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February 28, 05 Reader Services |
Sales, retail, accounting jobs in demand Over the past two months, Chris Russell, owner of Westchester CountyJobs.com, a job-posting Web site, has seen higher-than-average growth in ads for sales, retail, office manager and accounting positions. Comparing job listings from mid-December to mid-February, sales and account executive job listings rose 29 percent to 18, and retail jumped 16 percent to 29, according to a tally Russell made at the Westchester County Business Journal's request. Office manager and administrative job listings also soared from 25 to 29, and accounting positions spiked to 14, up 17 percent. Sean MacDonald, labor market analyst the state Labor Department in White Plains, said a 16 percent increase in retail-job hiring "doesn't seem unreasonable," because new stores have been opening and the retail sector seems strong. The retail sector in Westchester County suffered deep job cuts when the recession started and didn't recover until last year, she said. In 2000, roughly 50,400 people were working in retail in Westchester. The number dropped to 48,900 in 2001 and kept falling ’Äî to 47,500 in 2003. In December, the number returned to 52,500, with strong hiring for the holiday season, she said. Accounting and related professions have also been more in demand recently, McDonald said. Russell owns AllCountyJobs.com, based in Trumbull, Conn. The company also has job-search Web sites for Fairfield County, Conn. "If you look at the types of jobs being posted and the types of job seekers coming to the (Web) site, they are remarkably similar," Russell explained. "I guess this is attributable to the turnover rate in those positions. Sales positions are notoriously hard to fill. It's tough to find good people who can sell." He's seen a slight uptick in information technology jobs. "Perhaps this is a sign of more robust IT hiring to come," he noted. Of the job seekers, salespeople are the largest group, with 15 percent of all resumes posted, followed closely by office managers and administrative assistants, then retail workers and IT people. Job seekers are also increasing signing up to receive e-mail alerts. The most popular category for job alerts is administrative/clerical/secretarial (279 signed up), followed by customer service (178), human resources (144), general business (119), information technology (117), executive/management" (116) and accounting/finance (95). |
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Copyright 2004, Westfair Communications Inc. |