In Michigan, there are 8.24 job seekers for each available job. Nevada is the second-toughest place to find a job, with 6.90 unemployed people per job. Mississippi, Idaho and Kentucky round out the bottom five.
The best place to look for a job is Washington, D.C., where there is less than one unemployed person per available job. Virginia, Maryland, North Dakota and Nebraska complete the top five least competitive job markets.
That’s not anecdotal, friends. That’s official.
JUST WONDERING: With the explosion of web sites, blogs, twitter feeds, Tumblr blogs, Flipboard arrangements, RSS, email lists, etc. ad infinitum, there is no dearth of fresh and immediate content. How does one get some attention while being a drop of water in the great rushing riptide of information (to try out a metaphor)?
I think there is some value in recycling “pre-owned” content (Ha! how’s that for a euphemism?) The stuff was good then and is likely good now. Mostly. Better check the freshness on each post. But at my Two Forty Group site I regularly post articles that were published in the past. I know these articles have legs because of the popular response (emails, verbal, projection to the masses) that they received when they were published. Same goes with blog posts.
I just “recycled” a blog post via my twitter stream. Back in March I made a “Love Glenn Beck as you would love yourself” post. That post got some link love from a few other sites. In thinking about this past weekend’s events in DC, as well as anticipating our national conversation between now and November 2 and beyond, I thought it appropriate to recycle this baby.
You’ve got some great stuff that people wanted before – you know because you have the web metrics and personal anecdotes to prove the “market.” You could do worse than reboot restart recycle your stuff.
I got some of this idea from Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki has written about how he uses Twitter. One thing he does is post the same link four times in a 24 hour period. He does this because the people who follow him on Twitter don’t constantly follow him. Many may miss the initial tweet, especially if they are following lots of feeds. Hence his idea to post stuff four times, ensuring a higher engagement rate than if he’d only posted once.
Some of your greatest stuff never got traction because no one saw it the single time it was posted… think about it, Jefe.
Back in the 1990s I attended my first Acton Institute conference. It was in San Juan Capistrano at a weekend gathering designed for seminary students, both Protestant and Catholic. I was the only non-seminarian. As an urban ministry guy, I had been searching for a place to discuss and reflect on the intersection of theology and economics. In my search I found places that were good at one or the other, but rarely both. This conference – and the Acton Institute community as a whole – was and has been a vital source in shaping how I go about urban ministry. My desire is to believe and expect great things of every person, no matter what condition they are in or what community they come from. This is my desire because of my understanding that all people are created by God, the creator of the universe, and the same God who did a miracle in creation can do miracles in the lives of people today.
That’s my personal background in recommending this event to you:
Acton Institute’s 2010 Toward a Free and Virtuous City conference will take place September 23-25 in New York City. This conference is specific to leaders in urban ministry – pastors, non-profit leaders, urban ministry volunteers and community organizers working and serving in America’s inner cities. Event details are here: www.acton.org/cityfavs. Meals, lodging and conference costs are included in the $125 registration fee. I’ll be there as one of the faculty presenters.
At Acton we have this tagline that I love:
Connecting Good Intentions with Sound Economics
This conference may be thought of as:
Connecting Good Intentions with Sound Economics in Urban Ministry
Though the policy may sound harsh to some, Executive Director Stuart Ray believes that to require nothing of shelter residents demeans their potential.“Every individual, every man, has gifts and potential. As long as we are not out exploring life, we are not reaching that life potential.”
Shelter residents will have 30 days to register with Heartside Ministry, which will conduct assessments of individuals for their capacity to work or find permanent housing or whether they might have physical or mental disabilities that hold them back.
Men who stay 120 days or longer will have to demonstrate good-faith effort toward finding housing or they will be asked to leave.
Sounds appropriate. Some have capacity to do more. I also think this quote is important to keep in mind:
Kent Vanderwood, COO of Mel Trotter’s operations and programs, said there will likely always be a portion of clients resistant to such an approach.“One size does not fit all. There’s always going to be a need for the chronically mentally ill and chronic substance users,” he said.
Brian Fikkert, co-author of When Helping Hurts, also weighs in:
“The people we’re trying to help need to participate in their own improvement. This is not a right-wing political perspective. It’s from a very loving perspective. It’s saying we’re going to walk alongside you. We need you to meet us half way.”
BROOKLYN BRIDGE, AUG. 2010: Here’s a beautiful shot of my daughter, Micah (L), with cousin Shelby (R).
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