March 4, 2011

HR Fact Friday: Hiring Outlook Mixed

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 6:00 am

The U.S. private-sector labor force is expected to add jobs in manufacturing in March 2011 compared with March 2010, but hiring is expected to ebb in the service sector for the same time frame compared with March 2010, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey for March 2011.

Two other reports, by payroll processor ADP and outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, also show that private-sector payrolls expanded in February 2011. But layoffs were up for the month as well.

Private-sector employers added 217,000 jobs in February 2011, which is an increase over the 189,000 jobs added in January 2011, according to a report by ADP released March 2, 2011. However, the number of planned job cuts announced by U.S.-based companies increased for the second consecutive month in February 2011, rising to 50,702—the highest total since March 2010, Challenger reported.

“It is too soon to say whether the increases in January and now February [2011] represent a trend,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a statement about the report. “Certainly the specter of rising gas prices could impact employers’ staffing decisions over the next six months. At the very least, rising energy costs could force employers to postpone hiring plans. At worst, increased costs could kill the fragile recovery and spur another round of layoffs.”

The LINE Employment Report, which is based on a monthly survey of private-sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service-sector companies, examines four key areas: employers’ hiring expectations, job vacancies, new-hire compensation and recruiting difficulty of top-level talent.

Source: SHRM.org

Share

May 7, 2010

HR Fact Friday: US Added 290,000 Jobs in April

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs — Tags: , , , , — Paul @ 7:25 am

The American economy added an unexpectedly strong 290,000 jobs in April, while the unemployment rate rose to 9.9 percent, the government said Friday.

Analysts had expected a gain of about 190,000 in the month.

With revisions on Friday, April was the fourth consecutive month that the economy added workers (a revised 230,000 jobs were added in March, instead of 162,000), the job market still has a long way to go before it can be counted on to provide a base for a sustained economic recovery. More than 15.3 million were unemployed last month.

(more…)

Share

October 14, 2009

Independent Contractor or Employee? How Do You Know and What Does It Matter?

Filed under: General HR Buzz — Tags: , , — Jane @ 1:53 pm

Independent Contractor Classification Issues Coming Under Greater Scrutiny

The independent contractor “issue” has become more visible in the last year, Congressional hearings have been held in which legislators have been urged to take action to address the issue of misclassification of employees as independent contractors.  Several states have also taken action to apply pressure to companies to revisit classifications.  It’s a subject that will likely see even more attention in the future.   Legislators have apparently heard enough complaints that some companies unfairly avoid their obligations by using contractors or that there simply is no justifiable reason to treat contractors so differently.

Independent Contractors:  A Money Saver and a Great Employer Solution?

The use of independent contractors has increased significantly in the last few years as employers seek to reduce costs and keep their workforces flexible. Whether a worker is an employee or a self-employed independent contractor imposes very different obligations on an employer.  Independent contractors are not on the payroll and do not enjoy many of the legal protections and benefits given employees. They also typically don’t count toward minimum thresholds required to determine whether employers are covered by certain federal employment laws. Generally, employers are not required to:

(more…)

Share

September 8, 2009

Women Gain as Men Lose Jobs

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs — Tags: , , , , , , — Paul @ 7:51 am

Source: USA TODAY, 9/4/2009, Dennis Cauchon

Women are on the verge of outnumbering men in the workforce for the first time, a historic reversal caused by long-term changes in women’s roles and massive job losses for men during this recession.

Women held 49.83% of the nation’s 132 million jobs in June and they’re gaining the vast majority of jobs in the few sectors of the economy that are growing, according to the most recent numbers available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s a record high for a measure that’s been growing steadily for decades and accelerating during the recession. At the current pace, women will become a majority of workers in October or November. The data for July will be released Friday.

The change reflects the growing importance of women as wage earners, but it doesn’t show full equality. On average, women work fewer hours than men, hold more part-time jobs and earn 77% of what men make. Men also still dominate higher-paying executive ranks.

Women have been a growing share of the once heavily male labor force for nearly a century, recording big bumps during epochal events such as the Depression and World War II.

This time, the boost came from a severe recession that has been brutal on male-dominated professions such as construction and manufacturing.

Through June, men have lost 74% of the 6.4 million jobs erased since the recession began in December 2007. Men have lost more than 3 million jobs in construction and manufacturing alone.

The only parts of the economy still growing — health care, education and government — have traditionally hired mostly women. That dominance has increased in part because federal stimulus funding directed money to education, health care and state and local governments.

The Postal Service is cutting tens of thousands of unionized, blue-collar jobs dominated by men while new hires are expanding in teaching and other fields dominated by college-educated women.

The gender transformation is especially remarkable in local government’s 14.6 million-person workforce. Cities, schools, water authorities and other local jurisdictions have cut 86,000 men from payrolls during the recession — while adding 167,000 women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Share

August 28, 2009

HR Fact Friday: 45% of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Research Job Candidates

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs,Management Practices,Privacy — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 7:17 am

Career Expert Provides DOs and DON’Ts for Job Seekers on Social Networking 

As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilizing these sites to screen potential employees. Forty-five percent of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates, a big jump from 22 percent last year. Another 11 percent plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 2,600 hiring managers participated in the survey, which was completed in June 2009.

Of those who conduct online searches/background checks of job candidates, 29 percent use Facebook, 26 percent use LinkedIn and 21 percent use MySpace. One-in-ten (11 percent) search blogs while 7 percent follow candidates on Twitter.

(more…)

Share

April 24, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Wage and Hour Division Is Hiring

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Paul @ 7:58 am

It’s not all bad employment news this week. Nor is it bad news for workers who have a grievance against their employer and plan to file a wage related complaint. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is hiring . . . in fact they will be adding 250 investigators, a staff increase of more than a third, announced U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda L. Solis.

 

Solis made the announcement after the release of a Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the department’s system for receiving and responding to wage and hour complaints is ineffective and discourages wage-theft complaints.

 

Of the 250 new investigators, 100 will focus on contractor compliance under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package.

(more…)

Share

March 20, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Bright Spots Exist in Job Market

Filed under: Hiring & Jobs — Tags: , , , , , , — Paul @ 5:00 am

Glad to see some positive news in the March 2009 issue of HR Magazine in regard to employment prospects.  An article by Bill Leonard in the HR News section caught my attention because it actually found a bright spot in an otherwise dismal quarter of staggering  job losses. Mr. Leonard writes . . .

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the health care industry increased by 32,000 in December 2008, making it the only major private industry sector to add a significant number of jobs at year-end. The health care industry added mor than 370,000 jobs in 2008, surpassing all other private-industry categories.

Although demand for health care workers is strong in nearly every position, including managerial and administrative jobs, nursing outstrips all other occupations and is listed as the top “in-demand occupation” by the federal Career Voyages web site, a project of the U.S. departments of Labor and Education (see Top Ten list below).

The strength of the health job market isn’t enough to offset the massive job losses in sectors such as finance, manufacturing and retail. However, demand for skilled workers in information technology and green and renewable energy industries could help stabilize the job merket as the need for qualified workers in those sectors should remain strong, recruiting and industry analysts predict.

A survey by ExecuNet, an online career service for executives found in December 2008 that 40% of the respondents reported that they saw signs of rising demand for managerial talent — a strong increase compared to 26% reported just a month earlier.

Education should be another strong sector, analysts agree. Qualified elementary and secondary school teachers will remain in high demand.

When it comes to green technnology the hottest job prospects will be in areas such as forestry, wind turbine manufacturing, solar-energy research and development, and environmental engineering. However growth in this industry will depend heavily on policies of the Obama administration, proposed tax incentives, and potential government funding.

Top 10 ‘In-Demand’ Occupations

1. Registered Nurses
2. General and Operations Managers
3. Physicians and Surgeons
4. Elementary School Teachers
5. Accountants and Auditors
6. Computer Software Engineers
7. Sales Representatives and Managers
8. Computer System Analysts
9. Management Analysts
10. Secondary School Teachers

Source: Career Voyages, www.careervoyages.gov

Share

October 29, 2008

The Ten Commandments of Hiring and Firing

Filed under: Performance Management — Tags: , — Jane @ 8:01 am

Hiring
1.  Follow closely all relevant company policies related to hiring, e.g. re: application and offer process, interviews, and EEO.  If you do not have any such policies, get some and train all persons who are to use them
2.  Be aware of relevant state and local laws, as well as national ones (e.g. – San Francisco City ordinance precludes discrimination based on sexual orientation, Florida based on marital status and Wyoming based on tobacco use)
3.  Learn about and train all employees to avoid inappropriate inquiries
4.  Be consistent in your decisions to avoid allegations of disparate treatment
5.  Act on the basis of job-related factors
6.  Document such things as eligibility to work in the United States after job offers
7.  Carefully verify the legality of and business justification for any pre-employment testing (drugs, psychology etc.)
8.  Use at-will statements and contract disclaimers on application forms and offer letters and avoid statements re: job security, probationary periods, tenure and reasons for discharge, unless you intend to create a contract, which should be done in writing
9.  Do not make promises you may not be able to keep – (e.g. “We will review your application against future openings”)
10. Be humane and professional.  Revenge is the motive for many employment lawsuits.

Firing:
1.  Follow closely all relevant company policies related to discharge, e.g. re: termination, progressive discipline and EEO.  If you do not have any such policies, get some and train all persons who are to use them.
2.  Do not act alone.  Two heads are better than one.  Two witnesses are better than one.  Avoid the “he said/she said scenario” played out by Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas.
3.  Never act out of anger.  Wait until you are no longer angry and investigate thoroughly before deciding what to do.  In an emergency, suspend (with pay for exempt employees)
4.  Do not give assurances of job security, long-term employment.  Otherwise you may be creating contracts.  If you have a contract, follow it.
5.  Honestly and fairly evaluate employees and performance reviews during performance reviews and document the same.  In other words, be proactive in trying to avoid problems before it is necessary to terminate.
6.  Act based on job-related factors, not on personality or other factors not related to the job.
7.  Be consistent.  Discrimination claims thrive where similar circumstances are not treated similarly.
8.  Be reasonable in establishing expectations of your employees and give clear notice of the same.
9.  Document your decision in writing.  Remember that whatever you write will be “Exhibit A” in any lawsuit.
10. Be humane and professional.  Many lawsuits are filed for reasons of revenge.

Share