Find fresh angles for Friday’s unemployment data

Nearly 2,000 people looking for work rallied outside the Michigan Capitol in 2009 in this photo by Flickr.com user americaspower.

Analysts expect the national unemployment rate to hold steady at about 9.6 percent when the latest figure is released Friday as part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly Employment Situation update.

As always, this report will be a market mover, and it’s a great peg for a localized jobs update.  Be sure to take a look at the BLS regional and metropolitan area reports for data more specific to your region; they’re released on a different cycle than the national EmpSit report.  Here’s the latest metro area update, out April 28.

News on the jobs front is trending better.  Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported Wednesday that job cuts for the first four months of this year are down nearly 7 percent compared to early 2009, and that April cuts were the fewest since July 2006.  At the current pace, job cuts could end the year at the lowest rate since 2000.  See the full report at the Challenger, Gray website.

Meanwhile, temp firms said demand was up 19 percent in April compared to a year ago, according to a new release from the American Staffing Association. The trade group says that’s seven straight months of growth.  Many workers use temp jobs not just as a income stopgap but as skills-building opportunities and a networking strategy; consider a work-life package on how to work with a temp agency and garner plum assignments, like this Bankrate.com story I did last year.

Other angles:

Who’s hiring. I’ve written before about running a standing feature on job postings; if you don’t have the resources for that, try a variation on this AOL story  that points out 10 top companies hiring now. Maybe you could focus on half a dozen specific industries, or jobs in a specific wage range, etc.

Older workers. Millions of unemployed workers are over age 55. This Huffington Post piece notes as it  describes the plight of a 57-year-old worker who’s disseminated  2,000 resumes in two years and has yet to land a full-time job.  No doubt some of your readers are in the same predicament; an alternative storytelling snapshot of a handful of older workers and their plight – along with career advice from local experts – would make a compelling package.

Heck, I know people in their 40s who are worried about ageism.  It’s a pervasive problem in a competitive hiring environment, and older workers have less time to retrain for a completely new career.  The longer they’re out of the workforce, too, the less they are saving for retirement, exacerbating the downward spiral.

Note the article’s use of the AARP Public Policy Institute and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as fresh sources of data and analysis — good names to add to your contacts list.

Some seasoned workers and retirees are turning to entrepreneurship to stay in the game; here’s a Wall Street Journal piece about seniors starting businesses that target their own age group – another fresh angle for your jobs coverage.

Can’t get a break. Competition for new jobs will grow as more people max out on unemployment benefits in the coming months.  This recent Bloomberg report highlights the plight of people who are reaching the 99-week limit on benefits; take note of the wealth of sources within the story.  The federal government doesn’t track the number of people who will stop or have stopped receiving weekly checks; poll your state workforce commission for local numbers.

A narrative piece on the plight of the maxed-out and long-term unemployed would be an eye-catcher, as would a series of mini-“makeovers” in which you match job prospects with advisers who can help spruce up the subjects’  resumes, interviewing skills and other attributes.  Be sure to present the expert advice in a way that readers can translate for their own use.

Stay objective, though.  It’s important to distinguish between people who really are shut out of the jobs market due to bad luck, unmarketable skills and other factors from those who, frankly, are being picky.  Ask for documentation when people make claims about their expenses, their job-hunting efforts and other woes.  It sounds callous, but it’s good reporting.