With the softening of the economy, many workers are unsure what expectations they should have when searching for a new job or seeking a promotion or raise within their current company. This question plagues employees of all ages and levels of experience as they navigate the recession.

Several studies have been conducted in recent years, following new graduates and laid off employees to see how they have fared in this economy. Below are some results of these studies to help you know how high you should reasonably set your standards as you navigate the new economy.

Wages

Salary is the first thing in many peoples’ minds when it comes to a job offer. When the economy is slow, be prepared to make less than you may have made in previous positions. This is what many Americans who have fallen victim to lay-offs have experienced.

As reported by the New York Times, a study conducted by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers recently followed Americans who were unemployed in August of 2009; these Americans were interviewed at the beginning of the study and then contacted again in November 2010. During the November interviews, it was found that of the one-third who found replacement jobs, 41 percent had switched into a new career field. Seventy percent of those who moved to new fields took a cut in pay and 45 percent who remained in the same career field also took a pay cut.

Employees new in the workforce have also been affected by lower wages. According to a news release issued by Rutgers University, a survey of 571 graduates from four-year colleges and universities from the classes of 2006 to 2010 shows that young Americans have experienced increasing difficulties securing jobs as the economy entered into the recession. The study  found that those who entered the workforce in 2009-10 had starting salaries that were 10 percent less than their counterparts who entered the workforce in 2006 and 2007.

Of course, you don’t have to settle for a lower paying job. You will just want to be realistic with your expectations on how long it will take to find the position that is willing to pay the amount that you seek. You may also want to explore increasing your formal education through a degree or certification program.

Benefits

Benefits have also taken a hit during the recession. As was found by the study conducted by the John J. Heldrich Center, 29 percent of the tracked employees took a reduction in benefits when they secured a new job. And, those who had to switch careers to secure a new job were more likely to be affected by a decrease in benefits; as 46 percent of these workers had benefits cut compared with the 29 percent of workers who stayed in the same career.

Many job seekers are surprised when they discover that many companies have decreased the benefits they offer to their employees. Perhaps even more surprising is the amount of money these benefits cost when a consumer is asked to provide them on their own.  Benefits such as health insurance, life insurance and 401K plans can add up to an additional 20 – 30 percent in terms of salary.

When looking for a new job, keep the expense of benefits in mind. If you are deciding between two job offers, the better offer may be the one that has a lower salary but more complete benefits!

Living standards

With cuts being seen in wages and benefits, many banks have been tightening their standards when it comes to extending credit. Many consumers have even seen their credit limits suddenly decrease even when they have been on time with their payments. This has been a wake-up call for many consumers who have slipped into the habit of relying on credit cards to keep up with their monthly bills.

As a result, many individuals, even with seemingly lucrative careers, have tightened their habits to cut back on their spending. This has helped them position themselves so they are prepared if their pay is cut or benefits are decreased.

The tightening of credit doesn’t mean that none will be available to you. Instead, Jamie Scott from CreditDonkey recommends you focus on establishing healthy credit habits so you can build the best possible credit score. Positive habits include paying your credit card and other loan payments in full each and every month. Another way to increase your credit score is to keep your spending in check so that your balance is less than 35 percent of your credit card limit.

Is this opportunity taking you up, down or sideways?

At the end of the day taking a step backwards to go forward in your career isn’t something I’m a big fan of but it’s your career and if you decide it makes sense for you then perhaps it does.

I recall one instance where I was helping a guy switch jobs and he was eager to move to a new company as he’d been with the same company for over 12 years. It was the only company he’d worked for in fact and as a result, he had a pretty good situation in that he worked his way up to 5 weeks of annual vacation and clearly also had a good reputation and good situation overall all things considered. But he felt it was time for a change in his career and as he was planning on moving to a new city, decided that the job opportunity I’d put in front of him made sense and when he received the job offer, decided to take it.

The new job offered him a bit more money but less vacation time and was essentially in the industry he really wanted to be in (financial services) so he was quite happy and eager to take the job. I remember thinking at the time that if I was him I’d probably have had a hard time giving up the 2 weeks of vacation! But he understood the situation and that the new company offered 3 weeks and he accepted it. On the one hand I couldn’t believe he’d give up his established position at the only company he’d ever worked for but on the other hand I admired his decision-making process, his confidence and his determination to move on in his career.

In this instance, things worked out for this guy and I was happy for him. He made the right decision and while he took a bit less in some areas with his new job (i.e. vacation) he gained in others.

On the other hand, I recently got an email from a woman was discussing her situation where she was considering working for another company but where the situation was more cut and dry, where the opportunity presented to her with the potential job wasn’t nearly as good as what she had currently even though the new company was probably a better one than her current employer.

But once she started comparing things that meant something to her at her current job – perks and benefits, the commute to work, her succession plan – it became clear to her that the potential employer was giong to have to change their tune and come up with something a lot better than what they’d proposed since it was far less than what she was getting currently all things considered.

She commented that had she been unemployed at the time it probably would have been a no-brainer and that taking less money to move to this company might have made sense if she had no other job prospects at the time.

But to quit her current job and move to this new one made no sense and so she decided not to.

In this case, I admired her decision making process too as well as the fact that she went into the situation with both eyes open and wasn’t impressed by the potential employer telling her about the benefits of working there even if it meant taking a step (or two) backwards to start with.

Afterall, it was her who was going to take the step(s) back not them.

One of the reasons that taking a step back in the hope that you will end up two steps forward doesn’t always work out is that things that are promised to you (especially verbally) might never come to fruition especially if the person promising them ends up leaving the company or leaving the role.

Plus once you put a position on your resume that appears to be a step backwards, future hiring managers wonder what this means as they usually expect to see a progression of responsibility and not the opposite.

How much is that job worth?

Interesting question, eh?

Peter Butterworth of the Centre for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University in Canberra recently published a report that can be found on the Occupational Environmental Medicine website where the goal of the report was to determine

“whether poor quality jobs are associated with better mental health than unemployment.”

Among the criteria used to determine the quality of a job were levels of control, demands and complexity, job insecurity, and unfair pay. These crtieria were used to define the psychosocial quality of a job.

In the study, Butterworth concluded the following:

“Work of poor psychosocial quality does not bestow the same mental health benefits as employment in jobs with high psychosocial quality.”

In one of his conclusions, he mentions the following:

“Overall, unemployed respondents had poorer mental health than those who were employed. However the mental health of those who were unemployed was comparable or superior to those in jobs of the poorest psychosocial quality.”

In other words, people who are in a job they really don’t like or hate were found to have more mental health issues that people who were unemployed.

Do you hate your job that much?

It is really possible to be worse off being employed in a job you hate than being unemployed?

Certainly monetary issues might dictate that being in a job you hate is preferential to being out of work and not making any money. But if you think about it, someone who is unemployed (hopefully) has the belief and confidence that they will get a new, better job than what they previously had and that they will be back on their feet soon.

A person who is in a job they hate might be mentally defeated by being in the position and have convinced themselves that this is as good as it gets and that it isn’t going to get any better for them. Perhaps they feel that there isn’t anything else to look forward to and things are what they are and this is the best they can hope for. Add the things that often combine to make a person feel like their job sucks – a boring position, a company they don’t like, a boss they hate, being underpaid, etc – and I think I can start to see why the study shows the results that it does.

Plus when you’re working fulltime it can be difficult to devote the time and effort to finding a new job even if you really want one and perhaps it serves as another excuse not to go look for one which might make you even more depressed still.

Earlier in my career, I had a job I hated so much that I quit even though I didn’t have a new job to go to. I did find a new job shortly thereafter and certainly my monetary situation at the time was one where (as a single guy) I could afford to do this but I just felt at the time that I needed to get out of this particular company regardless.

When I think to my own personal experiences and the experiences of people I know, I can certainly see how Peter Butterworth’s findings make sense.

Bullseye! New job achieved.

Here’s an update on my unemployed friend who I’d referred to late last year in several posts and how his story ties into another post that I wrote recently where I talked about the likelihood of getting a job offer on the spot at the end of a job interview.

If you want to first read some background info about my friend’s story and how he’s been handling unemployment, you can can check out my When Your Job Search Starts To Drag On post.

If you’d like to read more about my post on getting a job offer at the end of an interview, you can check out my Getting Hired On The Spot post.

So an interesting thing happened while my friend was searching for a job after 5 months of unemployment after he’d been laid off last fall. He has found it difficult to not only find a new job but even get job interviews. He’s started looking at jobs out of the country and in fact out of the continent.

About two weeks ago he received a job interview for a job he was interested in and low and behold, he not only got a job offer but he got the job offer on the spot right at the end of the interview. So forget everything I said last week and you probably not getting a job offer on the spot…clearly I was wrong.

In all likelihood job offers tend not to be produced right at the end of an interview but sometimes a company needs to hire someone quickly and is willing to make a move on a person right away.

Further, sometimes the person they are interviewing for the job is someone who is known to the company and already has a leg up on the others interviewing for the job….

That’s exactly what happened in the case of my friend: One of the hiring managers at this company immediately recognized his name and upon seeing my friend’s resume and learning that he was looking for a new job, he decided that my friend was not only getting an interview but that barring some sort of issue, would hire my friend.

And that’s what happened.

It turns out that my friend and the hiring manager had met in the past few years at an event and had hit it off and since they had a mutual friend who had also vouched for my friend, the hiring manager felt very comfortable trusting his gut and hiring my friend on the spot following their first (and only) interview.

So What Did My Friend Do Right?

My friend did a few things right that helped him get the job:

1. He kept applying for suitable jobs and didn’t let his unemployment get him down: He did get a bit disappointed from time to time but for the most part he kept his head up and kept looking for work.

2. He kept his options open: He applied for local jobs, jobs that would require relocating and applied to companies that he felt might be in need of someone with his experience regardless of whether they had an advertised job or not.

3. He left a good impression on people: The hiring manager had only met my friend once several years ago and yet he remembered my friend and was willing to not only give him a job interview based on this meeting but also offered him the job.

4. He networked: As it turns out, both my friend and the hiring manager have a mutual acquaintance who had put the good word in for my friend which also helped him get both the interview and the job. My friend had let this mutual acquaintance know he was looking for a job and this person then let the hiring manager know that my friend would be a good fit. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone in your corner when you are looking for a new job?

So with a bit of luck (if you believe in such a thing), a bit of networking, a bit of being in the right place at the right time and a good impression in the job interview, my friend is has once again joined the ranks of the employed.

Who has a great story to tell? I’d love to hear your stories about examples of how you got a new job when the chips were down.

Having gaps in employment is a common problem that people face these days as the global economic downturn continues and in many parts, the job market hasn’t really recovered enough to make a difference.

When I first got into the IT recruitment business in 2000 the market was chugging along although the fact that Y2K had passed without much fanfare meant than many companies had already (over)spent their IT budget and many weren’t hiring much at that time.

Having said that, most people were working and when you came across someone who was out of work for an extended period of time, the truth was that we immediately wondered what was wrong with that person i.e. why haven’t they been able to find a new job?

Fast forward a year and by the end of 2001 when things had noticeably slowed down and September 11 had really brought things to a halt, suddenly we were seeing many job searchers who were out of work – some for many months on end – so it wasn’t so much of a surprise. Hiring manager went from asking us “why is this person out of work” to simply assuming they’d been laid off and didn’t seem to make a big deal out of it as they had previously done.

In fact I can recall a few cases when a hiring manager wanted to hire someone quickly and had actually suggested that we only send them resumes of people who were out of work, figuring that they could start the job quicker than someone who was employed since the employed person would need to give several weeks notice and might be pickier than someone who was out of a job!

Given that the global economic downturn has gone on for around 2 years now depending on where you live, chances are you might have lost a job and might have a gap in your resume.

What should you do about a gap in your resume?

In my experience the best thing you can do is be up front and state exactly what has happened, whether in your cover letter and/or in your resume. In recruitment and in staffing, when you see someone who seems to be hiding something, your warning bells tend to go off and you question what else this person is hiding. When someone has gaps in their resume with no explanation you tend to move onto the next person.

When you proactively state your situation honestly I tend to give this person the benefit of the doubt, certainly moreso than someone who appears to be leaving things out of their resume and hoping that the reader won’t notice.

I have worked on a number of open jobs where the hiring manager or hiring authority has suggested that they’d prefer to hire someone who is already employed. In other words, they suggest that they’d prefer not to hire someone who is currently unemployed. In some rare cases, I’ve had hiring managers tell me to not even bother sending them the resume of anyone who isn’t currently working. It would seem that this sort of practice is increasing.

A recent news story I read discussed a recruitment firm in South Carolina searching for managers for a grocery store who specifically stated in the ad that they were only looking for people who currently held a job.

Mind you, I’ve also seen cases where the opposite has happened: I recall working on jobs where the position needed to be filled ASAP and the hiring manager told me that they’d prefer to hire someone who was currently out of work and who could start immediately!

When a company states that they want to hire someone currently employed, it’s interesting to note the reason why. Depending on your local labor laws it might not be illegal to state that you want to only consider job applicants who are currently employed but I guess my question would be what are you trying to accomplish?

In the case of the grocery store looking for managers, does that mean an unemployed grocery store manager who was recently downsized is less desirable than a person with no direct experience as a grocery store manager but who is currently employed in another job? Apparently they are since their current out-of-work job status will automatically rule them out of consideration for the job.

If you’re applying to jobs and are currently unemployed, you do need to be cognizant that this sort of treatment exists not only from hiring managers but recruiters too. Recruiters can also discriminate against those who are currently out of work thinking that it will be an uphill battle to help them get back into the workforce compared to a similar candidate who is currently working.

Having a job can give you extra leverage in your job search that you might have not otherwise considered. The longer you’re out of work, the more questions arise as to why you haven’t been able to find a new job, too.

I just saw a good video on CNN.com that is relevant for anyone out of work or searching for work or who simply wants to see an interesting way that one man has learned to adapt to the job search process.

The subject of the video is a guy whose wife works in the military so every time she is posted somewhere else every few years, the poor guy has to search for a new job when they move! He has reinvented himself and now shows unemployed people how to pick themselves up and get back into the workforce. Great story.

You can view the video here.

If you’ve been out of work for awhile, you’ve probably already found that the longer you are out of work the harder it can be to get back into the workforce.

First off, the longer you’re out of work the easier it can be to get out of the routine of getting up and the same time each morning and going through your normal routine of getting ready for work and then actually going to work.

Secondly, the longer you’re out of work the more than hiring managers and recruiters wonder why you haven’t been working.

In this economy it’s easy for people to simply think that when they’re out of work for a long period of time, employers will understand and simply put it down to the economy. In some cases this might be true but in other cases, you might not get a sympathetic ear.

I recall back in 2000 when I started working as an IT recruiter that I used to meet with many job searchers who were out of work. Some had finished contracts after the Y2K frenzy ended, some had been laid off during the dot com implosion and even into 2001 particularly from September 11 onwards, many other people had been let go as the economy started tanking and many industries suffered as a result.

We got used to meeting good people who were out of work for a few months but when we met people who had been out of work for 1 year or longer – and didn’t seem to have done much during this time – a warning light went off in our heads. For employers that we were dealing with, it often seemed that they were willing to give some unemployed people the benefit of the doubt but the thing we always needed to remember was that not everyone was unemployed!

There were people interviewing for the same jobs who were currently employed so the unemployed people were competing with people who were actively working and so they immediately had one strike against them as a result.

That’s a simple fact.

The unemployed person was probably going to get asked at least one question that the employed person wouldn’t get asked: why have you been out of work so long? Depending on their answer, the fact that they were out of work was just another thing that could get held against them.

Just because all you read about in the papers is how “no one is hiring” and “everyone is laying people off” doesn’t mean this is actually true because it isn’t. Not all industries are suffering, not all companies are laying people off.

Not all hiring managers are used to interviewing people who have been unemployed for a long period of time so if you’re thinking that you’ll get a get out jail free card, that might not be the case.

In fact I can recall occasions when companies specifically asked our recruitment company to only send them resumes of candidates who were working at the time and hadn’t been out of work for a period of time. I recall these cases quite clearly.

Bottom line: While being out of work is a reality for many people, it can sometimes be used against you. If you’re out of work, use your time off work wisely whether it’s searching for jobs, working part time, taking courses or doing anything that you can point to and let potential hiring managers know you were keeping active and busy while out of work.

One of the difficult things to do is get back into the workforce after you’ve been out for awhile.

Whether you took time off to raise kids, took time off to travel or have a break, or were laid off or otherwise terminated and have found it difficult to find a new job, the longer you are out of work the harder it can be to get a new job.

Sometimes it’s because the longer you are out of work, the more potential employers wonder why you have been out of work for so long.

Hiring managers aren’t the only people who often wonder about this, either.

I recall meeting with a young guy who was just starting his career and had a very specific skillset, experience that I thought one of my clients would be interested in. The issue was that he’d been out of work for about 9 months and the job he lost (he’d be laid off) was the first job he’d ever held. He was a young guy with less than 2 years of work experience so in some respects he wasn’t the most ideal candidate for a recruiter to help since he had a bit of experience in a specific area but not enough experience to be considered for many positions that required skills that he simply didn’t have.

When I met with him following an initial telephone conversation, my first impression was that he wasn’t really that motivated and seemed to have no problem being out of work. He was still living at home and didn’t seem to be doing much in his spare time and the more I spoke with him, he gave me no impression that he was desperate or even willing to do much to get a new job.

I’m fairly certain that if I’d have been a hiring manager and he’d interviewed with me and acted the same way, I wouldn’t have bothered interviewing him a second time because I’d have been convinced he wasn’t really that motivated.

On the other hand, you have those people who are out of work and do the exact opposite. When you meet them, they give you the impression that they are so desperate for a job that they’d literally take anything you offered them.

I once interviewed a young guy for a specific job with one of my clients who told me that he’d take any job with the company and would gladly accept even a salary that would have literally amounted to less than minimum wage. And he was serious. I was actually nervous about putting him in front of the client because he came across as being just so desperate for a job that it was actually sad to see.

Neither impression is a very good one to give a hiring manager – or a recruiter – so if you’re out of work, think about the hints you give people that can influence your job search and ask yourself if you’re leaning too far one way or the other.

Remember that you’re always being watched and evaluated during interviews and when otherwise meeting with hiring authorities including recruiters so in addition to answering questions to the best of your ability, remember the non-verbal cues you’re giving out too.

If you can’t find a job and are still unemployed after a longer than expected job search, you’re not alone.

I know people who have been unemployed since March so they’ve been on the bench for going on 8 months. As a recruiter, I’ve met with plenty of people who get laid off or otherwise downsized and months later are still looking for a new job.

The longer you’re out of work, the harder it can become to get a new job and the more a potential hiring company is going to wonder why you can’t find a job.

Even recruiters ask why you haven’t found a new job amongst themselves. If I take the resume of a person who has been out of work for say 6 months to a colleague who has a job this person is interested in, the first question from my colleague is usually “why are they still out of work after 6 months?” The reason they ask is because their client will want to know the same thing.

Certainly in this economy, people’s hesitation to hire people who are out of work is lower than perhaps in a “better” economy. People expect that there will be good people who lose their jobs and will remain unemployed for some time.

Still, what can you do to minimize the amount of time you’re unemployed?

For starters, you can:

1. Always ensure your resume is up to date. Even when you’re working, keep your resume updated so it’s ready to use in case the need arises.

2. Keep your references handy. Remain in touch with the people you plan on using as references and know where to find them when the need arises so you’re not running around trying to find them at the last minute when you need them. You never know, they might just point you in the right direction of a job too.

So let’s say you’re already unemployed and Points 1 and 2 above are too late to consider (just make sure you consider them in the future when you’re working again).

Why might you still be unemployed?

3. You’re not really job searching. If you are just firing off resumes to online job ads and posting your resume on these same online job boards, you’re not really searching for a job.

4. You’re not networking with others.

5. You aren’t contacting companies directly.

6. You’re not staying busy and motivated.

7. You aren’t targeting the right jobs.

8. You’re focusing on what you want from an employer and not what you offer them.

Some people who have never been unemployed are surprised when they’re out of work for a few weeks and suddenly find out a few months later that nothing has changed and they’re still out of work. Good, qualified, skilled people can have difficulty getting back into the workforce especially in an economy where many companies are cutting staff and not necessarily hiring new ones.

If you can afford it, taking training or other courses, going back to school fulltime or part-time or looking at self employment options are things you might consider while you’re searching for a new job.