With the unemployment rate on the rise, finding a job in Atlanta just got harder. During the month of November, the percentage of the metro area population that was without a job rose from 6.7 percent to 7 percent, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. This means that competition for available positions is much higher than before the economy began to struggle.

As of now, the unemployment rate in the area is the highest it has been since 1983. The national average was only 6.7 percent last month, meaning that Atlanta is doing worse than most of the country.

The rise in joblessness in Atlanta is much more significant when viewed in comparison to last year’s statistics. During November of 2007, only 4.1 percent of those living in the 28 counties that make up the metro area.

Earlier in the year, Atlanta was considered one of the best areas in the country for job growth. Despite this, many believe that the situation is only about to get worse.

“The fallout form the financial crisis is intensifying. This is a work in progress. It’s not over,” Rajeev Dhawan, who is the director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We have not seen the bottom as yet.”

During November metro area employers did away with 11,700 jobs in Atlanta. In the last 12 months, 67,800 positions have been done away with in all of the counties making up the metro.

Things aren’t expected to get better for the area for sometime now. Although experts disagree, Atlanta’s job market isn’t expected to recover during the next six months. Those looking for work in the area should consider using all of the resources they have available. Online job search engines, social networking and recruitment agencies are all a good idea at this point.

Labels: Atlanta jobs

When conducting a job search many members of Generation Y have different concerns than their predecessors. Right now, one of the biggest issues that has caught the interest of the younger portion of the working world is eco-friendliness. According to Earth911.com there are many things a job seeker can do to turn their job search green.

The presence of paperless job search options has helped this effort a lot. With websites geared toward finding employment opportunities, those who are concerned with mother earth now have the ability to find work without sacrificing their stance on the issue. In the same vein, Internet networking can also help. Contacting people you know through social networking sites, uploading resumes and corresponding via e-mail can all help to find work without hurting the environment.

Earth911.com writer Trey Granger also said that those are worried about the carbon emissions put out by cars during all the driving going to job interviews take have several options. For starters, the individual can plan to attend to several different interviews in one area in the same day. This will cut down on some of the emissions give off by their vehicle. Another thing the econ-conscious can do is take public transportation to their job interviews. This makes an even bigger difference to the environment than the first option does.

Those who are in a field that causes them to receive a lot of business cards should also consider recycling these after they have put the information in their phones or online contact information. Another good idea is to only use recycled products if a paper resume is requested. Individuals who are particularly concerned with the health of the globe should consider looking for an actual green job. Since many areas are looking into increasing the number of positions in things like renewable energy to stimulate the economy, there may soon be many more of these jobs available.

Labels: Job Search

According to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, area unemployment rates, not adjusted for seasonality, were higher in all twenty-two of the Commonwealth's labor markets in November. Over 3,000 new Boston jobs were created in the fall.

Statewide, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate was at 5.5 percent for November, up from 5.0 percent in October. Over the year, the rates were up in all areas. The labor market area estimates for both the unemployment rates and jobs are not adjusted for seasonality and may show different trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates.

The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Framingham and Peabody labor market areas recorded over the month job gains in November. Jobs were unchanged in four of the twelve areas for which job estimates are published, while the remaining five areas posted job losses over the month. Over the year, the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy and Framingham areas have added jobs.

The statewide seasonally adjusted November 2008 unemployment rate released last week rose to 5.9 percent from the 5.5 percent rate in October. Statewide the seasonally adjusted jobs estimate for November showed a loss over the month and over the year. The Massachusetts unemployment rate was eight tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate, which rose from 6.5 percent in October to 6.7 percent in November. The Massachusetts rate has been below the national rate each month since June 2007.

Labels: Boston Jobs

Although background checks(click here) can benefit all places of business, they are particularly important in certain areas of employment. Workers who come in contact with vulnerable members of the public, such as children, the elderly and the differently-abled are often subjected to these investigations due to the nature of their jobs. In order to protect those who come in contact with such employees, many state governments put a lot of effort into making sure that background check laws and policies are constantly updated.

Hoping to continue to ensure the safety of local children, the New Jersey Senate recently passes a new bill which will change the rules about background checks on school employees. Bill S-10 was originally sponsored by Senators Barbara Buono, Shirley K. Turner and Loretta Weinberg and was passed about a unanimous vote.

The bill will cause the revision of background check requirements for many workers at local schools. Aside from educators and administrators, other employees who will be effected include bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors. One change this action will cause is that the list of offenses that an applicant working for a job would be disqualified for will be expanded. According to Buono, the point of the new bill was to patch up many loopholes that had yet to be covered.

New Crimes that have been added to the list include leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in the death of another individual, human trafficking and violating the Anti-Terrorism Act. Other things that can cause an applicant to be denied employment are being convicted for charges related to peering into another person window or house and employing a juvenile in the commission of a crime.

In addition to these crimes, the bill creates new regulations for school bus drivers. Now all information filled on both drivers and substitute drivers will have to be filed by the secretary of the board with the executive county superintendent of schools. This includes the workers’ names, Social Security numbers, certifications of driver’s licenses, criminal history background check and proof that the individual has been investigated for motor vehicle violations involving the use of drugs or alcohol. Any one found to be guilty of the latter will be disqualified from his or her job permanently. This does not exclude those who are already working for a public or private school in the state.

New Jersey has required applicants to undergo background checks of some sort since 1986 in order to protect the state’s youth from a variety of issues.

Labels: Background Checks

With unemployment on the rise and jobs scarce, many employers who are hiring are now finding that they are overwhelmed with sheer number of incoming resumes. Since this can be daunting for many HR departments, applicant tracking systems are more important now than before the economy began to struggle.

One employer which recently selected an applicant tracking program is the Washington Hospital in Pennsylvania. The healthcare provider recently announced its decision to perchance Integral Systems, Inc.’s i-Trust program to aid in the process of hiring new employees.

The Washington Hospital, which is the largest full-service hospital in Washington County, currently provides healthcare to approximately 250,000 in the area. This means that it has to continually hire new workers to continue to keep up with a growing populations, making applicant tracking extremely important. At this time, there are 350 primary and specialty physicians working for the healthcare provider and 1,995 other employees.

Part of the reason that the Washington Hospital chose Integral to take care of this HR software is need is the fact that the company has had 30 years worth of experience in the industry. In addition to this, the i-Trust system offers a new approach to soliciting, tracking and hiring new workers, according to a recent press release.

"The Washington Hospital looked for a solution that offered an integrated process of tracking new hires from resume through to job offer and acceptance," said William Cline, who is The Washington Hospital's VP of Human Resources. "Integral's Applicant Tracking System provides us with an event driven solution - one that will be instrumental in allowing us to create and implement an effective recruitment process and then to manage the employee portfolios of those we hire."

"While performing its due diligence process for selecting a human capital vendor, Washington Hospital knew that they required a vendor who offered both a proven solution, and one that was backed by a staff of trained, experienced, industry experts," said President and COO of Integral Systems, Inc Scott Macdonald.

Labels: Applicant Tracking

Simply Hired, a job search engine and recruitment advertising network, and Workforce Management, a source of business information for workforce management and human resources professionals, have announced the re-launch of Workforce HR Jobs. This exclusive vertical job board of HR-related jobs will provide HR pros with thousands of listings from the Simply Hired database of jobs.

"We are pleased to be working with Simply Hired to provide quality job content for visitors to Workforce.com," says Todd Johnson, publisher of Workforce Management. "On our site, job seekers will be able to search through thousands of HR-related job listings from all over the Web, creating the most comprehensive job source for HR professionals."

"We are happy to offer Workforce Management a tool which allows HR professionals to access the high-caliber of Human Resources-related jobs," says Gautam Godhwani, CEO and Co-founder of Simply Hired. "In addition, jobs posted to WorkforceHRJobs.com are distributed throughout the Simply Hired network, extending the reach of the site's job listings to millions of people."

This partnership broadens the Simply Hired network to include an important resource of the HR community. The Simply Hired network currently includes over 5,000 partner sites, including MySpace, LinkedIn, Fox Television Stations, and CNET, to bring jobs to an extensive audience of job seekers on the Web.

Labels: Recruiting

Florida jobs may be affected by the news that Office Depot, Inc., a global provider of office products and services, announced steps to be taken as part of the strategic review announced on October 29, 2008. The company is headquartered in Boca Raton.

The Company plans to close 112 underperforming retail stores in North America over the next three months, reducing the North American store base to 1,163. The stores to be closed are located in various geographic regions, including 45 in the Central U.S., 40 in the Northeast and Canada, 19 in the West and eight in the South. Additionally, 14 stores will be closed through 2009 as their leases expire or other lease arrangements are finalized.

New store openings for 2009 now have been reduced to approximately 20, down from the previous estimate of 40 stores. This will facilitate a reduction in total Company capital spending in 2009 to less than $200 million, significantly lower than projected depreciation and amortization of $275 million.

Office Depot also plans to close six of its 33 distribution facilities in North America. This is consistent with the Company's long term plan to reduce the total number of facilities and combine its separate supply chain systems.

The Company anticipates taking charges in the fourth quarter 2008 and in 2009 for these actions totaling in a range from $270 million to $300 million. The cash component of these charges is projected to be approximately $40 million over the next twelve months and is comprised of continuing lease payments on closed stores; and severance for store, headquarters and field sales staffing; partially offset by cash received for liquidated inventory and assets. The remaining non-cash and future cash charges of approximately $230 million to $260 million are comprised principally of fixed asset write-offs and lease reserves on closed stores.

Office Depot has annual sales of approximately $15.1 billion, and employs about 49,000 associates around the world. The Company provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company, and currently sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 48 countries.

Labels: florida jobs

In today's difficult economic times it is important to avoid a career scam, says TCMI, a Houston-based career marketing and management firm. A career scam can happen to any unsuspecting jobseeker who does not investigate the company they are going to work for prior to accepting a new position. In other words, if an individual has been out of work for any extended period of time, it is natural for that person to want to accept the first offer that is presented to them. Unfortunately, that particular company or role within that company may not be the right fit and complaints could begin happening quickly.

Some employers begin staffing or recruiting even while other departments are being laid off or reduced. Be sure your potential new employer is on sound ground financially. Finally, you will want to know that there is room for advancement with your potential new employer. Complaints of not being able to advance unfortunately happen when the employee has been with the company for about one year.

Fully investigating a company prior to accepting any offer will significantly reduce the potential of walking into an employment scam. Be alert to a company's environment: is it an atmosphere that is conducive to growth and free from complaints? Does the potential new employer have the financial strength to survive difficult economic times? Jobseekers, too, should not be afraid to ask questions of the hiring manager that will allow a way to measure employee satisfaction. Remember – you are your own best advocate.

Labels: Recruiting

A chat with Oodle's CEO, Craig Donato, on the company's recent partnership strategy, including Facebook, MySpace and WalMart. We also discuss the company's future and thoughts on SEO.

FlexJobs, an online job service for recruiting telecommuters and freelancers, has announced that it is now offering a Free Premium Service to qualified employers.

"Using FlexJobs is an extremely productive way for us to recruit qualified employees,” said Judy Friedman of Expert Business Development, LLC.

Employers with Premium Membership receive tremendous value including the ability to:

• Post jobs on FlexJobs' professional, ad-free website that reaches dedicated telecommuters, freelancers, and remote workers
• Receive top placement for job postings throughout the FlexJobs website
• Search for telecommuters from a database of over 10,000 experienced candidates to find the best candidate regardless of the geographic location
• Manage job applicants with easy-to-use web-based tools
• Promote your company with company logos, descriptions, and marketing collateral
• Make use of excellent phone and online customer support

CEO Sara Sutton Fell explains, "FlexJobs is dedicated to promoting telecommuting because of its significant benefits for employers, employees, and our environment. This exciting initiative was launched as part of that mission. FlexJobs makes it easy for companies, of all sizes and from any industry, to source and manage top quality job applicants for jobs that offer some form of telecommuting or remote work."

Labels: Recruiting

FinancialServicesCrossing, an affiliate of EmploymentCrossing, is fighting against the downsizing market, adding more than 7,000-plus financial services jobs to its job search database this week. The financial services job site is doubling its efforts to counter the impact of the recession on the US job market. FinancialServicesCrossing scours over 8,000 job boards and 250,000 employer websites to find jobs for financial services professionals. It seeks to find and list every financial services job in the US, to relieve unemployed finance professionals from their troubles.

"The wave of economic turbulence has taken out thousands of jobs from various industries. The credit crisis has engulfed the banking industry. However, the company has been relentlessly finding financial services jobs from every possible source and adding them to their databases to support the efforts of thousands of job seekers," says A. Harrison Barnes, the CEO of FinancialServicesCrossing.

In a shocking report recently, Bank of America stated that it could end up slashing 30,000 jobs as it moves to absorb Merrill Lynch, which it acquired in September this year, in a $50 billion all-stock deal. JPMorgan Chase & Co. of New York announced that it is firing 9,200 employees of Washington Mutual Inc. of Seattle. In November, Citigroup Inc. announced that it is laying off 53,000 employees as it aims to cut costs and return to profitability. Earlier this year, Wachovia Corp. was forced to give pink slips to about 10,700 employees after incurring huge mortgage losses amounting to $8.86 billion.

On the credit crisis front, the latest news is of Credit Suisse which is said to be cutting 650 jobs, equivalent to about 3% of its investment banking workforce. An analyst at The Oppenheimer & Co., Meredith Whitney, says that the financial industry, especially Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase may cut as much as $2 trillion in credit card account lines over the next 18 months. She says that the action is expected to be taken in order to reduce risk of damage from increasing delinquencies and defaults.

"Credit deterioration and the number of bad loans were worse than expected," says Barnes. "But not everything is over yet. FinancialServicesCrossing is showing that if efforts are put in the right direction, a recovery is possible. Banks and financial organizations will have to find alternative ways to weather the American economic storm, rather than putting people out of work."

FinancialServicesCrossing has a comprehensive number of financial services job listings in its database which are constantly added and updated by hundreds of highly trained research analysts. FinancialServicesCrossing weeds out spam and jobs outside one's niche allowing the job seeker to search jobs efficiently and specifically.

The top job titles which are highly searched on FinancialServicesCrossing are:

• Financial analyst jobs
• Banking manager jobs
• Bank teller jobs
• Financial accounting jobs
• Associate jobs

Barnes adds, "FinancialServicesCrossing has about 43,000-plus financial jobs for the job seeker's perusal. To have these many jobs related to the financial sector in the database is a commendable achievement by any standards, especially in this recession."

Labels: Job Search

In a memo to its 75,000 employees worldwide, Delta Airlines CEO Richard Anderson and President Edward H. Bastian announced a strategic plan to manage 2009 capacity due to the global economic slowdown and softening airline traffic. Headquartered in Atlanta, jobs may be cut up to 10 percent.

The memo announced plans to decrease system wide capacity for both Delta and Northwest airlines. System wide 2009 capacity will be down 6-8% year over year. Domestic capacity will be down 8-10% and international capacity will be down approximately 3-5%. These numbers include the full impact of previously announced 2008 capacity reductions.

Quoting from the memo:

“Delta must take the necessary steps to adjust our business accordingly and make certain seat capacity meets customer demand. These economic hurdles are difficult, and we remain committed to building our company on a durable financial foundation with industry-leading liquidity.

Even with the economic recession, we are achieving significant benefits from our merger and will continue to do so. The merger has allowed us to develop growth opportunities as we connect the networks to create new revenue streams neither airline could have achieved independently. We will continue to follow the Flight Plan to invest in and further diversify our international network in the Pacific, Africa, India and the Middle East to help mitigate the risk from specific regional economies. We will remain focused on, and continue to adapt to, the rapidly changing global economy to better align supply with demand.

We are taking these actions to secure your careers and return us to sustained profitability. In the meantime, we are analyzing the impact on staffing as it pertains to these capacity reductions and, as in the past, we will offer voluntary programs to adjust staffing needs. We will continue to make decisions that are in the long-term interest of our colleagues, customers, shareholders and the communities we serve.

Thank you for your focus in executing on the Flight Plan, in spite of fuel at record levels earlier this year and now the unfolding economic recession. We have a solid cash balance, best-in-class cost per available seat mile (CASM) and your operational performance is head and shoulders above the rest of the industry. We thank you for the incredible work you do for our customers every day. Together, we will get through this new challenge and build a stronger Delta.”

Labels: Atlanta jobs

Unemployed workers looking for entry level jobs are having a tough time nearly everywhere in the country, including in Arkansas.

It is expected college graduates will have a hard time finding work amidst the slowing economy, and while some entry level jobs may be available, finding anything above that is going to be even harder.

While companies will continue to eliminate mid-level positions, many are planning for the future by hiring new employees for management trainee positions. According to an article by the Times Record, displaced hourly workers will have a harder time finding employment.

In Fort Smith, Ark., seven companies have already laid off workers or announced plans to fire employees. This has resulted in 1,200 workers losing their jobs. For those workers, the job search is likely to be a cruel world.

"Many dislocated workers who’ve worked at the same company for 15-plus years aren’t prepared to compete for new jobs," the article notes. "Unless they participated in ongoing training throughout their employment, many of those job hunters won’t have the current skills to be competitive in the employment market. They shouldn’t expect to be able to find comparable jobs without developing additional skills."

It is advisable that workers entering the job market evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, interests and values to help prepare themselves. Some workers can do this on their own, or can use a variety of career resources for help.

In Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, offers non-credit training in industries like information technology, as well as help with resume writing and interview skills. The Arkansas Workforce Center offers help with job-seeking skills, information on vacancies and potential training for those that qualify. Many staffing agencies throughout the area also may help.

Labels: Entry Level Jobs

Recently, the financial industry has been suffering, making it harder for even experienced workers to find employment in this sector. Now, 650 banking jobs in Atlanta may be lost as the Bank of America Corporation considers relocating.

The heads of Bank of America in Atlanta have decided that they will most likely move these jobs to Charlotte unless the building they are located in receives major renovations. The idea was brought up to the Development Authority of Fulton County in October by the BentleyForbes Group, which owns the Bank of America Plaza, according to the Charlotte Business Journal.

During this meeting, the group asked the authority to issue a bond worth $567 million to refinance the acquisition of the Plaza, renovate its office space and add a new hotel, several restaurants, stores and several other extras.

If the building receives the renovations, then these jobs will stay in Atlanta. On top of this, over 500 new positions will be created, according to an attorney who works for BentleyForbes.

“Without the proposed renovation of its office space, Bank of America will likely relocate to Charlotte,” said the attorney during the meeting. “The project has the potential to create 550 new jobs while retaining 650 jobs by keeping Bank of America employees in Fulton County.”
Despite the record of this comment, the Bank of America Corporation has denied that it has considered relocating the jobs in Atlanta to Charlotte.

“Bank of America remains wholly committed to the Metro Atlanta area, and any implication that bank is planning to withdraw from this important market is erroneous,” said the corporation’s media relations manager, Britney Sheehan in an e-mail to the Charlotte Business Journal. “We have more than 150 banking centers and hold office space in a variety of buildings throughout the area to serve the banking convenience of our customers. The status of an individual building, however iconic, has no bearing on our unwavering commitment to this market our business decisions.”

Labels: Jobs in Atlanta