Successful career planning requires an understanding of employment trends, including which occupations are growing and which are declining. Several great websites offer statistics on job growth, layoffs, and hiring. A few of the best sites for tracking employment trends and statistics:
Vault.com Employment Tracker
Vault’s employment tracker lists significant layoffs and hires from small and large companies in a variety of industries. New hiring and layoff events are listed daily, along with other information such as location of events and specific departments affected.
Check Indeed.com’s statistics feature to find out if your skills are in demand, what the job market competition is like in your city, or hiring changes in your industry. Indeed reports the top trends based on percentage of matching job postings from thousands of job boards. The job market competition statistic compares the number of jobs to the number of job seekers in each city.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics provides information including state and local unemployment rates, international unemployment rates, employment by occupation, employment projections and mass layoff events. You’ll also find statistics regarding pay and benefits, workplace injuries, and productivity.
LayoffWatch.com reports details of major layoff events at companies and organizations in the United States. Reasons for layoffs, quotes from management, and location of layoffs are included in reports.
Fastest growing occupations, occupations with most openings, and fastest growing occupations are a few statistics reported at Careeronestop.org. The site also offers the detailed statistics for each state.
For wage and benefit trends, including compensation by company size and location, visit PayScale.com. The PayScale Index tracks changes in compensation over time. You can also view compensation trends based on city, company size, and industry. PayScale offers several other useful features and tools, including a cost-of-living calculator and personalized salary reports.