134,000 jobs were added in September according to the BLS, which is 50,000 lower than most professional analysts had projected. Some economists believe that Hurricane Florence may have affected the amount of jobs added last month. The upshot is that the national unemployment rate dropped to 3.7%, which is the lowest it has been since December of 1969.

Focusing on the specific jobs that have been added this past month; we see major gains in healthcare, transportation/warehousing as well as in professional and business services. Construction employment increased by 23,000 and employment in manufacturing increased by 18,000.

One downside is that even though there is a lower unemployment rate, the labor market is struggling to find qualified job candidates, which could negatively impact hiring in the months ahead.

Are you an organization struggling to find qualified talent? Contact us to learn more about our staffing programs and services.

Below, read about our manufacturing and engineering candidates.  If you anticipate continued hiring or anticipate unwanted turnover, contact us to learn more about our temporary and direct supplemental staffing programs.

Facilities Management Professional

* Facilities/Property Management professional with 20+ years experience in high profile property. Directed and managed strategic planning, capital & operating budgets, project management, construction, renovation, maintenance, housekeeping, grounds and parking.

* Knowledgeable with structural, architectural, base building infrastructure and life safety systems.

* Expertise in skilled trades, unions, permitting, code compliance, construction means/methods, maintenance contract negotiations, energy efficiency/sustainability programs, space planning and utilization.

* Designed power cable filters using various ferrites to help pass EMI emissions tests for CE.

* Worked with software engineers to reduce TC, RTD, HART Transmitter and other sensor type circuit noise.

* Used outside PCB designer to create my new circuit board to test new ASIC chip.

* Designed hardware for stepper motor board using motor controller IC and TI ARM processor. Worked with software engineer to confirm my SPI, USB, RS232 and I/O design configuration.

Sr. Electrical Engineer

* Designed/Redesigned RF Power Amplifiers to run CO2 Lasers. These Amplifiers were designed to run at 40.68MHz; 400W and 800W Output Power; up to 85% efficiency; CW and Pulse Mode operation.
* Designed DC to DC buck converter and software control for auto-fan.
* Designed 26dB Micro-Strip Power Coupler; transmission line transformers; PI, L, and T type matching circuits. Optimized impedance match between RFPA to Plasma Load using a double-L circuit.
* Integrated Control Card, RFPA, Coupler, Cabling and laser together.
* Used MPLAB IDE programming environment with ‘C’ programming to modify existing software on a PIC18 micro controller. Added many new functions for laser interfacing, control and monitoring. For example: over temperature sensing; input voltage monitor for protection; interlock; laser on time counter; Serial number, power and other input specs.
* Used ‘C’; MPLAB IDE; MathCad; Linear Tech, and RF99sim simulation tools.