Stay Positive During Your Job Search

Author: Liz Frome

How To Stay Positive in a Hard Job Market.

It is hard when all you see in the news is negative job market reports.

The U.S. job market has been showing signs of a gradual weakening. But new federal data issued Friday suggests it may have hit a long-awaited wall.

 “We’re finally in the eye of the hurricane,” Daniel Zhao, chief economist at career site Glassdoor, wrote in a note. “After months of warning signs, the July jobs report confirms that the slowdown isn’t just approaching-it’s here,” he wrote.

‘Very soft’ job market - Employers added just 73,000 jobs in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That tally is less than expected. The July figure suggests the job market isn’t keeping pace with population growth, and is therefore contracting. Even more concerning than the July numbers: The job growth figures for May and June were much weaker than initially thought, economists said.

What Can You Do? Stay Positive.

Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health. Practice overcoming negative self-talk.

Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you're optimistic or pessimistic, and it may even affect your health.

Positive thinking doesn't mean that you ignore life's less pleasant situations. Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst.

If you’re feeling uninspired, stuck, or in despair: That’s OK. It happens to all of us, and it’s OK to NOT be OK, especially when in the current demanding job search market. Hope is your internal voice that says, “You’ve got this,” even when things feel shaky at best.

When your world feels as though it has been turned upside down, your steadiness and consistency become your strengths. There’s power in showing up for yourself; you can do this!

Here’s How to Show Up for Yourself.

• Create a structured routine to give yourself consistency for your search.

• Practice mindfulness and self-care as part of your routine.

• Rally the troops: now is the time to lean into your support network.

• Show up as yourself, even when you are feeling “less than.”

Keep applying for jobs and do not get discouraged, each application will get you closer to your next job. Reach out to The Job Shop and we can help you with the process of your job search.

'The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.' – Socrates