First Comment

Yesterday President Barack Obama pushed 20 CEOs to "start investing in job creating enterprises." According to the Wall Street Journal, though, "nearly half of the executives [in a quarterly survey by the Business Roundtable]—45%—expected to hire within the next six months, compared with 31% who said that last quarter." As the article says, US businesses are sitting on $2 trillion in cash. Although slack demand is adding to their reluctance, hopefully a new year means new jobs appearing in the market.

In good news this morning, Bloomberg is reporting that jobless claims in the US unexpectedly fell to 420,000 last week. The bad news, though: "the total number of people receiving unemployment insurance and those getting extended payments rose." So what does that mean for hiring in the new year? "Fewer firings signal employers may be gearing up to add to their payrolls and help reduce a jobless rate hovering near a 26-year high. While the economy is gaining momentum heading into 2011, Federal Reserve policy makers said this week it isn’t strong enough to reduce unemployment."

And if you decide to look for one of those jobs in the new year, Simply Hired Blog has the best 50 careers of 2011 (H/T Wendy).

Some Friday links before you start your weekend.

From the New York Times via MSNBC, come word that Wall Street is starting to anticipate a recovery--and hiring has started with it. This is not news Main Street wants to hear about Wall Street:

The increase in hiring and cautious optimism stand in sharp contrast to the mood among workers in other fields, where jobs have been slow to return or are disappearing altogether. Since June 2008 the number of jobs has shrunk by nearly 14 percent in manufacturing and by 22 percent in construction, but only by 8.5 percent in the financial industry nationwide.

It is also the opposite of what is going in other highly paid, white-collar professions like law, where employment nationwide in June was the lowest since late 2001, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The financial work force in New York has shrunk by more than 28,000 since its peak in January 2008, but is still slightly above its level in 2003 after the tech bubble burst, meaning it actually weathered this recession — the worst since the Depression — better than the previous one. Nationally, staffing is back to where it was in late 2005, while employment in the overall economy is near 2004 levels.

Next, Monster has some advice about being smart about vacation time. The big advice they give is to be aware of your benefits, prepare before you go, and to have set rules about contact while you're gone.

Next from Yahoo! News comes a list of how much employees get paid in the Obama White House (who have even cut 3.5% of their workforce)

Lastly, from ExecuNet, we have Chris Rock's Guide to Job Search (H/T Wendy)

Enjoy, stay cool and have a great weekend!

Since we all need a little laugh for our Monday, The Onion takes on job performance reviews, goal setting, inspirational posters, company retreats and many more subjects. With end-of-the-year performance reviews just completed, this may hit too close to home for some, but at least you can get a laugh out of it. Enjoy (a NSFW word slips out right after the 2 minute mark so if you're watching this at work, you may want to stop it at 2 minutes):


Obama To Hold Job Performance Review With Every American Worker

Sorry it's been a few days since I posted but I've been busy celebrating my birthday and such... ;)

Well I'm back with some good articles:

First, from the New York Times, an interesting look into the fact that a college degree can't close the racial gap and how some candidates try to scrub their resume for anything that gives away race to a potential employer. As far as we think we've come in this country (Black President, major women candidates, etc.), we still have a long way to go in some respects.

SmartMoney asks if Wall Street is in hiring mode? Forbes answers by saying that while the economy is recovering meaning layoffs have slowed, hiring hasn't exactly started up at a large pace yet (it's also a tough time of year to hire). New York Magazine says (maybe tongue-in-cheek) that this is proof President Obama's job summit is already working.

Have a great weekend! Many more links next week!

Ryan Johnson's WorldAtWork blog says that equal pay will get even more play now with the Sarah Palin nomination as VP: click here

And indeed, Barack Obama's first shot at Palin came about because of this: click here

This is not the only issue for Human Resources that's at stake here...

Questions are floating around about whether she was picked because she was a woman and where she should be at this point in her life considering her special needs toddler and her pregnant teenage daughter. Whether you fall on one side of the issue or the other, these are legitimate questions to ponder...and to relate to as a Human Resource professional.

Are there double standards here? Would a male in the same position be examined in the same spotlight? Do you/others do this at your company? And how far do you think the Democrats can go in pursuing this line of thinking? Sexism has been a hot topic of the presidential race from Hillary Clinton to Sarah Palin and the issue is far from going away. This may be a good time to think about if it exists in your own company and how to combat that. And while politics don't always reflect real life, it'll be interesting to hear all the stories that come out in support or against Palin based on personal experiences people have had with this in the workplace.

UPDATE 10:45 AM EST: Politico has caught on and is saying the Senate Democrats are going to force McCain to vote on the issue of equal pay: click here