By Tricia Pemberton, The Daily Oklahoman Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jan. 1--Fewer people this year will worry about changing careers and more plan to invest in real estate, but once again, health and fitness is the biggest category for New Year's resolutions, according to a popular goal-setting Web site.
Eighteen percent of consumers resolutions for this year were career-related. That's down from 27 percent a year ago.
'Deep concerns about jobs were so strong last year that career-related resolutions surpassed the usual top category -- health and fitness,' said Greg Helmstetter, chief executive officer for myGoals.com. 'This year, a marked drop in job-related goals shows that people are starting to focus more on other areas of their lives such as family, getting organized and fixing up the house. That's good news for everybody.'
In Oklahoma, however, the number of people looking for a job in the new year may be up. According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, unemployment was up 12,583 in November, or from 4.5 percent to 5.3 percent from November 2002 to November 2003. Seasonal employment figures are not counted.
Lynn Gray, managing economist for the commission, said, however, that while unemployment figures were up over 2002, the rate has slowed during the past six months. Unemployment declined from 5.8 percent to 5.3 percent, a high of 23,137 reached in the first six months of 2003.
Gray attributed the recent drop in unemployment to the turnaround in the overall economy -- a combination of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates low; Congress decreasing taxes and increasing government spending; and the gradual decline in the value of the dollar, which has helped U.S. sales overseas and employment here.
'Now, the question is, once those things have exerted their influence, will the economy be self-containing? I'm cautiously optimistic,' Gray said.
Meanwhile, this year's health and fitness resolutions -- which includes ever-popular weight-loss goals -- are expected to reclaim the top spot, Helmstetter said.
Cara Langer, vice president of the YMCA of greater Oklahoma City, said this is no surprise. Fitness centers always see a boost in business at the beginning of each year.
'January is always the largest month for people joining,' Langer said. She estimated that from December through March, membership increases 10 percent to 11 percent.
Representatives for Jenny Craig weight loss centers and Weight Watchers said they also see a large spike in membership at the beginning of each year.
Cozette Phifer, director of corporate communications for Jenny Craig said the company anticipates responses to be up more than 200 percent during the first quarter of the year.
Kevin Dinino, spokesman for Weight Watchers, said, 'This is the largest dieting season of the year.' Last year, Weight Watchers posted $251.5 million in net revenue, $217 million was posted in the first quarter.
Other noteworthy trends, according to myGoals.com, show a significant increase in resolutions related to investing in real estate.
'We're seeing a tremendous increase in goals to purchase rental properties,' Helmstetter said. 'Last year, we observed a sharp decrease in goals related to investing in stocks. It's safe to say that real estate is absorbing some of that investment capital. While real estate still remains a relatively small category of goals overall, resolutions to purchase rental properties -- ranging from single-family homes to large apartment buildings -- are significantly stronger than we've ever seen in the three years we've been collecting data.'
MyGoals.com's annual prediction of New Year's resolutions is based on 500 randomly selected goals set by the Web site's users during the third quarter.
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(c) 2004, The Daily Oklahoman. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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