Transcripts

"Reviving the Economy: Jobs"-Where The Jobs Are

SUZANNE PRATT: Help wanted. In these tough times, those words are rare but extremely welcome. Even though the economy has lost millions of jobs in the last year, there are a few sectors where new positions can still be found. As we continue our series, "Reviving the Economy: Jobs," I did a little digging to find out where the jobs are now and where they might be in the near future. Like many public colleges, Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, is coping with a massive fiscal crisis. It has slashed millions of dollars from its budget this year and the belt tightening will undoubtedly continue. But one thing the university is not doing is laying off employees. Stony Brook is hiring; it currently has more than 100 job openings, many at its nearby hospital and medical school. Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny explains that the hospital services more than a million area residents.

SHIRLEY STRUM KENNY, PRESIDENT, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY: It's enormously important for it to grow and to get new specialties and better ways to treat people. So for example, we have a new ambulatory surgery center. You've got to have personnel there. We've have a new cancer and imaging center. You've got to have personnel there.

PRATT: It makes sense that Stony Brook would be hiring given that education and healthcare are the only industries in the U.S. economy to see significant job growth in the last several months. While those areas will continue to be among the best places to find jobs for years to come, Joanie Ruge of the staffing firm Adecco says right now financial services companies are also hiring.

JOANIE RUGE, SR. VP, ADECCO: We have 1,500 open positions all across the U.S. today in the banking field and most of the positions are mortgage related. So it's all related back to that interest rates have lowered and people are looking at refinancing or maybe trying to take some advantage of the real estate market at this point.

PRATT: That brings us to President Obama's $800 billion stimulus package, which he promises will create or save about 3.5 million jobs. Many experts quibble with the total number and others point out the jobs only replace some of those lost to the recession. Still in the next few years, there will be thousands if not millions of jobs because of the stimulus. According to moody'seconomy.com, the largest number of news jobs will be in construction, thanks to infrastructure spending. But there will be openings in a broad range of industries as well. Beyond stimulus-related jobs, human resource expert Martha Fields recommends looking at the Labor Department web site www.bls.gov. It has an online occupational outlook handbook.

MARTHA FIELDS, PRES. & CEO, FIELDS ASSOCIATES: It's going to tell you where the jobs, what are the types of jobs that are out there. What does it take by way of education and training? What can you make? What is the outlook for that job in the future? So I do believe that people need to do their homework.

PRATT: And what do educators like Strum Kenny tell today's students about where the jobs will be in the next decade?

KENNY: Healthcare will continue to grow. We're an aging nation. We're a nation that can do much better in the health care than we've done in the past. So that I think will happen. I think that you're going to see as I said the green industries are going to become very strong because we've got to do things about energy.

PRATT: There is a definite consensus among employment experts about the U.S. job market. Choose a career in healthcare, education or information technology and you'll probably have your pick of jobs in the future.