What Will the 2012 Job Market Look Like?

(Editor’s note: We recently asked a panel of HR and recruiting specialists to share their predictions for the coming year. Below is the full response from Todd Raphael, Editor in Chief, ERE Media.)

* In 2012, America will add thousands of jobs in the energy industry − in fracking, in gas … maybe building a new pipeline of oil from Canada to Texas. Speaking of Canada, the gap between it and America − with America continuing to grow much wealthier than our friendly neighbors (and less in debt than Canadians) − will continue. Eh?

* Energy and other areas, like breakthroughs in medical devices, will help the U.S. unemployment rate go down. Slowly. Returning veterans, though in many cases heavily coveted by employers, will pressure the job market, as it’ll mean more job seekers.

* Labor force participation among people with disabilities, sadly lagging for so long, will finally improve, thanks partly to more acceptance as well as more tools designed to help accommodate the aging population.

* The college bubble will begin to pop. Even the best colleges will have to slow the rate of tuition increases as higher-value alternatives keep emerging.

* LinkedIn will use its money for a smart acquisition. Lots of recent recruiting-industry startups will go under, and others, perhaps AllTheTopBananas out of the United Kingdom or the workforce planning vendor OrcaEyes out of Texas, will become much better known. Speaking of the U.K., the Olympics will be fantastic , particularly for temp-job seekers.

* Social media recruiting, remote work, flexible work, contingent work, and mobile phone recruiting will all continue to grow. Just kidding! (Do you think I’d dare make predictions so obvious?)

* A big temp-staffing company will announce a key partnership with a mobile phone application-maker.

* The experience of and treatment of job candidates will improve. Finally.

* The long-term unemployed will see their fortunes rise … a little. Many are older, and wise men and women will become more valuable as more companies get burned by social media and other mistakes and re-value experience and expertise.

* Job seekers will still kill to work for Teach for America. They’ll still like The Container Store, where employees can use their minds on the job, and Cisco, Starbucks, Deloitte, and Intel, where people just generally seem happy.

* A woman or minority will be recruited and selected as the vice presidential candidate: maybe New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte or Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. It might even be a woman and a minority, like South Carolina Governor Nicky Haley.

* Domestically, crime is way down. Globally, the world is less violent and more peaceful than ever. That’ll continue. It will be a good year.

Todd Raphael works on ERE’s conferences, the news and features on the ERE.net site, the print publication Journal of Corporate Recruiting Leadership, the ERE daily email newsletter, the ERE awards, and more. You can follow him on Twitter @ToddRaphael.