Professional Unemployment Rate Drops

Good Monday morning, Sylvia,

The employment numbers came out on Friday, and the big news was the significant drop in the unemployment rate among professionals: from 5.2% in September to 4.7% in October.

I went on Bloomberg TV to discuss: One of the reasons I enjoy appearing on Bloomberg is that as a financial news network, the anchors are very well-versed in the employment data and ask interesting, detailed questions. Anchorwoman Lori Rothman does a better job of exploring the economic news and its implications than you'll find just about anywhere else on TV.

At the heart of the numbers was the fact that unemployment dropped for professionals and managers in October (it also dropped for those with college degrees). This continues a decline that began in the summer and has seen the professional unemployment rate decrease from a decade-high 5.5% in July to 4.7% last month.

Big-picture economic statistics obviously don't mean much to your job hunt, but combined with the increasing activity we are seeing from recruiters on TheLadders (October was the most active month of the year thus far), it points to some cautious optimism that the Great Recession may be receding.

Let's all certainly hope so.

OK, folks, thanks for listening and watching on this Monday morning!

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.

From: Marc
November 9, 2009