“How is the Plastic Manufacturing Job Market?” remains the primary question I am asked by candidates looking for positions in the Plastics Industry.  In June, 2009, I took a stab at answering this question but since over three months have elapsed since I last answered this question, I thought it might be time to respond to “How is the Plastic Manufacturing Job Market?” question again.

In my role as a Third Party Recruiter (Headhunter) to the Plastics Industry, I have been talking to many plastic manufacturing companies about their current hiring/downsizing plans.  The good news is that most of the companies report they have completed their downsizing.  The bad news is that the same companies do not plan to do any hiring for three to six months because they are still waiting to see where the economy is heading. 

Unfortunately, many of the financial experts on CNBC believe that the economic recovery is going to be a “jobless recovery”.  I fail to see how we can have a “jobless recovery” because if the American consumer is setting on his or her wallet, where is the recovery going to come from?  I don’t see how selling hamburgers and life insurance policies to each other is going to take us out of this recession/depression.  Having said that, I have seen hiring in the Plastics Industry picking up ever so slightly.  The hiring is due to fill key positions where the individual has retired, died or left the company for personal reasons.  I have also seen some back-filling of positions when individuals were downsized (sometimes corporate speak of cleaning out deadwood) and the company finds that they need someone in the position.

Overall, I believe the job market is getting better but it is still probably to early to start dancing in the street.

Our company was asked to provide input on a couple of questions by one of the Editors of a well known plastics magazine because he is going to interviewed at the 2009 NPE Show.  Since, I don’t really expect our answers to the questions to be published, I thought I would share them with the readers of this blog.

a)    Is it a good time to embark on a plastics career? and

b)    What are the areas of job growth in the plastics industry?

One of the best reasons to embark on a plastics career is that plastics will continue playing a large role in our lives. Existing uses of plastics will continue to expand as companies seek to extend product reliability, reduce component weight, and improve energy efficiency. Meanwhile, new use for plastics will grow as emerging technologies, such as nanomaterials and biopolymers, create new applications for plastic materials.

Unfortunately for United States manufacturers, domestic labor costs and the recent economic downturn have driven much of the traditional plastics business overseas. As a result, many plastic manufacturing and molding companies have been forced to cut their staffs in recent years. Nonetheless, job growth in the United States based plastics industry will eventually rebound as novel uses of plastics materials and innovative approaches to plastic processing are developed. Economic growth will follow as designers find new ways to utilize the ever-increasing capabilities of plastics into everyday products.

When plastic manufacturing picks up, even modestly, companies will once again add technical and management personnel. However, they will be looking for employees who are familiar with recent developments in plastics manufacturing. In an effort to stay small and nimble, plastics companies will seek out individuals who can wear a great many hats and feel very comfortable doing so. They will need people who can work closely with customers, possibly working on the customer’s factory floor to develop new products and manufacturing methods. By embarking on a plastics career now, you will be ready when the economy turns around. This pattern has repeated itself in the past, and there is no reason to believe that it won’t happen again.

A plastics engineer must have strong expertise in equipment operation and die design, and must possess a strong knowledge of plastic materials. There is less time available for individuals to develop technical expertise through on-the-job-training, so attending a college or university with recognized technical training in plastics is more important than ever.

Highly creative thinkers are needed who can take two or more seemingly unrelated ideas and blend them into a new product or process. Perhaps you can envision a disposable scalpel that fits comfortably in a surgeon’s hand and is still inexpensive enough to be thrown away after use. How about an automobile hood that reduces vehicle weight while acting as a solar panel?

The point is that the plastics industry needs new product ideas and manufacturing methods more than ever.

In spite of the current slowdown in manufacturing, this is definitely a good time to embark on a plastics career. Many of the people downsized in the plastics industry over recent years will not be returning.  They will have changed careers or retired. Some will have started new plastics businesses, thus creating more openings. The plastics industry is constantly growing and changing, thus providing challenges that you may find quite rewarding. Now is the time to prepare for the next wave of advances in plastics manufacturing.

As bad as the economy is at the moment, there must be more to life than toys, travel, newer cars, and larger homes.  As Viktor Frankl, who wrote, Man’s Search For Meaning, stated a half a century ago,

People have enough to live, but nothing to live for, they have the means but not meaning.

I know this may not mean much to many people who are out of work and watching their retirement savings dwindling but most of us will make it through this economic crisis and many of us will be the better for it.   As Fredrich Nietzche once said,

That which does not kill us makes us stronger

As a third party recruiter working in the plastics industry, I know it is very difficult, if not nearly impossible, for individuals that are out of work find employment but I believe there will be improvement in job market fairly soon.  Even though there are few companies hiring now, I still come to work every morning and work at least 8 hours because when the job market opens up, I believe there will be many opportunities. 

As that famous philosopher, Bill Clinton once stated, “I feel your pain”.  I continue to talk with, and add candidates to my data base because I want to be in a position to help as many people as I can when the job market improves.  Hang in there just a little longer.   Keep sending out those resumes, network with everyone you can, and keep returning recruiter telephone calls.

I just read an article by the self proclaimed largest Job Search Board, providing ten reasons a job seeker may not be able to find a job.  I totally agree with the first reason, which was, the job seeker may not be networking enough.  The other nine reasons dealt primarily with not utilizing the aforementioned job board properly.  Since using job boards to find jobs, is not regarded as one of the top job search methods, I am going to discuss networking further.

Networking with established contacts is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to find a job.  I was at a church service one Sunday, a few years ago, and overheard one church member tell another he had lost his job.  The other church member said he could use someone like him in his business and hired him the following week.  Serendipity rarely happens to this extent but if an individual is out of work and does not let anyone know it will never happen.  For the most part, people do want to help other people as long as they are not put on the spot. 

No mention was made in the job board article on finding a job about using social networks such as LinkedIn.  According to the author of LinkedIn for DUMMIES, Joel Elad, “Currently 130,000 recruiters are members of LinkedIn, constantly using the search functions to go through the database and find skilled members that match their job search requirements”.  He goes on to say, “Instead of companies paying big money for resume books, they now have tens of millions of qualified professionals, each of which has a detailed profile with skills, experience and recommendations already available”.   LinkedIn is an obvious social networking choice for Professionals seeking work because it is targeted to Professionals, but other social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, etc. are being used by recruiters to find candidates.  Some recruiters are even trying to use Twitter to find candidates but the jury is still out on how effective a tool Twitter will be for recruiters.

Since I am a Third Party Recruiter (Headhunter), I would be remiss if I did not recommend networking with Third Party Recruiters.  Very often Third Party Recruiters have access to positions that are not posted on Job Boards, Company Web Sites, or Newspapers because Human Resource Recruiters know that they would be so inundated with resumes that they would be overwhelmed.  Networking with headhunters involves more than sending a resume to a third party recruiter and then disappearing.  Networking with a third party recruiter should at least include answering the telephone when recuiters call.  Recruiter networking should also include follow up every few weeks.  Not including headhunters in the job search process will result in the loss of a valuable resource.   I recommend using third party recruiters that specialize placing job seekers in the industry or services area where the job seeker wants to work.  If a definite geographic location is desired, working with recruiters who recruit for a specific region is also a good idea.

There are many job seeking tools available and they all should be used in this very tough market but networking should not be overlooked, or under utilized, in favor of easier job search methods, such as, placing a resume on a Job Board and waiting by the telephone for the job offers to roll in.

I am a Third Party Technical Recruiter who likes to feel that I am a friend of any job seeker who asks for my help to find them a new position, or responds to my postings at various job posting sites on the Internet.  However, in this rather difficult economy so many of us are going through, I believe a large percentage of job seekers see me and my compatriots as foes.  The main reason for much of the present friction between third party recruiters (headhunters) and job seekers is that every job opportunity is very important to the job seeker, and this creates a lot of anxiety and a desire to lash out at anyone who stands in the way of them getting the job.  The other major reason for the friction between job seekers and third party recruiters is that the job seeker does not really understand the role of the Headhunter in the hiring process, and that is what I want to address in this blog.

1. Headhunters do not create jobs, we merely fill them.  This sounds very basic but many job seekers feel that after they submit their resume to a recruiter, the recruiter should contact them within a week or two with positions that might be of interest to them.  The truth is, sadly, that even in a good economic times a typical recruiter only places about 5% of the job seekers they receive resumes from.  There are a lot of reasons for that low percentage, which is not a reflection of job seeker quality or headhunter skill, it just is.  I will deal with this topic in a future blog.
2. Third Party Recruiters (Contingency or Retained) work for the company that contracts with them or hires them to fill an open position.  This means that the hiring company is the boss and the recruiter must supply only candidates that fit the company’s criteria.  To do otherwise will result in the headhunter losing the client company’s confidence in them at the least, and possibly losing the company as a client.
3. Headhunters are given criteria by their client company that job seekers must meet, and if the job seeker’s resume does not demonstrate the required experience and training, the company will reject the resume.  Gone are the days when a recruiter could pitch a candidate to the client company just because he or she is an exceptional individual with exceptional education.
4. The third party recruiter does not work for the job seeker.  If I could guarantee a position for every job seeker that contacts me, I would be charging the candidates and not billing companies.  Headhunters do, occasionally, market exceptional candidates into companies, but this is very time consuming, and in an era where most companies are not hiring, and job seekers post their resumes to several job boards before even contacting a recruiter, marketing job seekers into companies can be very frustrating.
5. If a job seeker responds to one of my postings, I like to let them know that they are, or are not, being considered for the position.   Sometimes this elicts a rather negative response from the job seeker who is not being considered for the position.   The negative response is often due to their perception that they should be considered for the position because they are an exceptional individual, even though they do not meet the company’s experience and/or educational requirements.  Again, the headhunter works for the company and does not have the option of presenting individuals who do not meet their client company’s job requirements.
6. Many job seekers believe that the only job the headhunter has is to send all the resumes they receive directly to their client companies.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Most Human Resources Managers and Department Managers are short staffed and over worked these days.  One of the main reasons companies hire third party recruits is to reduce their manager’s work load.   Out of the 200 or so resumes I receive in reponse to postings on the Internet, in magazines, or my web site (www.discoverypersonnel.com), only about a half dozen of the resumes are sent to the client company, and then only after I, or someone in my office, talks to the job seeker at great length about the position, their skills, job requirements, etc.
7. Sometimes job seekers have some or all of the criterial the hiring company wants but they make no, or a cursory, effort to present this experience in their resumes.   I know this to be the case because, sometimes when I send an e-mail to a job seeker saying they lack the experience the client company wants, I get a response back saying they have the requisite experience or degree but they did not have room on the resume to include that rather significant piece of information.  I could almost understand not updating resumes to reflect job related experience if candidates were still using typewriters, with no memory, to prepare resumes but, with word processing available to almost everyone, why would a serious job seeker not revise their resumes to show their job related experience?
8. Recruiters (both headhunter and company) are not mind readers.  If the key words that are provided in the job description are not included somewhere in the resume, or on a cover letter (on the resume is preferable), the recruiter will reject the resume.  Time is money to a recruiter, at the end of the day selling their time and experience is all they have to offer.  Trying to contact everyone who submits a resume for a position is not practical and will lead to the recruiter going out of business very quickly.
9. Many recruiters (both third party and company) do not respond to job seekers who submit resumes, and I talk to a lot of job seekers who are very upset by this.  I do try to respond to everyone who sends me a resume but it is very time consuming, and the time spent responding to someone who sent a resume for a Custom Plastics National Sales Manager position, but whose only experience is selling lawn services, might be put to better use.  If you are responding to a job posting but you do not have at least some of the requisite job skills, please, do not waste your’s and the headhunter’s time by submitting your resume for a job in Florida and you just because you want to move to Florida.

There is much more I would like to write on this topic but I am a recruiter and both time and money are very tight at this point in time, so I must return to running my business.  I hope I have been able to clear up some misconceptions about headhunters and that this blog will proactively reduce some headhunter/job seeker frustration.

How is the job market?, or some form of that question is the most common question I am asked when talking to people looking for work in the plastics industry.  The following information form the Federal Government might provide an answer to that question:

On April 2, 2009, the Labor Department reported that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 669,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 657,000. That total was (as it always is) above analysts’ expectations and the highest in more than 26 years.

Laid-off workers claiming benefits for more than a week rose 161,000 to 5.73 million, setting a record for the 10th straight week. This indicates that unemployed workers are having difficulty finding new jobs.

In my role as a Third Party Technicial Recruiter for the Plastics Industry, I can attest to unemployed workers having difficulty finding new jobs, and if the government manages to let GM, Ford, and Chrysler disappear, it is only going to get worse.   But suprisingly, I am seeing more offer turn downs by unemployed job seekers than I have seen in many years.  Some of the reasons for the rejection of employment offers are:

• I don’t think I can sell my house without taking a loss on it (a common comment from people living in Michigan).
• The job does not pay as much as my old job, so I cannot take the new position even though I am out of work (they usually express optimism that something better will come along).
• I can almost make as much on unemployment as the company is willing to pay (in spite of the fact that the company has expressed a willingness to in increase the pay once the individual proves him or herself).
• My children are happy at their school or my daughter/son is a Junior in High School.
• My parents are old, so I cannot leave them and relocate.
• I can sell out of a home office so why should I relocate?
• God told me not to take the position (a suprising frequent response to a job offer but no one has ever told me that the Devil told them not to take the job).
• I found a job locally (usually two hours after receiving the offer, so the job market must not be as tight as the Labor Department is indicating).
• My wife, husband, or significant other said he, she or it are not relocating.

I am sure that these reasons for not accepting a job offer a very valid (I am not about to argue with God) but some of the  reasons behind turning down a valid job offer elude me. 

1. Not taking a job because it does not pay much more that unemployment seems rather short sighted.   I think the unemployed are getting use to having the unemployment payments extended but eventually the extensions will have to stop (when no one has a job and companies no are no longer paying unemployment insurance payments or the Republicans take back Congress).  It seems that Congress is helping to foster unemployment and add to the “entitlement” programs.
2. Not relocating because money will be lost on the home seems equally short sighted.  What good does it do to hold on to a house when you cannot afford to make the mortgage payments.  I know many people hope that  a job opening will turn up in Detroit,  MI but as President Obama has already stated, “These automotive jobs are going  boys and they ain’t coming back,” or maybe that was Bruce Springfield, I get the two confused.
3. Why does the job seeker wait until the job offer is in hand before the spouse or significant other decides they will not relocate?  Shouldn’t the relocation possibility been addressed before pursuing the job, wasting every one’s time and money?
4. Not taking a job because the new job does not pay as much as the old job really confuses me.  I hate to be the harbinger of bad news but most of us will be making less money than we use to because we are now competitingin a World market that is lowering worker wages while conversely lowering product costs.   Part of the reason wages a dropping in the United States is because the US Automotive Industry kept wages at an artificially high level while losing billions of dollars.  With artificially high automotive wages ending, wages will decrease in the companies supplying GM, Ford and Chrysler, and then the companies supplying the suppliers, etc.   Just because you made $160,000 per year at your last job or $35.00 per hour at last job does not mean you are going to find another job in the near and probably distant future that pays that well.  And don’t even get me started about matching 401k’s and medical benefits.

These are just a few things to consider before you start your job search and believe me there are many, many more.  Stay tuned.

Before starting my latest tirade about how both white and blue color workers’ belief that their wages should be constantly going up in today’s labor market is not realistic, I would like to reestablish my credentials.

Before becoming a Technical Recruiter at Discovery Personnel, Inc., I worked primarily as an engineer manager in the Medical Industry for 25 years.  I have an MBA from the University of Dayton and a BS ME from Purdue.  I have now been a technical recruiter for over 10 years, recruiting primarily for the Plastics Industry.  During most of my career, conventional wisdom said that every time an engineer or manager changed jobs, he or she should get a 10 to 20 percent increase in salary and that held pretty much true during my career.

In my second career, as a Technical Recruiter,  I have seen major shifts in the labor market due to globalization.  The percent loss of jobs in the Plastics and Rubber Industry alone from 1995 through 2005 is about 12%.  Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, in Der Spiegel Spec. Int. Ed. 7, 2005.  I am sure the job loss percentage in the plastics industry has increased even more over the last couple of years. 

Obviously,  The Boss (a.k.a. Bruce Springsteen) is just as correct today as he was in 1985 when he sang about the steel mills, “The foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back.”   Assuming The Boss is correct, and who I am I to argue with The Boss, why do a large percentage of the downsized plastic industry job seekers expect a salary, or hourly rate, increase when looking for a new job? 

I am currently reading The Entrepreneurial Society, By David B. Audretsch.  On page 87, Mr. Audretsch states:

Perhaps the iron law of globalization will  inevitably force wages down in the developed countries toward the lowest common denominator found on the globe.  Certainly, if you ask the textile worker or auto workers in the United States who are still lucky enough to to have jobs, they will no doubt enthusiastically endorse the validity, if not virtue of the iron law of globalization.  Their wages, in real terms, have been diminishing steadily for decades now.

It should be pointed out theat David B. Audretsch is an award winning economist and a director at the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Germany and professor at Indiana University.  Who am I to argue with David Audretsch? 

Why then do I upset injection molding machine set up technicians when I tell them they are more likely to see a pay decrease, instead of an increase, when they get their next job?  Most people like to believe they are special, and some are, but most are not and I believe that is one reason they have unrealistic expectations.  Another reason is that in a society where people are taught to believe they should see the glass is half full instead of half empty, many people have trouble facing reality.  

A small percentage of job seekers will actually see increases in their salaries because of their education that makes them a rarer commodity.  Companies are lining up to hire graduates from colleges that train plastics or polymer engineers.  They are in demand because so few students today want to work in manufacturing.  Why work hard in manufacturing when you can make ten times as much money managing a hedge fund? but, as usual, I digress.  Unfortunately, these individuals are few a far between. 

Plastics engineers, who have worked for one of the automotive suppliers for twenty years and do not have a degree are going to make less money, not more when they are downsized or they are going to remain unemployed.  This just a cold hard fact.  The reason engineers are being downsized is because globalization has made it difficult, if not impossible, to compete effectively, and a new employer will almost be forced to offer less money. 

Skilled laborers, such as machinists, are finding the job loss/pay reduction even more difficult to accept.  Machinists are very intelligent people who once had very rare skills.  Fifteen years ago, I remember seeing big signs in front of machine shops offering signing bonuses and vacations along with the potential to reach a six figure salary with overtime.  Those days a long gone when a machinist in China or India is being paid one tenth as much (China and India are now outsourcing work to countries with even lower wage rates).   Most machinists I talk with conceptually understand the effects of globalization but they still refuse to work for lower wages believing something will change or the government will help them.  Unfortunately there is little the government can do except offer retraining or the extension of unemployment insurance payments. 

I say all of this to implore job seekers not to kill the messenger when the poor Technical Recruiter has to provide a reality check.  If you have been downsized, there may be a job out there for you but probably not paying what you are use to making and it is only going to get worse. 

Brains not brawn will be required to achieve an acceptable standard of living in the future, in the developed countries.  Good luck, or God speed, because most of us are going to need it.

A Recruiting Industry Trainer/Writer recently published “WEEDLE’s Annual Source of Employment Survey” which can be read in its entirety at www. weedles.com.  Since most job seekers are not familiar with Peter Weedle’s work, I decided to take an excerpt from his 2008 Employment Survey and share it with Job Hunter’s Journal readers and provide some of my own insights.  Of the 15,600 survey respondents, 65% were male, 35% female and the median age was 40 to 45 years.

When asked to identify where they found their last job, the respondents listed the following sources as their to ten (not all sources are listed so the percentages will not total to 100%):

• 13.3% – An ad posted on an Internet job board
• 7.0% – A tip from a friend
• 6.8% – Other
• 6.3% – A newspaper ad
• 6.2 – They posted their resume on a job board
• 6.0% – A call from a headhunter
• 5.8% – They were referred by an employee of the company
• 5.2% – They sent a resume to the company
• 4.9% – At a career fair
• 4.8% – By networking at work.

How do these findings compare to those of a year ago?

An ad posted on an Internet job board was the highest ranked source last year, as well, but the percentage of respondents citing this source has almost doubled; it was 7.6% in 2007 compared to 13.3% in 2008.  A tip from a friend was the second most cited source in 2007, as it was this year, but the third and fourth most cited sources in 2007-career fairs and a call from a headhunter both dropped a bit in the rankings.  Newspapers, on the other hand, gained a notch, moving from the fifth most cited source in 2007 to the fourth most cited source in 2008, and the percentage of respondents citing newspapers went up, as well (from 5.7% in 2007 to 6.3% in 2008).

What else did the survey uncover?

Respondents gave a thumbs-down to two sources of employment that have generall been viewed mre favorably by recruiters.  Just 3.9% of the individuals in the poll said they found their last job:

• through the publication of their professional association
  or
• on a social networking site.

I believe the reported findings are somewhat misleading and that Third Party Recruiters (Headhunters) account for a much larger percentage of the placements than the survey would indicate:

• The percentage of jobs found through “An ad posted on an Interent job board” (13.3% ) is highly misleading because a majority of the posting are by Headhunters and the placements are due to their efforts
• The 6.2% ”They posted their resume on a job board” is also misleading because most job seekers that post their resume tell me nothing happens until a Third Party Recruiter contacts them and places them with the Headhunter’s client company
•  At least half of all newspaper/magazine ads (6.2%) are placed by Headhunters who are directly responsible for the job seeker’s placement. 

If only 50% of the ad posting responses and resume job posting placements are due to Headhunter efforts the “A call from a headhunter” percentage would lead the the list at 18.9%.  Just food for thought when starting a job search.

Overall, the main lesson that can be taken from this survey is that there are many ways to skin this job search cat (sorry PETA) and the savvy job seeker will utilize as many of these methods as possible.

The Future of Plastics Sales? – NO MORE WILLY LOMANS

Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman in The Death Of A Salesman has always defined what is a salesperson for me, possibly because I am an engineer by training and never truely understood salespeople.  Willy Loman always worked very hard creating relationships with everyone from the receptionist to the Chief Executive Officer.  I doubt that Willy would have understood that what he really did was reduce friction in the sales process, even though he believed creating relationships was what he was all about.  Through Willy’s sales efforts, he was able to bring together people who needed whatever product  he was selling at the time with people wanting to purchase that product or something very similar.  What he really got paid to do was simply to find a buyer and seller and reduce the friction in the selling process. 

Willy would be shocked today to find out that sales relationships are not nearly as important today as they were in his era.  The flattening world and the Internet have taken much of the friction out of the sales process.  Buyers can look up the price of copper, coffee, plastic resins, paper bags, etc. on the Internet and get a very good price if not the very best price.  Getting the very best price or product value still may require some help and that is where the salesperson of today enters the fray. 

In my capacity as a Third Party Recruiter for the Plastics Industry, I have several clients who are looking to sell plastic bags, plastic resins, plastic colorants, etc.  The companies are all struggling to find the salespeople they need.  Part of the reason for the paucity of sales candidates is money.  If you are not a salesperson, you must understand that money is very, very important to salespeople.  Salespeople often depend on money to help establish their self worth.  Taking a new sales position with less base pay may have little affect on them financially, especially if they can make up the money through commissions, but the lower base salary may impact the salesperson’s self worth.  Let’s face it, scientists and engineers usually determine their self worth by unique knowledge or skills, others do not have.  Self worth is very important to all of us.

Unfortunately for salespeople who have grown fat on reducing friction in sales process, keeping the high base salaries and incomes in an increasingly hypertransparent world is becoming increasingly difficult.  I have the resumes of several hundred plastic salespeople who once had a six figure base salary and are now out of work.  They are not out of work because they have poor sales skills, most are very good salespeople but the loss of friction in the sales process has reduced their value to potential employers.  The Web’s price-deflating impact and the ever Flattening World, as described in Thomas L. Friedman’s book titled The World is Flat, has reduced the ability of companies to pay the salaries many salespeople believe they should still be earning. 

Instead of six figure base salaries, our clients want to pay experience salespeople with industry contacts base salaries of $40,000 to $65,000 plus commissions and/or bonuses.  Obviously, cutting the base salary in half that a salesperson is use to making will not only negatively impact them financially if they cannot make us the difference with commissions or bonuses it will also negatively affect their self worth.  I believe that the potential loss of salespeople’s self worth is the reason they turn down these positions with lower base salaries even though they are unemployed.  Salespeople are also very optimistic, they have to be, and they may also believe a position paying their old base salary or more is just around the corner and I hope for their sakes it is.