JobsStat

Unemployment across the nation has been on the rise. Most recently the U.S. jobless rate climbed to 7.6 percent. Despite this, jobs in Virginia have remained comparatively easy to find, considering the labor situation. This most likely has to do with the large presence of government jobs.

Although the situation is not as bad in Virginia as it has been for the rest of the nation, unemployment is still on the rise in the state. The most recent statistics show that the jobless rate jumped from 4.8 percent in November to 5.4 percent in December. During this time the national average was 7.2 percent.

Despite the fact that the local economy seems to be fairing relatively well, all things considered, many employers are still doing away with some of the Virginia jobs that they provide. One business currently in the process of doing this is Stanley Furniture, which recently announced that it will be doing away with 100 jobs at its Stanleytown, Virginia plant. The soon-to-be axed jobs are all in production.

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Records used for background checks contain a variety of information that could lead the identity theft if they fell into the wrong hands. Because of this, companies that deal with such information have to be very careful with their databases. When something goes wrong many can have serious reasons to be concerned.

The Arkansas Department of Information Systems (DIS) is currently worried about one set of its records. A private company, Information Vaulting Services (IVS) that stores their information off-site recently informed them that one of the computer tapes full of data is missing from their inventory.

Somewhere around 807,000 people who had background checks ran on them in the state are on the tape that has been misplaced. The records span around 12 years on this particular tape.

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As the economy worsens, jobs in Minneapolis suffer. Since more people are struggling to find work, fewer people have the money to spend on unnecessary purchases. The less money being spent at retailers then causes these establishments to have to reduce the size of their workforces because they lack the number of customers and amount of money to justify jobs, which in turn starts the cycle all over again.

One employer that is having to cut Minneapolis jobs for similar reasons is Best Buy Co. Inc. Recently the company announced that it will be doing away with 250 positions at is corporate headquarters, which is located in the capital city.

Although the company said that this many workers will be losing their jobs, a large number of them may be eligible for other positions that are in the process of being created. Best Buy plans to post approximately 210 new Minneapolis area jobs, meaning that the real number of positions in this industry the city will be losing is significantly smaller than it may seen at first glance. A net loss of 40 jobs is less likely to have a large effect on the area’s economy than losing 250 positions would.

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If you’ve watched or read business news in the last six months, you might get the impression that no one has a job anymore. However, this perception is simply not true. Overwhelming numbers of Americans are still employed. Therefore, there is still a great need for companies to implement good compensation strategies to help keep their current workforce focused and engaged.

When the headlines are dominated by bailouts, layoffs and stimulus packages, it’s very easy for employers to take the “you’re lucky you have a job” approach towards employees. And yes, companies can forgo salary increases, cancel bonuses, cut benefits and/or layoff employees and those actions could all be valid for the survival of the business. However, these approaches should be considered as a last resort because they could have long term adverse effects on your most valued employees. Martha Glantz, a senior director at Total Compensation Solutions, has been involved in several significant downsizings for major corporations and she has seen the fallout from these actions. “They might stay through the hard times but you have also given them reasons to be resentful and/or to start looking elsewhere,” says Glantz.

In a time of economic downturns, it is imperative that companies retain their most productive and valuable employees. Because even when the economy is sluggish, organizations still need to continue operations, maintain business relationships, provide good products and services and find new avenues of business. These goals cannot be accomplished unless you have your best people in place.

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During the month of December, unemployment in Illinois rose from 6.9 percent to 7.8 percent, according to the State Department of Employment Security. This is the highest joblessness has been in the state since 1993 when more than 8 percent of residents were without work.

When compared to the previous year this increase shows just how badly the recession is beginning to affect those without work’s ability to find jobs in Illinois. At the end of 2007, joblessness was only 5.3 percent. The part of the state where the unemployment was the highest was the Rockford area, where 12.5 percent of people couldn’t find a job.

Altogether 30,000 Illinois jobs were cut in December as employers did way they could to meet the challenges of smaller budgets. So far, signs are already pointing to the fact that early 2009 will be no different from the end of last year.

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During December the unemployment rate in Chicago rose to 7 percent. Although this was slightly lower than the holiday season’s national average of 7.2 percent, it was still a jump from November’s 6.3 percent. It was also a significant increase from last years 4.9 percent joblessness, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). All of this goes to show that finding jobs in Chicago has gotten more difficult recently. The state’s unemployment rate for December was 7.6 percent.

December also marked the 20th consecutive month that all 12 metropolitan areas in state saw an increase in joblessness. The Illinois cities with the highest unemployment were Rockford, where 12.5 percent of residents were without work, and Kankakee-Bradley, with a jobless rate of 10.5 percent.

“This national economic downturn has created challenges across Illinois,” said Maureen O’Donnel, who is the director of the IDES. “We continue to evaluate how best to help in these difficult times.”

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With the economy struggling, many staffing firms have recently found themselves in trouble. Since fewer employers are hiring, the need for outside companies to help keep their offices full. Because of this some of these firms have had to cut the number that they employ. Staffing agencies that help match the unemployed with healthcare jobs haven’t had to deal with such problems because this industry has continued to flourish. In fact, many such firms actually experienced growth in 2008.

Accordingly to a recent press release, Medical Solutions, which is a staffing company that handles jobs for travel nurses and other allied health positions, experienced a growth rate of 43 percent between 2007 and last year. This resulted in the company having somewhere over $43 million in revenue for the year.

Although Medical Solutions attributed their success to their “solid business strategies and their focus on the customer” in the press release, some of the growth most likely comes from the fact that the number of medical jobs keeps increasing. With the population growing in size and getting older, hospitals and other medical facilities constantly have to hire new workers. Add to this the fact that there hasn’t been a drastic increase in the number of people being trained for such jobs and it is easy to see why such a firm has had such a rise in popularity.

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Unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave somewhere, you’ve probably heard that the economy is suffering. The rising occurrence of layoffs and factories closing mixed with falling job listings has created a horrendous mix that is hurting the budgets of Americans from sea to shining sea. Most of last year was marked by an ever decreasing employment market, and, according to The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index (ETI) December’s reports showed no signs of an end in sight.

Data shows that the Index continued to drop during the last month of 2007, falling 1.6 percent from November’s 101.2 to 99.6. Although this may seem like a small decline, it is extremely significant when compared to data from the same time last year. Since December of 2007 The Conference Board has seen a decrease of almost 16 percent.

Worse than the fact that searching for jobs is getting much more difficult, is the fact that the employment situation is expected to continue to decay in this year.

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With unemployment on the rise, the employment market is oversaturated with people hoping to find work. Because of this, many hiring managers are finding themselves overwhelmed with resumes. This means that they are wasting valuable time on the wrong candidates, when they could be attracting the right ones.
In hopes of helping HR departments do just this, recruiting software provider VCG recently announced the newest addition to their line of products, Pointwing version 1.4. This program is expected to make attracting new workers easier and faster, both of which HR mangers will be happy for.

One of the new additions to Pointwing 1.4 is a Job Publisher application, which many users will be pleased with. Instead of taking the time to handle each individual site, this recruiting software speeds up the process by announcing available positions on multiple job boards at the same time. This not only increases the amount of exposure that each job gets but also saves much needed time.

Resumes from applicants who choose to apply online are then immediately available in Pointwing. The applicant tracking portion of this recruiting software then enables the user to search through candidates using a variety of parameters to find the best matches for their companies. In addition to this, the user is able to monitor each job board’s performance and ROI.

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Background checks are now the norm to beginning every new job. We have to make ourselves sound better than the competition. People think that if they make themselves sound appealing to an employer, the employer won’t find out that they’re lying.

According to Forbes, at least 40 percent of people lie on their resumes. To combat this, HR people put much more time in the quality of their background checks. As someone looking for a job, I would definitely want to show off my skills and talents more than the other guy. But is it the truth?

If I were an employer, seeing this great person on a piece of paper doesn’t exactly sell me. I need to know they are as upstanding as he or she lets on. According to AMO, A Matter of Fact, “39 percent of all Background Checks had at least one serious flag”.

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