Jobfox Report Shows Reduced Salary Expecations Among Candidates in 2008

By Barry Lawrence On Friday, Jobfox will release its Jobfox Most Wanted U.S. Job Candidates: August 2008 report. Lucky you, you get to see it here first. The Top 25 professions remain fairly stable. However, Medical Administrative Services and Procurement are new to the list comnpared to July's top 25. Falling out of the Top 25, from July to August, were Advertising and Product Management. Perhaps there are tough times ahead for marketing gurus? What's unique about Jobfox's August report is a five-month snapshot of median desired salary range expectations among job seekers. In addition to creating job loss fears, the Jobfox report indicates that the weakened U.S. economy is casting a shadow on the psyches of job candidates and how aggressively they bargain for new starting salaries. Of the 25 most in-demand professions analyzed by Jobfox:

♦ None had increasing salary range expectations among job candidates over a period from March to July, 2008. ♦ Sixteen of the 25 professions (64 percent) recorded flat job seeker salary expectations. ♦ Nine professions (36 percent) recorded decreasing salary expectations over the five-month period.

Barry Lawrence is the community advocate for BetterMondays. He is also a career and public relations evangelist at Jobfox.

 

Jen Says . . . Be a Good Cube Mate

By Jennifer Brown

 

Your job, like any social setting, is a mixing bowl of habits. If you are lucky (like me) you end up in an enjoyable environment. Your officemates possess positive attitudes and good work standards. We all hope to land a job of this nature.

 

But the bitter reality is that some cubicles are too closely quartered to not-so-cordial neighbors. Day in and day out, you are forced to bump heads with Co-WorkZilla, the epitome of clashing habits.

 

Here’s my list of the Top 5 Aggravating Office No Nos.

 

1)   Hygiene Hater. Picture the smell of spoiled milk, stinky feet and burnt cigarettes.  This person probably does not bathe on a regular basis and they certainly don’t do laundry. What wafts through the air and crinkles all noses is the cheap cologne or perfume feverously sprayed in an attempt to hide their filth. All I have to say is Gross!

 

2)   Screeching Speakers. This person seems to have a phobia of a phone actually touching their ear. Each call received is broadcasted across the office – including non-work-related content. No, we do not care what Aunt Sally had for breakfast!

 

3)   Obnoxious Oral Fixations. This is the person that always has something in their mouth, usually gum. Thus constant smacking and sucking noises. I’d rather be barned up with cows.

 

4)  Nervous Pen Action. What starts out as simply popping the tip out to write memos turns into a clicking catastrophe. “Up, down, up, down click, click, click.”  Is Chinese torture next chair over?

 

5)   Drunk or Hungover. Boozing it up on the job is tacky and downright stupid. The slurs and stumbling alone are enough to make the company appear sloppy. And no one wants to hear the moaning about a “killer” headache.

 

Hopefully, these office offenders will read my list and shape-up. Unfortunately, it’s more likely that society will build a Utopian workforce which will involve sitting in a circle singing KumBaYa.    

 

In any case, not all habits are bad. But we can certainly create a more peaceful work atmosphere if we consider the thoughts of others.

 

Please comment or send us your cube-mate nightmares to share. Send to jbrown(at)jobfox(dot)com and BetterMondays will publish the best ones. Names will be changed to protect the innocent.

 

For some additional thoughts on bad cube mates, see Working Stiff.

 

Jennifer Brown is a voice of Gen Y and a career advocate at Jobfox.