This post by David Couper — author of Outsiders on the Inside: How to Create a Winning Career…Even When You Don’t Fit In! — identifies and briefly describes five major trends impacting where jobs may be found in this challenging — and changing — economy.

Benefiting from this information does not necessarily require retooling, retraining, and drastically changing career paths — though it might. In some instances, taking advantage of these trends to help find a job simply involves using existing skills and qualifications in a different arena and/or job classification.

1. Green is this Decade’s Color.

Green jobs can be found in a very wide range of industries and occupational classifications. For example, a variety of construction trades will be involved in efforts to improve the energy efficiency of new and existing buildings and in installing alternative energy facilities. Solar energy, alternative fuels, and energy conservation are all hot! Social awareness and socially and environmentally conscious investing are also growing.

An example of the impact of green jobs growth is that a client of mine was offered a job in the solar panel industry making 30% more than he was earning in his previous job.

For more information, see Ten Best Green Jobs for the Next Decade.

2. Aging Baby Boomers Will Create Demand for a Wide Range of Products and Services.

Baby boomers have taken some hits in the recession. Their retirement funds and homes are worth less. But they will still have huge needs as they retire.

Meeting their needs will bring jobs in areas as diverse as assisted living for active seniors, travel, career planning (lots of boomers will work after they retire) and even dating services!

A friend of mine who was laid off from a broadcast journalism position found a new job as a consultant for a not-for-profit working with seniors on how to present themselves positively in their job search.

For details, see The Baby Boom and the Future of the Economy.

3. All That Government Spending Doesn’t Seem So Bad When It’s Paying Your Paycheck!

Despite current budget crunches, plenty of money is being invested in and by federal, state, and local governments. Stimulus (Recovery) Act money is still being spent. Whether it’s new roads or electronic medical records or overseeing bank bailouts, this spending provides lots of opportunities.

See the official federal website that tracks Recovery Act spending for lots of ways to access information about this spending, and this page for job-specific Recovery Act information.

There is considerable demand for project managers who have government experience. And on recovery.gov there are stories featuring examples of Recovery Act projects from expanding broadband coverage to community-based health and wellness programs to mass transit and road building projects.

4. Healthcare Means More Than Nursing and Medicine Careers.

Healthcare jobs are expected to grow faster than any other industry — roughly 22%, or 3.2 million new jobs, by 2018.

Healthcare includes all kinds of professional jobs directly relating to patient care that do not require a medical or nursing degree — such as social work and physical and occupational therapy — and even more that support them — from patient check-in to HR. 



While the number one healthcare occupation will be nursing, there will be a demand for lab and technical jobs, as well as a wide variety of administrative and support positions such as project managers and medical coders.

See this article on the Top 10 In-Demand Healthcare Occupations.

5. Alternative Work is Becoming Mainstream.

Yoga is taught in law offices, poetry is shared at corporate retreats and meditation is a recognized part of some treatment programs at traditional hospitals. Self-help, consciousness raising, and spirituality are all expanding, and related jobs or business opportunities are growing.

At a major TV network, female executives meet regularly with a yoga mistress! Kids are being taught meditation as part of a youth intervention program. And at one of the most respected universities in the country, UCLA, there is a center that combines East and West medical theories in one holistic discipline.

Now is the time to take advantage of such alternative interests and expertise and find a unique job or career. Good luck and be different!

Post courtesy of David Couper, author of Outsiders on the Inside: How to Create a Winning Career…Even When You Don’t Fit In!

One of many factors that may be hindering jobs recovery in the current economy is diminished mobility. The real estate market situation, as well as difficulties posed by relocating multi-earner households, have likely made many more reluctant to consider a major cross-country move than in the past.

Yet, employment data suggest that those who can consider such a move might do well to do so, as there is a significant disparity in the level of employment opportunities between different states and regions. Fishing in a bigger pond in another state might make all the difference in a tough job search!

The US States Job Search Difficulty Index

This index measures the difficulty of finding employment in each state around the country (and D.C.). It is expressed in terms of unemployed individuals per advertised job. This figure ranges from a low of 0.82 in D.C. to a high of 8.24 in Michigan.

This measure was calculated by dividing the number of unemployed workers in each state, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), by the number of jobs in the Juju.com comprehensive index of millions of online jobs in the United States, which is compiled and updated continuously from thousands of employer career portals, recruiter websites, and job boards all over the Internet.

Here’s the ranking for August 2010:

Avoiding Discrimination against Employees Who Care for Disabled Family Members

Most employers and HR managers understand the discrimination laws in terms of protecting people based on “protected characteristics,” such as race, national origin, religion, gender, age, or disability.

A protected characteristic that is often overlooked is association with an individual with a disability. This protection is provided by the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and many similar state and local laws. Employers rarely recognize this characteristic as involving a risk of discrimination liability until it is too late.

What Is Association Discrimination?

Association discrimination is discrimination based on an applicant’s or employee’s relationship or association with an individual who has a disability.

A claim for association discrimination does not require that the claimant have a disability of his or her own. The ADA also does not require that the claimant have a family relationship with the individual with a disability.

The following are some examples of situations that may constitute association discrimination under the ADA:

• A full time employee’s young daughter is diagnosed with autism, and he needs to be involved in several therapies with her. The employer has a flex-time policy, and the employee has worked part-time in the past under this policy. When the employee makes a request to return to part-time due to his daughter’s needs, his supervisor refuses the request without giving the employee any reason.
• A ten-year employee with good reviews goes home for lunch every day to help her husband, who has a debilitating illness. A new supervisor is hired, who adopts a rule that bars employees from leaving the workplace during lunch breaks.
• A full-time teacher gives birth to a son with a disability. The school unilaterally reassigns her to a new position, which has substantially less authority and job responsibility.

EEOC Guidelines on the Association Provision of the ADA

The EEOC has published Questions and Answers about the Association Provision of the ADA, which provide guidance on the purpose and application of the ADA’s prohibition of association discrimination in employment.

According to the EEOC, the purpose of the association provision is to prevent employers from taking adverse actions based on unfounded stereotypes and assumptions about individuals who associate with people who have disabilities.

Association Discrimination and Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD)

Family responsibilities discrimination is not prohibited by a new, separate law, at least not yet. Rather, it involves a variety of factual scenarios that can give rise to legal claims under a number of different existing employment laws.

The ADA is one of those laws. Where the nature of an employee or applicant’s family responsibilities can be characterized as involving association with a family member with a disability, the ADA’s association discrimination provision can be an important part of the legal arsenal used by lawyers bringing family responsibilities claims.

Three Key Points on Association Discrimination Claims

1. The ADA does not require an employer to provide reasonable accommodation for a person without a disability, even if that person is a caregiver for a person with a disability.
2. The ADA does require that employers treat employee who have disabled family members like other employees. Employers should make sure that these employees are not being harassed or singled out for unwarranted warnings to make them quit.
3. The ADA requires employers to provide employees with dependents who have disabilities equal access to whatever health insurance coverage is offered to other employees. Employers are not required to provide additional health insurance coverage to such employees under the ADA.

Lessons For Employers From Association Discrimination Claims Brought by Caregivers of Disabled Family Members

The following judicial decisions involved adverse actions based on the employer’s assumptions about an employee’s family responsibilities involving a family member with a disability:

• Francin v. Mosby, Inc. (2008): The Court allowed an ADA association discrimination claim to proceed where an employee’s supervisor discussed the employee’s wife’s illness and its effect on his performance, then later terminated him.
  Lesson –- Supervisors should focus on performance only, not on the personal circumstances that they believe may affect performance (e.g. spouse’s illness).
• Lucke v. Multnomah County (2008): The court allowed an ADA association discrimination claim to proceed where an employee who cared for her disabled father was reassigned to menial tasks by her supervisor, because the supervisor reasoned that in the menial job, the employee could “take care of her family.”
  Lesson -– Supervisors should focus on performance only, not on the personal circumstances that they believe may affect performance (e.g. spouse’s illness). Employers should carefully review adverse employment actions such as demotions or terminations to make sure that they are not based on conscious or unconscious bias toward people with care-giving responsibilities.
• Colon v. San Juan Marriott (2008): The court recognized a prima facie case for ADA association discrimination where an employee alleged that her supervisor expressed concern as to the condition of the employee’s husband and asked whether she would need further leave to care for him.
  Lesson — Even well-intentioned questions may be misinterpreted, so it is best to avoid engaging in personal conversations regarding your employee’s disability association. If the employee raises the issue, that is different, but great care should still be taken in such conversations — and legal guidance sought if there is any question about an action affecting the employee’s employment, whether proposed by the employee or by management.

The following judicial decisions involved adverse actions based on the employer’s concern that an employee with a disabled family member would increase group health insurance costs:

• Trujillo v. PacifiCorp (2008): Summary judgment for employer denied where the employer began investigating the employee after she began filing costly insurance claims for her sick son, raising questions of fact regarding the employer’s discriminatory intent.
  Lesson – An employer may not use an employee or applicant’s association with a person with a disability to make any adverse employment decision, and in particular may not use that as the reason to deny health coverage available to others.
• Gross v. The Gap, Inc. (2007): A former employee pleaded sufficient facts for an ADA association claim where she alleged that her employer terminated her to avoid the high cost of insuring her son, who was born with serious health complications.
  Lesson – Employers must not consider the cost of health insurance for their employees –- or their employees’ dependents –- in making employment decisions.

This guest post was submitted by the employer section of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of Law, which focuses on Family Responsibilities Discrimination. See http://worklifelaw.org/ForEmployers.html

photo credit: zoovroo via flickr

Simply getting a college degree will definitely play an important role in landing a job or advancing a career, but these days it often won’t to be enough. There are specific steps every student should take while in school, so that they are properly positioned for post-graduation career opportunities.

Some of the key things to consider as ways to jumpstart your career while still in school include:

Setting Your Own Personal Learning Agenda

While in college your goal should be to focus on personal and professional growth, not just grades. You need to take control of your learning path and make sure that as you work your way through your degree courses, you’re focusing as much on what will happen after you graduate as you are on acing your assignments. In addition to classroom work, consider such things as:

• Getting to know staff in career services before your senior year.
• Carefully choosing internships and volunteer opportunities.
• Participating in extracurricular activities that help develop leadership and other “soft skills.”

Using Your Course Assignments for Additional Purposes

Keep an eye out for assignments that have career-development and networking potential. Whenever possible, use your assignments to connect with potential employers, clients, and/or colleagues.

Generally, people are amazingly accessible to and supportive of students doing research for a class assignment. Do a dynamite job on an assignment and then send a copy of it to the person you worked with, thereby dazzling them with your smarts and initiative and building a professional relationship in the process.

Creating Your Own Learning Assignments

As you study your way through your degree’s core courses, you’ll be expected to master a substantial amount of knowledge in your degree field. However, you’ll also want to build some key professional and/or business skills during this time. This could occur in or out of the classroom.

So, think about how you can improve yourself — through classes or otherwise — in critical areas such as:

• Writing
• Public speaking
• Leadership
• Time management
• Money management and basic financial concepts

Exploring The Many Different Ways Your Degree Skills Can Be Used

Many people take their careers in directions quite different from what you, as a college student, might expect of someone with your major. Learn about these sometimes unexpected career paths:

• Pepper guest speakers with questions about their careers.
• Conduct as many informational interviews as you can.
• Join LinkedIn special-interest groups and consider joining professional associations.

This is a guest post from Bryant & Stratton College Online, which will host a free webinar on Wednesday, August 11, 2010, from noon to 1 p.m. EST to discuss these tips and several others that will help students jumpstart their careers while still in college. To register visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/719530984.

The “Jumpstart your Career” webinar is the first in a three-part series. A “Build Your Professional Brand” webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, August 24 from 2 to 3 p.m. EDT and a “How to Build a Resilient Career” webinar is set for Thursday, September 16 from noon to 1 p.m. EDT.

It can be easy to be discouraged when searching for a job, even if you have one. It’s very similar to dating: you have to present your best self and then hope they like you enough to give you a call back. This means you might have to endure a lot of discouraging rejection, and once you start feeling discouraged, you might get the urge to quit your search. The only problem is that with a job search you can’t just quit.

There are a lot of ways to stay productive and keep moving when you’re searching for a job, even if it seems like you’re not getting a lot of traction. The most important thing to do is not give up. Here are five tips that will help you stay productive in your search.

1. Set Reasonable Goals

It’s not likely you will get a job with the first resume and cover letter you send out. (Congratulations if you do … maybe you also should buy a lottery ticket!) So, don’t expect a home run on your first try.

Start with small steps. For example, make a goal to send out five cover letters and resumes one week. Try to set up a few informational interviews the next week.

Break your big goals down into achievable chunks, and you’ll see positive results that you can feel good about more quickly.

2. Keep Track of Your Progress

It helps to feel more confident about your search if you’re making progress. A great way to do this is by keeping a list of goals you create and steps you need to take to get there. Then feel good about yourself by putting big check marks on the list when you’ve accomplished each step.

Remember the goals listed above? Maybe you secured three informational interviews with professionals in your industry. Make note of that.

Go back and read your list again whenever you feel like your search has stalled. You may need to repeat some steps.

3. Study and Volunteer

Even though you might not have a job right now, you will soon. Think of skills that would come in handy once you start a job in your industry, and take the time to learn them now. Do you want to be a journalist at a magazine? Study AP and Chicago styles inside and out. Do you want to work in marketing? Start learning about ways to optimize Twitter channels and Facebook pages.

Then, volunteer these services to others on a nonprofit basis. You’re never a burden on anyone if you work for free. Plus, this means you’re building experience for your resume, and that never hurts.

But make sure that you’re not simply being exploited for free labor that profits someone else much more than it benefits your own training, and that the time volunteered does not interfere with your job search.

4. Continue to Reach Out to Your Network

Even though your industry mentors might not have any jobs available for you when you’re looking, if you stay on their radar you have a better chance of becoming the candidate that pops into their minds when there is a job that opens. We’re not saying you should be annoying, but touch base every month or so.

The key to doing this without becoming the most annoying person in the world is by actually making it meaningful to them. See an interesting article that is relevant to their industry? Forward it. Come across a new research study with interesting stats? Email it to them. Then tell them what you’ve been up to, what work you’ve done for free, any projects you’re working on, etc.

This will not only raise your value in their eyes, but it will keep you on their mind in case something comes along. And if it does? You already have a great relationship and chances are the job would be a really good fit for you. Plus they might be a very good reference for you when an employer is giving you serious consideration for an opening.

5. Consider New Avenues You Might Not Have Already Pursued

Do you have a Twitter page? Great! But think about it. What do you use it for? Is it to tell your friends when you’re at a concert or having a frustrating day? How can that help you with your job search?

Consider creating a new Twitter channel that focuses on the industry you want to get into. If you want to work as a wedding planner, begin tweeting tips on how to make the big day go off without a hitch, and begin following other planners.

Continue to try to think of other ways to be innovative. The more creative you are in your job search, the better chance you have of standing out among the clutter. And the added bonus? Whenever you’re working on something, you will feel productive. And when you feel productive, you create opportunities for yourself. You never know who could be reading your Twitter tweets…

Guest post by Mario Schulzke, Creator, CareerSparx, an online course that helps recent college graduates begin their careers. For more information visit the website at www.careersparx.com and download a free 61-page guide on how to start your career.