VIA MSNBC:

GRANDVIEW, Mo. – Don Carroll, a former financial analyst with a master’s degree in business administration from a top university, was clearly overqualified for the job running the claims department for Cartwright International, a small, family-owned moving company here south of Kansas City.

But he had been out of work for six months, and the department badly needed modernization after several decades of benign neglect. It turned out to be a perfect match.

After being hired in December, Mr. Carroll, 31, quickly set about revamping the four-person department, which settles damage claims from moves, and creating tracking tools so the company could better understand its spending.

Conventional wisdom warns against hiring overqualified candidates like Mr. Carroll, who often find themselves chafing at their new roles. (The posting for his job had specified “bachelor’s degree preferred but not required.”) But four months into his employment, it seems to be working out well for all involved.

It is a situation being repeated across the country as the aspirations of many workers have been recalibrated amid the recession, enabling some companies to reap unexpected rewards.

A result is a new cadre of underemployed workers dotting American companies, occupying slots several rungs below where they are accustomed to working. These are not the more drastic examples of former professionals toiling away at “survival jobs” at Home Depot or Starbucks. They are the former chief financial officer working as comptroller, the onetime marketing director who is back to being an analyst, the former manager who is once again an “individual contributor.”

The phenomenon was probably inevitable in a labor market in which job seekers outnumber openings five to one. Employers are seizing the opportunity to stock up on discounted talent, despite the obvious risks that the new hires will become dissatisfied and leave. “They’re trying to really professionalize this company,” said Mr. Carroll, who is the sole breadwinner for his family of four and had lost his home to foreclosure. “I’ve been able to play a big role in that.”

In some cases, of course, the new employees fail to work out, forcing the company through the process of hiring and training someone else. But Mr. Carroll is just one of several recent hires at Cartwright who would be considered overqualified, including a billing clerk who is a certified public accountant and a human resources director who once oversaw that domain for 5,000 employees but is now dealing with just 65.

They represent marked upgrades for Cartwright, a modest-size business with expanding ambitions. The company is benefiting from an influx of talent it probably never would have been able to attract in a better economic climate.

“There’s a nice free-agent market right now,” said Randy Woehl, the human resources director. “The best it’s ever been.”

Exact numbers for workers toiling in positions where their experience or education exceed their job descriptions are hard to come by, in part because the concept is difficult to measure and can be quite subjective. Several studies have put the figure at roughly one in five American workers, although some doubt the numbers are that high. Economists and sociologists, however, agree that the frequency inevitably increases in hard times.

Nevertheless, an overriding complaint among many job seekers, particularly professionals, is how often they are rejected for lower-level positions that they desperately want and believe they could practically do in their sleep.

Read more here.

(Baltimore, MD) — There are jobs available for U.S. Census Bureau enumerators to go door to door. Seema Iyer is directing the Baltimore City Complete Count Campaign.

The door to door counting will start late April through the middle of July. For job information go to baltimorecity.gov/2010census or contact the Census Bureau. Hiring will go on until at least the middle of April. She says the best enumerators come from the neighborhoods they’ll count, someone known in the neighborhood. Seema Iyer is directing the Baltimore City Complete Count Campaign. She says the best enumerators come from the neighborhoods they’ll count.

Copyright © 2010Metro Networks Communications Inc., A Westwood One Company

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

For Susan Williams, the road to working as a serial temp for the U.S. Census Bureau ran through law school and a recession that has stalled many a professional career.

After just two years as an associate at a small firm in the District, Williams was laid off in November 2008. She assumed she would land another job within four months. When that didn’t happen, her brother mentioned seeing an ad that the Census Bureau was hiring.

In short order, Williams, who had specialized in food and drug law, became a census crew leader, training and supervising 20 other temporary field workers canvassing addresses for the 2010 Census. That $21.50-an-hour job lasted just 10 weeks, but the census called her back for another six-week stint, canvassing shelters and dormitories. After that ended, she was rehired to recruit other temps for the census. Now she is working on technology operations in the District’s census office.

“I’m still putting out applications for attorney positions,” said Williams, 30, whose census job is helping her pay down her student loans. “But right now, I like that it’s a steady paycheck. It’s nice to get out of the house and have something to do.”

The Census Bureau expects to hire at least 700,000 people throughout the spring and summer for part-time jobs, paying $10 to $25 an hour, mostly to knock on the doors of people who don’t send in forms that will arrive in mailboxes this month. Many of the expected 3 million to 4 million applicants will be like Williams: highly educated and in the prime of their working life but sidelined by a recession that has driven the unemployment rate to almost 10 percent.

The field of candidates was dramatically different for the 2000 Census, which was conducted during a boom with record low unemployment of 4 percent. Competing against the many businesses that had “Now Hiring” signs out front, the Census Bureau spent $9.5 million on “help wanted” ads, sent recruiters to job fairs and pushed wages to record levels.

Still, some offices didn’t meet hiring goals, and the Census Bureau ended up with a temporary workforce with an average age in the mid-50s and composed largely of retirees.

“This time around, it’s a new ballgame,” said Wendy Button, a hiring specialist with the Census Bureau. “We’re seeing professionals with advanced degrees taking temporary jobs part time. It’s incredible.”

In the Washington region, many churches have offered their fellowship halls as sites for the written test that all applicants must take. Throughout the winter, hundreds of job applicants have arrived at many testing sites hours before they open.

Wayne Hatcher, director of the region that includes Virginia and now working on his fourth decennial census, said both the number and caliber of applicants are noticeably higher this year.

“Sometimes in the past, we were only able to find folks available on a part-time basis,” he said. “This time, people are available to work pretty much full time.”

The Commerce Department said last month that it expects the temporary spurt of census hiring to probably knock several tenths of a percentage point off the unemployment rate.

Most of the jobs will be what Census Bureau Director Robert Groves has called “tough work,” making house calls on nights and weekends to people who haven’t returned their forms. Census takers may make as many as six visits to each house to determine whether the residents have moved or if they just aren’t answering.

Ten years ago, about one in three households did not respond. Groves estimates that every 1 percent of households that don’t answer the questionnaire cost taxpayers $85 million to send workers looking for them.

The exact number of census takers needed to make those visits will not become clear until next month, when the forms are due. The Census Bureau estimates that by the end of summer, it will have hired 4,500 people in the District, 19,000 in Maryland and 22,000 in Virginia. Wages vary but are $20 an hour in the District and Alexandria, $18.50 in Rockville, $18 in Manassas and $15.50 in Frederick. Most people will put in 17 to 19 hours a week, Groves said.

Applicants must be at least 18 and pass a background check that includes FBI fingerprinting. People convicted of serious felonies are not eligible.

One of the most important factors in hiring is where an applicant lives. The agency favors hiring census takers from the neighborhoods where they will be making house calls, thinking that people are more apt to open their door to someone they recognize. In some neighborhoods, language skills are also a priority.

“When we hire, we’re hiring local people,” Hatcher said. “We like people to generally work within their neighborhood or close to it so they’ll have a certain comfort level and know some of the people in the community.”

Valerie Mann is hoping she gets tapped to be a census taker in her District neighborhood, Shepherd Park. An independent business consultant who works out of her home, she said that her workload is down in the faltering economy and that she has more spare time than she has had in years.

A friend in Baltimore told her about census-taking jobs, and Mann, 57, thought it would be a good way to earn some money, get some exercise and meet people, all while performing a service that will benefit her community.

Being a bit of an overachiever, with a master’s degree in public relations and marketing from American University, she took the application test twice, just so she could improve her score from 18 correct answers out of 28 to 24 correct answers. “I knew I could do better,” Mann said.

Now she is waiting for a callback, confident that she will stand out among the competition.

“I could be a supervisor,” she said, citing her experience managing as many as 45 people as executive director of three nonprofit organizations with budgets of $5 million and $6 million. “Perhaps those skills would be useful.”

Source

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

President Obama lamented December job losses Friday while saying the overall employment trend “is still pointing in the right direction,” and he announced new tax credits aimed at spurring the growth of clean-energy jobs and promoting U.S. leadership in developing green technologies.

A government report that showed the nation shed 85,000 jobs in December, a worse-than-expected performance, serves as “a reminder that the road to recovery is never straight,” Obama told reporters at the White House. But he noted that job losses in the last quarter of 2009 were one-tenth of the total in the first quarter, and he credited last year’s $787 bill economic stimulus package with being “a major force in breaking the trajectory of this recession.”

Describing his green manufacturing initiative as one of the most popular elements of the stimulus package, Obama said building a “robust clean-energy sector” would help create the jobs of the future, reduce dependence on foreign oil and combat climate change. But he said the United States “is being outpaced” by other nations, including China, in developing the sector.

As part of an effort to “close the clean-energy gap,” he announced the awarding of $2.3 billion in tax credits to American manufacturers of technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and cutting-edge batteries. The credits — destined for 180 projects in 40 states — will generate 17,000 jobs and help leverage $5 billion in private-sector investment that would create tens of thousands of additional jobs, while doubling the amount of renewable power over the next three years, Obama said.

Since there are far more qualified applicants for the credits than the federal funding will cover, he said, he is calling for investment of an additional $5 billion in the program.

Obama spoke hours after the Labor Department issued a report that suggests the economic recovery still is too weak to lead employers to add to their payrolls.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 10 percent, the Labor Department said. Forecasters had expected zero net change in the number of jobs on U.S. payrolls, and some had had expected job growth to return. Those expectations were dashed by a report that — while not without bright spots — suggested that the long slog toward an improved labor market continued in December.

In a statement posted on the White House Web site, Christina Romer, one of President Obama’s top economic advisers, called the December job losses “a slight setback” but cautioned against reading too much into any one monthly report.

Results for November were revised upward from previous estimates, such that the Labor Department now says 4,000 jobs were created that month in contrast to initial estimates of a loss of 11,000 jobs. If the new number holds up through future revisions, November would be the first month of job growth since December 2007.

But the general theme from the December report was that signs of stability in the job market have not yet turned into overall job growth. According to a wide range of data, employers are not slashing jobs the way they were earlier in the year — the pace of new jobless claims has been declining steadily in recent weeks. But neither are employers adding to their payrolls or creating jobs at a pace anywhere near what would be needed to get the U.S. economy out of its deep hole of joblessness.

Part of the job losses might have been due to colder-than-usual weather; construction employment fell by 53,000 jobs, more than in recent months, and that sector is more sensitive than most to the weather.

One positive sign is that the number of temporary jobs rose by 47,000 jobs. Employers, it would seem, are reluctant to add permanent workers, but — faced with higher demand for their products — have little choice but to bring on temps. That could presage broader job creation in the future.

Less encouraging was the news that the average workweek for non-supervisory workers was unchanged at 33.2 hours. Employers cut back the hours of their employees dramatically through the deep economic downturn of the past two years and so far are restoring those hours at only a glacial pace.

Average hourly earnings were up slightly, however, 0.2 percent, to an average of $18.80 an hour.

The unemployment rate remained high, as many forecasters expect it to for many months. Not only did the nation continue to shed jobs, but the labor force shrank as 661,000 people pulled out of the workforce entirely, neither working nor seeking a job.

A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who are working part time but would prefer a full-time job and those who have given up looking for work out of frustration, edged up to 17.3 percent, from 17.2 percent.

The latest employment report nevertheless is “consistent with the gradual labor market stabilization we have been seeing over the last several months,” Romer said.

“Compared with the unexpectedly good report for November, December’s job loss is a slight setback,” she said, adding that “the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high, which underscores the need for responsible actions to jump-start private-sector job creation.” Cautioning that “the road to recovery will not be a straight line,” she said monthly jobs numbers “are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”

In an interview on MSNBC, Romer, who chairs Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that compared to earlier last year, “we’re on an improving trajectory.” She pointed to growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter and said “an even stronger number” is expected for the fourth quarter.

Romer said that “job growth by spring . . . is still completely realistic.” However, “the important thing is we don’t just want positive job growth; we want big job growth, because that’s what’s going to put people back to work.”

Source

VIA NEWSWEEK:

For job seekers, 2010 could be the year to reinvent oneself. Industries such as health care, higher education, and green technology are expanding. Double-digit unemployment is expected to drop, as companies slowly begin to hire in the spring and latter half of 2010, and new digital and technological jobs could start to take shape as Americans re-settle into this emerging, post-recession economy.

How should people go about tweaking or changing their careers? NEWSWEEK’s Nancy Cook recently spoke with Alexandra Levit, career columnist for The Wall Street Journal and author of New Job, New Youabout the future of the job market and the ways in which workers and companies will have to shift to stay competitive. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why did you write this book at this particular time?
LEVIT: Starting in 2007, I was already hearing a lot about career changers. The 20-somethings didn’t want to pay their dues. You would think, Why would they change careers that they just started? but they wanted meaning right away. I was also starting to hear a lot about baby boomers, who had no intention of sitting in the house and playing bridge once they retired. They wanted to continue working through their senior years and contribute more than they did at their corporate jobs. The recession happened as I was pretty much finished writing the book, and it meant that people across all age groups needed to reinvent themselves. It provided a sense of urgency. People were starting to feel like the corporate world was not the reliable choice that it used to be, and if you’re working in an unstable career, you may as well be working on your own. Changing careers is this big nebulous thing. As I started doing research, I noticed that there were some good books out there but they were very generic. The thing is that how you reinvent yourself differs based on your individual circumstances. It depends on your motivation and whether you want to do it to spend more time with your family or develop a latent talent or whether you want to work on your own.

You profile dozens of people who have successfully switched careers. Were there any traits they had in common?
My favorite trait is persistence; that is the one thing that sets apart people who make a career change. If people are persistent and patient, they can pick themselves up when they have setbacks. If you don’t have that internal drive, reinventing yourself will be very difficult. All of the people I talked to for the book—none of them took the path of least resistance.

I started making my own career change when I knew that I wanted to have a child. I was a senior manager in a communications firm, and I was working 80 hours a week. I started gradually changing my career five years before I had a baby. This topic is personal for me because I know, for one, that I moved things forward a little bit at a time.

You make changing careers sound relatively easy, but what are the downsides?
There are sacrifices. Changing careers is not the kind of thing that makes life easy. It’s much easier to collect the paycheck and go about your life. There can be financial setbacks. It can be tough on your relationships and tough on your free time. The risk is a downside for a lot of people. They wonder, How do I know how successful I’ll be? What if this doesn’t work out and I’m a failure?

Do you think the government should help people reinvent themselves? What federal or state policies would aid people in this transition?
Without getting too political, I would say personal health insurance. It’s what keeps people from making this change. If your company is covering your insurance, you’re not going to leave.

How do you think the job market will shift for those who want to reinvent themselves?
There will be massive changes in 2010. All of the people hanging on to their jobs because they were too scared to move in the recession will take new jobs. The millions of people who are unemployed will start to get hired. We’ll see incredible turnover, and companies will have to start taking care of people again. I think more and more people will be transitioning to careers where they acquire a set of transferable skills rather than expertise in a specific industry. Now, employers tend to say, “I don’t know why you made a move out of telecommunications.” But, on average, the statistics from the Bureau of Labor show that young Americans who are 18 years old will have something like 12 jobs by time they’re in their mid-30s. The portrait of successful people will be those who have a handle on transferrable skills that they’re able to use across a wide variety of industries. People will have to understand how to position themselves that way. It takes more ingenuity and creativity to show what you learned from each job rather than positioning yourself chronologically.

We’ve been talking about how workers will reinvent themselves for the new economy, but what about companies?
Companies will have to be more flexible and step up efforts big time to retain people. There won’t be the idea that you’re not stuck in this job because we’re the best company in this field. Companies will have to invest in people. Training and development is usually the first thing to go in a recession, but it’s what really endears people to their companies. Another thing they’re going to have to do is step up their flexibility. Some companies balk at telecommuting, but men and women are demanding flexibility, especially if you have young children. In the next five to 10 years, the “millennials,” the generation born starting in 1978, will move into prime child-bearing age. They’ll need this flexibility, and companies will have to give it them.

Source

VIA MSNBC:

NEW YORK – Employers expect to hire more new workers in 2010 than they did in 2009, a sign the recession may be easing its grip, research showed on Tuesday.

One-fifth of employers plan to add full-time, permanent employees next year, up from 14 percent in 2009, according to CareerBuilder.com, an online jobs site that surveyed more than 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals.

Just 9 percent said they plan to cut head count in 2010, down from 16 percent in 2009, according to the nationwide survey.

“There’s definitely an uptick. The number of employers who say they’re going to add full-time workers is up from last year, and that is very good news,” said Michael Erwin, senior career advisor at CareerBuilder.

Yet 61 percent of employers said they do not plan to change staffing levels, showing a degree of caution, he said.

“Employers are waiting to see what the economy does and what the new year brings,” he said.

One-third of employers plan to add technology jobs, while 28 percent said they would add customer service jobs and 23 percent said they planned to increase their sales force.

“The employers we’re talking to are really shifting from cost containment,” Erwin said. “Now it’s really about growth so I think you’re going to see customer service jobs added, sales jobs added.

“Those are really what can grow the business and make the money come back and get the customers back,” he said.

Salaries and benefits are likely to stay tight, the research found.

Fifty-seven percent of employers expect to see higher salaries for existing employees in 2010, down from 65 percent in 2009. Also, 29 percent plan to increase salaries in offers to new employees, down from 33 percent in 2009.

As to bonuses, medical coverage and matching 401k contributions, the survey found 37 percent of employers plan to cut benefits in 2010, up from 32 percent who trimmed in 2009.

Many employers — 37 percent — said they plan to take advantage of the large labor pool and replace low-performing employees in 2010.

The survey was conducted online for CareerBuilder.com by Harris Interactive from November 5 to November 23. The overall results had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.88 percentage points.

Source

VIA WASHINGTON POST:

When Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley speaks these days, the three words most likely to come out of his mouth are “jobs,” “jobs” and “jobs.”

As he heads into an election year, O’Malley (D) is ratcheting up his rhetoric and policy proposals concerning employment, an area in which Democratic governors seeking reelection could be most vulnerable.

In short order, O’Malley has stitched together a 10-point plan, made up of relatively modest initiatives, to help small businesses. He has put forward a three-part legislative proposal that includes a tax credit for companies that hire the unemployed. He has launched a traveling “university” to promote minority business opportunities. And just recently, O’Malley unveiled a plan to provide short-term relief for companies facing a threefold increase next year in unemployment insurance taxes.

The burst of activity, which has drawn mixed reviews for substance and style, comes in the wake of the national unemployment rate topping 10 percent in October and high-profile Democratic losses last month in gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

“Difficult economies always hurt the president’s party, and that goes for governors as well,” said Kirby Goidel, a political science professor at Louisiana State University. “You want to give the perception to voters that you’re addressing their biggest concern.”

The call for job creation is “a refrain being heard in gubernatorial campaigns across the country,” said Jennifer E. Duffy, a senior editor of the Cook Political Report.

Incumbents from both major parties could be vulnerable next year. But Duffy’s publication, which is tracking the 37 governor’s races on the ballot, has seen support for Democrats slipping most noticeably in states where economic uncertainty is dominating early stages of campaigns.

So far, Duffy said, heavily Democratic Maryland has been an exception, in part because O’Malley does not have a high-profile opponent criticizing him daily in the media. The state’s November unemployment rate of 7.4 percent was also lower than the nation’s.

In an interview, O’Malley played down any political motivations and said his “more pointed” focus on jobs is consistent with the priority he has placed since he was elected in 2006 on “strengthening and growing our middle class.”

“I don’t know that New Jersey and Virginia factored into it as much as our shared realization of how many jobs we’ve lost,” said O’Malley, who is vice chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. “We have to be extremely clear about what the mission is here: When we’re experiencing some of the worst unemployment rates our nation has ever seen, we’ve got to be focused on creating jobs.”

O’Malley has pushed other proposals aimed at the middle class, including a four-year freeze on public university tuition and steps to stem the tide of home foreclosures. And he has spoken often about “workforce development” issues.

But rhetorically, there has been nothing comparable to recent weeks.

O’Malley’s heightened focus came into full view last month with the announcement of a deal with a private operator at the Port of Baltimore. Flanked by applauding workers, O’Malley played up the promise of 5,700 construction and operational jobs in coming years.

“Sing it with me, people: ‘Jobs, jobs, jobs,’ ” O’Malley said. “This deal is all about job creation in Maryland, job creation now . . . not 10 years from now, not 20 years, but job creation now.”

O’Malley’s proposals since then have included a $3,000 tax credit to companies for each unemployed worker they hire; an expansion of state guarantees of small-business loans; and a plan to lower unemployment insurance rates by altering the state’s system in ways sought by Congress and President Obama.

The unemployment insurance plan drew criticism recently from business representatives who said it would provide only short-term relief while requiring companies to support an expensive and permanent expansion of the system.

The tax credit would be capped at $20 million under O’Malley’s plan, meaning companies could use it to help hire up to 6,700 workers. Hiring that many jobless workers would have the effect of reducing Maryland’s October unemployment rate from about 7.2 percent to less than 7 percent, said Robert Carpenter, an economics professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

“For those people who are employed because of the credit, that would be a good thing,” Carpenter said. “But it would have a relatively small impact on the overall unemployment rate.”

Senate Minority Leader Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard) said he would expect even less of an impact because the credit is not enough to induce struggling companies to add workers.

“When the governor says, ‘Jobs, jobs, jobs,’ what he’s really saying is: ‘I’m afraid, I’m afraid, I’m afraid! Don’t throw me out of office!’ ” Kittleman said.

Democrats have been more enthusiastic, but they also cautioned against high expectations. “The credit would definitely help,” said House Majority Leader Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery). “It’s probably the most we can do during the time when we have a big budget shortfall.”

In the interview, O’Malley acknowledged that his proposals are relatively modest compared with what Obama and Congress are considering on the national level, including using money from the government’s massive financial bailout program to spur job creation.

But O’Malley said it is important for Maryland to accomplish what it can, and he has promoted his proposals in recent media appearances, large and small. Those included a pitch on MSNBC to a national TV audience one morning this month and one to a far more targeted group the afternoon before. The latter was delivered by way of a single-camera webcast in which O’Malley and others gathered around a folding table.

“Certainly, government is not the answer to all of our problems,” O’Malley said during the webcast. “But I think government should be in the game.”

Source

VIA MSN CAREERS:

By Rachel Zupek

Let’s be honest: Sometimes you don’t care about the job — you just care about the salary.

But it’s awfully hard to look for a job that fits both your salary requirements and your skill set. Not to mention that we always tell you that your work and career should be something you love. Ideally, money is just an added benefit.

That being said, we’re also realists. We know that times are tough and at this point, some people just need to get paid. Fortunately, there’s a new salary tool available that can help you do just that.

Jobs by Salary, a new salary tool from CBSalary.com, allows you to search for jobs by salary based on where you live or work in the United States. Do you live in Phoenix and want to make $50,000? No problem. Plug in your data, and you’ll get a list of jobs that pay that much in your area, plus the necessary requirements.

Because our readers live all over, we thought it unfair to provide a list of jobs that pay a certain dollar amount in one place or another. Plus, we all know that different markets pay different salaries based on a variety of things such as cost of living.

Instead, we went to the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at the latest (May 2008) salary information for the United States. From there, we found out which occupations pay in the $80,000 range based on national averages.

Here are 30 jobs that pay at least $80,000:

1. Administrative law judges, adjudicators and hearing officers
Do this: Conduct hearings to rule on government-related claims; determine penalties and liability; and help to craft settlements.
Get paid: $80,870

2. Biomedical engineers
Do this: Design and develop devices and procedures to help solve health-related problems. Projects might include information systems, artificial organs or artificial limbs.
Get paid: $81,120

3. Chiropractors
Do this: Diagnose and treat musculoskeletal conditions of the spinal column to prevent disease and alleviate imbalance, pain and pressure believed to be caused by interference with nervous system.
Get paid: $81,340

4. Atmospheric, earth, marine and space sciences teachers, post-secondary
Do this: Teach courses and research topics in the physical sciences, except chemistry and physics.
Get paid: $81,470

5. Agents and business managers of artists, performers and athletes
Do this: Represent and promote their client’s business while handling business matters and contract negotiations.
Get paid: $81,550

6. Materials scientists
Do this: Study the chemical composition of various materials and figure out ways to develop new materials and improve existing ones; also determine ways to use materials in products.
Get paid: $81,600

7. Physician assistants
Do this: Perform health-care services and provide treatment plans under a physician’s supervision.
Get paid: $81,610

8. Medical scientists, except epidemiologists
Do this: Research and investigate human diseases and how to improve human health.
Get paid: $81,870

9. Physics teachers, post-secondary
Do this: Teach courses and research topics pertaining to the laws of matter and energy.
Get paid: $81,880

10. Atmospheric and space scientists
Do this: Study the effects the atmosphere has on the environment, most commonly through weather forecasting.
Get paid: $82,080

11. Management analysts
Do this: Figure out best practices of management by conducting studies and procedures to help companies figure out how to operate more effectively.
Get paid: $82,920

12. Producers and directors
Do this: Produce or direct, and make all creative decisions for stage, television, radio, video or motion picture productions.
Get paid: $83,030

13. Biological science teachers, post-secondary
Do this: Teach courses and research topics in biological sciences.
Get paid: $83,270

14. Materials engineers
Do this: Develop new uses for recognized materials, and develop new machinery and processes to make materials for use in specialized products.
Get paid: $84,200

15. Transportation, storage and distribution managers
Do this: Oversee transportation, storage or distribution activities in accordance with governmental policies and regulations.
Get paid: $84,520

16. Financial analysts
Do this: Assess the financial situations of an individual or organization.
Get paid: $84,780

17. Electrical engineers
Do this: Design, develop and test the manufacturing and installation of electrical equipment.
Get paid: $85,350

18. Education administrators, elementary and secondary school
Do this: Oversee all activities of public or private elementary or secondary schools.
Get paid: $86,060

19. Industrial-organizational psychologists
Do this: Work with companies to solve problems within the company. You may help with policy planning; employee screening, training and development; and organizational development and analysis.
Get paid: $86,460

20. Computer software engineers, applications
Do this: Build computer applications software and code; ensure that all software projects adhere to a company’s technology and business standards.
Get paid: $87,900

21. Economics teachers, post-secondary
Do this: Teach courses and research topics in economics.
Get paid: $88,330

22. Biochemists and biophysicists
Do this: Study the chemical composition and physical principles of living cells and organisms, their electrical and mechanical energy, and related phenomena.
Get paid: $88,450

23. Art directors
Do this: Create design concepts and presentation in artwork, layout design and copywriting for visual communications media.
Get paid: $88,510

24. Electronics engineers, except computer
Do this: Design, develop and test a wide range of electronic equipment, from CD players to global positioning systems.
Get paid: $88,670

25. Medical and health services managers
Do this: Supervise medical and health services in hospitals, clinics and similar organizations.
Get paid: $88,750

26. Chemical engineers
Do this: Design chemical plant equipment and create processes for manufacturing chemicals and products.
Get paid: $88,760

27. Geoscientists, except hydrologists and geographers
Do this: Study the composition, structure and other physical aspects of the Earth.
Get paid: $89,300

28. Veterinarians
Do this: Provide health care for family pets, livestock and zoo animals. Provide check-ups, treat diseases and advise caretakers on how to best raise their animals.
Get paid: $89,450

29. Construction managers
Do this:Oversee all activities concerned with the construction and maintenance of structures, facilities and systems.
Get paid: $89,770

30. Sales engineers
Do this: Sell business goods or services, the selling of which requires a technical background equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Get paid: $89,770

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VIA YAHOO! HOTJOBS:

By Larry Buhl

The latest directory of job titles from Occupational Information Network (O*Net) features a variety of new entries that many people have never heard before.

Some of these jobs — at least the duties — have been around in some form for a while. What’s new is a “professional pathway” for these careers, according to employment expert and author Laurence Shatkin. “O*Net officially recognizes job titles once there is a critical mass of workers in those jobs and a clear road map for attaining the positions,” he says.

Green Energy

There are many new green-collar job titles on O*Net, which is developed for the U.S. Department of Labor. The number of new green jobs is not surprising, given the federal government’s active role in building a green economy.

Even before the federal stimulus dollars kicked in, wind energy was big and growing. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reports that the wind industry grew by 45 percent in 2007 alone. Civil engineers who work on various aspects of the wind farm now have their own job category: wind farm engineers. These engineers work on performance of turbines and the overall performance of the wind farm and also oversee aspects of construction and mechanical development. They usually have a B.S. in engineering with a focus in construction or civil or structural engineering. Some technical colleges now offer degrees in wind farm engineering. AWEA pegs the average salary at $80,000.

Solar thermal technicians design, develop, install, and maintain solar thermal systems used to heat water and produce energy. Renewable energy plants, companies that install solar panels for domestic use, construction companies, consulting firms, and hotel chains use these technicians. A degree (2- or 4-year) in mechanical engineering or electronics is helpful, but some apprenticeship programs exist as well.

Salaries vary widely and will increase if demand continues to outstrip supply. Solar thermal technicians can expect to start at around $40,000 a year or $20 an hour, according to Red Rocks Community College in Colorado. The upper salary limit is a moving target, as the job category is emerging so quickly.

Health Care

Nursing informatics is a nursing specialty that integrates nursing science, computer science, and information science to manage and communicate data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in nursing practice. Informatics nurse specialists are registered nurses trained in graduate level informatics. Salaries start at $60,000 but can more than double after a few years’ experience.

“Most often they are liaisons between clinicians and information and computer science people. These jobs are growing because information technology is now becoming a major tool in health-care settings,” says Stacey Prince of the American Nurses Association.

Anesthesiologist assistants work under the direction of a licensed and qualified anesthesiologist in hospitals. They perform preoperative tasks, support therapy, recovery room care, and intensive care support. They do well money-wise: around $90,000 to start and more than double that with 10 years of experience, according to the American Medical Association. A master’s degree in nursing and certification by the National Commission for Certification of Anesthesiologist Assistants are required.

Business and Management

The roles of IT professionals continue to splinter and become more specialized as new technologies dominate businesses. Business continuity planners are responsible for developing plans to recover from cyber attacks, terrorism, or natural disasters. They also may be responsible for scaling IT as a company grows (from regional to national, for example), duties that used to be handled by information systems managers. A bachelor’s degree in business, management, or disaster management is the minimum requirement. The median salary for disaster recovery managers, who have a similar job description, is $100,000, according to salary.com.

America’s interest in getting healthy has led to a growing business specialization of spa managers, who are employed by resorts, health clubs, and other facilities offering sports and wellness activities. The median income for spa managers in the U.S. is $56,000. A college degree is not mandatory, but a high school diploma or GED and at least five years experience in the managing a related area are usually required.

Education

Distance learning, which provides instruction to students who are not on-site, is booming. O*Net now recognizes distance learning coordinators, who prepare and run online courses at colleges, trade schools and secondary schools. A master’s degree instructional design, curriculum design, curriculum development is usually required, as is a strong understanding of Web-based technologies.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t yet recognize distance learning coordinators as a job category, but an analysis of job openings shows a range from the upper $30s to the low $60s for a coordinator with at least two years’ experience.

Entertainment and Media

Video game designers have been around for a while, but as the $9 billion interactive entertainment industry matures, new specialties are emerging, such as user experience designer, which focuses solely on improving the user interaction. Designers can also move up to be creative directors as well. A college degree is still not mandatory everywhere, however, strong skills in computer programming, computer engineering, software development, computer animation, graphic design, and computer graphics — or all of them — are helpful.

Big employers like Microsoft and Electronic Arts snag a large chunk of new designers, but smaller companies are starting to offer competitive wages and career tracks as well. Designers earn $50,000 and $80,000 annually, and the highest reported salary was $200,000, according to the International Game Developers Association.

Social media is a specialty field of public relations that uses the growing social networking technologies, including RSS, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. A few years ago, social media duties were performed by marketing managers or communications directors. Now there is a social media career track.

An entry-level company blogger can earn less than $20 per hour (and many blogging jobs are part-time). A director of social media, the top of the social media chain, can pull in $70,000 or more. In the middle, a social media manager, can expect to earn around $50,000. A bachelor’s degree is usually required, and job seekers should possess strong writing abilities and a keen understanding of online marketing, public relations, and new media.

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