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Connecticut’s unemployment rate rose to 6.6 percent during the month of November, according to the state Department of Labor

. Although this is slightly below the national average of 6.7 percent, it is still the highest the state has experienced in the last 15 years.

Altogether, the most recent statistics show that employers did away with 5,100 jobs in Connecticut

in November. This brought the total number of jobs in the state from October’s 1,698,500 to 1,693,400. In the last 12 months, approximately 10,500 jobs are been lost.

“The national recession has really caught up to us and pulled us down,” said labor economist John Tirinzonie.

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According to the RI Department of Labor and Training

, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged over the month, remaining at 9.3 percent in November — a high rate that doesn’t bode well for the Rhode Island job market.

From October to November of this year, the U.S. unemployment

rate rose two-tenths of a percent to reach 6.7 percent, its highest rate since October 1993.

The number of Rhode Island jobs in November 2008 declined by 4,000 from the revised October employment figure of 475,800, reducing the job count to 471,800. November marks the largest over-the-month employment drop since April 1991  (-4,300) and the eleventh straight month of job losses for both Rhode Island and the United States.

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Despite the current state of the economy, the Rhode Island job

outlook has potential for graduates of the Community College of Rhode Island .

Every year the college conducts a survey of its past graduates within six to nine months after graduation, according to an article by The Providence Journal

. The most recent results proved that more than 40 percent of students had found jobs, but the current trend of the economy could weigh on the next graduating class.“It’s going to be a tough, tough year in fields outside of health care,” President Ray Di Pasquale said in the article.

Of the 1,320 2007 graduates, about 80 percent responded to the survey. Of those surveyed, 47 percent had found full-time jobs, down from 53 percent in 2006. About 29.4 percent are pursuing education full-time, while 6.5 percent were pursuing education part-time. Only 5.4 percent responded that they were unemployed and looking for work, up from 3.2 percent in 2006.

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Many Illinois manufacturing jobs

will soon be lost.

ArcelorMittal

recently announced its plan to close, cutting about 285 jobs in the process. According to an article by the Chicago Tribune , the Luxembourg-based company says the plant duplicates work done at other plants.

The plant slated to close is located in Hennepin, Ill., about 50 miles northwest of Bloomington. It is unknown when exactly the plant will close, and the company is working on providing severance pay to the workers who will lose their jobs.

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WebApps, Inc. a.k.a. SaaS.com

, a  provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) with a major push in Workforce Management Solutions, announces its partnership with Paybridge, LLC, a payroll service bureau that specializes in payroll, retirement and human resources outsourcing, which will create a comprehensive human resources software solution.

In today’s economic climate with the need to evaluate every cent allocated, especially within operations, SaaS.com’s pricing model is appealing to its channel partners. Tony Chiviles, Owner of Paybridge, commented, “When originally looking for a Time & Attendance provider, we were dealing with an organization that had very complicated pricing. It seemed like they changed the agreement every ten minutes and had different pricing for different levels of users. With SaaS.com, the pricing was very straightforward, a subscription based pricing option with one flat price no matter what level of user; employee, manager or administrator.”

For those organizations concerned about a lengthy implementation timeline, Chiviles noted, “I was surprised with how smoothly the implementation went. Even from the first client, it took practically no time at all. In less then a day everything was successfully implemented. It seemed almost instantaneous.”

Many business owners and managers tend to adhere to the saying, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” While organizations may be hesitant to bring on a new product, Chiviles eases concerns by saying, “The solution is cutting down on businesses time spent on administrative processes, giving them a higher availability of accurate information. For example, we had a client who was using paper time cards that managers manually entered into an Excel spreadsheet. Now, with the solution acquired from our partnership with SaaS.com, it’s almost like the employees do it themselves. The managers simply run a report to approve the time worked by employees, and then automatically export that data to an Excel spreadsheet.” He continued, “The partnership has been great, and every time we call, SaaS.com is there for us.”

For those with Philadelphia jobs

in the suburbs, getting to work can be a hassle. However, the Philadelphia Unemployment Project has found a way to help.

For nearly three years the organization has run a program that helps workers who live in the city get to jobs in the suburbs

. Under the program, drivers get personal use of a van for 200 miles per month in return for taking coworkers to work, according to an article by The Philadelphia Inquirer . The project pays for the van, insurance, maintenance and gasoline.

The van program launched in March 2006 with a few leased vans and $1.4 million in federal funding, which was matched by funds from Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry

, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and some employers, who pay $2,000 per year for each van. The program now has 29 vans and 130 riders working all shifts. The city also has seen an additional $900,000 in federal funding, while $600,000 from the original grants still remain.

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