The Express-Times reports that Essroc has laid off 10% of its workers (read the article here). The cuts impacted 19 workers. The article also notes that three salaried positions were also recently cut.
The Morning Call reports that unemployment in the Lehigh Valley increased in October (read the article here) despite seasonal hirings in retail. Congress has not approved extending unemployment, and if they do not 5,500 people in the Valley will lose their benefits this month. Roughly half of the 15 million on unemployment have been out of work for six months or more.
The Harvard Business Review had an article in mid-November on the fact that high unemployment also means high overemployment, in short, those left working work more to account for the people laid off (read it here).
One must also factor under-employment, which is defined as taking part-time work instead of full time work, roughly 9% of the workforce is in this category and then there are those who took full time work well under their former pay, but better than part-time. I’ve not seen estimates on the size of this group.
Taken together, it is not a good job market and is going to be a challenging holiday season for many people. If you know someone who is out of work or under-employed, the best thing you can do is make a personal introduction. There are so many people applying for positions that having a contact is really the only way to stand out when hiring does occur.
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