Nobody likes a party pooper. But I can’t see stupidity and just let it stand, especially when it’s going to mislead thousands of already disadvantaged job-seekers. The harmful stupidity I refer to is an article on CNN.com called Ten promising jobs for class of 2009 (but don’t go there just yet, I have some explaining to do). The article, written by Careerbuilder, is a blatant example of how some companies will spread misinformation just to sell a product.

What’s so bad about the article? I’ll tell you what. The article claims to compile a list of growing jobs for the year of 2009, saying:

“To help your search and calm your nerves, we’ve put together a list of 10 jobs that college grads should look for this year.” 

Then, claiming to compile data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) Job Outlook 2009 and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook, they come up with a list of ten “healthy” job sectors. In reality, however, they flat out disregard data from NACE and quote outdated, pre-financial meltdown numbers from BLS (their handbook was written before 2006 and the world has changed considerably since then).

Let’s see what NACE really had to say about job prospects in 2009:

“College Hiring Flat for Class of 2009’
“Current projected hiring for the Class of 2009 shows very little growth over the hiring levels for the Class of 2008, but no expected decline.”

In fact, NACE found marked decreases in recruiting in business services (-3.1%) and only tiny increases in Professional Services (1.7%).

Then they use statistics from before 2006 to fabricate some sunny news. I mean, they used numbers created in 2005. In 2005, people still thought adjustable rate mortgages were a great idea. Americans liked George W. Bush enough to vote him in for a second term. People thought that in money markets, the stock market, and the real estate market the sky was the limit. Needless to say, things were different.

This should tick off anyone who knows anything about projections and the job market. There is no way these numbers are accurate for our times. There is no way the writer, Careerbuilder, or CNN actually thought this was based on solid facts. And yet, CNN has allowed Careerbuilder to slap this crap up on their page and pass it off as journalism, as advice to embattled job-seekers.

Kind of makes you sick, doesn’t it?

The writer of this article knows better. Careerbuilder knows better. CNN definitely knows better. Kind of makes you wonder what other crap they are feeding us.

Check out the crap for yourself…

You get online, search jobs, apply, submit your resume, hit ’send’, and then… and then, well, nobody knows what happens. Unless you’re the creme de la creme, hiring managers don’t call or write. You don’t even know if they got the dang thing. For all you know it goes to some cyber-shredder in the back alleys of cyberspace to become mulch for… something. For all you know, it gets printed up in Albuquerque to become the cheeseburger wrapper for some trucker named Bubba. For all you know, it gets read aloud in some club somewhere for comic relief. There must be a better way.