“It’s a huge disservice to the economy, in that it means there are highly productive, hardworking people who are not maximizing their potential,” —Heidi Shierholz, a labor market economist for the Economic Policy Institute.

What Ms. Shierholz addresses is the growing problem within the employment market that often gets ignored: underemployment. According to the WashingtonPost.com’s article citing Bureau of Labor Statistics, to understand “underemployment” look at the groups of people measured:

1. Total number of unemployed workers.
2. People who work part-time when they would prefer full time work.
3. Passive job seekers already in the workforce who have discontinued looking for jobs, perhaps because they gave up searching for one.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the “percentage of the workforce that is underemployed is at 12.5%.” That represents the highest level in over 15 years and easily surpasses the level of roughly 7% in 2000 during the dot.com implosion.

Although the government does not count unemployed workers who are overqualifed for their current jobs, it does show a startling rise in workers who work part time, but would prefer full time work from 2.8 million, 12 months ago, to 7.3 million today.

Analysis

Continued corporate layoffs and elimination of positions will further enrich the unemployed workforce with higher levels of educated workers. The competition for jobs, even temporary low paying jobs, will add to the stress already associated with current market conditions.

What Do We Do?

Education and action are the steps necessary for people to stand apart and differentiate themselves from the competition they face. Please consider the following steps as an outline:

1. Education: You must be willing to learn new skills and stay informed on news and trends within your chosen field. Reading is key. RSS subscribe to newspapers and association newsletters that focus on your industry or employment news.

2. Networking: You should be willing to attend networking events related to your industry of choice, job fairs, employment groups, and any association that will provide support in your job search.

3. Research: You must research your industry and companies of choice. Learn their challenges, their pain points, and analyze how you and your skills could make a difference to their bottom line. Build a case, like an attorney, on why a company should hire you.

4. Adopt: If your companies of choice have corporate blogs, social media tools, and other Web 2.0 campaigns, this is a signal for you to become an adopter. If you educate and adopt a blog into your employment campaign, a robust Linkedin presence, and you become an advocate of online networking through social media, you will stand apart and differentiate yourself from the competition.

5. Employment Campaign: This is an organized action plan. The plan begins with a value assessment to help the job seeker find his/her expertise, knowledge, experience. The next step is to craft this value into a message. Once your message is created, we implement a plan that incorporates direct marketing principles to strategically target the hiring managers and companies you wish to interview. The final piece is the establishment of your own blog as the vehicle to deliver your message of value and as a centerpiece-hub to point people to your value.

Response Mode Warning: Don’t Be Like The Other Guy

If you are a job seeker and you are limiting your job search to creating multiple resumes, networking periodically and underutilizing Linkedin as a tool, then you are doing what the majority of unemployed job seekers are doing: the same old thing.

If you truly want to stand apart, then you must get away from response mode and get into action mode. Consider the 5 steps described as a beginning. The true winners in the competition for the finite number of jobs are those people who build an employment campaign and work their action plan every day.

Jobseekers beware. There is a new trend on the horizon that goes beyond Web 1.0 “brochure-ware” like resumes, referrals from associates or friends, and status quo job seeking activities: social network screening.

According to ComputerWorld’s Heather Havenstein’s article, One in Five Employers Uses Social Networks in Hiring Process: “the number of hiring managers turning to social networks like Facebook to delve into a candidates’ online behavior is increasing quickly: Some 22% of employers said they already peruse social networks to screen candidates, while an additional 9% said they are planning to do so. Only 11% of managers used the technology in 2006.”

Jobseekers Opportunity

CareerBuilder’s survey, which polled some 31,000 employers, revealed that “24% of hiring managers found content on social networks that helped convince them to hire a candidate.”

More pointedly “Hiring managers are using the internet to get a more well-rounded view of job candidates in terms of their skills, accomplishments, and overall fit within the company” according to CareerBuilder’s Vice President of Human Resources Rosemary Haefner.

How Do You Stand Out? Your Differentiating Factor

A robust profile will take you only so far in your quest to show the value, expertise, and experience you will bring to any company. How do you stand apart from the competition?

The Solution Part 1

In a fantastic Wall St. Journal article by Joann Lublin, Networking? Here’s How to Stand Out, the answer takes on more clarity as online networking consultant Scott Allen describes the new trend.

“For job hunters who use networking Web sites like Linkedin a more-sophisticated approach is necessary. When you invite someone to join you on Linkedin, include a personalized offer of help, such as an introduction to a customer OR a useful link to a relevant article“.

Blogging to Employment

The dawning of a new age is upon us as the Web 1.0 brochure-ware resume strategy is no longer the most important strategy for jobseekers. As foreshadowed by Scott Allen, jobseekers must be willing and able to deliver their knowledge, expertise, and experience. But how?

1. Employment Campaign: Create an employment campaign that utilizes the strategies of a direct marketing campaign to target hiring managers, companies, industries, and niches.
2. Blogging: Create a blog that is the “killer” Web 2.0 delivery system, and centerpiece, that supports a campaign that provides exposure and a method that is proactive and not reactive.

Analysis

The move away from resumes as the delivery system for your value message is only the beginning of a bigger trend in the process of finding a job. Today’s jobseeker must be aware that hiring managers and companies are being forced, in many cases, kicking and screaming into the Web 2.0 world of blogs and social media networking. As more and more companies adopt these Web 2.0 tools, they will specifically seek out those candidates who have positioned themselves on the Web and those candidates who have the Web 2.0 skill sets to prove it.

Related articles:

Susan Mernit’s Social Media Must Have’s for the Recently Laid Off

Inner Architect’s Blogging to Employment

You now have the confidence you can change your career and design the job you will love.

You have made the commitment to developing your vision.

Effort is the fuel for this development and the quality you bring to your new project. All the pieces are in place-now comes the hardest part that separates those who want to get to their goals and those who want to get to their goals and follow their action plan: perseverance.

Three Steps To Maintaining Your Perseverance

1. Dreams Come True: Be of the mindset that this is your chance to make your dream come true. Working on your dream is more fulfilling and meaningful than working on someone else’s business. Watch your mindset

2. No Room For Regrets: Don’t allow yourself to be side tracked, sabotaged, or completely derailed by any regrets that could arise from not doing everything possible to achieve your dream goals. Learn from your regrets but do not spend anymore time than to learn–the lesson step here is to value the present and the future

3. Challenge Your Weaknesses: Expect anything worth achieving to come with a set of challenges. Most of these challenges will test your weaknesses. Remind yourself that these challenges will be well worth conquering on your way to reaching your goals

“Dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.” —Vince Lombardi

“Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?” —Marian Wright Edelman

You began by building your confidence through the accumulation of experience and research. You maintained a constant commitment by action planning and steadfast perseverance. Now is the time to add the fuel to your engine of change: effort.

What is effort? Effort, according to Websters, “is the total work done to achieve a particular end.” Effort is also a “conscious exertion of power. . . or a serious attempt.” Effort makes all the difference in the world.

Your effort, either 110% or less than ideal, is your personal measurement to how well your are performing your tasks in order to change. You can NOT lie to yourself-when you do not give your best effort you know it.

Three Steps To Maintain Your Effort:

1. 100% Effort: Always give your maximum effort, your best efforts to your work

2. Quality is Job 1: Do NOT cut corners, speed through without care, or attempt to short change the process. Sloppy work is less than your best effort

3. Recognize Your Value: Recognize that others can benefit by what you have to offer