5 Need-to-Know Trends in Today's Job Market

This week, President Obama is on a three-day bus tour through three Midwestern states to talk up plans for turbo-charging the economy, including initiatives to help rural communities create more jobs.

His timing couldn't be better. The trip comes on the heels of the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and last week's widely viewed debate among 2012 Republican presidential candidate hopefuls. It's also just days after Texas Gov. Rick Perry tossed his Stetson into the upcoming presidential campaign ring, buoyed by reports that the Lone Star State has created more jobs than any other since the recession.

One Obama administration initiative announced Tuesday would help boost green-energy jobs in rural areas by creating next-generation biofuels from U.S. feedstock for military and commercial aviation and marine use, according to a CBS News report. During this week's bus tour, Obama also vowed to send a jobs bill to Congress next month and campaign against lawmakers who refuse to support it, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Creating jobs to keep the economy from backsliding into another recession is one trend that economists, academics and other jobs watchers have identified as helping shape today's employment scene.

Here are five other job market trends to be aware of, especially if you're over 40:

1. Boomers are staying in the work force longer. A new Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) study is the latest proof that people are working longer, out of necessity or design. According to the Washington, D.C., nonprofit benefits researcher, the overall labor participation rate for workers 55 and older has risen steadily since 1993, to 40.2 percent in 2010, the highest it's been in the past 35 years. Last year, over a third (36.4 percent) of women 55 and older were still working, the highest percentage ever. People are likely to continue working longer, the EBRI study concludes, to save more for retirement, make up for investment portfolios that tanked during the recession or to retain health insurance coverage.

2. Despite a national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, certain jobs remain unfilled due to lack of essential skills. Employers report a knowledge gap in occupations such as accounting, web development, sales and welding that's left job openings unfilled. In one example, companies moving their corporate headquarters to a 10-county area around Nashville have created the need for 33 percent more accountants, or about 4,900, in the next decade. That's prompting local high schools and universities to expand classes and accelerated programs, according to this report in the Tennessean.

3. People may be working, but they're overworked or unhappy, and many would switch jobs if they could. A recent employee attitudes study from Mercer, a human resources management consultant, found that 32 percent of 2,400 U.S. employees surveyed were considering leaving their current positions, up from 23 percent six years ago. Another 21 percent weren't looking to leave, but were unhappy enough to give their companies "rock bottom" scores for loyalty, motivation and other measures of employee engagement. "Employees see a disconnect between what employers are promising and what they are delivering," says Mindy Fox, a Mercer senior partner in a June 2011 release announcing the survey findings.

4. Employees are happier with more flexible work schedules, but so far, most don't have them. A large majority (87 percent) of people say schedules that would let them better manage work and personal or family life would be "extremely" or "very" important if they were job hunting, according to a late 2010 study from the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit work force research group. Yet in the same study, 20 percent of employees disagreed "somewhat" or "strongly" that they have that kind of flexibility in their current positions. Based on data collected by National Study of the Changing Workforce surveys over the past 16 years, the number of wage and salaried employees with access to flextime has stayed steady at approximately 44 percent for the past decade.

5. More public and private employers offer telecommuting, but they still lag worker interest. Regular telecommuting grew by 61 percent between 2005 and 2009, with increases coming from private employers and government agencies, according to a June 2011 report from the Telework Research Network, a San Diego-based think tank on job trends. While 63 million U.S. employees hold jobs that could be done at home at least part of the time, fewer than 3 million -- or approximately 2.3 percent of the population -- do so on a regular basis, according to the report. Boomers are prime telecommuting candidates. In fact, according to the Telework Research Network, the typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old, college-educated, salaried, nonunion employee in a management or professional role, earning $58,000 a year at a company with more than 100 employees.

Read more: Jobs Report Quells Market

2011 Employment Snapshot: Where the Jobs Are

9 Companies Hiring Now