The job market continues to hold strong in the face of the housing and credit crisis.

A Friday story “Employers boost payrolls by 94,000; jobless rate holds steady at 4.7 percent” says:

Job and wage growth have been shock absorbers, helping individuals to cope with all the negative forces in the economy. The mostly sturdy employment climate has helped to support spending by individuals, a major shaper of overall economic activity … Average hourly earnings rose to $17.63 in November, a 0.5 percent increase from the prior month. That marked the biggest monthly gain since June. The only other time the monthly gain was higher was in October 2005. Economists were expecting a more moderate rise of 0.3 percent. Over the past 12 months, wages grew by 3.8 percent.

What growth have you experienced in your job? If you are looking for a job, what does this news mean to you?

You can set yourself apart from other candidates by researching a company before the interview. What does this entail and what are the best ways of going about it?

Group interviews can be a challenge for even the most seasoned of professionals. But what “group interview” means today can be a bit different than what they meant 10 years ago. A group interview now can have five to six candidates interviewed side-by-side.

According to Star Tribune reporter H.J. Cummins: It’s a predicament facing a good number of “Millennials” — people in Generation Y, from age 6 to 26 — as they apply for their first jobs.

Read the full article here.

Have you participated in a group interview? How do you think you would handle this type of interview?

Kara McGuire, Star Tribune personal financial writer, talks about “career exploration” for recent grads in her column “what next?” She writes:

I can’t tell you how many parents have contacted me in the past year with concerns about their recent graduate, who left college with hefty debt and no job. Not wanting to meddle, but eager for Junior to leave the nest, they search for ways to help their kid on the sly, because their alma mater doesn’t seem to be doing much … some in the career counseling field think colleges are failing to teach students how to conduct an effective job search and sell themselves in a competitive marketplace.

Here are some of her tips on how to conduct a job hunt after college.

What are some of the difficulties of finding a job when you’re fresh from college? Did your alma mater help you find a job? Any good ideas on how to attack the hunt?

Today H.J. Cummins, who covers the employment beat for Star Tribune, opened her article with:

Minnesota’s job picture worsened Tuesday as new state data showed a double whammy of bad news during the past two months.

The state set a record in the wrong direction last month, as its 4.9 percent unemployment rate came in 0.2 percentage points over the national average, according to Tuesday’s monthly jobs report. In May, Minnesota’s jobless rate was worse than the nation’s for the first time in 30 years of record-keeping, then by 0.1 percentage points.

Read her full article here: Twin blows on the jobs front.

How is it going out there in the Minneapolis job market? Does this article feel accurate for what you experience? Do you struggle to find jobs?