By Stephen Dalton | MainStreet.com

Dontcha know? North Dakota has the most job opportunities, per capita, in the country.

Last month, we showed you the most financially happy states when we released the MainStreet.com Happiness Index. Now, we’re bringing you this inaugural edition of the MainStreet.com Job Opportunity Index to show you where the jobs are.

According to the MainStreet.com Job Opportunity Index, the jobs are not in the most populous states such as New York and California but are in the less densely populated middle of America. North Dakota, the 3rd least populous state in the U.S., took the top spot on the Index while New York came in at #35, Illinois ranked #36, and California landed at #44.

The Job Opportunity Index, which ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia, looked at two factors in determining which states offer the greatest employment opportunity: available jobs in a given state (relative to state population), and the unemployment rate in each state.

To estimate the number of available jobs per state, MainStreet partnered with Indeed.com, one of the most comprehensive job search sites on the web. Indeed.com aggregates millions of job postings from thousands of web sites and serves more than 12 million job seekers a month.

In the face of a rising national unemployment rate, the Job Opportunity Index illustrates that companies are, in fact, hiring and points to the states which represent the best markets for job hunters.

“The most important thing to know is that there are jobs out there,” says Paul Forster, CEO and co-founder of Indeed.com. “Even though there may be no net growth in jobs through the economy, companies are always looking to replace people who have left. People should remain optimistic, because there are jobs available as you’ll see from any search on Indeed.com.”

But, not all job markets are created equal.

North Dakota finished first with the 10th highest number of job opportunities in the nation and the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S. Wyoming (#2) and Virginia (#3), also featuring high numbers of opportunities and low unemployment, followed closely behind. (Given that our Happiness Index suggested that Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas are the most financially happy states, we here at MainStreet won’t be surprised if there is a population surge in the heartland!)

Meanwhile, Michigan, due to the troubled auto industry and continuing layoffs, was at the bottom of the list, preceded by Oregon (#50) and Indiana (#49).

One metropolitan area, the nation’s capital and surrounding states, represented mixed and interesting results. Washington D.C., Virginia and Maryland have the highest numbers of available jobs but, while Virginia (#3) and Maryland (#5) finished close to the top of the Index, Washington D.C. finished in the middle at #22. Washington D.C., even with the largest number of job openings per capita by far – thanks, in part, to the large volume of government jobs the region enjoys – was weighed down on the Index by one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

For a deeper analysis into a comparison of the country’s largest national metro areas showing the most job opportunities, take a look at Indeed’s latest job trends heat map.

See the chart below (and our accompanying Job Opportunity Slideshow with images of the 10 worst and the 10 best states) for the full breakdown of the MainStreet.com Job Opportunity Index and be sure to check back next month for an update.

By Althea Chang | MainStreet.com

Looking for a career in an industry that’s projected to grow instead of shrink? One that can survive recessions both deep and shallow?

Industries that provide services will see a boost in jobs compared with industries that produce goods in the next several years, according to projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Here are a few industries that are expected to grow:

A Healthy Workplace
With an aging overall population, there’s high demand for healthcare and social assistance services including work in assisted living facilities. On the other end of the social services spectrum, the demand for child care is increasing.

“Healthcare, certainly for lots of reasons, has withstood the stresses of this recession,” says John Challenger, CEO of executive search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. For example, he says, “there are some extraordinary scientific developments going on. Identifying the human genome has led to new product development.”

More than three out of every 10 new jobs created in the U.S. between 2006 and 2016 will either be in healthcare, social assistance or public and private educational services, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says. And there’s always a need for good nurses. If you’re looking for a nursing job, try AccessNurses.com.

Services for the Young and Old
Education and health services jobs are expected to grow nearly 19%, adding nearly 5.5 million jobs. Jobs for those providing public and private educational services are expected to grow by 10.7%, adding 1.4 million new jobs through 2016.

If you’re looking for a teaching job, try EducationAmerica.net. Most teaching jobs require a master’s degree in education, though if you haven’t gotten your master’s or you’re working on it, you can try PublicCharters.org or USCharterSchools.org to find teaching jobs that don’t require a master’s degree.

Keeping Informed
Newspapers may be a dying industry, but other sectors related to the dissemination of information should see a rise in employment in the next several years. Jobs in the information sector are expected to increase by 6.9%, and information tech jobs employ a wide range of skills. In this arena, software publishing is expected to grow 32%, Internet publishing and broadcasting could grow more than 44% and wireless telecommunication carriers are expected to increase their staffs by 40.9%. The growing industry also includes movie production and broadcasting, cable service, high-speed Internet connections, and software industries.

As businesses increasingly rely on information technology and require system and network security, professional, scientific and technical services will grow by 28.8%, adding 2.1 million new jobs by 2016, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even better, computer systems design and related service jobs will grow by more than 38.3%, the bureau says. And management, scientific and technical consulting services will grow at 78%. To search for technology jobs, try Dice.com.

A Little Escapism
The leisure and hospitality sector is also expected to grow in the short and long term. In the near term, discount hospitality companies and, possibly, services that let you forget about your economic woes will grow.

McDonald’s (Stock Quote: MCD) is doing particularly well, as well as beer companies and beer distributors, Challenger says, adding that people tend to drink more in a bad economy. “It’s not something people stop doing.”

Overall employment in leisure and hospitality is expected to grow by 14.3% by 2016. Arts, entertainment and recreation will grow by 30.9%, and 79% of these job openings will be in the amusement, gambling and recreation sector. For jobs in hospitality, try searching HCareers.com.

The Bright Side of the Decline
Automakers like General Motors (Stock Quote: GM) are suspending manufacturing at some U.S. plants this summer and car dealerships seem to be closing left and right. But, Challenger says, “People servicing the cars are in a great time.”

Consumers are holding onto their cars and other expensive items longer, Challenger explains. So in addition to mechanics, retailers selling replacement auto parts and people who fix computers and other gadgets are also doing well.

Manufacturing jobs are expected to decline by 10.6% as automation and other updates improve manufacturing productivity. However, employment in pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing is expected to grow by 23.8% and add 69,000 new jobs by 2016.

“And people are going to continue to buy food, just not upscale food,” Challenger says. That means many food product companies and grocery store chains will continue to do well.

In the long term, however, employment in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting is expected to decrease by 2.8% due to rising costs of production, increasing consolidation and more imports of food and lumber. Crop production will see the largest job loss, with 98,000 fewer jobs in 2016 than in 2006.

Among other industries that are expected to see a decline in the next few years, production related occupations could decline by 4.9% and employment in mining could fall by 1.6%.

Jim Cramer says he sees a static not a declining market. He is staying defensive but is also finding the discounts and getting aggressive.

Psychic Monte Farber reveals his predictions about the markets, oil, unemployment, Tim Giethner’s future and the SuperBowl.

By Tania Khadder | WomenCo.

I didn’t think it would happen to me. As a news producer for a television network, I reported on unemployment numbers daily. I was detached. Analytical. Objective.

Then one day, without any prior warning, I was out of a job, and the subject of someone else’s news story.

It’s not that I thought I was immune, or somehow above it all. It’s just that, like so many other Americans, I was blindsided; tricked into believing my company was in good health, that my job was safe, and that I would somehow be protected from the global  economic meltdown. In hindsight, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary. I believed I was safe because I wanted to.  

Was I distraught? Sure. Resentful? Of course! But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.

And now, nearly five months later, I’m back to work. My days of wrestling with the unemployment office and spending far too much quality time with myself are over, at least for now.

But as I look back on my experiences as a “layoffee”, I can honestly say that I’m better off for having gone through them. Here are ten things I learned:

Unemployment is temporary
Being jobless is kind of like being a homesick study abroad student. You put off doing all the things you want to do because you feel like you’re going to be there forever. And besides, you’re just too busy moping to make any plans.

Get a grip. You will find a job – possibly a lot sooner than you imagined. When you do, you might have to start right away. And then it will be too late to go to the zoo at 2pm on a Tuesday.   

Don’t mess with the unemployment office
Securing your unemployment insurance benefits can be one of the most infuriating experiences in a job loss. If you make even the slightest error on your form, you will find yourself in an unending web of poorly managed bureaucracy. I know I did. It was so preposterous that I might have laughed, if I hadn’t spent so much time crying. 

So, be EXTRA CAREFUL when you fill out the weekly forms (which they send you in the mail – they are not downloadable online). It’s surprisingly easy to make a mistake, and since the whole process is automated (think: Scantron sheets), there is absolutely no room for nuance. If you color in the wrong bubble, your little clarification note next to it will do nothing but further confuse the evil computers. 

To be on the safe side, make a photocopy of each form before you fill it out. If you mess up, they may not send you another one. They may, instead, request that you call the toll free number to nowhere. And if you think there is an office you can visit to work it out face-to-face, you’re wrong. All communication with them is now by phone, fax, email or post. I found this out the hard way. Make photocopies of your forms, and you’ll at least have a shot at resending them.

Now, this may seem like a no-brainer. But I assure you, I have a brain, and it didn’t occur to me to make photocopies the first time around. I never imagined the process could be as archaic as it was. And as a result, I spent two months without benefits, and came dangerously close to a nervous breakdown.

You just can’t spend all day looking for work
It has been said that looking for a job is itself a full time job. It absolutely can be.

When you’re unemployed, it’s easy to feel guilty for doing anything other than job hunting. A matinee or park stroll feels like wasted time – time you could have spent getting an edge on the job boards.  

But trust me on this one. For your own sanity, you have to give yourself permission to do other things. Of course, you wouldn’t choose to be unemployed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the extra daylight it affords you. Besides, you can apply for jobs just as easily at 10pm as you can at 10am.

Choose your daytime television wisely
After countless hours of research, I have concluded that hosted talk shows (like Tyra, Oprah and The Doctors) are more enjoyable (and educational!) than your run of the mill Soap Opera. Whatever you do, avoid Maury Povich at all costs – unless, of course, you have some kind of academic interest in paternity testing.

Don’t take your joblessness out on your figure
When I lost my job, I craved comfort food. Mac’n’cheese, grilled cheese, or just plain blocks of cheese – if it was yellow and/or cheesy, I was game. Four months and ten pounds later, I had finally learned my lesson.

Even if you aren’t prone to eating your feelings, it’s hard to be healthy when you’re unemployed. You’re broke. Health food is expensive. And allegedly, KFC is bailing out Main Street. But there are ways to eat well on a budget. You don’t have to buy organic vegetables, you don’t even have to buy fresh vegetables, but buy vegetables for goodness sake. If a 93 year-old woman can eat well on a Depression-era budget, so can you.

The pity party helps no one
Losing your job sucks. But feeling sorry for yourself is not going to get you your next job. It won’t pay your bills. And it definitely won’t make your former employer regret their decision. So cheer up! If not for your own sake, then for the sake of your friends who are really sick of hearing about it. 

Time is relative
When you’ve got a job, going to the bank, post office or vet are activities you miraculously squeeze into a lunch hour.  You know that you only have a very short window of opportunity to get things done, so you take full advantage of it. But when you’re unemployed, you can build an entire day (or week) around any one of these activities. The fact of the matter is, when you have less to do, you stretch everything else out to fill the time. My retired father explained this phenomenon to me long before I lost my job, and like so many of his pearls of wisdom, it was absolutely spot on.   

Idle hands really are the devil’s playground
I let myself have about one week of idleness, and then I got busy. Busy looking for jobs; busy blogging; busy taking on freelance work, however poorly paid; busy spending time with my family and other unemployed friends.

I always say that if it weren’t for my blog, I would have lost it. It didn’t matter if it ate into some of my job search time, or if no one was reading it – the point is, I had a daily publishing deadline, and I did my best to stick to it. It kept me busy doing something I love, and made me feel useful in some way. I was also working on it with a friend, which helped stave off some of the daytime loneliness that can come with joblessness. Our little creative endeavor stopped me from sleeping the day away or zoning out to day-time  television (except, of course, for research purposes ). I had a reason to get up in the morning. I think keeping busy with things you love is the key to surviving a layoff, sanity in tact.  

A little bit of humor goes a long way
Like all of life’s difficult times, laughter helps a lot. Especially when it comes to dealing with friends and family who don’t quite know how to react to your predicament. They’ll tiptoe around it, or be uncomfortably sympathetic. Which will only make you feel worse.

So keep it light, and hopefully they’ll loosen up. But bear in mind that it’s kind of like making fun of your own brother – you’re allowed to mock, but no one else is.

I am not my job, and neither are you
Is your work important to you? Sure. Should you be doing something you love? Absolutely! Should your work be the only way you define yourself, or quantify your own worth? Heck no. If it does, you will find losing your job that much more devastating. More than a financial crisis, you’ll be facing an identity crisis.

But sometimes by losing your job, you gain bit of perspective. You may find that there are plenty of things you like to do, and that make you who you are, that are not tied to your work. And if you’re lucky, your unemployment might even help bring those things to light, and give you ample time to explore them.

By Taylor Smith | MainStreet.com

It’s every employee’s worst nightmare: The call from human resources, the sit-down with the boss and that HR rep from corporate, and the scripted declaration of “It’s not you, it’s the economy.”

Indeed, workers across the U.S. increasingly are taking the fall as companies reel from the one-two punch of fewer customers and a tight credit market. In January, nearly 240,000 workers received pink slips, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ mass layoff data, which tracks instances in which companies lay off 50 or more employees. The January numbers—the most recent available—represent a nearly 60% increase from last January.

And although any employee would like to avoid getting laid off, it’s rarely something you can control. But what you can control is how you leave a company—and, most importantly, the size of your severance package. Fact is, there’s often room to negotiate the terms of a severance package, and employees need to know what to ask for, and how to ask for it, to get the best deal. “The severance offer is just that: an offer,” says Kirk Nemer, president of Denver-based Career Protection, a national firm that helps employees negotiate severance packages. “That’s the leverage employees have to negotiate their own terms.”

The first step is to understand why companies offer severance packages even though they aren’t required by law to do so. (Hint: It’s not just to be nice.) When you sign on the dotted line to accept a severance package, you waive your right to bring employment-related claims, such as age discrimination, against the company. In that way, offering each employee extra pay and benefits can be a fiscally prudent move, heading off potentially costly legal trouble down the road. “Companies offer severances to smooth the transition when employees are laid off,” says Robert Ottinger of The Ottinger Firm, a New York-based employment law firm. “If someone has a potential employment claim, that creates a very un-smooth transition for the company.”

So if you find yourself facing the firing squad, how can you make sure to leave with the best possible package?

For starters, don’t sign anything. HR reps often will present employees with documents to sign when they’re laid off. Instead of agreeing on the spot, take the document home and mull it over. Chances are you’ll be less emotional and you’ll have a clearer picture of what the severance agreement offers.

Take a close look at the severance agreement. The key piece of these agreements is the money, that is, how much you get and for how long. You may be able to negotiate more money, especially if you’re a long-time employee and can demonstrate your loyalty to the company. “Every case is different,” says Ottinger. “You just need to find the pressure points that work.”

Because many companies laying off workers are strapped for cash, you may have difficulty negotiating more money. But that doesn’t mean you have to take what your employer is giving. Consider asking for an extension of your health care coverage, or ask your employer to designate a person at the company who will field inquiries from potential employers on your behalf. Or ask for access to an outplacement firm for resume and interview assistance.

Meanwhile, getting laid off doesn’t necessarily mean leaving the company. Ottinger says some firms may be willing to hire laid off employees on a contract basis. Ask your employer if this is an option.

Throughout the layoff process, be sure to adopt the right attitude. That means curbing the impulse to point fingers or make emotional comments. It also means listening and calmly asking why you were chosen to be laid off. Human resources professionals are well-trained to offer plain vanilla reasons, but Ottinger says he’s represented many clients who were told they were being laid off for being too old or too sick, both of which amount to employment discrimination.

If you suspect you’re a victim of discrimination, contact a lawyer who specializes in employment law. Otherwise, Nemer of Career Protection suggests keeping lawyers out of the equation. If you don’t, he says, the company will likely drag its legal counsel into the discussion, complicating the entire severance process. “The best severance deals come from your friendly human resources department,” he says.

I bet that if you ask around, jobs are one of the biggest things on people’s minds today. How to get a job, how to keep their job, getting promotions, getting paid enough…all these things are constantly on people’s minds and can be very stressful for many. Although it is almost expected that during such tough economic times with unemployment on the rise you are going to worry about job security, there are definitely things that you can do to help yourself along (and keep your job).

1.) Don’t Be Selfish – Although it may seem like the right thing to do to solely focus on yourself and your involvement within the company, this may be a completely downfall for you. Instead of focus on yourself, focus on the team. Many companies revolve around a team environment and it is important to work together to achieve the task correctly and efficiently. Without team work the whole company would not function properly. This is not the case with all companies, but today it appears as though most companies like individuals to work together instead of separately. Showing that you are a strong and reliable team leader is extremely important.

2.) Don’t Stress About Promotions – If you think about getting a promotion it will never come (it’s like the saying “a watched pot never boils”). The second you stop over thinking a promotion or worrying about when it is going to happen, it will happen. However, with the current economy, many companies are on hiring, promotion, and merit freezes meaning that you should try to excel as much as possible and hope that when the freeze lifts you will be the first one promoted!

3.) Continued Learning – Continue learning is extremely important within any company. Companies like when their employees take it into their own hands with new tasks and learning new programs or materials that will help them with their everyday routines and job. Many companies may even pay for you to take a class or offer the classes at the company office. Ask to see if there are any classes that you can take at the company that will help you further your education. Microsoft Excel is one of the biggest areas that employees are always finding that they can learn more about. This may even mean checking out a book at the library that will fill you in on new things you can do in Excel that you can share with others at work.

4.) Search Out Important Tasks/Projects – Making sure you are involved in as many tasks and projects as possible is always important. You do not want to overdo it however and how too much work that you cannot accomplish it. However, make sure that you are always getting involved in what is going on. If a project is really connected to the company and important, you want to show that you care and can be a big help. Also, if you are connected to an important ongoing project, you are less likely to be ‘let go’ if you are one of the only people that knows what is going on with the project.

There are many other things that you can do to keep your job a little bit more secure, but these four ideas are definitely a good starting point. Just remember that everyone around you is going to be trying to keep their jobs just as much as you. Find your strengths and run with it, you may be surprised by how far it gets you. If you do find yourself in a situation without a secure job, here are a few ways to make money even if you don’t have a job!

Photo By: Emily

What’s the Stimulus Plan have for you? Explains Galia Gichon of Down-to-Earth Finance:

There are also benefits for first-time home buyers, higher paychecks, 529 college savings plans and car buyers.

Unemployment statistics are at their highest in years. Take, for example, this chart from The Speak of the House’s website, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That sinking green line is today’s recession.

Says the website:

This chart compares the job loss so far in this recession to job losses in the 1990-1991 recession and the 2001 recession – showing how dramatic and unprecedented the job loss over the last 13 months has been. Over the last 13 months, our economy has lost a total of 3.6 million jobs – and continuing job losses in the next few months are predicted.

So how do unemployment benefits keep up? Consider the differences between today’s economy and when the benefits were created.

According to MSNBC,
* There are many more part-time workers now than in 1935, but the program only covers those looking for full-time work.
* Many eligible jobless Americans are shut out because states use an outdated system for calculating their income, making it more difficult to meet requirements.
* Unemployment spells increasingly last longer than the usual 26-week jobless benefits program.

Prior to the emergency extensions only 1/3 of unemployed Americans were receiving benefits. That’s not the only change. Says the article,

“In decades past, layoffs during recessions were often short-lived and workers were eventually rehired by the same company. Today, companies are more likely to eliminate jobs for good, either by shutting down plants or moving them abroad, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.” [emphasis added]

If you’re unemployed, here’s an action list of things to do:

7 Ways for You and Your Family to Overcome Job Loss
How to Cope When You Lose a Job
How to Make the Most of Career Fairs
The Unemployment Survival Guide
A Great Depression Survivor Shares a Silver Lining