Alan Bernstein is saying something job seekers haven’t heard lately from other Fortune 1000 executives: “We have 65,000 employees worldwide, but that doesn’t mean anything because I need 5,000 more.”
Bernstein, chief operating officer of The Wackenhut Corp., the international security company with offices in 170 U.S. cities, including suburban Downers Grove, said, “I could hire 5,000 people tomorrow, if they were of the quality Wackenhut requires.”
Although the U.S. unemployment rate is at a 10-year high and a cross-section of industries have been crippled by the economic aftershock of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, new areas of job growth are emerging as companies grapple with how to get their businesses back on track.
Some opportunities are immediate and obvious, while others are subtle and will take months or even years to develop. But executives and consultants predict strong demand in the physical security, hazardous-materials, public health, information technology and risk-management fields.
Regardless of the industry, experts believe many jobs created to respond to the new threats likely will have a strong technological bent, which is good news for laid-off workers in the battered technology and telecommunications sectors.
“A lot of new technology is going to be introduced as a result of the security initiatives now underway,” said Tom Cauthern, associate partner in the Travel and Transportation Services practice of Chicago-headquartered Accenture Ltd., the world’s largest consulting company. “Regardless of the industry, companies will need people to implement this technology and train existing employees to use it.”The need for new technologically savvy workers will be greatest in the layoff-plagued airline industry, predicted Cauthern, whose clients include Chicago’s United Airlines, along with Delta Airlines and British Airways.
In its annual survey completed well before the Sept. 11 attacks, the trade magazine Security found that companies projected a 5 percent increase in their security budgets in 2001, with a larger share of the increase going toward personnel than any other category. And since the bombings, some companies that make up the country’s $20 billion-a-year security industry are reporting increases in billings of up to 50 percent.
And don’t assume they’re minimum-wage “rent-a-cops” anymore. “We’re all now very aware that cutting corners when it comes to what security personnel are paid doesn’t work,” said Bernstein, adding that Wackenhut provides extensive training and pays its average guard $15 to $20 an hour.
Individuals with military or law enforcement backgrounds will be in hot demand for jobs ranging from corporate executive protection to conducting terrorism risk assessments for companies with international operations, security professionals said.
Mike Stapleton Associates, Inc., a New York-based security company whose client roster includes the United Nations, CNN, Delta Airlines and New York’s Empire State Building, boasts the country’s largest commercial explosive protection operation. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the company has more than doubled its number of bomb-sniffing dogs. Even before Sept. 11, background checks of prospective employees by companies had become relatively commonplace, a demand that has grown dramatically since the attacks, industry analysts said. This translates into excellent job prospects for workers with investigative experience or similar analytical skills, said Steve Kaufer, immediate past president of the International Association of Professional Security Consultants.
Kaufer also predicted growing demand for technicians capable of installing, repairing and trouble-shooting sophisticated security systems.
Concerns about bio-terrorism also will fuel massive spending to revamp the country’s public health system, including plenty of new hires, experts predict.
These efforts, too, are expected to have a strong technical facet. Building and operating comprehensive computerized systems enabling local, state, and federal public health departments to instantaneously share information will be critical, according to Jennifer Leaning, a professor of international health and director of the Program on Humanitarian Crises and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Strong job growth also is expected in more traditional industries now grappling with how to efficiently yet safely return to their pre-Sept. 11 levels of business. For example, the total cost of extra security measures could add $20 billion to the country’s $1 trillion annual freight-transportation and logistics bill, according to Cass Information Systems Inc., a St. Louis company serving the transportation industry. “Certainly, anybody with a security background will be in demand,” said Thomas L. Finkbiner, chief executive officer of Quality Distribution Inc., the largest liquid bulk transportation company in North America, which hired its first director of security a week after the terrorist attacks. “We’re going to be hiring people with specific expertise we’ve never hired before, particularly related to transporting hazardous materials.”
Danny Peterson, who parlayed his work fighting chemical and bio-terrorism for the U.S. Air Force into a faculty position with the Department of Environmental Technology Management at Arizona State University, is counting on exactly that type of job growth. Under Peterson’s direction, Arizona State has expanded its master’s degree in environmental technology to include a concentration in emergency management. Beginning in January, students outside Arizona will be able to pursue the degree over the Internet.
“Companies are realizing that if their operations are taken down–whether it’s by natural or man-made acts–they need a plan to resume normal operations as quickly as possible to keep their companies viable,” said Peterson, who developed and teaches a course on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. “Companies will hire employees dedicated to emergency management.”
Even before the terrorist attacks, the worldwide market for electronic security was experiencing substantial gains. For example, the international Internet security software market increased by one-third to $5.1 billion in 2000, according to International Data Corp., and is expected to be a $14 billion industry by 2005.
“If I’m the bad guy and a wall of physical security has been erected, there are other areas of entry I may consider,” said Jason Taule, global director of information and systems security for Ajilon LLC, an international IT services provider based in Maryland. Because of that threat, Taule said hot post-Sept. 11 careers will include technical specialists with network security experience, especially those that test systems and have the ability to fix bugs.
Professionals with critical business-thinking skills who can perform business continuity planning also will be in demand, particularly those with background in fields like insurance risk assessment.
After the uncertainty and chaos caused by the terrorist attacks dies down, experts agreed that skilled workers will be hired for their ability to help return companies and organizations to their previous levels of productivity and efficiency while simultaneously implementing safeguards that ensure security.
“We’re starting to see people lift up their heads and ask, `How do I move forward? How do we get going again?'” said Accenture’s Cauthern. “It’s going to require an entirely new mind-set. More than ever, companies will need employees who know how to employ new information and technology to work smarter and more productively.”
