Which skills do count when you are unemployed and looking for work ?

There are two groups of skills that make a difference if you’re looking for work :

1. Your search skills
2. Your own skills, your competencies.

Your search skills

Getting a job offer might be hard, but it is far than impossible. In a mid-size labor market, say a state or metropolitan area with 6 to 7 M of population, as a rule of thumb, there might be about 1 000 000 (1M) jobs openings within a year without net job growth. That is because peoples quit, change job, retire or leave them for several reasons. Mass layoffs are well covered by media but they account for an small proportion of moves on the labour market. Do not get discouraged by these announcements.

As employment duration is reducing through time, people are changing job on average within 3 years. So more and more jobs openings are occurring. And a huge numbers  job opportunities are generated, notwithstanding monthly statistics on employment and unemployment. And there is a lot of them, even in times of high unemployment.

Moreover, some compare the job market to an iceberg. Publicized job openings are only the tip of the iceberg. Most openings are kept within a network, especially when employers know that they might receive hundreds of resumes by posting one opening in the classifieds!

So, to get to these opportunities requires some skills. Job search engines and social media are bringing a new world, with new means and new rules. Do you know how to use them ? Do you know how to present yourself, your job history, filling the holes ? Do you know how to highlight your skills ? Those are the first skills you have to get.

You can find useful help near home. There are free public employment services, career center, community employment services everywhere. Don’t hesitate to get the training required for searching, especially if you have not been unemployed before or on the market for several years. How could you have developed your searching skills ?

Your skills : your second best asset

Those employment services or your one-stop career center, or your public employment center know how to identify and highlight your skills. This is your second best asset.

Before investing times and money in training, it is better to start asking what skills you possess because you do not need to be trained for those. It might well be that you only need a refresher course or a complement. Good and recognized training organizations will evaluate your needs, taking the skills you own into account, usually for free.  If this is not the case, well, that should sound a ring !

Over and above, your skills can be applied to other trades. If those trades appeal to you, this will shorten your training period. And you have to know that one of the largest investment in training in a developed economy is usually done on the job, not on a chair.

In all those cases, there are resources, people who can help you. Do not hesitate.