Seek the flip side of unemployment – who’s hiring in your market?

By Rosland Gammon on Jun 29, 2011 in Basics, Best Practices, Economy, Featured, Rosland Gammon

This job fair took place in May 2011 in Honolulu. The photo was taken by Flickr user jdnx.

Joe Cogliano of the Dayton Business Journal heard rumors that local companies were starting to hire and saw some job announcements in the midst of all the unemployment news. He decided to pull all the “Help Wanted” pieces together for a Jobs Report, which recently won a Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists award.

To get the data, the paper sent out research surveys to see which companies were hiring. It also compiled the public announcements and checked online job postings. The result: a searchable database of 1,400 job openings at 46 companies in the area.

Today’s Tip: Look for the bright spots.

Or, as Philadelphia Inquirer Editor Gene Roberts used to say, “Zig when others zag.” Joe found his story by looking for those companies that were hiring in the midst of high unemployment.

“You really have to spot those trends, then sell them to your editor,” Joe says, adding you can sell them on being the first to tell the story.

Pieces like this also can score big points with job seekers.

Joe Cogliano