PAGE 10A HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, AUGUST 8, 2014
JewishJobs.com
The pictured graph shows that 2014 has so far seen the highest number ofjobs-per-week
advertised on the Jewish Jobs.corn since the site was founded in 2001.
By Alina Dain Sharon
JNS.org
It has been six years since
the economy crashed in 2008,
andwhile finding employment
has been a challenge, the tide
may be taking a turn for the
better--particularly in the
non-profit sector. But where
do Jewish non-profits fall
within the current landscape,
from the perspective of both
job-seekers and employers?
Broadly speaking, employ-
ment continues to be "a
buyer's market," says Linda
Wolfe, director of career devel-
opment and placement at JVS
Chicago, an affiliate agency of
the International Association
of Jewish Vocational Services
(IAJVS).
"Employers are like kids in
a candy store," she tells JNS.
org. "They have their choice
[among] hundreds and hun-
dreds of candidates."
Yet when it comes to
non-profits, data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) shows a clear upward
trend in "industries in the
Religious, Grantmaking,
Civic, Professional, and Simi-
lar Organizations subsector
group establishments" since
about 2011.
Seasonally adjusted em-
ployment in these industries
totaled 2,925,300 employees
in June 2014, down from
2,964,600 in 2008. But with
some fluctuation, the num-
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ber of employees has been
slightly rising since 2011. The
unemployment rate for these
industries was 4.9 percent in
June 2014, up from 3.5 percent
in 2008 but down from 2011.
Statistics also show that
employees in these industries
are earning more per hour and
working fewer hours. In May
2014, employees in this sector
earned about $25.90 an hour,
a significant rise from $19.57
in 2008. They also worked 30.7
hours perweek this May, down
from 33 hours in 2008.
These findings underscore
the wider growth in part-time
jobs across the country. As the
Wall Street Journal reported
this month, while full-time
jobs last plunged by 523,000
in May, part-time jobs grew
by about 800,000 that month.
Just 47.7 percent of adults in
the U.S. are currentlyworking
full-time.
When it comes to Jewish
non-pr6fit jobs, the job-
posting website JewishJobs.
corn currently lists about 800
openings. A graph created by
the service shows that 2014
has so far seen the highest
number of jobs-per-week
advertised on the site since
its inception. The number
of weekly job advertisements
has been on the upswing since
about 2010, says Benjamin
Brown, the founder and direc-
tor of Jewish Jobs.com.
Brown founded the site in
2001while studying towards a
graduate degree in American
Jewish history and looking
to find a job at a Jewish orga-
nization. The site eventually
became a major job search-
ing and posting resource for
the Jewish community. As
such, Brown emphasizes,
the growth in the number
of jobs advertised as shown
in the graph could also be
influenced by Jewish organi-
zations' growing awareness
about the site.
Nonetheless, the graph is
still telling.
"In 2009, when the econ-
omy took a hit, the stock
market suffered and various
other industries suffered,
[and] the Jewish job market
was no exception," Brown
tells JNS.org. He says that in
2009, "therewas no heartbeat,
the economy was dead.., this
[trend] just generally reflects
the whole economy."
On JewishJobs.com, or-
ganizations advertising em-
ployment tend to be Jewish
federations, Jewish schools
from child day care centers
to preschools to high schools,
Jewish community centers,
American fundraising arms of
overseas Jewish non-profits,
local non-profits, and major
advocacy organizations.
About 6,000 organiza-
tions have been using the
job-posting site since it was
launched. When it comes to
job applicants, other than
graduating college students,
the candidates applying for
positions through the site
tend to be "what I would call
second career changers,"
Brown says.
The economy does have an
effect on decisions to transi-
tion to a career in the Jewish
non-profit sector, but many
job-seekers also simply decide
to do something they are more
passionate about.
Some former employees of
for-profit organizations "were
[laid] off by their work or the
whole department was elimi-
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nated," and some "get burned
out with the for-profit work
schedule," Brown suggests.
The job market has also
seen a growth in the number
of applicants per opening--a
trend that is evident in the
Jewish non-profit sector, in-
dicates the Joel Paul Group,
a 29-year-old New York-based
executive search and recruit-
ing firm conducting national
searches for entities with
501c3 non-profit status such
health and human services
organizations. Eighty-five
percent of the agency's work
is with Jewish organizations,
with searches primarily focus-
ing on middle to upper level
executives.
"From 2008 to now, there
has been an increase in the
number of jobs available to
job-seekers. But the numbers
of candidates are increasing
as well," William Hochman,
CEO and owner of the Joel
Paul Group, tells JNS.org.
But these days, "there are still
more applicants than there
are jobs out there," he says.
Hochman also points to
a fallout that resulted from
the recession, which forced
for-profitworkers like lawyers
or accountants whose jobs got
downsized to rebrand their
skills for jobs at non-profit
organizations.
"One thing the reces-
sion did that might not be
evident.., is that while the
non-profit [organizations]
got decimated because do-
nors weren't giving as much
due to recession issues, new
candidates [came] into the
non-profits who in the past
would have gone to account-
ing, finance, [or] Wall Street,"
he says.
"Let's say that [before the
recession] there were 20 ap-
plicants for a certain job, now
there can be 35, because there
are transitional candidates
added to the pool," Hochman
adds.
On the CEO hiring level,
Hochman explains, "Tradi-
tionally the non-profit orga-
nizations have taken leaders
from the non-profit sector,"
but in the past few years, many
non-profits "have [also] hired
lay leaders.., people who have
day jobs in the for-profit sec-
tor and are now going to be
CEO of organizations such
as the UJA-Federation of NY,
Birthright, JFNA (Jewish Fed-
erations of NorthAmerica), or
the Orthodox Union."
Non-Jewish candidates are
also applying for, and getting,
jobs at Jewish non-profits. Ste-
phen Moran of Malden, Mass.,
who is not Jewish, is currently
seeking employment after he
was laid off in 2011 from his
position as a senior analyst
at a bank. Moran has visited
Israel several times and is
interested in Judaism and
its traditions. He is applying
to jobs of different levels at
a variety of organizations,
including Jewish ones.
"You need to re invent your-
self to earn a living if you aren't
getting [your needs met with]
what you were doing before,"
he tells JNS.org.
The Joel Paul Group has
helped its Jewish organiza-
tional clients hire non-Jewish
candidates. "If the organiza-
tion is monikered as Jewish,"
says Hochman, people such
as the CEO or the fundraiser
will most likely be Jewish.
But if someone is performing
strictly internal job functions
such as the head of account-
ing, the CFO, or the head of IT,
their religion is not relevant,
Hochman explains.
"You want diversity," he
says. "You're hiring people
for their skill sets, except in
the cases [like the CEO or
fundraiser] I described."
According to Meryl Kanner,
the supervisor of career coun-
seling and placement services
at JVS in New Jersey, another
affiliate of IAJVS, at "Jewish
[non-profit] organizations, as
at non-Jewish organizations,
the most popular job that
gets posted is 'development/
fundraising.'"
This trend is echoed by
JVS Chicago's Wolfe, who
says fundraising/development
positions are significant to
non-profit organizations be-
cause they struggle more than
for-profit organizations to stay
financially afloat, especially in
a tough economy.
Jewish federations are a
prime example of that phe-
nomenon. Candidates for
fundraisingjobs at federations
"are the ones in greatest de-
mand," says Rea Kurzweil, the
managing director of talent
acquisition services at JFNA's
Mandel Center for Leadership
Excellence.
"It's all about bringing
in dollars and helping non-
profits survive, and the Jewish
federations are no different
than any other non-profit,"
she says.
Wolfe also sees workers
from the corporate world re-
alizing that non-profit social
service is something that they
can contribute their skills to.
"What we've learned at JVS
is that a lot of senior and mid-
level people that come from
the corporate world, [who]
have found their way to Jew-
ish communal service, really
want to give back at a certain
point in their lives," she says.
Many employers, however,
fear hiring candidates who
are often considered "over-
qualified." Wolfe believes that
if a candidate "comes from
the corporate world and is
willing and able and has the
skills to take a job in a smaller
non-profit," then it is "foolish
for an employer to pass that
person up."
At the same time, she says,
job-seekers are realizing "that
you can't always assume that
you're going to get the exact
position that you came from,
so there's a scaling down of
expectations."
The Jewish federations
in particular, according to
Kurzweil, are not necessar-
ily looking for candidates
with specific degrees or job
histories.
"There's a tremendous
move in the federations
towards bringing in people
who are risk-takers, who are
innovators," she says.
Wolfe says candidates need
to take initiative to show po-
tential employers that they
understand the organization,
and to explain how they intend
to solve the organization's
problems. But along with
that, she says they need to be
prepared for a reality in which
50-year-old candidates are
often being interviewed--and
subsequently managed--by
much younger supervisors.
"Jewish communal service
is obviously a little differ-
ent, there's more of a heart
involved in it, but it's still a
business," says Wolfe.
