Business Week’s Michael Mandel crunches the numbers and turns up some disturbing results. While recession has hit hardest at blue-collar workers, it is taking its toll on professional jobs as well. Unemployment for professionals overall increased by roughly four percent between August 2008 and April 2009. But the recession is hitting much harder at certain types of professionals. Computing and mathematical jobs (heavy on software engineers, computer scientists, and systems analysts) are down 9.3 percent; engineering and architectural jobs (two-thirds engineering) are down 10.3 percent; and “creative professional” jobs – working artists, musicians, dancers, entertainers, reporters, editors, writers, and other media types – are down 11.3 percent.
May 20th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
This data is also available at the local level, if you want to run the numbers for your own region. Contact your local workforce development board or state workforce agency and ask about the availability of data on unemployment insurance (UI) claimants. We recently used that data to look at educational attainment, race/ethnicity, and occupations of people filing for UI since the start of the recession here in Austin, TX. UI doesn’t cover all workers (e.g., self-employed), but you will be able to track the majority of the workforce in most places.