier in 224 of the 367 metropolitan areas, higher in 118 areas, and unchanged in 25 areas. The general unemployment trend in the metropolitan areas continues to go down. This is also typical following all of the past recessions. Of the eighteen metropolitan areas that registered jobless rates below 3.0 percent, 13 were in the South. Many would attribute this to the benefits of a right-to-work state versus union state. Only eight metropolitan areas, most of which were impacted by hurricanes, recorded rates of 10.0 percent or more, down drastically from last year. The national unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, not seasonally adjusted, down from 5.2 percent a year earlier. With normal unemployment now considered to be 5.0 percent, the United States is in a labor shortage situation.

And I might add that there is no economy in the world that could have had this incredible performance while simultaneously suffering the attacks and economic trauma of 9/11, the stock collapse from the dot com stock bomb, the damages from the hurricane season and be fighting a long term world wide war against a non-territorial foe. The American economy is unequalled and continues to perform in spite of the nay sayers. You might want to ask the national press why they continue to refuse to cover the positive news. And don't accept their answer that good news does not sell. Good news does sell and makes those who refuse to cover it look foolish or politically motivated.

With this as background, I have surveyed the Internet for what people think will be happening in the United States economy in terms of employment for 2006. After reading many predictions, here are my baker's dozen predictions for 2006:

-- 1. Labor shortages will become very acute and painful for companies.
As has happened in previous post-recessionary periods, the economy's skill requirements have changed. And labor shortages will come from two areas: real shortage of actual candidates or shortages of candidates with current skill sets. For example, we do not have a shortage of programmers. Rather, we have a shortage of programmers who have the current skill sets required by employers. But in the trade craft area, due to the rebuilding that is taking place in the wake of Katrina, there is a real shortage of trade skilled individuals (HVAC, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc). Skilled crafts people are in high demand nationally and there are not enough people trained in the trade crafts. And there is a shortage of qualified executives. This is due in great part to the flattening of corporations which started in the late 1980s, followed by the lengthy recession. The result is there has not been a training ground for middle managers and senior executives. The labor shortage is already here and employers will be looking on the labor shortages of the late 1990s with fondness. For more information on this phenomenon, read Impending Crisis, Too Many Jobs, Too Few People by Roger Herman, Tom Olivo and Joyce Gioia.

-- 2. Competition for qualified workers by employers will intensify.
As the economy continues to move away from the recession, the job growth in the small to medium sized companies will continue to grow rapidly. This means more jobs, but not enough qualified candidates. Retail giants will be hard pressed to find enough employees for their expansion plans. The days of hiring bonuses, cars and special incentives are already returning. It is definitely a seller's market. And those employers who do not make efficient use of creative incentives will be unable to attract the candidates they need to grow their companies.

-- 3. Labor shortages will force employers to seek non-traditional employees.
In the 1990s the joke was if you had stayed at a company more than 18 months, what was wrong with you? Companies learned from that mistake and now want a more stable work force. The older worker offers that stability. The competition for qualified employees will encourage employers to seek new sources of candidates. This includes a bigger effort to hire veterans and transitioning military, candidates with disabilities and candidates from the older worker population. There will be issues of training and skill sets involved for the disabled and the older workers, but employers will be willing to pay the training costs in order to increase the labor pool.

-- 4. Employers will make greater use the Internet for recruiting.
A WEDDLE's study of over 3,000 candidates who had recently obtained a job found that candidates were finding jobs using Internet job boards, especially niche sites, three to one over any other source. And importantly, 69.7% expected to find their next job using an Internet job board. Another study of 3,900 recruiters and human resource managers found that 82% got their best candidates from internet job boards. The paradigm shift in terms of how to find a job is complete. The Internet has replaced newspapers and networking as the dominant source for finding a new job. And employers who do not make use of the Internet, especially niche job boards, will not be reaching their target candidate population. The use of Internet blogs for recruiting purposes will increase.

-- 5. There will be a greater acceptance of flexible work by employers.
With the shortage of workers, employers will be more open to job sharing, working from home, and flexible work schedules. Using the Internet will give more employees greater flexibility. But this will require a serious paradigm shift in how companies treat, compensate and manage their employees.

-- 6. Employers will put greater emphasis on employee training and retention.
Training and retention go hand in hand. Better training and especially better on-boarding, leads to better retention. Retention reduces turnover which provides stability and leads to better profits. My concern here is that employers are not looking at this area and will be too late in making the needed changes before employees leave. Over the last two centuries, a person could learn a skill or trade and never have to go back to school in order to retain a job. That paradigm started to change in the 1970s. With the United States now being in an information economy (or whatever the latest fad term is today), training and further education will be a continuous event. In order to be competitive in today's work environment, candidates will continuously have to be upgrading their skills and education.

-- 7. Job hopping will accelerate in the first half of the year.
As more jobs become available, candidates will move from those companies who they felt did not treat them fairly during the recession. This is another trend that is noticed after each recession. And some companies have earned the reputation for not treating their employees well. With the advent of Internet chat rooms and blogs, those companies that do not treat their employees well are discussed in great detail. This will place a severe burden on the recruiting function in many companies, but be a source of good employees for other companies.

-- 8. Retirement as we know it will change.
Retirement as we know it in North America and Europe is a relatively recent phenomenon, which accelerated in the post World War I economy and became a standard after World War II. Prior to World War I, few people actually retired. The idea of just playing golf four times a week is not as appealing today as in the past. People want to have meaning in their lives. So people are now working longer, but in different jobs. Many now work into their eighties and nineties. This will have a major socio-economic impact on our society.

-- 9. Sending some jobs off-shore will continue, but more jobs will be coming to the United States.
Employers in developed countries will continue to send work to less-developed countries for cost savings, but it is not the mass exodus many politicians had us believing. As one study pointed out, only 1.5 million jobs were off-shored from ALL the developed countries. Peter Drucker pointed out that for every low wage, low skill job the United States off-shored, the country imported two high wage, high skill jobs. It is fascinating to now watch China off-shoring jobs because their wages and standard of living has improved. This is a repeat of what happened in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s. Work that is sensitive to customer satisfaction, involves cross-cultural communication, or is technical with a need for quality or creativity will return to the home country. And many companies had to learn the hard way that copyright and trade secret laws are not enforceable in many third world countries.

--10. Out-sourcing of jobs from union states to non-union states will continue.
Thanks to the union movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the United States has one of the finest work environments in the world. The problem is everything the unions fought for is now law. And the unions of today do not have a real purpose. Union states like Michigan and Ohio are having problems attracting jobs and getting investment due to the perception of union work rules. If you are investing in a company and want maximum productivity from your employees, you can not get the productivity with the current environment in union states. A classic case is the automotive industry. Note that the new automotive plants built in the last fifteen years have been in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee, not in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania where the older plants and automotive labor existed. This was a political issue in the last election and will probably be an issue in the next election. But as the economy continues to improve, companies will move their jobs to where they can get the best productivity, and that is in the right-to-work states.

--11. The immigrant labor issue will have to be resolved to keep the United States competitive.
The issue of illegal immigration is a hot political issue and emotional issue with many voters in the United States today. Unless you are a Native American Indian, every American family was at some point immigrants. A formal immigration policy was not implemented in the United States until the mid-1800s. Prior to then, if you could make it the United States, you became a citizen. Laws have changed all that. While some consider the immigrants felons since they are living here without visas, companies need the labor due to the rising labor shortage. Estimates of undocumented workers range from twelve to twenty million who are currently working illegally in the United States. But the fact remains that if there was not a demand for their labor, they would not be coming. They are coming to America from countries all around the world. And companies would not be hiring these workers if the companies had viable alternatives. Not all illegal immigrants are working in low wage, unskilled jobs. Many are skilled professionals. Our work visa system will have to undergo serious revision to make it easier for people to come to the United States to work. The labor shortage will force this issue, if not in 2006, definitely by 2007. Ultimately, some sort of amnesty will have to be worked out, document all the illegal workers, and then move forward with a more workable work visa system. Then the immigrants will be paying taxes and supporting the services they use. Security issues during this time of war will be a factor. The immigration issue will be a political conundrum. But the sooner we as a nation tackle the issue, the more competitive our economy will be on the world economic stage.

--12. Political correctness and EEOC policies will have to change to retain employees.
When equal employment opportunity (EEO) programs were first starting to be implemented in the late 1960s, they were needed in order to help eliminate racism. But over the last fifty years, the problem of racism in the work force for the most part has been eliminated. Now, the country is seeing a rash of reverse discrimination law suits. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed six cases alleging this type of discrimination. More importantly, employees who are highly qualified, irrespective of race, do not want to hear from their employers that they can not be promoted due to a corporate policy of meeting quotas or wanting to promote based more on a person's ethnicity rather than capabilities and education. To see obviously less qualified workers get promoted over more qualified workers destroys company morale and reduces retention which negatively affects profits. Employees will not stay in an environment where they feel they are not being treated fairly. If companies continue this practice, they will lose their best employees to the competition. It is a good thing that political correctness is finally running its course in the United States.

And finally, to borrow from The Herman Group, Neal Boortz and Rush Limbaugh:
--13. Employers will become increasingly dissatisfied with public schools.
Managers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the low level of preparation of the entry level workforce coming out of our public school system. As a result, corporate executives will be demanding greater performance from public schools and technical, community, and four-year colleges. Local leaders will have to focus more resources on improving local education in order to improve tomorrow's workforce. It is disappointing that high school graduates can not read properly, write a letter, do basic math or received any training in history. A great strength of the American economy has been its educational system. But political correctness, combined with school boards more interested in pushing religion than education, school boards having to fight unnecessary ACLU suits and having to deal with unfunded federal mandates, have brought our educational system to a new low. The public primary and secondary education system has to be improved if America is to maintain a strong economy.

At the end of the year we will have fun seeing how many of these predictions are true. In the interim, I hope you have a great year recruiting the quality candidates that the veteran market represents and is found on VetJobs! Thank you again for your support.

Finally, Happy Birthday to the United States Coast Guard! It was on January 28, 1915, when President Wilson signed the Act that established the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has been an important player in maintaining the freedoms of the United States over the last 90 years and is a vital player in the current War on Terrorism. So when you meet a member of the Coast Guard this month, say Happy Birthday!

As always, if there is anything we at VetJobs can do for you, please do not hesitate to call or email.

And remember, Freedom Is Never Free - Support Our Armed Forces and Veterans
Best regards,
Ted Daywalt
CEO and President

2. Career Call on Radio Sandy Springs

Career Call is a radio program hosted by VetJobs to assist candidates and employers alike. During January, guests will include an expert on Behavioral Interviewing, vice presidents of human resources for government contractors and recruiters. In Atlanta you can tune in on 1620 AM. Outside of Atlanta you listen via the Internet at www.radiosandysprings.com. Career Call airs every Sunday at 3:00 PM EST. The first show in 2006 will be on January 8. If you have a question or an idea for a show, please forward it to info@vetjobs.com. We look forward to having you listen to this career talk show and respond to your questions for our guests!
Go to Website

3. Labor Shortage Is Going Global

Canadian Recruiting Woes: Hiring managers in Canada apparently are beginning to experience the same pains as U.S. companies when it comes to recruiting and retaining top-flight employees. Many Canadian manufacturers are having a tough time finding skilled workers as baby boomers near retirement over the coming years, global competition heats up for highly trained immigrant workers, and fewer younger people become attracted to the sector, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail. Exacerbating the problem is new data about Canada's unemployment rate, which in October fell to a 30-year low of 6.6 percent. A trade group known as Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters expects an even greater workforce crunch in five years as more than half a million people retire from current manufacturing jobs. Government officials reportedly are mulling plans to revamp Canada's immigration laws to attract more skilled laborers. Some manufacturers are partnering with educational institutions to churn out the needed workers. Similar labor shortages are also starting to occur in Asia.

4. VA Disability Claims Soar

The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs heard testimony from a retired U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, senior VA officials, and a panel of veterans' service organizations (VSOs) concerning mounting challenges facing the VA claims system. Dr. William Jones, USAF-Ret. said the VA system was programmed to procrastinate. His claims for service-connected disabilities have been held up for six years. Since 2000, VA claims for initial disabilities have risen by 36 percent, from 579,000 to 788,000 in fiscal year 2005. Witnesses testified the system is plagued with poor quality, inconsistencies between VA offices, mounting demand, and insufficient resources. A Government Accounting Office (GAO) report released at the hearing noted 346,000 claims were pending decisions at the end of fiscal year 2005. The GAO said, "VA faces continuing questions about its ability to ensure that veterans get consistent decisions across its 57 regional offices."
View GAO Report

5. Military Related Job Fairs for January

1/4-8 - Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference & Career Fair, Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL
1/11 - TECHEXPO Top Secret, Tysons Corner Ritz Carlton, 1700 Tysons BLVD, McLean, VA 22102, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
1/11 - Military Stars Career Expo, Sheraton Crystal City Hotel, 1800 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia 22202, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
1/11 - Intelligence Careers Job Fair, Holiday Inn Express, 6401 Brandon Ave, Springfield, VA 22150, 2:00 to 7 PM
1/12 - TECHEXPO Top Secret, BWI Marriott - 1743 West Nursery Road Baltimore, MD 21240, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
1/17 - Intelligence Careers Job Fair, Hyatt Regency, 1800 Presidents Street, Reston, VA 20190, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
1/20 - Intelligence Careers Job Fair, Sheraton Four Points at BWI, 7032 Elm Road, Linthicum, MD, 21240, 10:00 AM to 3:00
1/23 - Military Stars Career Expo, Crowne Plaza - Dallas Market Center, 7050 Stemmons Freeway Dallas, TX 75247, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
1/24 - Fleet and Family Support Center, Patuxent River at JT Daugherty Conference Center, 22111 Three Notch Road, Lexington Park, MD - 3:00 PM to 6:00PM
1/25 - MOAA/Corporate Gray Career Fair, Virginia Beach Convention Center, 1000 19th Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23451, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM
1/25 - ACAP Job Fair, Fort Hood Officer's Club, Fort Hood, TX, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM

NOTE: If you attend one of these job fairs, please mention you saw the event listed in the Veteran Eagle from VetJobs!

NOTE: If your organization is hosting a military related job fair, please forward the information to info@vetjobs.com.

6. National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of December 28, 2005

At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 116,670; Navy Reserve, 4,067; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 8,085; Marine Corps Reserve, 8,619; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 416. This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 137,857, including both units and individual augmentees. A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel, who are currently mobilized, can be found online.
Go to Website

7. Significant Events this Month in Military History

• 1777 - General George Washington defeats the British led by British General Lord Charles Cornwallis, at Princeton, New Jersey (War of Independence)
• 1911 - Naval Lieutenant Eugene Ely became the first man ever to land an airplane on the deck of a ship, the converted cruiser USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay.
• 1915 - Congress established the United States Coast Guard.
• 1923 - American occupation forces, stationed in Germany since the close of World War I, were recalled.
• 1942 - U.S. and Filipino troops complete their withdrawal to a new defensive line along the base of the Bataan peninsula (World War II)
• 1944 - Allies Land at Anzio, Italy (World War II)
• 1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended (World War II)
• 1951 - Chinese communist forces captured Seoul, Korea, from United Nations troops (Korean War)
• 1951 - Operation Thunderbolt began (Korean War)
• 1959 - Fidel Castro took control of Cuba.
• 1966 - American forces move into the Mekong Delta for the first time (Vietnam War)
• 1967 - Operation Cedar Falls began against the Communist-held Iron Triangle area north of Saigon (Vietnam War)
• 1968 - Battle of Khe Sanh began (Vietnam War)
• 1968 - Tet Offensive began (Vietnam War)
• 1968 - Battle of Hue began (Vietnam War)
• 1973 - Signing of the Vietnam Peace Accord (Vietnam War)
• 1991 - Allies start Operation Desert Storm with attacks on Iraq.

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