U.S. initial unemployment claims drop 69,000, EmploymentCrossing finds 350,000 jobs nationwide.

May 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Pasadena, CA, May 20, 2011 – Initial jobless claims came down to 409,000 for the week ending May 14. This represents a decline of 69,000 from the week ending April 30, when the total stood at 478,000.

But the drop does not mean a major improvement in the job market. The unemployment rate has also gone up and now stands at 9.0 percent in April. And this figure excludes the fact that several million are considered underemployed or have dropped out of the work force. Students graduating this summer also face a tough job market.

A study from Northeastern University says that college graduates of 2009 and who are under 25 years of age, 22% are working in jobs that do not require a college degree and another 22.4% are not working. 2011 graduates will be facing competition for the few well-paying jobs from people who graduated in the last three years.

The public sector is also still shedding jobs. State and local governments are making cuts everywhere including in school districts, eliminating what were once considered among the safest jobs in the country – teachers. In March and April this year, 24,000 government jobs were lost. 8,000 of those jobs were in state governments and 14,000 were in local governments.

The few bright spots in the economy were increased hiring in the manufacturing sector and increased spending by businesses which resulted in more demand for professional services.

EmploymentCrossing, a job aggregator site, has been able to find over 350,000 jobs in the last seven days. The sectors with the most jobs on EmploymentCrossing are healthcare (74,000+), managerial (43,000+), information technology (33,000+), and retail (32,000+).

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EmploymentCrossing is the largest portal of employment opportunities in the world, seamlessly bringing job seekers and employers together. EmploymentCrossing is an umbrella company to about 100-plus industry-specific job boards.