The latest unemployment data, giving effective feedback, and a colorful parachute

How is your 2025 going so far?

Hard to believe we are pretty much a whole month into 2025. I still feel like I’m saying “Happy New Year!” all the time.

Hope it’s started well for you!

Whether it has or not, you can still intentionally create more opportunities and possibilities for yourself as you continue forward. 

So today, we’re sharing some information that might be helpful.

We get a bit analytical, sharing the latest data on the job market. 

We also share some impactful ways you can shift your approach to giving feedback.

And, lastly, a great book that can help you change how you see your approach to job searching.

No matter what you’re looking for, thanks for being here as you seek to grow your engineering career!

In today’s newsletter:

• Official unemployment data

• Need to give feedback? Do this first

• Highly recommended book on job searching

• Hot jobs

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MUST-READ

What’s the Unemployment Situation?

Sometimes we can have a tendency to hear news about huge layoffs or anecdotes about people being unemployed for long periods of time.

And while we can have empathy for those experiencing challenging circumstances, let’s step back and look at the overall data to get the real story.

Every month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics gives an updated report.

In the report released earlier this month looking at the end of 2024, there wasn’t a lot of significant change recently, but it’s interesting to look at some of the overall patterns. Here are a few highlights. 

• The unemployment rate is at 4.1%, and it’s been holding in that range for the last 7 months. 

• The number of long-term unemployed (people jobless for 27 weeks or more) is at 1.6 million people, up 278,000 from a year earlier. That accounts for 22.4% of all unemployed people.

• 4.4 million people are employed part-time for economic reasons. They would prefer full-time work, but hours have been reduced, or they can’t find full-time jobs. 

• In addition to the 6.9 million people accounted as unemployed, there are another 5.5 million specified as not in the labor force who currently want a job, but aren’t counted as unemployed because they didn’t actively look for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Looking at the data, it’s interesting to me to see the longer-term trends. Yes, there is more long-term unemployment, which is sad to see. But things aren’t tanking on a large scale.

There are opportunities if you’re ready and willing to set yourself apart to receive them!

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CAREER TIPS

The Key to Giving Important Feedback

"Feedback is a free education to excellence. Seek it with sincerity and receive it with grace" - Ann Marie Houghtailing

I hear it all the time from engineering leaders - delivering feedback effectively is something they find challenging. In many cases, they go so far as to avoid these situations because they fear that if they offer input, it would come out negatively, they might offend someone, or they might even hurt a relationship.

Avoiding it because you are uncomfortable is never the answer.

But can science shed some light on how we can do this a bit better?

One of Isaac Newton’s laws of motion states that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Think about that in relation to feedback. 

One of the most important factors in delivering effective feedback is creating an environment that is open and safe. People you need to share difficult truths with aren't always ready to hear it. In fact, sometimes, when we take action and go directly to sharing difficult feedback (action), they react defensively.

Instead, we can first take action to open up the dialogue about ourselves. We can suggest that there are ways we can do better as leaders, and ask for more feedback. This action will create a more open space in the conversation, inviting the other person to react more favorably to receiving feedback.

When we provide feedback, we can do well to enhance the environment where people will be receptive to it, increasing the likelihood that it will be received positively.

 HOT JOBS OF THE WEEK

> Software Engineer - DevOps Engineer
> Senior IT Network Engineer
> Cloud Engineer
> Lead Database Engineer

📚 BOOK RECOMMENDATION

What Color Is Your Parachute?: Your Guide to a Lifetime of Meaningful Work and Career Success by Richard N. Bolles

Whether searching for that first position, recovering from a layoff, or dreaming of a career change, What Color Is Your Parachute? has shown millions of readers how to network effectively, compose impressive resumes and cover letters, interview with confidence, and negotiate the best possible salary—while discovering how to make their livelihood part of authentic living.

More than a job-hunting book, Richard N. Bolles’s timeless wisdom and famed self-assessment exercise clarify seven key dimensions so you can uncover your greatest passions, most valued traits, and transferable skills to design a life that enables you to flourish. 

With the job market in constant flux, people everywhere have found that understanding who they are—what they care about, where and how they do their best work, and the most effective way to express their abilities—is the best compass to navigating an ever-changing and challenging professional landscape. It is also how their work can become part of a life filled with passion and purpose.

Using the trailblazing advice and enduring guidance of What Color Is Your Parachute?, job-hunters and career changers will have the tools to discover—and land—the work and life most meaningful to them.