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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With John Challenger

Aired May 11, 2003 - 09:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Now I'm going to throw one more number at you, because I think it's significant. In February alone, more than 300,000 jobs were cut, but that picture might be changing, according to a new survey. A lot of companies are planning to start hiring again within the next six months or so and more than half anticipate growth. So, just what industries are hiring, of course, you want to know that. So, we've asked John Challenger, who is a partner in an employment consulting firm in Chicago, to talk about that. And, John joins us now.
Good morning. First of all, John, and we want to ask, first off, where and what fields are the hottest ones? Where are they hiring?

JOHN CHALLENGER, EMPLOYMENT CONSULTANT: One of the hottest areas is health care -- hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, bio-techs. It's an area of the economy that can't but grow because you've got a baby boom generation that's aging.

NEVILLE: OK, but, let's say you're not trained in the field of health care. What happens then?

CHALLENGER: Well, first, in health care there are many jobs from companies that don't require you to have a medical degree, you can work in a big pharmaceutical company and that might be in sales; that might be in purchasing; administration, so there are jobs there. But there are other areas of the economy that are also doing well.

NEVILLE: And, indeed, in fact, want to go ahead and share with everybody a survey from the Robinson College of Business. Now, pointing out that marketing and business development, we're talking about the greatest growth potential, it has a growth potential of 57 percent; then followed by the finance field of 10 percent, sales, 7 percent; and information technology, 7 percent. You know, but the information technology at 7 percent, John, you know there are a lot of people in that field and again, if you are not trained in the marketing area, where you've got about 57 percent potential growth, again, how do you make the transition? Do you go back for further education? Or, you know, people need jobs and need them now.

CHALLENGER: Well, we recommend that people think of their education as life-long, that means you're always going in and taking classes your company might offer. You try to do it at night because most people, unless they're just out of school in their early 20s can't take two or three years off to go back to school, but if you can get that education on an ongoing basis, you're going to enhance your career. Once you're mid-career, also, you tend to stay within the basic field you've been in. Finance, for example, one of those areas is a strong area. More and more companies today are concentrating on the bottom line, they're putting in accounting controls, cost accounting kinds of programs, financial analysts to go in and make sure that everything, the books are clean and, also, the company is doing everything it can to make its profit through that kind of cost cutting.

NEVILLE: But John, I'm talking about people who are trained in one area and perhaps they're not in jobs right now, because you have a high rate of underemployment, as well. So, you have people who are taking jobs at half the pay and these people are trying to, perhaps, look into fields such as marketing and if you're not already trained in that field that's what this sort of education I'm talking about, not night courses while you're already in a job.

CHALLENGER: You know its -- yes, there are 4.5 million people out there, right now, as you say, who are underemployed, they're working in part-time jobs and hope they could find a full-time job. If you want to go into sales and marketing, certainly that's a key area of every company. There's not one organization in the country that isn't out there looking to build its business and hiring good sales and marketing people, but you have to go in, when you haven't done that before, at entry level and you have to prove yourself.

NEVILLE: Yes, that is indeed, the case. John Challenger, thank you very much. I hope we have provided some viewers with some important information this morning. Thank you very much for joining us.

CHALLENGER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 11, 2003 - 09:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Now I'm going to throw one more number at you, because I think it's significant. In February alone, more than 300,000 jobs were cut, but that picture might be changing, according to a new survey. A lot of companies are planning to start hiring again within the next six months or so and more than half anticipate growth. So, just what industries are hiring, of course, you want to know that. So, we've asked John Challenger, who is a partner in an employment consulting firm in Chicago, to talk about that. And, John joins us now.
Good morning. First of all, John, and we want to ask, first off, where and what fields are the hottest ones? Where are they hiring?

JOHN CHALLENGER, EMPLOYMENT CONSULTANT: One of the hottest areas is health care -- hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, bio-techs. It's an area of the economy that can't but grow because you've got a baby boom generation that's aging.

NEVILLE: OK, but, let's say you're not trained in the field of health care. What happens then?

CHALLENGER: Well, first, in health care there are many jobs from companies that don't require you to have a medical degree, you can work in a big pharmaceutical company and that might be in sales; that might be in purchasing; administration, so there are jobs there. But there are other areas of the economy that are also doing well.

NEVILLE: And, indeed, in fact, want to go ahead and share with everybody a survey from the Robinson College of Business. Now, pointing out that marketing and business development, we're talking about the greatest growth potential, it has a growth potential of 57 percent; then followed by the finance field of 10 percent, sales, 7 percent; and information technology, 7 percent. You know, but the information technology at 7 percent, John, you know there are a lot of people in that field and again, if you are not trained in the marketing area, where you've got about 57 percent potential growth, again, how do you make the transition? Do you go back for further education? Or, you know, people need jobs and need them now.

CHALLENGER: Well, we recommend that people think of their education as life-long, that means you're always going in and taking classes your company might offer. You try to do it at night because most people, unless they're just out of school in their early 20s can't take two or three years off to go back to school, but if you can get that education on an ongoing basis, you're going to enhance your career. Once you're mid-career, also, you tend to stay within the basic field you've been in. Finance, for example, one of those areas is a strong area. More and more companies today are concentrating on the bottom line, they're putting in accounting controls, cost accounting kinds of programs, financial analysts to go in and make sure that everything, the books are clean and, also, the company is doing everything it can to make its profit through that kind of cost cutting.

NEVILLE: But John, I'm talking about people who are trained in one area and perhaps they're not in jobs right now, because you have a high rate of underemployment, as well. So, you have people who are taking jobs at half the pay and these people are trying to, perhaps, look into fields such as marketing and if you're not already trained in that field that's what this sort of education I'm talking about, not night courses while you're already in a job.

CHALLENGER: You know its -- yes, there are 4.5 million people out there, right now, as you say, who are underemployed, they're working in part-time jobs and hope they could find a full-time job. If you want to go into sales and marketing, certainly that's a key area of every company. There's not one organization in the country that isn't out there looking to build its business and hiring good sales and marketing people, but you have to go in, when you haven't done that before, at entry level and you have to prove yourself.

NEVILLE: Yes, that is indeed, the case. John Challenger, thank you very much. I hope we have provided some viewers with some important information this morning. Thank you very much for joining us.

CHALLENGER: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com