Magic Pot of Jobs

According to the Connecticut Governor’s Office, Gov. Jodi Rell and Congressman Joe Courtney announced that $2 million in federal funds will be used to train workers in Eastern Connecticut for careers in science, math and technology fields – boosting level of quality Connecticut jobs.

The Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board was one of only five organizations in the nation to receive the funds that are part of a $10 million grant program from the U.S. Department of Labor. The DOL program is geared toward building and supporting regional workforces in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“Connecticut can already boast having one of the most highly skilled workforces in the nation, making our state an attractive draw for cutting-edge technology and science industries,” Governor Rell said. “These funds will ensure that we continue to offer employers a top-notch talent pool for these growing fields.”

“During a period of such challenging economic times, I am pleased that these significant federal funds are coming to eastern Connecticut. Investing in local STEM programs will help to create a more viable employment base that will make our state more competitive regionally and globally,” said Congressman Courtney (CT-2nd District) “This is the second grant to be awarded to eastern Connecticut, and I will continue to advocate for more support from the federal government to build an even larger pool of skilled workers and opportunities to secure our economic future.”

STEM-related industries have been identified by the National Science Foundation as producing nearly 50 percent of U.S. economic growth during the last 50 years. The money will be used to expand training and align current STEM-related resources at One-Stop Career Centers. Participants will have access to mentors who will link program participants to employers and create “career blueprints” that will outline career paths.

The Eastern Connecticut Workforce Investment Board was chosen from 92 grant applicants from around the country.

High unemployment and a lack of jobs in Nevada has caused the state’s residents to be worried about their economic future, according to a poll conducted on behalf of the Reno Gazette-Journal and Channel 2 News by Research 2000.

According to the results of the study, 39 percent of the 600 residents polled believed that it would be “years” before the local economy will recover. Under this scenario a Nevada job boom won’t happen to until some time after 2010.

Over half the population remains more optimistic. Twenty-nine percent said that they feel that the Nevada job situation and the rest of the economy will improve some time during 2009. Another 24 percent felt that everything would right itself during 2010.

The poll found that 26 percent of the participants were either “afraid” or “very afraid” of losing their jobs. The majority of people said that they were slightly less worried, with 37 percent saying that they were “not too” afraid. Only 21 percent were “not at all” afraid.

A good portion, 33 percent, feels that 2009’s economic outlook is “dismal”. Around 21 percent believe that there will be “fits and starts”, 17 percent expect a complete “turnaround” and 16 percent think that Nevada will be in a “depression”.

The housing market has been blamed by several experts as being the cause of the state’s recession and the loss of so many jobs in Nevada. Forty-seven percent reported that they are “not at all” optimistic about the housing market recovering any at all in the next 12 months. Around 31 percent were “somewhat” optimist while 8 percent were “very” optimistic.

“This is pretty serious. The mood is very pessimistic,” said the University of Nevada, Reno’s economist Tom Cargill to a reporter for the Associated Press. “Until confidence returns, we won’t see a turnaround.”

The firm that conducted the poll, Research 2000, says that there is an error margin of 4 percentage points in either direction.

With most of the country in a recession, employers are now receiving piles of resumes. Since there are fewer new jobs to be had, competition for existing positions is extremely high. Many employers are struggling to find a way to minimize the stacks of resumes they receive into a more manageable number. One way to make a hiring decision easier to reach is to conduct pre-employment background checks on several of the top applicants.

Although it is not feasible to do a background check on every person who applies for a job, this can be a very successful way to make a decision between several candidates. Since many workers are currently without jobs, employers are finding that they now often have several equally qualified individuals applying for the same position.

According to a variety of sources, the percentage of the population that misrepresents themselves on their resumes is as high as 40 percent. These inaccuracies can run the gambit from “little white lies” like glorying a job title to make it sound more impressive or be as drastic as claiming to have a degree from a college or working for a company that has never heard of them.

In order to use background checks as a way to decrease the number of choices a hiring manager has, more than one applicant may have the be investigated. Although this may sound costly, many websites exist that have multiple payment options.

For companies that plan on only hiring for a few positions over the next few months, it might be best to chose a service that offers the ability to pay as you go. This way, the employer is only charged for the number of background checks they actually conduct.

Businesses that plan on hiring for a good number of positions might find it more beneficial to use a service that has a flat fee. These websites charge one price for a month (or is some cases a year) subscription, allowing the employer to conduct as many background checks as they need to, without costing any more. The second of these two options is often better for companies that have a little more to spend on background checks.

With the economy struggling, many students and recent graduates are concerned about their ability to find jobs in the Atlanta area. Since unemployment is up and Georgia is now second in the nation for job losses, more people are competing for a limited number of positions. Individuals who are over-qualified for entry-level positions are taking to them to avoid being without work, which means that the jobs in Atlanta that are available for graduates and students are even harder to come by. Because of this, those who have just or are about to enter the workforce should consider attending career fairs to find jobs in the Atlanta area.

Since career fairs allow job seekers to speak with a large number of employers that are currently hiring face-to-face in one day, they maximize the chances of finding work. On November 13^th, Georgia Careers Consortium will be holding their Career Opportunities Career Fair geared towards helping college students and graduates find jobs in the Atlanta area and elsewhere in the state.

This event will take place at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta between the hours of 11am and 3pm. More than 100 employers who are currently hiring are expected to attend the event in hopes of finding new workers. This event is only for students who have attended a college that is a Consortium member.

Colleges and Universities in the state that are a member of this organization include: Albany State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Augusta State University, Berry College, Columbus State University, Emmanuel College, Georgia College and State University, Mercer University, North Georgia College and State University, Oglethorpe University, Paine College and University of West Georgia. To find out if your college is a member, check out www.georgiacareeropportunities.org.

Employers who are expected to attend are extremely varied, with representatives from many different industries participating. Some of those who will be there to inform students and graduates about their jobs in the Atlanta area and elsewhere in Georgia include AFLAC, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Medical Doctor Associates, Peachtree City Police Department, T-Mobile, Target, Tyson Foods, Inc., Turner Broadcast, U.S. Department of State-Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. Department of Justice and Wells Fargo. The rest of the list of participants can be viewed at the Consortium’s website.

This event is sponsored by Enterprise Rent-A-Car, UPS, Liberty Mutual, Fastenal, Wal-Mart, Waffle House, LocumTenens.com, Geico, Nihols Cauley, and G.A.C.E.

Those interested in attending this Atlanta jobs even should contact the career center at their college to find out the particulars. Remember to dress professionally and bring multiple copies of your resume.

As many companies begin to catch on to the importance of advertising on the Internet, getting products and services out to the public is becoming more competitive. No matter how well designed and informative a companies webpage is, if it doesn’t appear high in keyword yielded search results, then chances are customer s will never see it. One popular way to raise the rankings of a site online is search engine optimization, commonly called SEO.

The problem with SEO is that many employers know very little about it. Since they don’t understand how it works or, in some cases, what it even does, it can be difficult to grasp why they need it or how to hire a SEO professional to consult with them on construction or revamping of their website.

For starters, businesses have to realize that, at this time, they aren’t going to run into a consultant that has a degree in SEO. There aren’t any programs in universities that focus solely on this emerging form of marketing and fewer certification programs exist. Because of this, many SEO professionals begin working with the Internet as something else altogether. Popular starting places are “webmaster” and “internet marketing”, but there are those out there who are experienced in this field who started out in a completely different place.

When looking for an SEO professional, businesses should look for a professional with references. These individuals should have worked to bring up the position on now high-ranking sites on a variety of keywords that differ from very general to the specific. This is one field where results speak for themselves.

Find an SEO expert who can show when the pages they worked on originally ranked and how much improvement occurred after they finished up the project. If at all possible, speak with other companies that worked with the individual to see what their experience was like.

According to Onrec.com, HR software provider Snowdrop has just sold its services to the SENAD group. SENAD is the owner of schools for children with special educational needs. The group has over 1000 employees in 12 different locations in the UK. The six members of SENAD’s human resource team with utilize Snowdrop’s HR software module Evergreen, which handles personnel record management.

SENAD hopes that Snowdrop’s HR software will help to reduce the amount of time it takes to do the administration work it takes to manage a workforce including: adding new members to their staff, keeping track of attendance and safety measures such as Criminal Record Bureau disclosures. Before now, the company stored all of these records manually. This meant that keeping information up-to-date took several staff members a lot of time to do, which is extremely inefficient.

Being involved in education means that SENAD is inspected for a variety of reasons. By using this HR software, the group will likely find it easier to keep up with information relevant to such checks. Snowdrop will also help make the production of certain reports, such as training & development, more efficient.

Victoria Finn, who is the Group Human Resources Manager for SENAD, is excited about using Snowdrop’s HR software.

“I’m looking forware to the implementation as it will give the SENAD HR team the time and quality of information to be proactive in many areas, including manpower planning, pay audits, absence monitoring and recruitment profiles,” Finn told Onrec.com. “As we continue to move our service forward, this can only serve to benefit line managers and the Group as a whole.”

Onrec.com says that the main reason SENAD chose Snowdrop’s HR software is that it seamlessly integrates with Sage payroll. Since the group uses this payroll system at all of its 12 locations, it was important to chose software that would not interfere with such.

Would-be workers hoping to find IT jobs in Connecticut might have a harder time securing employment for the remainder of the year than they usually would. According to the September 2008 Connecticut IT Job Trend Report released by SkillProof Inc, demand for these is professionals is down throughout the state.

The report found that the job market in the state now has the fewest number of openings in the sector that it has had since April of 2004. To make matters worse, SkillProof said that historic job market cycles and the current economy show that it is highly unlikely that employers will increase the number of IT jobs in Connecticut before January of 2009.

Between August and September of this year open IT jobs in Connecticut fell from 2,040 to 1,080. Nationally, the average number of job announcements in this sector dropped 1.3 percent, when compared to figures from July 2008.

The largest decline was found to be for IT architects/consultants. Overall, there has been a 21.1 percent decrease in the demand for these professionals.

One of the few areas of employment in this sector that saw signs of increased need are professionals who are skilled with the Linux operating system. Nationally, the demand for these workers rose by 6.3 percent. At the same time, employers have decreased their requirements in this field by 5.3 percent.

Between August and September the number of jobs in Connecticut dropped by 2,300 positions. Approximately 1.7 million people were employed in the state, taking the jobless rate from 6.5 percent in August to 6.1 percent last month.

The jobs lost in Connecticut were spread throughout many industries, including IT, manufacturing and construction. According to the state Department of Labor, last month was the sharpest month-to-month job declines experienced in Connecticut this year.

Finding seasonal jobs in Chicago will likely be more difficult this year. Prior to Thanksgiving many retailers begin bulking up their staff in hopes of meeting the needs of a large shopping crowds, but this year few employers are expecting to have customers beating down their doors in search of the right gift.

Throughout Illinois unemployment is up in comparison to last year. In the Chicago metropolitan area the jobless rate was 6.4 percent this September, whereas only 4.8 percent of residents without work during the same time last year, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Despite showing a year-over-year rise, joblessness fell from 7.1 percent in August, which is due in part to school year related hiring.

With a larger portion of residents without work, there will be more competition for seasonal jobs in Chicago. Where as many individuals usually search for such employment as a means of paying for their Christmas shopping list, this year more people are looking for any kind of work they can get. Low level seasonal jobs will likely be filled quickly by individuals who are trying to pay rent, not buy a tickle-me-Elmo.

Since the portion of the population that can afford to be extravagant in their purchases this Christmas is down, employers will probably be offering fewer seasonal jobs in Chicago. There simply won’t be as many customers to help out this year to justify hiring a large number workers for holiday help.

Because of this, those that hope to find such employment should probably start looking now. Bigger retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target are good places to start because they have large budgets and have many loyal shoppers.

Even though employers may not have put on notice that they are looking for seasonal help, many will take application. Applying for any open shifts may get you on the list to be interviewed when positions become available.

Those who expect to look for seasonal jobs in Chicago should also consider asking their acquaintances who work in retail to put in a good word for them. Many employers enjoy hiring individuals who someone already on the staff can be a reference for.