Security guards can find work. Janitors, too. People who manufacture computers are out on the street, but those who program them are doing better. Would-be lumber salesmen need not apply -- but waiters may have more luck.
The economic slump of the past three years has been particularly brutal for American workers, as companies have shed jobs by the millions. At first glance, conditions would appear to be better in the Washington area, which has the lowest unemployment rate of any major city, at 3.3 percent.
On the ground, things are more complicated.
The region added 15,000 new jobs in the year ended in August. But that hardly means that all of those looking for work are finding jobs. Employers in many industries are still cutting jobs, not adding them.
A new reality has taken hold in the job market, say economists and people who assist those looking for work. Employers certainly are not expanding wildly, hiring every decent worker they can find, the way they were in 2000. But neither is it as depressing as a year ago, when employers were still cutting jobs indiscriminately and adding virtually no one.
Instead, conditions are somewhere in between. Employers are hiring, but ever so carefully, adding staff deliberately and only in certain areas. That, experts say, makes it all the more important for job seekers to pay close attention to the industries in which companies are hiring and the special skills employers are looking for in uncertain times.
"Hiring is definitely picking up," said Paul Villella, chief executive of Reston-based corporate recruiter HireStrategy. "But it's still got that element of caution so that every hire is an arduous procedure. That means they're only hiring people who fit just right."
Even as the region added jobs overall, it kept losing them in two broad areas during the year that ended in August, according to Labor Department data. Mirroring the national economy, jobs in manufacturing and other forms of semiskilled labor are disappearing; 7,500 positions were shed locally. The technology sector continued its three-year decline, off 5,200 more jobs in the past year.
But within those categories, there are important distinctions that job seekers should be aware of, those who advise them say.
Manufacturing has never been a major part of the region's economy, but that may be little solace to the more than 3,400 people who held manufacturing jobs a year ago that have now disappeared. Another area of job losses for those who make and move things around for a living was air transport. The financial troubles of major airlines with a local presence, including US Airways Group Inc. (which emerged from bankruptcy) and United Air Lines Inc. (which is still in Chapter 11), apparently led the air transportation industry to cut 2,000 jobs, or 12.7 percent of their total local payrolls. Truckers are doing better, having gained 1,000, or 8.4 percent, of truck transportation jobs.
The construction industry is faring considerably better, driven by the booming market for housing. The region added 2,000 jobs for specialty trade contractors -- drywall installers, plumbers and the like. The jobs involving physical labor that are growing the most involve specialized technical skills -- but even that rule has exceptions, illustrated by the decline in airline jobs.
The region's technology businesses have a more complicated situation. The economic slump has been devastating for many of them, and the telecom industry is still reeling, having lost a quarter of its workforce since peaking in early 2001. Telecom is still bleeding; for example, the firms that provide communications services over wires lost 2,000 jobs in the past year. So is computer systems and components manufacturing, down an additional 800 jobs.
But some other technology-related businesses are adding jobs. The region gained 5,000 computer systems design and related jobs in the year ended in August, halting a slide in such positions. That probably reflects rising government contracts available for programming computer systems.
"Most of the tech hiring the last couple of years has been government services," Villella said. He and technology executives said, however, that commercial technology work opportunities are starting to grow after their long slide, offering new chances for out-of-work programmers disinclined to work on government contracts -- or unable to because of security restrictions.
Conditions are tougher for entry-level workers without specialized skills, said I'dafney Green, chief administrative officer of Goodwill Industries, which trains disadvantaged workers and helps them find jobs. And most of the jobs available for less skilled workers are in service industries.
"Most of the jobs we've been getting recently are in food service, some in the hotel industry, usually at minimum wage or a little more," Green said. "We're also getting a lot of requests for security officers."
Jobs in the retail, restaurant and other consumer-oriented industries are a bright spot on the job scene, with 13,900 jobs being added in the past year. That, economists said, probably reflects the region's continued population growth.
The more people in the area, the more grocery stores, restaurants and Wal-Marts are needed to serve them, and more employees needed to staff those establishments.
"Consumer spending has held up quite nicely in this downturn, and as a result so is retail employment," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist of Global Insight Inc., an economic consultancy that tracks the economies of different regions.
One continued soft spot, Green's experience notwithstanding, appears to be hotels and other forms of accommodation, which have shed 1,500 jobs in the past year. Similarly, retailers that sell goods that depend on a rapidly expanding economy appear to be cutting jobs; sellers of building materials and related supplies trimmed 1,700 jobs.
Two industries that have been stable sources of jobs through the economic slowdown are stagnant. Private educational institutions have shed 1,200 jobs in the past year, perhaps reflecting slumping values of college endowments and other financial pressures. Local health care employment was unchanged.
Local governments have been in a more expansionary mode, adding a remarkable 7,500 jobs in the past year. Many of those jobs are public schoolteachers, along with other basic civil servants. Some analysts worry, however, that falling tax revenue will ultimately cause those gains to slow. State governments and the federal government have been more conservative, actually cutting jobs in the past year.
But the biggest chunk of Washington area employees work not in retail stores, schools, or government offices, but in a wide range of private-sector office jobs. In general, such employers are adding jobs only gradually.
Banking jobs are up, perhaps driven by the mortgage refinancing boom. So are accounting and bookkeeping jobs, perhaps a reflection of companies' greater focus on proper balance sheets. There were 1,600 more lawyers and paralegals in Washington in August than a year before, in one of the town's consummate growth industries. Advertising and print media jobs, on the other hand, are down.
Many of the jobs in these categories are highly specialized and require advanced education. But even in hiring entry-level staffers for such office jobs, employers are being more careful.
"Customers are requesting people with higher skill levels and more experience" for general office-support jobs, said Terri Thomas, Washington branch manager of help services firm Manpower Inc. She can find plenty of temporary work with five to seven years of experience in administrative positions. It is harder for people just trying to work their way into an office job.
"Those at a lower skill level need training and to be put on shorter-term assignments to gain experience," Thomas said.
With all those ups and downs in different industries, the sum may be this: The Washington area is becoming more and more like itself. Employment trends that have been in place for decades -- mainly the shift of jobs away from manufacturing and other physical labor and toward service jobs -- are still going strong.
Long a place where people toil in office buildings rather than on factory floors, Washington is becoming only more so.
The economic slump of the past three years has been particularly brutal for American workers, as companies have shed jobs by the millions. At first glance, conditions would appear to be better in the Washington area, which has the lowest unemployment rate of any major city, at 3.3 percent.
On the ground, things are more complicated.
The region added 15,000 new jobs in the year ended in August. But that hardly means that all of those looking for work are finding jobs. Employers in many industries are still cutting jobs, not adding them.
A new reality has taken hold in the job market, say economists and people who assist those looking for work. Employers certainly are not expanding wildly, hiring every decent worker they can find, the way they were in 2000. But neither is it as depressing as a year ago, when employers were still cutting jobs indiscriminately and adding virtually no one.
Instead, conditions are somewhere in between. Employers are hiring, but ever so carefully, adding staff deliberately and only in certain areas. That, experts say, makes it all the more important for job seekers to pay close attention to the industries in which companies are hiring and the special skills employers are looking for in uncertain times.
"Hiring is definitely picking up," said Paul Villella, chief executive of Reston-based corporate recruiter HireStrategy. "But it's still got that element of caution so that every hire is an arduous procedure. That means they're only hiring people who fit just right."
Even as the region added jobs overall, it kept losing them in two broad areas during the year that ended in August, according to Labor Department data. Mirroring the national economy, jobs in manufacturing and other forms of semiskilled labor are disappearing; 7,500 positions were shed locally. The technology sector continued its three-year decline, off 5,200 more jobs in the past year.
But within those categories, there are important distinctions that job seekers should be aware of, those who advise them say.
Manufacturing has never been a major part of the region's economy, but that may be little solace to the more than 3,400 people who held manufacturing jobs a year ago that have now disappeared. Another area of job losses for those who make and move things around for a living was air transport. The financial troubles of major airlines with a local presence, including US Airways Group Inc. (which emerged from bankruptcy) and United Air Lines Inc. (which is still in Chapter 11), apparently led the air transportation industry to cut 2,000 jobs, or 12.7 percent of their total local payrolls. Truckers are doing better, having gained 1,000, or 8.4 percent, of truck transportation jobs.
The construction industry is faring considerably better, driven by the booming market for housing. The region added 2,000 jobs for specialty trade contractors -- drywall installers, plumbers and the like. The jobs involving physical labor that are growing the most involve specialized technical skills -- but even that rule has exceptions, illustrated by the decline in airline jobs.
The region's technology businesses have a more complicated situation. The economic slump has been devastating for many of them, and the telecom industry is still reeling, having lost a quarter of its workforce since peaking in early 2001. Telecom is still bleeding; for example, the firms that provide communications services over wires lost 2,000 jobs in the past year. So is computer systems and components manufacturing, down an additional 800 jobs.
But some other technology-related businesses are adding jobs. The region gained 5,000 computer systems design and related jobs in the year ended in August, halting a slide in such positions. That probably reflects rising government contracts available for programming computer systems.
"Most of the tech hiring the last couple of years has been government services," Villella said. He and technology executives said, however, that commercial technology work opportunities are starting to grow after their long slide, offering new chances for out-of-work programmers disinclined to work on government contracts -- or unable to because of security restrictions.
Conditions are tougher for entry-level workers without specialized skills, said I'dafney Green, chief administrative officer of Goodwill Industries, which trains disadvantaged workers and helps them find jobs. And most of the jobs available for less skilled workers are in service industries.
"Most of the jobs we've been getting recently are in food service, some in the hotel industry, usually at minimum wage or a little more," Green said. "We're also getting a lot of requests for security officers."
Jobs in the retail, restaurant and other consumer-oriented industries are a bright spot on the job scene, with 13,900 jobs being added in the past year. That, economists said, probably reflects the region's continued population growth.
The more people in the area, the more grocery stores, restaurants and Wal-Marts are needed to serve them, and more employees needed to staff those establishments.
"Consumer spending has held up quite nicely in this downturn, and as a result so is retail employment," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist of Global Insight Inc., an economic consultancy that tracks the economies of different regions.
One continued soft spot, Green's experience notwithstanding, appears to be hotels and other forms of accommodation, which have shed 1,500 jobs in the past year. Similarly, retailers that sell goods that depend on a rapidly expanding economy appear to be cutting jobs; sellers of building materials and related supplies trimmed 1,700 jobs.
Two industries that have been stable sources of jobs through the economic slowdown are stagnant. Private educational institutions have shed 1,200 jobs in the past year, perhaps reflecting slumping values of college endowments and other financial pressures. Local health care employment was unchanged.
Local governments have been in a more expansionary mode, adding a remarkable 7,500 jobs in the past year. Many of those jobs are public schoolteachers, along with other basic civil servants. Some analysts worry, however, that falling tax revenue will ultimately cause those gains to slow. State governments and the federal government have been more conservative, actually cutting jobs in the past year.
But the biggest chunk of Washington area employees work not in retail stores, schools, or government offices, but in a wide range of private-sector office jobs. In general, such employers are adding jobs only gradually.
Banking jobs are up, perhaps driven by the mortgage refinancing boom. So are accounting and bookkeeping jobs, perhaps a reflection of companies' greater focus on proper balance sheets. There were 1,600 more lawyers and paralegals in Washington in August than a year before, in one of the town's consummate growth industries. Advertising and print media jobs, on the other hand, are down.
Many of the jobs in these categories are highly specialized and require advanced education. But even in hiring entry-level staffers for such office jobs, employers are being more careful.
"Customers are requesting people with higher skill levels and more experience" for general office-support jobs, said Terri Thomas, Washington branch manager of help services firm Manpower Inc. She can find plenty of temporary work with five to seven years of experience in administrative positions. It is harder for people just trying to work their way into an office job.
"Those at a lower skill level need training and to be put on shorter-term assignments to gain experience," Thomas said.
With all those ups and downs in different industries, the sum may be this: The Washington area is becoming more and more like itself. Employment trends that have been in place for decades -- mainly the shift of jobs away from manufacturing and other physical labor and toward service jobs -- are still going strong.
Long a place where people toil in office buildings rather than on factory floors, Washington is becoming only more so.
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