Be sure to tune into the associated Twitter account for this blog for the latest job creation-related news and tips: http://twitter.com/createnewjobs — which is updated more frequently than this blog.
Obama says jobs are top priority
In his first State of the Union address today, President Obama said:
jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight. Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses.
The jobs bill of which he speaks is aimed at “promoting clean energy, small businesses and infrastructure projects.”
Check out these links for additional coverage of his address:
- White House blog entry
- Washington Post
- New York Times (and their topic page)
- CBS News video (portion of his address regarding jobs bill)
- Wikipedia
White House job forum final report
The White House has released its final report and follow-up from the original jobs forum it held on 3 Dec 2009 with various economic experts. Note that this does not cover input from the community job forums (in which CreateNewJobs.com participated). That will be reported in “the coming weeks.”
The White House link above also includes text and video of President Obama’s speech at the Brookings Institution on 8 Dec 2009, where he outlined three key focus areas for job creation:
- Helping Small Businesses Expand Investment, Hire Workers and Access Credit
- Investing in America’s Roads, Bridges and Infrastructure
- Creating Jobs Through Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy Investments
Department of Labor resources
Here are some useful employment resources from the US Dept. of Labor:
- CareerOneStop.org – exploring careers and other employment assistance
- Job Tool Challenge – community-submitted tools for job seekers
CreateNewJobs.com was not submitted in time to be included in the challenge, though it may still eventually be listed. Here’s some info about the challenge, from the DOL’s site:
[this is] part of the President’s Open Government Initiative [which] is intended to increase citizen participation in government. To that end, the Department of Labor designed the Challenge [to] allow jobseekers and workforce development professionals to share their opinions about online job search and career advancement tools. The goal of the Challenge is to help job seekers quickly connect to available jobs and ameliorate the hardship caused by the current recession, by identifying the best online job search and career advancement tools and to help the workforce investment system learn about these tools so they can make appropriate tools available to job seekers through the nation’s almost 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers. At the end of the Challenge, DOL shared the most highly recommended tools in each of the six categories posted on the Careeronestop.org.
Spiritually surviving job loss
Here’s a presentation on some spiritual ways to survive job loss. May not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does highlight the opportunities for personal growth that can arise during a period of joblessness or while job searching. The personal growth business is something which even Google has gotten into internally.
White House hypes jobs stimulus results
The Huffington Post reports: Job Stimulus Results: White House Claims ‘Stunning’ Two Million Jobs Saved Or Created. It states:
the report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers said the economy is a lot better off than it would have been without the stimulus. Citing its own analysis plus a range of private sector summaries, the council estimated the annual growth rate last year would have been roughly 2 percentage points lower, and there would have been 1.5 million to 2 million fewer jobs.
So this is based on a projection of what might have happened without the stimulus in place, something that is probably tricky to model, and impossible to prove (without a time machine). But if the “range of private sector summaries” were done independently, a positive consensus would indeed be a promising sign.
Here are some other analyses that paint a different picture:
Responses sent to White House
OK, I’ve officially submitted responses to the questions on the White House’s community jobs forum website. My response was fairly minimal, answering only the questions about “jobs of the future” and “other issues and ideas,” with plenty of links to postings here at CreateNewJobs.com.
Here’s the auto-response they provided after submitting:
Thank you for sharing the results of your community job forum. We will be reviewing submissions and compiling your feedback into a report that will be sent to the Oval Office for review, and will be responding to what we hear on WhiteHouse.gov afterwards.
After the 7 Jan deadline for officially submitting feedback to the WH has past, the plan is to keep CreateNewJobs.com going as long as it seems relevant. So feel free to keep brainstorming and contribute your ideas and suggestions.
You can contribute by commenting on the posts here, or register with this site and request a promotion to be a contributor/author, along with a bio about yourself, so I know you’re trustworthy 
.
Genome job opportunities
We are on the verge of a revolution in our understanding of human biology, being driven by the push for the $1000 genome. As the ability to sequence complete human DNA grows ever cheaper, genetic information will be increasingly relied upon by doctors and other healthcare professionals. Yet we remain woefully lacking in our ability to analyze full human genome sequence data and to provide pragmatic interpretations of it that are digestible by individuals and the medical professionals that take care of them.
Stanford law professor Hank Greely has written about an impending shortage of trained professionals to help people and their doctors understand their own genomic information as the ever decreasing cost of producing a complete genome scan makes it possible to routinely do so for more and more people.
As advances in genetic technologies enable more personalized medicine, there will be a growing demand for people trained in the application of pharmacogenetic technologies as well as in these professions:
Here are some resources for clinical genetics.
Worst Jobs 2010
CareerCast has published a ranking of the supposedly worst jobs of 2010.
Bear in mind, however, that what one person considers bad, another may cherish. So use this a guide, but make your own decision. In this economy, one can’t be too choosy. As they say, “Nice work if you can get it,” and even a dream job can have its downsides.
Landing a job of the future (WSJ article)
The Wall Street Journal had an article last week with some advice for those looking for some promising areas to get into. It incorporates some of the findings from the BLS’s occupational outlook for 2008-2018, and advice from staffing firms in various industries. Here’s a summary:
- Technology:
- computer and information technology
- social media
- public relations
- Green/alternative energy:
- systems design engineers
- energy consultants
- installation & maintenance
- Financial sector:
- regulatory compliance
- risk management
- Healthcare:
- case management
- physical/occupational therapy
- nursing informatics
Specific resources mentioned:
- UCLA’s extension courses in web technology
- Financial analysts can get certification from RMA or RIMS
- Healthcare case management info at the CMSA
- Nursing informatics: ANIA-CARING, Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing program, certification via the ANCC