“Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter) according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis”

Wow, awesome, super, start hiring people, recovery is here! Errrrt! Not so fast. While this should be taken as positive economic news on it’s face, I am afraid to be a Debbie Downer,  but reality checks are my speciality. Inside the numbers, the revised estimate from 5.7% to 5.9% comes from gross private domestic investment which indicates that businesses are leading the recovery and the change in private inventories which showed the biggest upward revision to make up for 3.9% of the 5.9% GDP growth. Nerdy economists (the original Debbie Downers) however are not impressed with this revision as a sign of economic health rather a belief that recovery is sure to come…but not here yet. So, I guess that is the good news. The bummer of the 4Q GDP is that personal consumption is weak which, given the high unemployment and underemployment rate, is understandable as people are just unable to spend money – both paper and plastic.

Consumer spending accounts for a large part of GDP – almost 70% – so we need that to rise or else growth in the next couple quarters will go down. However, we cannot go into additional debt for consumption sake. Cases in point: Consumer debt: $13.5 trilly, Non-financial business sector debt: $11 trilly, Financial sector business debt : $16 trilly, State & gov’t local debt: $2.3 trilly, federal debt – not including future entitlements: $7.5 trilly (”Trilly” is my cute word for “trillion” as in trillions of dollars, eases the pain. ) Net exports increased from 1.9% to 2.3% – Hooray! But imports were revised up from 1.4% to 2% – Boooo! While I am happy to see the GDP revised upward we have a long way to go. Baby steps people.

Just two short years ago Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sat down with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to talk about FB’s privacy policies and controls – controls Zuckerberg describes as integral to the core of Facebook. “That’s the vector around which Facebook operates.” Information was only intended to be visible to your Facebook friends. That was then.

Is he now singing a much different tune? This is Zuckerberg now: The Age of Privacy is Over.

 Zuckerberg is quoted as saying: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

Has it really? Openly sharing personal information is the new social norm? Sigh.

My reluctance to personally jump into the wonderful world of social networking has been well documented here and around Alstin’s office. I feel lots of pressure to follow the herd, break down and get me a Facebook page so I too can brand myself through status updates. Maybe I could start doing all this under a fake name? Resurrect Lisa Licketto from Runnemede, NJ – my first fake ID. If it weren’t for that darn privacy thing…

Personal information is sacred to many of us. And I for one really hope the age of privacy isn’t over.

Ahhh, manufacturing. Where real people make real things that consumers and businesses will buy in this country and abroad. I’m not against outsourcing labor but preservation of this sector in some relevant form must be present in order to create the jobs that will allow this country to rev its economic engine again and then purr peacefully like a classic car down the highway of opportunity. Cheesy statement – oh yeah. But I am genuinely happy for the prospects in places like burgeoning data corridor resident Catawba County, NC with their new Target Distribution Center, Google server farm, and soon to be home to Apple Incs East Coast Data Center and Elkhart County, IN where after severe layoffs last year in the RV industry, one employer recalled or hired 200 laid off workers over the summer to meet an unexpected sales boom that overwhelmed inventories and left producers unable to meet demand. Baby steps people.

A more detailed valuation explanation can be found in the link above but what I found most interesting is the sheer variety of the Top 25. From the gossip mongering of Perez Hilton to mega-gamer blog Destructoid to the battlefield of online partisan political leanings of Drudge Report & Huffington Post to the financial content aggregation site Seeking Alpha, there is something for everyone on this list. And who knew they could make so much money?!

What does this mean to your organization? Is your company on the Facebook Fan Page bandwagon and “tweeting” new job opportunities via Twitter? Are you reaching potential job seekers before they even start looking for a job? A Twitter account or Facebook Fan Page may not produce instant results and applicant flow, building your network now will reap benefits years down the road. 

This Wall Street Journal article “Why E-mail No Longer Rules” is a great read on where we are going in the world of communications and why you and your employer should already be on the wagon.

The solution? Design and printing of one tri-fold brochure with a center pocket panel and three distinct inserts touting each program. The brochure focused on SEPTA as an employer of choice for skilled trades, career pathing and benefits. The inserts explained each program in detail thereby giving SEPTA recruiters the flexibility to include one or all three programs depending on the event or school they were attending. Simple tri-fold brochures with inserts, the opportunities are endless…and easy on the budget.

In recent a WaPo op-ed, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman call on women to fix this mess. Citing recent studies by reputable firms such as Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Co., Goldman Sachs and stalwart academic institutions Columbia & Pepperdine University, women will play an integral role in getting the American economy out of the recession. Among the findings in the studies, companies with women in senior management roles make more money. They also claim that if more women had been in senior management Wall Street might have averted the downturn (something about hormones and management styles), and that more women in your company equals better performance. It’s a good read and supports why the Mancession might not be getting better anytime soon.

LinkedIn. Wow, there are 40 million active users. Facebook – over 200 million. Twitter – 40 million and each are growing at an incredible clip. I get invitations all the time to “join my professional network” on LinkedIn. Why don’t I want to network? I could reconnect with former clients. It could land me a great job offer. It could be the network I need if I were to ever put myself on the market.

The answer: while there is a big part of me that thinks this is all a giant social ponzi scheme, I’m just not interested right now. I always question, what would I really get out of it? How better am I knowing that ‘Joe hates rainy days’ or ‘Belle is going to market’.

In the social networking age, I see the formula as: Possible Reward = Less Privacy + Unwanted Acquaintances – My Free Time or PR = LP + UA – MFT.

I admit that I’m sounding a little cynical, but believe me – I am very social. I love people. I love going out and meeting up with friends and colleagues old and new. But I usually call them, make plans to meet, and then have a great time in person. It works for me that way.

At my workplace however, I’m feeling particular pressure to get “LinkedIn” – helping my clients navigate this site to make the most of it for their branding and recruiting initiatives is after all part of what I do. I am just not ready to log on. But if you’re looking for an honest answer to the question of ‘to social network or not to social network’ you can give me a ring at 215-568-3200. We can talk about it.

Singing for a career makeover: CAREEREOKI!
“Nicole Nagy had gone back to school, hoping that a new career would lead to a better job. When she was turned down for financial aid, Nagy was told that she could, as a song goes, “sing for the money.” She was directed to a contest called Careereoki. Anyone brave enough to videotape themselves singing — and sometimes dancing — about their dream career karaoke-style was qualified to enter the competition.”

The Street Corner Resume:
“Joshua Persky, 48, stood on Park Avenue, handing out résumés to passers-by and wearing a sandwich board that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire.” The sign included his name and contact information.”

Tampa Woman Uses Streets Smarts in Job Hunt:
“At the break of dawn, she stood at the corner of Humphrey Street and North Dale Mabry Highway and handed out 100 resumes. Her face-to-face style may have paid off. About an hour after she started, she had gotten three bites.”

Some Gimmicks do Backfire!
A couple of highlights:
…A junior marketing professional tried sending his resume to a company hiring manager via homing pigeon, says Cynthia Shapiro, a job-search coach in Chatsworth, Calif. But as far as the job hunter knows, the recruiter wasn’t interested, because the animal never returned….
…Ms. Shapiro says a job hunter in a gorilla suit once dropped off his resume at her office at a construction company. Then, she recalls, he burst into a song describing why he would make a strong candidate. “The receptionist said he couldn’t come in, but he kept running around with balloons and calling my name,” she says. “Everyone thought it was my birthday. The CEO came out. It wasn’t cool.”

How will the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 affect the job market now and in the future? Billions in appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy and science, extended unemployment insurance, monies for state and local governments have been allocated. But will it work and where is the money going?

I found a fun place to keep track! While you can go to the fluffy government website recovery.gov and not find much of anything with detail, see what’s proposed for stimulus money in your community and the estimated number of jobs each project will create at stimuluswatch.org instead.

This watchdog group was built “to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend.” Visitors to the site are encouraged to search for and view the proposed projects, vote on whether you think they are critical or not and post comments about each project. (Note: These projects are not actually in the stimulus bill, but are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.)

This is a great outlet for adding your two cents, that is, if you have two cents to spare and see what this money could be used for in your area.