With the nation’s unemployment rate at its highest level in 14 years, job seekers may find it difficult to maintain hope when it seems as though no one is hiring.

Despite growing unemployment and the faltering U.S. economy, those in search of a job have more control over their circumstances than they might think, says Ford R. Myers, president of Career Potential LLC, a Pennsylvania-based career consulting firm (www.careerpotential.com).

“There are specific strategies and tactics that consistently generate strong results in a bad job market,” says Myers, author of the forthcoming book, “Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring.”

He offers 10 career tips to get people through these tough times:

1.  Maintain your momentum. Stay busy, get active, and be productive in both job search and non-job search-related pursuits. Increase your level of networking.
2.  Seek help. Get career support from a professional. A qualified career coach can better prepare you for your next position. If you are struggling emotionally, get counseling help.
3.  Read career books and attend career seminars. Keeping informed of industry trends will help you gain greater knowledge of the industries and careers poised for future growth.
4.  Leverage technology. Utilize Web sites and online services. Create a career Web site, using tools like VisualCV and LinkedIn. Network through social-networking sites. Keep in touch with colleagues via e-mail.
5.  Differentiate yourself. Position yourself as an expert by writing articles, giving presentations or teaching a class. Get involved and play an active role in professional organizations.
6.  Use off time wisely. Gain more education by participating in classes, seminars, certifications and professional conferences.
7.  Pursue a temporary, part-time or contract position. Volunteer, provide pro bono work or do an internship/apprenticeship. This tactic is especially useful for those who wish to pursue a career in a different industry.
8.  Take care of yourself. Eat well, exercise, get plenty of rest. Keep in close touch with friends and family. Maintain your interests in hobbies and activities.
9.  Consider shifting industries and/or being more geographically flexible, to open up more career options.
10.  Improve/enhance all the documents in your career portfolio. Practice interviewing and negotiation skills. Focus your message on the tangible results you can produce.

With layoffs and the unemployment rate at their highest levels in more than 14 years, employers need to prepare themselves for possible after-effects of job cutbacks on remaining employees, a Purchase-based researcher reports.

The negative impacts include greater employee insecurity, higher stress, less teamwork, heavier workloads, and workers generally feeling that they are “less valued,” according to Sirota Survey Intelligence.

The impacts are similar to those felt by employees after the impact of 9/11 on the economy, when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the highest number of mass layoffs since the bureau began collecting such data, Sirota said.

In September, mass layoffs, involving 50 or more layoffs from each employer, reached their highest number since 9/11.  There were 2,269 mass-layoff announcements in September versus 2,407 in September 2001. October’s mass-layoff numbers haven’t yet been released.

Sirota suggests managers take the following actions to help mitigate the after-effects of layoffs on employees who remain:1.  Communicate, communicate, communicate: Secrecy or lack of transparency will just add to employees’ sense of powerlessness.  Don’t delay in confirming whether there will be job cuts.

2.  Allow for an emotional response: Anger, concern, insecurity, and survivor guilt are all perfectly natural emotions for employees to feel. It’s crucial for managers to spend time assuring employees that it is OK to feel such emotions.

3.  Address the negative effects of less staff for the same work: Increased workloads for employees who survive layoffs are inevitable. Managers, however, can choose to involve their employees in the search for solutions, thus addressing both teamwork and efficiency simultaneously.

4.  Demonstrate continuing long-term interest in the careers of the survivors: Following layoffs is a good time to introduce ‘stretch assignments’ – those that will expand the skills of survivors and demonstrate your confidence in them.  It is also a good time to increase the frequency of discussions about career-related topics, including possible advancement opportunities.

5.  Determine how things are going – don’t just guess: Periodic, systematic, employee attitude assessments enable management to ascertain the impact of their actions on the day-to-day operations of the company. Employee attitude surveys also demonstrate to workers that they are still an important asset.

Despite the ailing economy and the rout in the financial sector, the nation’s job market is revealing bright spots where those with certain skills remain in demand, according to the 2009 Salary Guides from Robert Half International.

They include positions in accounting, information technology (IT) and administrative roles, the staffing company said.

Within accounting and finance, these positions are in demand: staff and senior accountants; public accountants; and credit and collections specialists. Within IT, Web developers; programmers analysts; and help-desk professional are most needed. Lastly, in administrative and office support roles, customer service representatives; data-entry clerks; and administrative health-care clerks and secretaries are sought, Robert Half said.

The recently released guides also point to modest overall salary increases for jobs in these sectors. Overall, IT salaries are anticipated to rise 3.7 percent next, while those working in administrative and accounting and finance positions can expect salary increases of 2.7 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Free copies of the 2009 Salary Guides can be ordered by going to www.rhi.com/SalaryGuides or calling 800-803-8367. Downloadable pdf files can found at www.rhi.com/2009SalaryGuide.

A new report by Pace University shows the job market in the region for jobs in the information technology, or IT, sector shrunk dramatically during the third quarter, with few exceptions.

The decline was most pronounced in Westchester, Pace said, where the IT job market had its worst quarterly slide since Pace created its IT job index three years ago.

The Pace/SkillPROOF IT Job Index dropped more than 100 points during the third quarter, in contrast to the strong growth of over 40 points reported last quarter.

In Westchester, of the 11 job categories, only Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts exhibited growth with a slight upturn near the end of the quarter, said Pace, which has campuses in Pleasantville, White Plains and New York City.

The IT job market in Manhattan was better, Pace said, falling just 30 points.

The full report can be read at www.pace.edu/PSII.

The fall is typically a great time for students and others looking for temporary or part-time jobs to find work as retailers gear up for the busy holiday shopping season.

But with expectations that consumers will trim gift giving, thanks to the lackluster economy, many retailers are reducing hiring, leaving job seekers to weigh alternatives to retail shops.

We explore that topic in more depth in tomorrow’s People@Work column. Look for it in the Business section here at LoHud.com and in The Journal News.

Many corporate recruiters view workers of Generation Y, those born 1979 to 1994, as weak performers compared to their older cohorts.

In a recent survey, just 20 percent of recruiters classified Gen Y, also known as Millennials and Echo Booomers, as “generally great performers,” according to JobFox, an Internet career site.

Compare that to 63 percent of the recruiters polled who said Baby Boomers (43 to 62 years old) were great performers; 58 percent who gave high marks to Gen X (29 to 42) and 25 percent for Traditionalists (63 and older).

In large numbers, recruiters also classified Gen Y workers as “generally poor performers.” Thirty percent of recruiters said Millennials were poor performers, followed by 22 percent for Traditionalists, 5 percent for Gen X and 4 percent for Baby Boomers, JobFox reported.

The site’s CEO, Rob McGovern, suggests that the attitudes that need adjusting belong more to recruiters, since Gen Y workers will soon become the largest population of working Americans ever.

“Businesses must shed negative perceptions and learn new ways to incorporate Gen Y views into the workforce,” he said, adding that companies must do a better job of hiring, appreciating and motivating younger workers or risk competitive disadvantage.

“Once you begin to understand them, Gen Y is a very impressive group of workers,” said McGovern, who interviewed more than 100 young professionals to write a book on career advice.

Among his findings, McGovern found four major motivators that propel Millennials at work:

• The new reward is balance. Gen Y doesn’t understand the rigidity of the 9-to-5 workweek. Millennials work best when they can set their own hours to get work accomplished. Flexible schedules are highly coveted by younger workers.

• Keep them cutting-edge. Millennials understand, better than any other generation before them, that everything becomes quickly obsolete, including skills. Companies must do a better job at providing new learning experiences for Gen Y or they will seek new opportunities elsewhere.

• Don’t treat them as junior anything. “This is a generation that was taught that everyone is special, that everyone gets a trophy – win or lose,” McGovern said. “They won’t be satisfied working inside the corporate machine. They want to contribute immediately and companies must do a better job of helping younger workers see how their work is important and how what they do relates to the overall goals of the company.”

• Provide stability. Counter to what many think, Gen Y workers are loyal team players as long as they can balance work and life goals, gain new learning opportunities and feel a part of company goals. In a recent JWT survey, for example, 60 percent of Gen Y-ers agreed that an employee owes loyalty to their employer.

Presidential candidates aren’t the only ones campaigning this election season.

A recent survey by Accountemps shows more than half of employees interviewed said the level of office politics in their workplaces has increased compared to five years ago.

Just 12 percent of respondents reported a decline.

While most workers don’t advocate jumping into the political fray, a majority agree that a little knowledge can be power: More than half (54 percent) say it’s wise to be aware of political undercurrents in the office without becoming directly involved.

The survey, based on telephone interviews with 522 office workers, asked: “In your opinion, has the level of office politics in the workplace increased or decreased compared to five years ago?”

Here are the responses:

Increased greatly……………………………..     20 percent
Increased somewhat………………………….   33 percent
Neither increased nor decreased …………… 25 percent
Decreased somewhat……………………………..   9 percent
Decreased greatly……………………………………  3 percent
Don’t know/no answer ………………………..      10 percent

The Rockland Business Women’s Network will host a seminar for women looking to boost their sales skills Oct. 8 in New City.

Adrian Miller, president of Adrian Miller Sales Training and author of the book “The Blatant Truth: 50 Ways to Sales Success,” will present the noontime seminar, being held at Pasta Cucina restaurant, 253 S. Little Tor Road.

All Rockland and vicinity business women are welcome, the group said.

Cost is $25 for members who register by Oct. 7; and $35 for members at the door and non-members.

For more information and to register, call 845-398-3098, or  go to www.rbwn.org for online registration.

If you brown bag your lunch and then store it in a communal refrigerator until lunchtime, chances are high that you’ve been a victim of the occasional theft of your prized midday meal.

Like socks in the dryer, sandwiches, yogurts, salads, even leftovers packed in Tupperware can suddenly go missing, without so much as a crumb on a coworker’s face to help the suddenly lunchless chump nail the culprit.

Well, those days may soon be over. A Manhattan-based designer has developed the Anti-Theft Lunch Bag: “Regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides. After your sandwich is placed inside, no one will want to touch it,” according to the designer’s Web site.

The bags aren’t yet available, but you can send an e-mail to the designer, Sherwood Forlee, who will advise when they might become available.

A faltering U.S. economy combined with a continued gap in pay between the sexes is putting the squeeze on women, their families and their careers, according to a recently released report by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress.

The report, titled “Women and Their Families Are Being Squeezed,” notes that households headed by women saw median incomes fall 5.4 percent to just shy of $25,000 between 2000 and 2007. In comparison, during the same period, gasoline prices rose 145 percent.

Further the committee, headed by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., found that women are facing higher unemployment, having lost 298,000 jobs since December. Female unemployment rose to 5.2 percent this year from 4.1 percent in 2000, and there are now 3.8 million unemployed women — 1 million more than when President George W. Bush took office.

Among other findings, the committee found the subprime mortgage crisis is affecting female homeowners to a greater degree than males. Women were 32 percent more likely to receive high-cost subprime mortgages than their male counterparts, despite on average having higher credit scores, putting them at greater risk of losing their homes.

Read the report’s full findings by clicking here.