Getting Ahead
2nd Quarter 2021


In this issue:

Job Candidates Seek Assurances on Workplace Safety, Flexibility

Hackers Have a Devastating New Target

Job Market Continues to Be on Fire as the Economy Steams On

Biden’s infrastructure plan would create many jobs, but labor shortages may mean few workers will take them

Job Candidates Seek Assurances on Workplace Safety, Flexibility

Job seekers are holding potential employers to higher standards in workplace health and safety efforts, diversity initiatives, and flexible work arrangements in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and social unrest of 2020, according to a recent survey.

Recruiting software company Jobvite's 2021 Job Seeker Nation Report examines the concerns, challenges and priorities 1,500 U.S. workers and job seekers have about their job search experience one year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was conducted by Zogby Analytics for Jobvite in February.

Most respondents (69 percent) believe getting a job this year will be more challenging than it was before the pandemic, and 64 percent of job seekers say the job search process is more stressful than it was pre-pandemic, especially for working parents.

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Hackers Have a Devastating New Target
HackerA major gas pipeline. Dozens of government agencies. A Florida city's water supply. And now, one of the world's top meat producers.

The last few months have seen a sharp rise in cyberattacks, often disrupting products and services that are key to our everyday lives. Many of those attacks have used ransomware, a set of tools that lets hackers gain access to computer systems and disrupt or lock them until they get paid.

Ransomware is not new. But there is a growing trend of hackers targeting critical infrastructure and physical business operations, which makes the attacks more lucrative for bad actors and more devastating for victims. And with the rise of remote work during the pandemic, significant vulnerabilities have been revealed that only make it easier to carry out such attacks.

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Job Market Continues to Be on Fire as the Economy Steams On

The red-hot job market is getting even hotter, new data from online hiring site Indeed released Wednesday shows.

Job postings through June 4 are up 28.6% from Feb. 1, 2020, the pre-pandemic baseline. Postings have increased in May and early June by 1.1 percentage points a week and while that is down slightly from earlier periods, it still means jobs are plentiful.

The report follows Tuesday's release by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing employers added nearly 1 million new openings in May, to a record 9.3 million positions.

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Biden’s infrastructure plan would create many jobs, but labor shortages may mean few workers will take them
Workersith the COVID-19 pandemic threatening the survival of two restaurants he owned in Oklahoma City, Vetiana Phiasiripanyo decided to sell and switch to a vastly different career: wind energy.

It would prove a lucrative decision.

Before he was finished taking classes at a local trade school, Phiasiripanyo had employers lining up. He landed four offers and a six-figure job after just two months. He now makes more than $100,000 a year as a project lead for a company that installs wind turbines.

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