Getting hired remained relatively easy in 2000, but year-end employment figures suggest that job seekers may face higher hurdles in 2001. With employers cutting back on hiring and announcing layoffs, the percentage of the U.S. workforce counted as officially unemployed rose in November, according to the latest employment report from the U.S. Department of Labor. But while the overall job numbers are being celebrated as signs of the U.S. economy's remarkable strength, workers in the heavily unionized U.S. manufacturing sector took it on the chin in 1999. Overall employment grew by 310,000 jobs in October, indicating that the U.S. economy is still racing along at a full-throttle pace.
Jobs are still abundant, but the manufacturing sector continues to feel pain.
Employers and economists are eyeing prison labor as unemployment falls to historic lows.