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Unemployment is up again. There seems no end to it, particularly if you are one of the many people looking for a job. And the longer one looks, the more despondent one can get and the greater the obstacles that are perceived to be in the way. Of course, attitude is essential in job hunting; the more positive you can be, the greater the energy and focus you can bring to your job search, and to the way in which you communicate with prospective employers. So what can you do to remain upbeat when the strain of long term unemployment is weighing you down? (more…)

We saw the new George Clooney film, Up In The Air, this weekend. It is a forgettable film but it intrigued me because it is apparently about an outplacement company in the United States. And it seemed to highlight glaring differences between the way outplacement is conducted in the United States and in the UK. Until I looked into it more closely. (more…)

For most people this is the first working day of the new decade. Rarely have we begun a year, let alone a decade, with such a pervading spirit of economic gloom and personal negativity. It seems that whatever we read, or whoever we talk to, we cannot get away from the recession, redundancies, pension scheme losses, insolvencies and general misery. (more…)

Redundancy is an opportunity to take a step back, review your career and put in place any changes that you feel necessary or important. But for most people there is an urgency to finding a new job. Spending time in a period of reflection is a luxury that cannot be considered. (more…)

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have reported that the number of firms planning to make people redundant has fallen and that the situation in the jobs market, although still severe, is better than it was a year ago. This doesn’t mean that we have turned a corner, but things do seem to be looking up. (more…)

“Now is the Winter of Our Discontent”. The opening words of Shakespeare’s Richard III were used to describe the profound industrial unrest that took place in 1978-9 Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck,. For several months the country was riven by strikes. Rubbish piled high in the street. Thousands of petrol stations were closed. Schools and airports closed for lack of workers, and ambulance drivers struck, grave diggers in Liverpool downed tools. (more…)

A fifty seven year old man came to see me. He had come to this country as a young man, a refugee from war in his homeland. His immediate need when arriving in the UK was to earn money to send home and he got himself the first job that he could, a fairly menial job which paid relatively well given what he was used to, but which did not stretch or challenge him in any way. (more…)

This weekend we saw the first indications of how public spending cuts will impact on the working landscape. The Schools Minister suggested that education departments will save money by reducing top tier management; schools and colleges are likely to share heads and deputy heads. (more…)

We have reached the point, common to all recessions, at which economic growth is beginning to recover whilst unemployment continues to rise. History suggests that an improvement in the employment market lags about two years behind economic recovery. And this raises an interesting question. (more…)

We face two economic, career-impacting possibilities as the second half of the working year begins. On the face of it the most benign appears to be the most likely. But we live in a world of uncertainties and it would be prudent to ensure that we have a Plan B in case the worse occurs. (more…)