An article from the US today highlights relocation and outplacement issues which bear consideration in the UK, too.

"What About My Spouse?" addresses the issue of the 'trailing spouse' - the partner of an individual who relocates for a new job.  While the individual taking a new role may be set to enjoy better pay, perks and conditions, there is a risk that their accompanying partner faces joblessness in an unfamiliar town - particularly in the current job market.

Last summer we looked at Ian Duncan Smith's proposal that UK job seekers relocate to areas of higher employment to find work.  With this suggestion, Duncan Smith failed to consider the risk that ghettos of unemployment would develop in the towns left behind.  What he did do, though, was seek to reconcile the UK's high level of unemployment against the fact that around half a million jobs are currently available and awaiting the right candidate.

Sanjay Sathe, the author of "What About My Spouse?", points out that concerns about a partner's employment prospects are among the chief concerns of a job applicant facing relocation.  Tackling this concern could remove a major barrier to relocation, therefore widening a job seeker's net and greatly increasing employers' pools of potential candidates.

According to research, a fifth of businesses in the US already offer outplacement services to the spouses of relocating employees, and this figure grows to a third in the case of large organisations (employing over 5000 people).  Nevertheless, many firms still miss out on their perfect candidates by failing to provide a solution to this problem.

The uptake of similar schemes in the UK could make a huge difference to the current situation in the job market and ensure that job seekers find their perfect career among the 500,000 jobs currently available.  Whether employers will consider the service to be a worthwhile investment is another question, but the case certainly seems compelling.

A headline in yesterday's Wales Online, Unemployed man notches up 3,000 unsuccessful job applications, has become all too familiar over the last two years.  But, instead of shocking, these sort of stories now just serve to concern job search support providers like us.

Alun Brown, the man at the centre of the story, says that he's prepared to take any role and has submitted applications for a huge variety of positions, yet he has only one CV - which appears on the second page of the article.  Perhaps it's little wonder, then, that employers have struggled to see how Alun's experience might fit with the specific role they're looking to fill.

Alun's CV also features a blank 'Employment' section which must surely act as a deterrent to prospective employers.  There's no need to include employment history in your CV if you don't have any!  Instead, include relevant skills gained from volunteering, hobbies and educational activities which are relevant to the specific role you're applying for.

It's troubling that no one has advised Alun on CV basics in the course of 3000 rejections, so we've included some simple guidelines below to keep in mind if you find yourself in a similar situation.

• Begin with a stock CV. Include all your information, a long and generic personal statement and all your experience - whether acquired from employment or some other field.  Never submit this as an application in itself; instead, draw from it just the relevant experience and information for each individual role you apply for.
• If you have no employment history, include a 'Relevant Experience' or 'Relevant Skills' sections which features details of any additional qualifications you've achieved or experience you've gained in other environments, e.g. the ability to work as a team learned from playing a sport.
• Your CV is about emphasising the skills you do have, not highlighting those you don't.  The word 'none' should never appear - if you're lacking certain skills that might normally appear on a CV, omit the section in question and replace it with something that does play to your strengths.
• If your work experience is particularly short or lacking relevance to a role you're applying for, consider listing your educational history first.
• Make the most of your personal statement. Alun's is short and vague which is a waste of a great opportunity.  If your past experience fails to explain to an employer the reasons you'd like to take their role, or the career trajectory that's steered you there, explain it in your own words in your personal statement.  This is one of the reasons why it's so important to tweak your CV for every role you apply for - your personal statement should vary every time.
• Finally, ask for feedback! If you've received more than three rejections in a row based on your CV alone, alarm bells should ring.  While employers may not offer feedback automatically, they'll almost certainly be happy to provide some at your request.  It's important that you adapt your applications if they're not proving successful, so make sure you get the right information to enable you to do so.

Happy hunting!

Something new is coming this way...

Careerplan4.me has something exciting in store for job seekers this March.  All will be revealed soon but if you'd like to be one of the first to find out more you can sign up to our mailing list by visiting somethingnew.careerplan4.me.

Careerplan4.me's Tor Macleod spent this morning with the team at BBC Radio Sheffield discussing the need for ongoing job search support.  A staggering 1/3 of people in Barnsley are currently unemployed and government cuts mean that career advisors in the town are about to join the ranks of job seekers.  This is creating a catch-22 situation in the area which shows little sign of being resolved soon.

Tor spoke to Toby Foster on his breakfast show about the support we offer and the problems facing existing job search support initiatives and a number of panelists discussed the best ways to address ongoing unemployment problems in the UK.

We're hugely excited about the launch of our new initiative, which will revolutionise job search support in the UK... But we can't tell you too much yet!

This new service will launch on Monday 7 March and if you're looking to give your career a boost you need to get involved!

Something new is happening in the world of job search support, and you can be a part of it this March...

Thank you to all those of you who have completed our latest survey on Unemployment and the Internet.  We will announce the winners of the two £50 John Lewis vouchers at the end of this month.

In the meantime, we will share any interesting finds with you as they emerge - and something interesting has already caught our eye.

We'd like you to think about yourself for a minute.  Think about your family and your friends, your ex- or current colleagues, your Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter acquaintances, members of any clubs and societies you attend, your neighbours.  How many people are you thinking of?  More than you can number?  And how many different lines of work are these people in?  These people are your network.

Now multiply this.  Imagine the size of the network if you combined yours with those of, say, 10 other job seekers.  Already you'd have access to many hundreds - possibly thousands - of people in any number of different professions.  Even if the 10 other job seekers came from entirely different backgrounds to yours, the chance of this network featuring at least one individual who could provide you with job leads is extremely high.

Official statistics suggest that, in the current job market, a third of job vacancies are secured by candidates who found the role through their network.  In our experience, this figure is much higher.  But even the lower estimate is enough to prove the value of a large network in today's job market.  Your immediate contacts need not necessarily come from a professional background like yours, but they will almost certainly connect you to people who do.

Despite this, over a third of respondents to our survey claimed that there was no point in networking with other job seekers unless they were all from a similar industry.  Not so!  Our aim is to help you get back into work as quickly as possible and we know that professional networking can achieve this.  Do we sound like we're evangelising?  We are!  Networking is crucial.

We're taking steps to make this easier for you, but in the meantime why don't you give networking a try?  If you're not already registered on Linkedin, sign up. It's a great way of developing a network without dedicating chunks of your time to face-to-face networking events.  If the personal touch is more your thing, why not visit GB Job Clubs to find out about networking opportunities?  You can read more about GB Job Clubs' work in this recent Guardian article.

We've long advocated the benefits of your network to job seeking and there's no easier way to expand and leverage this than using Linkedin - the world's number one professional networking service online.

Linkedin serves a multitude of purposes to benefit your career.  Your personal profile acts as a shop window in which to promote your credentials to the thousands of recruiters trawling the site for candidates.  Carefully requested recommendations serve as instant references.  Equally, you can search and research prospective employers to learn more about their organisation and make contact with the right individuals.  Linkedin now also lets you follow groups - a two-way street which gets your name seen in the right circles and provides you with relevant information.

If you need any more convincing about the value of Linkedin, a new article on Global Recruiting Roundtable must clinch it.  The article, entitled Everything you wanted to know about Linkedin - UK Statistics and Trends 2011, breaks down the current usage statistics for the site.

• Over the past year usage has more than doubled
• 4 January this year saw the highest ever number of visitors in one day from the UK alone: 498,000 individuals
• In total there are over 4.7 million UK members registered on Linkedin
• Nearly two thirds of these members make their use of the service at work.

The community is huge and growing.  Why miss out on such a fantastic networking opportunity?!  Visit our Linkedin introduction for more information about this fantastic professional tool.

We hope you have a fantastic festive period.

Our offices will be closed from 1pm today until Tuesday 4th January 2011. Our support line (020 7923 5665) will be open during normal office hours for urgent queries between 29th and 31st December, and you can email all other enquiries to the usual address: support@careerplan4.me.

If you're keen to make the most of your free time and focus on your job search, you can take a look at our advice on using your time effectively over the Christmas period.

Otherwise, why not relax and indulge in a couple of days of 'me' time? You deserve it!

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year - see you all in 2011!

Recent research into employer attitudes is extremely useful for understanding what impact unemployment can have on job prospects.  However, what it cannot do is illustrate what job seekers can expect once they return to work.  The financial and emotional stress of unemployment is generally allayed by returning to work, but there is a real risk that job seekers will be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire unless efforts are made to maintain good levels of job satisfaction throughout the recession and beyond.

This need has been recognised by the Institute of Leadership and Management and Management Today, who have got together to produce the Index of Leadership Trust 2009.  The ILM and MT have identified a wide and spreading culture of mistrust that has been born out of the current turbulent economic climate.  With news of financial and political scandal becoming commonplace, it is natural that employees' trust for their leaders is likely to have waned. With this in mind, 5000 UK employees have been surveyed and the results compiled into this year's index.

The response is reasonably positive - particularly given the climate in which the survey has taken place.  Nearly 70% of employees have answered that they "generally" or "completely" trust their manager, which illustrates great scope for improvement but also a surprisingly strong status quo. CEOs, on the other hand, have work to do in order to improve their reputations.  The survey found that they rated at 59 on the trust index, which ranged on a scale from 0 (no trust) to 100 (complete trust).  This score decreases as the size of organisation increases, with public sector CEOs scoring lowest of all.

The report identifies integrity and ability as the two key characteristics of a trustworthy leader, and line managers are also required to demonstrate openness and understanding. While the report highlights areas of trust that are currently lacking, it also provides constructive recommendations for how these can be developed.  Reassuringly, it also illustrates good levels of trust for the current circumstances which - if addressed properly - can be effectively developed throughout the upturn.  With jobseekers striving to improve their employability, it is comforting to know that employers now have an incentive to make themselves more attractive, too.

Read the full report at http://www.i-l-m.com/downloads/Index_Leadership_Trust_09_(2).pdf

Yesterday's labour market statistics were described by David Cameron as a "mixed picture" - and with good reason.  In terms of progress, it appears to be the case that every silver lining has a cloud. Compared to the previous month's report, the unemployment rate has dropped by o.1% (2.51m - 2.47m) and the employment rate has increased by the same percentage.  Inactivity has remained at a constant 21.5%.  It's certainly movement in the right direction.  However, in numerical terms inactivity has increased yet again, from 8.17m to 8.19m.

Sky News has suggested one potential factor contributing the the depleting workforce - a graduate brain drain.  The problem is already common in Asia but the UK has fared well in the past, despite having the second highest youth unemployment levels in Europe.  Now, however, there seems to be a pull towards countries like China for those struggling to break into the UK job market. According to Edward Holroyd Pearce, who works at CRCC Asia sending graduates to China, candidates are usually trying to gain more experience.  He told Sky News "it's that confidence of being able to function in an international workplace ... learn another language and broaden their skills."

At the moment, then, the movement abroad seems to be part of an endeavour to up-skill in order to compete for work in the UK.  But, with the government's spending cuts threatening to destroy significant numbers of jobs, we could soon be losing our graduates altogether.

Read the Sky News article here.

With budget cuts looming, the TUC has released research which indicates a disproportionately high number of jobseekers compared to vacancies. In Hackney, the local authority with the worst ratio, there are 23.9 JSA claimants to every job vacancy.  This is balanced by areas in the South East and South West which have ratios of better than 4:1, but this still leaves an average of 5:1 for the whole country.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, has suggested that this situation is only set to worsen once the emergency budget is announced.  Rather than fixating on the deficit, he says "[the government] must instead focus on getting people back into work and the economy motoring again."  He goes on, "this country needs investment, not a spending axe."

Despite the grim figures for Hackney, the research reveals a very clear north-south divide.  The North East is a blackspot for high claimant-to-job ratios and the Wirral also features in the top 10 worst affected regions.  North Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire follow Hackney most closely, with ratios of 18.6:1 and 17.8:1 respectively. Unemployment figures set to be released tomorrow are expected to show the level remaining at around 8%. It is unlikely that this research will make a dent in the government's plans so soon before the budget is announced, but it's vital that the implications of spending cuts aren't overlooked.

Companies like Careerplan4.me will continue working to help jobseekers gain a competitive edge, but this work will only remain a success if the jobs exist at all.  The TUC's warnings must be heeded before any more damage is done to the UK job market.

When we began to research the impact of redundancy on the lives of the individuals experiencing it, harrowing results emerged.  Words such as "despair", "debt", "worthlessness" and even "suicide" arise time and again in the responses to our questions. It is reassuring, therefore, to see a feature in today's 'Comment is Free' section of the Guardian giving voice to some of these unemployed individuals.  Good things can come from redundancy - often it provides the perfect motivation to undertake an entirely new project or fulfil long-held ambitions.  However, it's all too easy to underestimate the profound emotional impact it can have.  Hopefully, these striking personal accounts will serve as a reminder. Below is an account from Nimsudo.

To read the full article and other contributions click here.

My story

I became unemployed last year and applied for jobseeker's allowance. I completed a 52-page application form and attended an "interview" with a claims assessor at the Jobcentre Plus. I was told that as I was a self-employed architect and the director of a limited company, I would not be entitled to my £65.45 a week unless I dissolved my company first and "made myself available for work". I was distraught, depressed, unemployed and about to strike off the company I had worked so hard to build. I spoke with a senior figure at Jobcentre Plus HQ, who told me that my assessment had been mishandled. I wasn't required to strike off my company after all. They "allowed" me 13 weeks to find an architect position, and after that I had to accept any job offered. I applied to the local council for housing benefit to pay my rent. Circumstances decreed that I was only entitled to housing benefit for a one-bedroom flat, so I had to move out. Rather than move to a council flat, I lied about my income, prepared myself for debt and took a flat suitable for my children. I accepted architectural work after 14 weeks and informed Jobcentre Plus. They told me that my jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit would stop immediately. I wouldn't be paid for at least two months for my new work, but because I was now "unavailable for work", I could no longer claim any benefits. Being in financial limbo, I lied again. I had gone from being a professional architect running a practice with a modest turnover to a lying benefit cheat trying to survive, literally. Some surveys estimate a third of all architects are out of work because of the recession.

My recommendation

I think benefit claims assessors, being the first point of contact with recently redundant claimants, should be better trained to deal with depressed, fearful, and in some cases borderline suicidal human beings. Also, the system of claiming separately for jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit is ridiculous. If you are in need of £65.45 a week to live, you probably cannot afford to pay your rent. One application to suit both please, and a bit thinner than 52 pages. We are not all scroungers looking to milk the state. Some of us are hard-working individuals looking for a light in a very dark tunnel.