"Tom Ruff Company understands the nuances of hiring, and I can always trust that they are recommending top talent."
Ron Honeycutt, Jr.
Director of Sales, Southwest
Boston Scientific Endoscopy
Join Our Mailing List
Strongest jobs recovery in decades. Seriously
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A jobless recovery? Hardly.
By historical standards, the labor market is recovering nicely -- job growth has started earlier than in past recessions.
But the unemployment problem isn't going away. An especially tough recession has raised the bar on the amount of job growth needed to recover, magnifying the pain of the struggling labor market.
"If you had a severe recession, you tend to have a strong recovery," said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics. "So far that hasn't happened."
The unemployment rate hit a high-water mark of 10.1% in October 2009 and has since fallen to 9.5%. Payrolls began growing in November and, excluding the impact of temporary census jobs, the economy has added jobs every month since January.
That's a much quicker peak than previous job market recoveries.
After the 1990-91 recession ended, the economy lost nearly 300,000 additional jobs in the 11 months that followed. And the 2001 recession was followed by a so-called jobless recovery that lasted for nearly two more years.
"Sustained, positive job formation began earlier in this recovery than in the prior two recoveries," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute.
But today's economy is different. The problem is that the damage done during the Great Recession was so severe, it will take a lot more growth than normal to dig the job market out of its hole.
There were 8.4 million jobs lost in 2008 and 2009 -- roughly 7% of all jobs at the start of the recession. That compares to a loss of 3.1% of all jobs during the 2001 recession and the jobless recovery that followed, and only 1.9% of jobs lost during and after the 1990-91 recession.
And there are concerns about the fact that job growth has slowed dramatically from the spring of this year when employers were adding about 200,000 workers a month to payrolls. Even at that pace of hiring, it would take more than three years to get jobs back to pre-recession levels.
Right now, it's not even close. Overall payrolls, excluding the temporary boost from census jobs, have increased by an average of just 12,000 jobs a month over the last three months.
And as the government prepares to release its August jobs report on Friday, economists, employers and job seekers are all watching with bated breath.
Brusca said given the fact that job losses took place throughout 2008 and 2009, it's still too soon to conclude whether the recovery is going to come up short. He's still hoping growth picks up in the fall as businesses start to gear up for the holiday shopping period.
"The summer is not the time you want to be taking the temperature of the economy," he said. "Come September and October, if the data is still weak, I'll sing a different song."
But the weaker numbers of late have sparked fears that the nascent jobs recovery could stall out and the economy could topple into a double-dip recession.
Heidi Shierholz, labor economist for the Economic Policy Institute, thinks another shot of stimulus spending by the federal government is called for in order to avoid more job losses.
"We owe the growth we have seen to the measures that the Fed and Congress took in early 2009," she said. "It's great to put the brakes on the jobs losses of last year, but we need to do more."
Covidien to Pay $2.6 Billion for Device Maker Ev3 (Update4)
June 1 (Bloomberg) - Covidien Plc, the medical-equipment company spun off from Tyco International Ltd., agreed to buy ev3 Inc. for $2.6 billion to add products for heart disease.
Covidien will pay $22.50 a share in cash for Plymouth, Minnesota-based ev3, the companies said in a statement today. Dublin-based Covidien is paying 19 percent more than the May 28 closing price for ev3’s stock.
The acquisition will add ev3’s stents, angioplasty balloons, plaque removal systems, and catheters to treat disease of the arteries to Covidien’s product range, which specializes in staples, suture needles, wound care, scalpels and products used in surgery. The deal will give Covidien a bigger stake in the vascular surgery market, said Covidien Chief Executive Officer Richard Meelia in a conference call.
“Ev3 significantly expands our presence in the $3 billion peripheral vascular market and gives us a strong entry point into the $1 billion neurovascular market,” said Meelia. “As there is virtually no product overlap we foresee a very straight forward integration plan.”
Covidien fell $1.15, or 2.7 percent, to $41.24 at 4:03 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ev3 rose $3.30, or 17 percent, to $22.22. Ev3’s shares have increased 67 percent this year.
Meelia has been making acquisitions and divestitures since Covidien separated from Tyco in 2007 as he tries to reshape the company. In May, Covidien said it would sell its specialty chemicals business for $280 million after paying $485 million last year for Vnus Medical Technologies.
Acquisition Talks
Covidien had been following ev3 for more than a year and acquisition talks began several months ago, Meelia said. The bidding was competitive, he said.
“We will continue to look at deals in other areas that have the right kind of returns for us and add value,” Meelia said in a conference call.
The transaction is expected to be completed by July 31, the companies said. Ev3’s directors and officers plan to tender their shares, according to the statement. Warburg Pincus Equity Partners LP, which owns 24 percent of ev3, supports the deal, the companies said.
The purchase will reduce Covidien’s earnings per share this year and next, according to the statement.
Covidien said it has no plans to move any of ev3’s operations out of Minnesota. Ev3 had 1,350 employees at the end of 2009.
How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales: A Headhunter's Strategy
Monday - 4/5/2010 Tom Ruff's book "How to Break Into Pharmaceutical Sales: A Headhunter's Strategy" was just published in Turkey. Congratulations Tom on the success of your book.
Sidney Bateman speaks at Boise State University on Interviewing Techniques: The Blueprint
Tuesday - 3/2/2010, Hatch A, Student Union Building The Interviewing Blueprint and The Employer’s perspective. What are employers doing to weed through large numbers of candidates? How do they use social networking sites and what can you do to ensure you are making the cut? Take the stress out of interviewing; learn how to develop a quick and easy blueprint that will provide a strategy for every interviewing situation.
BusinessWeek: When Recovery Comes, Early Job Growth Will Be in Health Care
July 20, 2009 - HEALTH CARE
If any industry represents a bright spot in an otherwise dismal economy, it’s health care. With baby boomers aging and health-care reform in the air, this industry is expected to be the largest single source of U.S. job growth through 2016, according to a new report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
There is an old saying from Mark Twain: if you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you read the newspaper you are misinformed. Our problem today is we have too much information – and too little time. So where do we get fresh intelligence about the challenges of today’s job market? If you are a pharmaceutical or a medical sales professional you have unique challenges in this regard. Walk into an interview unprepared – or send out your resume without knowing the following – at your own peril.
I wanted to know the latest information candidates (pharmaceutical or medical) need to know to be competitive in their job search, so I went to recruiter and author, Tom Ruff. My question was: what are the 3 things you’d want every candidate to know in today’s job market?
The Bob Salter Radio Program In New York - Interview with Tom Ruff: Tools & Tips for Interviewing Success in Current Market & Tom's Book. WXRK 92.3 FM Listen Live: www.923now.com
