Whatever you do for a living, all industries go through cycles of growth and shrinkage. There are flat periods and booms. There are recessions, too, and their usual result is a drastic reduction in job vacancies. That leaves most job seekers with a pretty lame set of options: apply for the two jobs in the sector, or do something else, however vaguely defined.

It depends how you read the job market. Looking for jobs that aren't there isn't too productive. The usual problem is breaking the mold, getting out of the single stream of employment. The mistake here is to assume you're stuck in the same industry. Most people's skills transfer across to other areas in other industries, some quite unrelated.

The fact is that most people don't know how to read the job market. They see a demand for accountants, but don't notice it's all in finance, not basic accountancy. The accounting analogy holds good for reading the job market. How many different kinds of accountant are there? Hundreds. Does the word “accountant” mean very much if it's not qualified? It's almost meaningless, because of the very different skill sets.

It's not a matter of jobs in demand, it's a matter of skills in demand.

To read the job market properly, in your own area, you need to focus almost exclusively on skills. Qualifications do matter, but you're usually in the bandwidth for jobs with the right skills. So your basic accountant will go looking for areas where they can demonstrate skills as the primary asset to getting the job.

Career paths are also built on skills and achievements, not job titles. To read the job market in career terms, you need to go looking for meaningful skill sets in your career path. If you want to develop your career, you have a general idea what's required, but you have to match that to the skills required in a position. Some jobs don't deliver that. If you want to become a research scientist, a series of steps in that career are required. You don't just look for “research,” you look for opportunities to do the work that gets the results.

How to read the job market:

Check skills as your primary reference to the suitability of any job. This covers most of the real issues about whether it's worth applying for.

Stay objective about what you want out of a job. Use this as the basic yes/ no criteria for job applications.

Ask yourself: Does this job go anywhere? If so, where and when? Be realistic about what a job can deliver.

How does the job compare to what you want? Sometimes you have to settle for what you can get, but there's a cutoff point. Stay in the general zone of what you want, as much as possible.

One thing about this type of reading: It never gets dull. Just stay focused.