Magic Pot of Jobs

The City of Atlanta is facing a $140 million budget deficit, and is cutting Atlanta jobs to cope.

The city recently laid off 24 employees, and previously fired 372 workers and eliminated 1,116 positions, some of which were vacant. According to an article by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, most of the job cuts took place in the finance department.

Among those to lose their jobs were senior accountants, a budget and policy manager, a treasurer, a financial forecaster and several others lost their jobs. It is estimated that nearly half of the jobs cut were office support staff. Some of the positions to be eliminated altogether were for accountants, a senior financial manager and a revenue auditor.

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Avature, a provider of Web 2.0 human capital management solutions, recently announced its new recruiting software product, Recruiting CRM, has been named one of Human Resource Executive magazine’s top 10 HR products of the year.

According to a press release, recruiting CRM was chosen as a winner because of its innovative use of advanced technology and focused solution to the needs of recruiters. The application, built with Avatur’es Web 2.0 framework, is the only enterprise CRM designed just for recruiting purposes. Recruiting CRM combines Internet spidering, Live Search, tagging and tag clouds, e-mail threading, SMS communication and other advanced Web 2.0 features.

“Human Resource Executive has been evaluating HR products and conducting this competition for 20 years,” David Shadovitz, editor in chief of Human Resource Executive, said in the release. “Our goal has always been to identify products and services that clearly offer value to the HR community while demonstrating innovation. We congratulate Avature for its innovative approach to using the Internet for recruiting.”

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While jobs in New York increased during August, the state’s unemployment rate also increased.

Private sector employment in New York state increased by 3,000 jobs, or less than .1 percent, to 7,261,200 jobs. However, the state’s unemployment rate increased from 5.2 percent in July to 5.8 percent in August. According to a press release from the New York State Department of Labor, this is the state’s highest unemployment level since June 2004, and the highest monthly increase in unemployment in more than 17 years.

“New York State’s labor market indicators reported mixed signals in August,” Peter A. Neenan, director of the Division of Research and Statistics, said in the release. “Although the state did add 3,000 private sector jobs, the unemployment rate increased from 5.2 percent in July to 5.8 percent in August. This 0.6 percentage point jump represented the largest monthly increase in the state’s rate since January 1991.”

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Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics is expanding its warehousing and distribution operations in Indiana, a plan that should create 80 new healthcare jobs during the next year.

The company develops medical diagnostic products, and markets those products to help diagnose such problems as diabetes, allergies and cardiovascular disease. The expansion will consist of consolidating the company’s distribution operations from other states into an existing 300,000-square-foot facility in Plainfield, a suburb of Indianapolis, according to a press release.

“We’re demonstrating again today the ambition we have to further position Indiana as a leader in the logistics and life sciences industries,” Governor Mitch Daniels said in the release. “Siemens’ continued commitment to Indiana further strengthens our position as a hub for these growing industries.”

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An energy-conscious company will soon open a new facility, creating 300 Pennsylvania jobs.

Flabeg, a German-based company that produces high-tech glass and mirror applications, will soon open its first solar mirror production facility in the U.S. in Alleghany County, creating 300 Pennsylvania jobs.

The facility will be used to manufacture parabolic solar mirrors used to help generate electricity at large solar power plants, according to a press release from the State of Pennsylvania.

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One Arizona school district is taking steps to make sure its volunteers are qualified to work in an educational setting.

Higley Unified School District set guidelines last week for completing background checks on people who want to volunteer at school events.

The school district is starting a pilot program for volunteers, which will group people depending on the type of interaction they will have with students, according to an article by The Arizona Republic. In January 2009, school board members will evaluate the program and decipher how much it will cost the school district.

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A metal distribution company is investing in Dinwiddie County and creating more jobs in Virginia.

The Earle M. Jorgensen Company recently announced it would invest $6 million to open a metal products distribution facility in Dinwiddie County, creating 16 new jobs in Virginia.

EMJ, which is headquartered in Lynwood, CA., is one of the largest distributors of metal products in the country with 40 service and processing centers, according to a press release from the State of Virginia.

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With the prevalence of recruiting software and applicant tracking in companies of all sizes and from every industry, many job boards are beginning to team up with software providers.

MyStaffingPro, a full-featured applicant tracking and recruiting software system, recently partnered with four new niche job boards. According to the companies Web site, this move will provide clients with an additional tool to recruit the best applicants.

The first site, JobsInTrucks, is the number one driving job board and the sister site of JobsInLogistics, the largest and most successful logistics and transportation job board, which also partnered with MyStaffingPro.

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One hospital is making a second round of cuts to jobs in Hawaii.

In August, the Hawaii Medical Center announced it would cut 80 jobs, the hospital’s second round of job cuts in less than six months.

The Medical Center, formerly St. Francis Hospital in Liliha, already cut 89 Hawaii jobs in June, which the hospital did to streamline operations, according to an article by the Pacific Business News.

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Local government jobs in Houston are on the rise.

According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area’s government industry employed 352,400 people in June 2008, an increase of 1.7 percent from last year. The state as a whole employed 1,754,600 in the government industry, a 1.1 percent increase from last year.

The City of Houston’s government is led by a mayor and all municipal elections are nonpartisan. The city’s elected officials include the mayor, city controller and 14 city council members. The mayor serves as the city’s chief administrator, executive officer and official representative and is responsible for the management of the city and seeing that all laws and ordinances are enforced. The city council is made up of nine district-based and five at-large positions, which represent the entire city.

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