“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.