75-12-A3

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Job Hunting[edit]

Transcript[edit]

Despite rising unemployment there are some bright spots in the job market. I'll be right back.

Although the only city that comes close to being recession-proof is Washington D.C., with its swollen bureaucracies, a few state capitals aren't far behind. And there are some bright spots in private enterprise for job seekers around the country, despite the gloomy unemployment picture overall.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, service businesses such as banking, insurance and accounting have been experiencing strong growth and it's expected to continue over the next decade. In the past year for example, the number of insurance agents, brokers, actuaries and underwriters has jumped by 41,000 and is still growing. But that's small compared to the 325,000 increase in medical and health service jobs, especially in the paraprofessional area. Demand for workers in these fields is expected to also hold up well for several years to come.

Some industries such as railroading are having short-term growth but expect long-term declines. It's estimated that the railroads will need 65,000 fewer people ten years from now, though there has been a recent spurt in demand. Despite the high number of unemployed now recorded with the Labor Department, eight and a half million, it reports some 400,000 jobs going begging, including 56,000 that have been vacant for a month or more. In many cases of course, these jobs require special skills.

Another part of the problem is the inability of the qualified job seeker in one area to know of a job available in another. It's pretty much a catch-as-catch-can arrangement. The enterprising job seeker can scan out-of-town newspapers from areas he knows are strong in his field or he can buy trade magazines, but many apparently aren't doing this. Surveys show some industries, though not the largest, continue to grow at a steady rate, despite inflation and recession. These include farm machinery, food distribution, fertilizer production, ship building, educational services (not public school teaching), cigar making, private security services and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Where are the jobs? In some cases, it's a matter of finding the proverbial needle in the haystack.

A visit to the nearest U.S. Department of Labor office or a state or local employment agency would probably be a good investment in time, especially if you're willing to relocate and can be retrained. Here's a sampling of job markets the manpower experts currently consider good ones: Baltimore, Columbus Ohio, Dallas, Denver, Des Moines, Little Rock, Peoria, Redding Pennsylvania, Richmond Virginia, Rochester New York and the Rock Island/Moline Illinois/Davenport Iowa area. These days it seems a job is where you find it.

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.

 

Details[edit]

Batch Number75-12-A3
Production Date06/01/1975
Book/PageN/A
AudioYes
Youtube?No

Added Notes[edit]