Recently the financial industry has taken a nose dive. Between bankruptcies and indecision about government funded bail outs, it’s no wonder many employers have found it necessary to layoff workers. Over the last few weeks Wall Street has lost a significant number of positions, now Florida jobs are getting the ax.

On Friday, September 26th, BankUnited Financial Corp announced that economic trouble has caused the company to decide to decrease its staff by 12 percent, which is approximately 160 jobs. For the most part these positions will be pulled from the company’s residential lending support and operations.

As part of these layoffs, 85 Florida jobs will be cut in Miami-Dade county, 21 in Broward and 13 in Palm Beach. The remaining positions will be taken from the company’s facilities in Florida’s West Coast and elsewhere in the country. After the layoffs, BankUnited will employee around 1,000 people.

“Unfortunately in this unprecedented economic environment, it has become a necessary step,” said a company spokesperson in a recent statement. These layoffs will result in BankUnited saving $11 million a year.

According to a recent article printed on Channel 4 CBS News’ website, the company has agreed with its regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, to not issue any loans that will result in negative amortization or loans with reduced or no documentation. Such lending practices assisted in creating the state’s booming real estate industry and its subsequent failure.

BankUnited will also defer payments of interest on approximately $237 million of subordinated debt. This is allowed under the terms of loan agreements for up to 20 consecutive quarters, given that there is no default on payment.

The company’s problems began as the state’s housing market began to flounder. With a large decrease in mortgage activity throughout the nation, Florida has found itself suffering more than many other areas. The state has now found itself at the top of the list for areas with the highest rate of foreclosures.

Labels: florida jobs

Kansas medical jobs pay better than any other careers in the state, according to the state Department of Labor’s annual Wage Survey. The list, which was released on Wednesday, September 24th found that the top ten highest paid professions in the state are all in healthcare.

The survey found that maxillofacial surgeons make the most in the Kansas. Statistics show that these individuals make, on average, $97.73 an hour. The other ten careers were obstetricians and gynecologists, physicians and surgeons (all other types), anesthesiologists, family doctors and general practitioners, psychiatrists, internists, podiatrists and dentists.

A similar report put out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the national wage averages found Psychiatrists to be the highest paid workers in the country. These individuals may make less than oral surgeons in Kansas, earning $90.51 an hour, but they still top the list. Throughout the country, 8 of the 10 highest paying careers are healthcare jobs.

The Kansas Wage Survey found that when in the state an individual works also matters. Pharmacists in Wichita, for example, average $47.31 an hour. Professionals in the same career in Kansas City and Topeka make $42.86 and those in Lawrence earn $39.48 an hour.

The report showed that workers in the state average $17.45 an hour, which is $2 below the national average. Out of near by states, residents in Missouri and Colorado make more, while those in Nebraska and Oklahoma earn less.

The workers who made the least in Kansas were counter attendants in cafeterias, good concession and coffee shop workers. On average, these individuals earned $7.08 an hour, while the national average is $8.57.

In Kansas the industry with the highest rate of employment was the service sector. Retail salespeople, cashiers, customer service representative and wait staff were at the top. Only one healthcare job, registered nurses, made this part of the list.

Those who conducted the survey grouped each job in to categories. Out of the, management, which made $39.77 an hour, had the highest average wages, followed by the legal field, earning $32.28. Architecture and engineering rounded off the top three, making $30.86 an hour.

Only employees of the farming, fishing and forestry industry in Kansas made a higher average hourly wage than the national average for a category. These individuals earned $13.98, while most in the country only made $10.89 an hour.

Labels: Medical Jobs

Healthcare jobs in nursing are some of the most in demand positions in the nation. Due to the growing and aging population, the need of nurses is growing faster than colleges can train these individuals. To make matters worse for the businesses that employ these professionals, burn out and the difficult transition from school to nursing programs causes this industry to have a high turnover rate.

According to Nurse.com, many hospitals are finding that nursing residency programs boost competency and make these individuals more likely to stay with their new employers. One program that is having a particularly high success rate is the Versant RN Residency program that takes place in Illinois and seven other states.

This program usually lasts 18 to 22 weeks and was developed at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Currently Versant is offered at almost 50 different hospitals, charging these medical facilities $5,000 for each resident.

Versant is based on Patricia Benner’s model of skill acquisition which has residents move in stages. New RNs begin as novices and move towards being labeled advanced beginner. After they have acquired certain skills they become competent, then move to the proficient stage, ending up as experts.

According to the program, the turnover rate for newly graduated RNs is somewhere between 35 percent and 60 percent during the first 12 months of employment. With in the first two years from hire, approximately 57 percent of nurses quit, according to a study published by the Journal of Nursing Administration in 2004. Hospitals that utilize the Versant RN Residency program have reported a 5.1 percent average turnover rate within the first year and 11.2 percent in the first 24 months.

Since few hospitals can stand to lose new nurses, considering the national shortage of such professionals, this program can stand to greatly help the industry.

Labels: Healthcare Jobs

Finding a Nevada job is now harder than it has been for the last 23 years, according to the most recent statistics. The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation found that unemployment once again rose, this time showing that 7.1 percent of the population was without work in August.

As of last month, approximately 97,700 residents were unable to find new jobs. These figures also do not take into account the percentage of the population that is underemployed. When jobs become scarce, many people begin to take whatever work they can come by, despite the fact that they may be over qualified or are taking a pay cut.

Currently, Nevada’s unemployment rate is a full percentage point higher than the national average and up significantly in comparison to last years statistics. During August of 2007, only 4.9 percent of residents were claiming jobless benefits.

According to Bill Anderson, who is the department’s chief economist, the struggling housing market, issues with credit and rising energy cost are playing a huge part in the problem. To top it off, area’s such as Las Vegas are being hit hard by the growing cost of travel. Tourist can’t afford to flock to city, let alone gamble away the money they need to fill their gas tanks.

Because of all of this, investors have already put two large Las Vegas casino projects on hold this year. Doing this caused the loss of many construction jobs, which were desperately needed since the high foreclosure rate in state has made demand for new buildings almost nonexistent.

Anderson went on to say that residents now less disposable income than usual, which has caused the demand for a variety of goods and services to decline drastically. Since many businesses aren’t turning the profit they are used, they have less money to spend on their payrolls.

This most recent turn of events has both state and local governments hurting for funding, which has caused them to make serve cuts in the services that they provide. Because of this, there has been increased interest in looking for new sources of tax based revenue for the state.

Despite the need for money, Republican Governor Jim Gibbons does not believe that taxing residents isn’t the answer. According to him, higher taxes “would just elad to more layoffs and hamper Nevada’s economic recovery.”

Labels: Nevada Jobs

When looking for a way to get your company name and Web site out to the world, search engine optimization is the way to go.

One key aspect of search engine optimization is article marketing, which boosts search engine rankings and can result in more readers and more customers, according to an article by Promotion World.

By rolling keywords and relevant content into an article, search engines will have an easier time recognizing and verifying your site, often leading to a higher ranking. This can be the most effective way to deliver your message and maintain higher search engine rankings.

"People seem to think that article marketing is becoming an extinct practice in the new Web 2.0 age," the article notes. "However, this is not true at all. Article marketing is just as relevant today as it has ever been. Article marketing supplies information to your readers and potential customers.

"This information comes in a form that is easy to understand, clear and to the point," the article continues. "This way your reader can quickly read or scan the article and easily see what it is you offer and whether or not if it’s for them."

Many companies use article marketing to raise their search engine rankings. The process offers the ability to use backlinks to link various Web sites. In turn, as more readers see these articles and links, more traffic will be led to your Web sites, increasing your search engine ranking.

So how does this benefit your company? More traffic coming to your Web site means more potential money and recognition.

"This is the appeal of article marketing, and article marketing services," the article adds. "Articles offer information in a purer form than the distractions offered by other forms of online ad distribution. It’s used by marketers, bloggers and business alike for years to boost their search engine rankings."

Labels: search engine optimization

Just because your Myspace page belongs to you, doesn’t mean that it’s private. According to a recent Careerbuilder.com poll, one out of ever five employers conducts an informal background check(Click here) on new applicants by using social networking sites.

The job search mogul asked 3,100 people involved in the hiring process at their companies and found that it is becoming more and more likely that a business will look into your Myspace or Facebook before deciding to hire you. A variety of different things could cause an employer to decide against offering you a new job, making it more important than ever than users of these sites be careful what they post online.

Of those who participated in the poll, 20 percent reported that they had looked at an applicant’s profile on some sort of social networking website. Another 9 percent said that they do not currently do so, but that they plan to start conducting this sort of information background check in the near future.

A third of those polled said that they had found information on one of these sites that made them decide against an applicant. The two most popular reasons for making this sort of decision were the presence of information that led the employer to believe the candidate was a user of illegal drugs or a heavy drinker and photographs that are considered ‘inappropriate’ or ‘provocative’.

Other reason included applicants showing that they had poor communication skills, were given to bad-mouthing previous employers, are lying about their qualification or have an ‘unprofessional’ screen name.

Interestingly enough, the poll showed that 24 percent of the businesses that check on applicants’ social networking sites have found information that led to hiring a particular individual. These employers noted good communication skills, professional page presentation, qualified background information and finding that the applicant would find the office place culture as why they made such a hiring decision.

A Careerbuilder.com spokesperson suggested that individuals looking for new jobs should monitor their websites more carefully, edit comments and remove friends and group links that put off a negative image. It was also suggested that people should consider making their profiles private if they are worried about how the information on their pages would be taken.

Labels: Background Checks

A mingling of two large financial companies could result in the loss of many Boston finance jobs.

Bank of America Corp. recently rescued Merrill Lynch & Co. from financial woes. Bank of America's wealth management division is located in Boston, and that sector's profit, assets and market leadership doesn't seem to carry the same clout as Merrill's.

This is leaving some current and former Merrill brokers and financial advisers wondering if they will be taken over by Bank of America employees, according to an article by the Boston Business Journal.

"In fact, one result of Bank of America’s $50 billion bid for Merrill Lynch could be a transfer of power, people and processes from Bank of America’s Boston-based wealth management headquarters to Merrill’s turf in New York," the article notes. "Such a move would deliver a serious blow to the local economy and Boston’s standing as a fast-growing money center for the ultra rich."

Bank of America's headquarters in Boston includes such brands as U.S. Trust and Columbia Asset Management, as well as a private banking operation and a small brokerage firm. The bank employs about 9,000 people in Massachusetts, with many of those positions in Boston. A merger between the two companies could result in many of these Boston jobs being lost.

"During the first half of this year, Merrill’s global wealth management division generated $7 billion in revenue and pretax profit of $1.5 billion," the article adds. "Total client assets in global wealth management accounts totaled $1.6 trillion.

"In contrast, Bank of America’s wealth and investment management division, run from Boston by Keith Banks, produced $4.2 billion in revenue and pretax profit of $809 million, not including certain noncore activities," the article continues. "The division holds $867 billion in net client assets."

Labels: Boston Jobs

Connecticut unemployment rose 0.7 percent in August to 6.5 percent, which is the highest the state has had since June of 1993. Despite this, employers created around 200 new Connecticut jobs during the course of the month, according to the most recent statistics gathered by the state’s labor department.

Altogether, Connecticut employers have only increased the number of jobs in the state by 900 new positions since the beginning of January. Since last August, 4,200 jobs have come to the state. With the nation as a whole constantly decreasing the number employment opportunities, due to an unstable economy, one would think Connecticut was fairing better than many areas.

This is a difficult thing to determine, since the percentage of Connecticut residents that are filing for unemployment benefits is currently 0.4 percent higher than the national average. Last month was also the second time this year that the state saw as drastic of an increase in joblessness as 0.7 percent in one month, May being the first. Still, state officials believes data other than the unemployment rate shows that Connecticut’s job market is stable.

“Connecticut…bucked the national trend by showing some positive employment gains for August,” said state labor economist John Tirinzonie. “While the nation has seen eight consecutive months of negative growth, we have been fortunate to have had three months of employment gains during this same period.”

Despite this, Tirinzonie believes that Connecticut is “walking an economic tightrope.” According to him, if the national economy doesn’t improve soon, then the state will find itself “falling into the same pattern of job losses.”

For the time being, the Connecticut job market seems able to sustain itself. The state’s monthly employment survey found that five of Connecticut’s 10 major industries added jobs during the month of August, two experienced no change and only three lost jobs. Leisure and hospitality, which added 600 jobs, had the most growth. Both the government sector and financial activities each lost 500 jobs last month.

According to Tirinzonie, the reason that the state can add jobs but see an experience in unemployment is that one survey looks only at new jobs in Connecticut, while unemployment statistics take in to account those who did hold jobs outside of the state but are now without work.

Labels: Connecticut Jobs

Recruiting software provider Avature recently announced in a press release that its newest addition to its line of products, Recruiting CRM, has moved from Beta and is now available to companies that desire to increase their recruiting abilities through the use of social networking.

Recruiting CRM was built on Avature’s Web 2.0 framework. It utilizes several different advanced sales and contact management features in a way that benefit’s the recruiting software marketplace.

The Beta version was released back in June of this year at the International Association for Human Resources Information Management conference. Then a particular Fortune 500 was given the product as part of a test run, in order to make sure CRM was ready to be released.

Recruiting CRM allows hiring managers the use of a program that does Internet spidering, e-mail threading, SMS communication, tagging and tag clouds, Boolean and Custom Operators and Live Search. It also offers a variety of other advanced Web 2.0 features.

The user interface has also been designed to be highly customizable. It comes with an optional OFCCP compliance module, multiple language configuration and intelligent parsing algorithms that enable the program to learn any language and adjust itself to international resume formats.

"Recruiters need to build, organize, and regularly communicate with a much larger network of people in order to respond faster to the talent needs of the enterprise. Current recruiting and HR systems don't provide the functionality required to manage that type of process in a meaningful way," said Dimitri Boylan, who is the company‘s CEO. "At Avature we've harnessed recent Web 2.0 technologies to create a completely different user experience for the busy recruiter or sourcing professional. Blistering speed, less data entry, the ability to organize candidates the way you want to, tools to efficiently and regularly communicate with prospects, and real time dashboards are the keys to high productivity for recruiters and managers. One button resume upload from the Internet, online spreadsheet views of data, and dynamic talent pipelines let recruiters get 'in the zone,' and stay there."

Labels: Recruiting Software

Recent activity on Wall Street has many states evaluating their financial industry to see how badly they will be effected. The rippling effect of Lehman Brothers filling bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch being purchased by Bank of America will cause layoffs elsewhere than New York, but Boston jobs in finance aren’t expected to see the worst of it.

Boston is not as involved in trading as areas such as New York City. Instead Boston’s financial industry is more focuses on asset management, mutual funds, private equity and the like.

“Fortunately for us, Boston is not known primarily as the banking or investment side of Wall Street,” Samuel L. Hayes, a finance professor at Harvard Business School told the Boston Globe. “It’s strong on the money-management side, which is a more stable business.”

Rising interest rates will make it hard for many individuals and corporations to borrow money. In turn this will decrease the amount of work for many organizations, which will likely cause many employers in the industry to have to do away with some positions.

Another problem is that many investors are now worried about the current state of economy. This may make many individuals less likely to put the amount of money they usually would into mutual funds and other investment opportunities. Due to the recent issues, there is a high likelihood that people will chose to place their money in low risk savings accounts and C.D.s with guaranteed interest rates.

At this time, the full effect the struggling finance industry will have on Boston jobs is unknown. Until there are hard facts about the number of individuals who will lose their jobs on Wall Street and how many co-dependent occupations will be effected, it is hard to guess how many local employers will feel the need to decrease their staff numbers.

Labels: Boston Jobs

According to state Governor David Paterson, as many as 40,000 New York jobs on Wall Street could be lost as a result of issues in the state’s financial activities industry.

The problems he discussed at a recent news conference included Lehman Brother’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch at a drastically lower price than the it company was valued at this time last year. On top of this insurer American International Group is suffering from lack of funds.

In hopes of saving AIG, Paterson announced a plan that will enable the insurer to transfer money from it’s subsidiaries to the parent company in New York, thus creating a type of bridge loan. Altogether AIG is expected to use $20 billion of its own capital to protect itself from more problems and help to keep New York jobs safe.

If the Governor’s worst case scenario comes true, the 40,000 Wall Street jobs wouldn’t be the only employment opportunities the state losses. According to his estimation, there are as many as 120,000 jobs that are dependent on Wall Street that could be effected. According to Ross DeVol, who is the director of regional economics for the Milken Institute based in Santa Monica, California, these positions range from everything from sales to legal positions.

Paterson says that AIG currently employs 8,500 people in the state, 6,000 of which work in in New York City. The recently purchased Merrill Lynch has 60,000 employees world wide and the bankrupted Lehman Brothers has somewhere around 26,000 individuals on their payroll.

According to New York City officials, the money received by Wall Street workers equals nearly 35 percent of all of the salaries and wages earned in the city. James Brown, who is a labor market analyst for the state Labor Department, told Reuters that bankers, brokers and traders earn an average salary combined with bonuses of $340,312 a year as of 2006. He went on to say that Wall Street’s entire workforce was 181,000 this July. This figure was down by 11,000 jobs when compared to the same month in 2007. The most individuals ever employed on Wall Street was in December 2000, when 200,3000 people worked there.

Labels: New York jobs

Some teachers in central Ohio have been able to avoid the backup in background checks sending many teachers around the state back to school without the required checks in place.

The state recently passed two new laws requiring teachers and staff to get fingerprinted and undergo background checks through the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the FBI by Sept. 5.

The first law, House Bill 79, took effect in March 2007, and requires anyone teaching under a professional teaching certificate to undergo a background check every five years and submit their fingerprints by the September deadline. The second law, House Bill 190, requires professional certificate holders to submit those fingerprints to the BCI&I and the FBI checks.

All unlicensed school employees, such as cooks, janitors or volunteers, also are required to undergo BCI&I and FBI background checks as well as submit fingerprints by Sept. 5. These checks must be redone every five years.

The new laws have sent an abundance of people to these offices, causing a backup and extension in time for the process. However, in central Ohio, particularly Fairfield County, many teachers and administrators planned ahead and are avoiding the rush, according to an article by CentralOhio.

"We had almost 300 employees out of 625 that had to get them done this year," Rob Walker, assistant superintendent and director of human resources for Lancaster City Schools, said in the article. "We told them not want to wait until their license expired in June."

Lancaster City Schools had 250 staff background checks completed in May, and the other 50 were completed in June and July.

In other parts of the states, many teachers returned to school without first completing the required background checks. It is expected most records won’t be investigated by Ohio Education Department's professional-conduct bureau until mid-September. Employees who can’t prove they’ve sent fingerprints to the state will have their licenses deactivated by the OED, and any unlicensed workers will be dealt with at the school level.

As of July, 12,000 school workers received notice their background check results hadn’t been received yet. More than 650 Franklin County workers and 350 workers in Columbus received notices.

Soaring gas prices aren’t just causing problems for motorist; the airline industry is also suffering. As a result, many companies have tried to pass on the extra costs to consumers by raising prices. Because of this, fewer individuals are traveling, which has caused even more problems. The most recent news is that the closing of one airline is going to cause the loss of several hundred Chicago jobs.

ATA Airlines recently announced that it was closing down and claiming Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to a document that was filed with the state, 309 workers at Midway International Airport were laid off this week.

Although the document said that ATA notified the state on March 12 about the closure, many of the employees said that they were not made aware until they showed up for work on the 11th, which is when all of ATA service was canceled all service.

The company, which is the nation’s 10th largest airline, officially entered bankruptcy for the second time in around three years on the 10th of this month. Prior to closing, ATA had approximately 2,200 employees.

The loss of these Chicago jobs are not the only problems caused by ATA’s closing. Although the company says that those who purchased tickets with credit cards can get a refund, those who bought them cash or check will not be receiving immediate refunds. These individuals may be able get the full or at least partial cost of their tickets if they submit a claim in ATA’s Chapter 11 proceedings. More information on this can be found on the airlines website for those who bough them with credit. Those who need to file a claim can find out more at: www.bmcgroup.com/ataairlines.

Labels: Chicago Jobs

The demand for individuals to fill healthcare jobs across the nation continues to increase for a variety of reasons. The usual include a growing and aging population and shortage of properly trained individual, but a new one has recently arisen. If new legislation is passed there will be an increase in the number of healthcare job for registered nurses in public schools.

HR 6201 was introduced by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat of New York, and is cosponsored by Rep Lois Capps, a Californian Democrat. If passed, the new bill will provide grant money to employ the larger number of nurses.

The bill, if passed, will amend the Public Health Service Act of 2008. This will provide grants through the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to provide new nurses for school districts that currently have fewer than one nurse per 1,000 public school students. This piece of legislation has been referred to the House committee on Energy and Commerce.

“For many children, contact with a school nurse is often the only consistent access to a healthcare professional available, especially for preventative care,” wrote McCarthy in a letter to other lawmakers.

“Currently more than 50 percent of public schools in the U.S. do not have a full-time registered nurse,” she went on to state, “despite their demonstrated role in facilitating learning as they handle students’ increasing complex health issues--from asthma to food allergies, obesity, vision deficiencies, prescription medications, and mental and behavioral problems.”

McCarthy, who has been a RN for 30 years, knows this from experience. Cosponsor Capps was a nurse and educator in health for over 20 years in Santa Barbara schools and successfully sponsored the Nurse Reinvestment Act.

Labels: Healthcare Jobs

A shortage of properly trained individuals means that there will continue to be plenty of healthcare jobs for new doctors. According to a recent report released by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, which is a national physician recruiting firm based in Irving, Texas and part of AMN Healthcare, over 90 percent of physicians receive ten or more job offers during the course of their training.

The report also found that 80 percent of these individuals receive two dozen or more job offers. The firm asked 290 physicians who were in the last year of their training to figure out how many had been contacted by recruiters.

“Like blue chip athletes, new doctors are the subject of intense recruiting efforts,” said president of Merritt, Hawkins & Associates Mark Smith. “There are simply not enough physicians coming out of training to fill all the available openings.”

The survey found that 94 percent of the participants received 10 or more offers, while 80 percent were contacted by 26 or more different employers or recruiters. Of these, 40 percent said that they had 50 separate job offers, while six percent had more than 100 employers who wanted them to join their staff.

Smith says that a national shortage of doctors is likely the reason that doctors are receiving this many job offers. Over the last 20 years, the number of individuals being trained as doctors has remained basically flat. Since the population has grown in this time and the percentage of individuals that are elderly in the country has increased, this is a particular problem. The demand for doctors and others with a variety of healthcare jobs has rise while the supply is still limited.

Although the current job market is in favor of doctors, some are unhappy with their professional choices, Smith says. The survey asked participants if they would have studied medicine if they were able to go back and start over again or if they would have chosen a different career and found that 18 percent, or almost one out of five, would have pick a different field. The majority, 82 percent, said they would have made the same decision.

“Many doctors today are unhappy with how medicine is being regulated and reimbursed,” Smith concluded from the results. “Even new doctors are not immune to disillusionment.”

The survey also looked into where doctors are deciding to work and found out that news is not good for small town medical facilities. Only four percent of participants reported that they would prefer to take a job in a community with fewer than 25,000 residents. Most of those survey, 64 percent, hoped to practice medicine in area with a population of 100,000 or more.

Interestingly, only 1 percent of participants said that they liked the idea of a solo practice. The largest portion, 61 percent, wanted to be employed by medical groups or hospitals.

“The days of new doctors hanging out a shingle in solo practice are over,” said Smith. “Most new doctors want to focus on seeing patients, not on running a medical practice.”

Labels: Healthcare Jobs

In an effort to assist both employers and those who recently graduated college throughout the U.S. and Canada, onTargetjobs and CollegeRecruiter.com recently announced that they will be partnering up both in marketing and in content. Job seekers that visit onTargetjobs’ network of Local Career Web sites, such as RegionalHelpWanted.com and bizjournals.com, will now be able to view new entry level jobs and CollegeRecruiter.com will be able to expand its audience.

This partnership will include cross-promotion and delivery of all online job postings, not just entry level employment opportunities. Businesses that post their job announcements one both sites will have access to the same candidates’ resumes.

"This partnership allows CollegeRecruiter.com to reach new job seekers and employers on a local level across North America," said President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com Steve Rothberg. "Bizjournals and RegionalHelpWanted will extend our exposure and place our opportunities in front of the qualified and targeted audience onTargetjobs reaches."

"Our local job boards under RegionalHelpWanted.com and bizjournals.com have long been the first choice by thousands of local employers when it comes to hiring senior level workers for their open positions," noted Mike Tansey, onTargetjobs CEO. "Working with CollegeRecruiter.com to broaden our current product offering will enable our local employer clients to reach young professionals entering the workforce and fill their open internships with qualified college students."

Both companies have decided it’s best that CollegeRecruiter.com to run the “Entry Level/Internships” job section under all of bizjounrals.com’s 42 locally based sites. All of these jobs will be visible on a monthly basis to the site’s 6 million visitors and RegionalHelpWanted’s 1.5 millions users a month.

OnTargetjobs is the parent company of HEALTHeCAREERS.com, MedHunters.com, BioSpace.com, Hcareers.com, JobLoft.com, CareerBank.com and RegionalHelpWanted.com. These websites specialize in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, hospitality, healthcare, restaurant employment, accounting and finance and many different locally based markets.

CollegeRecruiter.com currently has hundred of thousands of entry level jobs and internship advertisements. In addition to these announcements, the website also has a wide library of blogs geared toward employment, various articles, podcasts and videos.

The partnership between the two will potentially benefit not only both sites, but also thousands of job seekers and employers.

Labels: Entry Level Jobs

Finance jobs in Illinois are expected to grow slowly during the near future.

Employment in Illinois' finance industry is projected to grow at a slower rate through 2014 than the average for all industries, according to an article by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. However, employment in the securities and commodities sector will be more widespread. And more recently, Chicago is picking up New York's slack in the industry.

"Employment growth will be driven by increasing levels of investment in securities and commodities in the global marketplace," the article notes. "Advances in technology will continue to have the most significant effect on employment in the banking sector. While demand for insurance is expected to rise, downsizing, productivity increases and a trend toward direct mail, telephone and Internet sales will limit job growth.

"Some job growth will result from the insurance sector's expansion into the broader financial services field," the article continues. "If legislation is passed to make health insurance more affordable to more people, demand for this type of insurance will increase further. The best opportunities for employment in the finance industry will be for financial managers and bill and account collectors."

As of July 2008, Illinois' financial activities industry employed 398,100 people, a decrease of 1.5 percent, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Possible job opportunities for those in the finance industry include:

• tellers with 1,399 annual openings and a median salary of $21,079
• financial managers with 580 annual openings and a median salary of $89,088
• bill and account collectors with 709 annual openings and a median salary of $28,869
• securities, commodities and financial services sales agents with 387 annual openings and a median salary of $59,180
• insurance sales agents with 378 annual openings and a median salary of $45,920
• loan officers with 328 annual openings and a median salary of $51,282
• financial analysts with 383 annual openings and a median salary of $63,125
• claims adjusters, examiners and investigators with 233 annual openings and a median salary of $46,718
• insurance claims and policy processing clerks with 171 annual openings and a median salary of $31,236
• insurance underwriters with 153 annual openings and a median salary of $50,379
• personal financial advisers with 170 openings and a median salary of $60,948

Labels: Finance Jobs in Illinois

In an attempt to fix a $420 million hole in the state’s budget, many with Illinois jobs working for the government will be laid off. State Treasure Alexi Giannoulias recently announced that his office had no other option than layoffs and salary freezes to mend the state’s financial problems.

There is some concern that doing this will only hurt the state even more. Since fewer individuals will be employed, the amount of payroll taxes collected will decrease. On top of this, workers effected will not be spending as much money, which will result in the state receiving less money in sales taxes.

In Chicago, almost every state employee at the Thompson Center is expected to be effected by the budget cut. Even those who do not stand to lose their jobs will either be victim to a decreased salary, a greater work load or both.

On a state level, at the Illinois Treasure’s Office there is already a salary freeze in effect. All employees that are not part of a union have been told that they must take two days off of work without pay.

As of now, the only government officials who are safe are those that work for Cook County. Because of the hike in sales tax last Spring, Board President Todd Stroger has more than enough money to meet the demands of his payroll, which is extremely beneficial for the area considering that the majority of new hires made this year in Cook County were doctors and nurses.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has suggested that early retirement should go into effect for eligible employees along with the salary and hiring freeze. So far, her office ahs already taken a 25 percent reduction in its budget.

According to some reports, as many as 1,000 Illinois jobs cut get the ax. Some officials have suggest having police officers and firefighters take a leave of absence to aid in saving money, but the city has no plans at this time to layoff any of these individuals.

Labels: Illinois Jobs

High gas prices have taken their toll on the automobile industry. As the pain at the pump intensifies, fewer individuals feel the need or have the ability to expend the amount of money required to purchase a new car. Because of this, automobile manufactures are experiencing decreasing profit margins. When a business or company begins to lose money, one of the first things they do is decrease the number of individuals who work there. This is why Ford Motors Inc. will be doing away with 600 Chicago jobs at its local assembly plant.

The plant, which makes the Ford Taurus, the Ford Taurus X crossover and the Mercury Sable, will be dropping one of its two shifts by November 3rd. This will result in the loss of jobs for approximately 600 temporary part-time workers.

According to Ford Spokesperson, Anne Marie Gattari, the company is still trying to determine how this will impact the remaining employees at the plant. At this time around 2,200 people are employed at Ford’s Chicago plant.

The company has been considering doing away with at least one of the plant’s shifts for over the past year. As of March, Ford announced that, in an effort to cut costs, it would eliminate one shift at the Chicago plant and several others at various facilities.

Then in June, Ford announced that it had changed its mind about doing away with the shift because the United Auto Workers Local 551 had approved a contract that included altering the production schedule. The UAW agreed to four 10 hours shifts instead of the having employees work 5 days a week for 8 hours at a time.

But recently the company announced that the sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars had fallen around 9 percent since August of 2007. Overall, the company’s U.S. sales had dropped 26.5 percent during the same time period. This drastic loss of profit has made the cost cutting measures necessary. At this time, officials from the United Auto Workers Local 551 have not commented on the impending layoffs. Employees who will be effected have already been notified.

Labels: Chicago Jobs

Rhode Island job seekers may have a difficult time finding new employment unless they are willing to commute outside the state for work. According to a recent report published by the JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center, which is an affiliate of the L. William Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University, Rhode Island is leading the nation-but not in a good way. The state has the highest percentage of jobs lost in the country for the period of time between July 2007 and July 2008.

During the 12 month span, Rhode Island jobs fell by 2.8 percent. Also making the list of state’s that lost a significant number of employment opportunities was Arizona, where job growth experienced a 1.6 percent decline.

The state that faired the best in the nation was Wyoming, which had a jobs growth rate of 2.5 percent. The other four states that rounded out the top five in job creation were Texas, Louisiana, Colorado and South Dakota.

Rhode Island’s loss of a significant number of jobs helps to explain why unemployment insurance claims are currently higher than usual, Accordinging to the state Department of Labor and Training.

At this time, the number of unemployment claimants has risen by 10.8 percent when compared to the same period of time last year. When viewed beside 2006’s statistics, the figures appear even more dismal, showing an 16.1 percent increase.

Because of Rhode Island’s lack luster job market, state officials began offering unemployed residents an additional 13 weeks of federally funded “emergency” benefits for eligible claimants who had already exhausted their regular unemployment on July 6th. As of the week ending on August 23rd, there were 453 new individuals filing for the extension of unemployment pay.

In July 7.7 percent of Rhode Island’s population was without work, which is the highest the figure has risen since 1993. Many are concerned about what they will do when their “emergency” benefits run out if the job market situation doesn’t make some drastic changes with in the next few weeks. For the time being, the best advice is for job seekers to extend the radius of their employment search and consider looking to areas right outside the state’s borders if local searches are yielding no promising opportunities.

Labels: Rhode Island jobs

Recently, Procter & Gamble Co. announced that it will be doing away with approximately 215 Boston jobs at its manufacturing plant located in the southern area of the city. A company spokesperson also said that Procter & Gamble plans to close the second of its two plants in Devens that handles packaging of Gillette products by the end of 2010.

The South Boston jobs cuts represent around 9 percent of the company’s 2,400 employees in Massachusetts. Anywhere from 50 to 60 workers are expected to be relocated to the plant located in Andover, but most of the operations are being moved either to Mexico or Poland.

At this time, company’s facilities in Andover handle the manufacturing of aerosols and a variety of shaving related products. After the closure of the Devens plant, Procter & Gamble plan to start packing and warehousing operations at Andover.

Altogether the company’s Devens operations has somewhere around 400 in depended contractors working their daily. From time to time, temporary workers are brought in, which can boost the number of individuals to 800. Proctor & Gamble contracts out all of this work through third party employer, SONOCO.

The first Devens plant was closed in 2006, which was only a year after the company purchases Gillette for $53 billion. Before being used by Proctor & Gamble, both of these plants were military bases. The company has received some criticism for using an outside company to hire only temporary workers instead of offering full time, permanent positions.

“All of these moves are critical to the future success of the blades and razor business,” said Proctor & Gamble spokesperson Kelly Vanasse. “These changes make us able to better serve the needs of the regions where these products are going to be sold and also bring some cost efficiencies.”

According to Vanasse, the South Boston job cuts are the result of the company moving the manufacturing of products like Mach3 and Venus to Poland and a recently built Mexican plant. The South Boston facility will remain open.

Labels: Boston Jobs

In an effort to regain losses, Wachovia will cut thousands of Phoenix jobs.

In July, Wachovia Corp. announced it had a second quarter loss of $8.9 billion and would cut 10,750 jobs. The company launched an expense initiative in June, and plans to cut many Phoenix jobs. Overall, Wachovia will eliminate 6,350 active positions and 4,400 open positions and contractors. About 40 percent of the $1.5 billion the company hopes to cut by 2009 will come from personnel cuts, according to an article by the Phoenix Business Journal.

The majority of cuts are expected to come from the company's mortgage business, as 4,400 mortgage employees will lose their jobs over the next year and the company will no longer offer home loans through brokers. As of June the company had eliminated 2,000 mortgage jobs.

While some had expected Wachovia would raise capital to account for rising mortgage costs, it is now expected the company will cut dividends and reduce expenses. The company recently raised $8 billion by selling common and preferred stock, but does not plan to sell more stock to make up for losses.

"The net loss of $4.20 per share includes a $6.1 billion non-cash goodwill impairment charge reflecting declining market valuations and asset values," the article notes. "The goodwill impairment charge has no impact on Wachovia's tangible capital levels, regulatory capital ratios or liquidity."

In the second quarter of 2007, the company earned $2.3 billion, or $1.22 per share. In the second quarter of this year, Wachovia added $5.6 billion to its loan-loss reserve, increasing the reserve by $4.2 billion. However, income interest decreased from $4.5 billion in July 2007 to $4.3 billion. Non-interest income decreased to about $3.2 billion from $4.2 billion last year.

"Immediate changes at the bank include cutting the quarterly common stock dividend to 5 cents per share, which will conserve about $700 million of capital per quarter," the article adds. "In May, the company had cut its dividend to 37.5 cents per share from 64 cents.

"Earlier the company ceased offering its 'pick-a-payment' mortgage product that it acquired with its purchase of Golden West Financial Corp.," the article continues. "The bank discontinued the minimum-payment option on all new loans, a process that allowed a borrower to make payments lower than the interest due on the loan. By not covering the total interest due, the borrower's monthly payments and loan balance can increase over time."

Wachovia also plans to shift 1,000 mortgage-origination personnel in order to help customers refinance and restructure pick-a-payment mortgages, in turn assisting customers in avoiding foreclosures and reducing the company's risks in the mortgage area.

Labels: Phoenix jobs

In the years since 9-11 the percentage of American businesses conducting pre-employment background checks on applicants has increased significantly. Employers have had to learn that many job seekers know how to gloss over their past to make themselves more appealing to hiring managers and recruiters. Although the chances that an applicant is a would-be terrorist or an extremely violent criminal are slim, employers have found that looking into a person’s history before offering them the job can weed out the untruthful and make the workplace safer.

According to some experts, as many as 40 percent of Americans have been caught either stretching the truth or straight out lying on job applicants. Statistics show that the lies discovered during the course of a pre-employment background check usually fall into one of the following categories:

• Education: In today’s competitive job market, many applicants have found that it is often harder to find employment without a degree. Because of this, there has been a rise in the number of individuals falsifying their academic records. This can be as drastic as claiming to have a degree or certificate that one does not or tweaking one’s GPA. With many employers now looking for workers who are proficient in Spanish and other foreign languages, there has also been noticeable jump in the number of individuals inaccurately claiming that they are able to successfully communicate with non-English speakers.

• Dates: Hoping to make their certifications more relevant in a job market that requires many workers to remain up-to-date on the newest technology, some applicants are now filling out pre-employment forms to say that they received education, training and experience more recently than they have. Since the truth about such information is easily obtained during a background check, these individuals usually end up continuing to claim unemployment benefits when an employer might not have minded slightly dated training had they been honest.

• Work History: More applicants lie on this section that any other part of their resumes. Some individuals make false claims about where they have worked, while others lie about their salary, achievements and even jobs titles. If an employer does not conduct a background check, these individuals often find themselves overwhelmed with responsibilities they lack to experience to live up to.

Employers who conduct background checks save themselves from losing money on workers who can’t possibly provide what they have claimed and save themselves from the lawsuits that employing the wrong person can result in. Because of this, the percentage of businesses that require proof of an individuals skills before offering them a job will also continue to increase. Although taking these precautions will help to safe-guard one’s office, employers should remember that no background check is flawless.

Labels: Background Checks