The Work Buzz

Hey, there!

Are you as excited for the weekend as we are? Here we come, BBQ on the patio!

For your evening reading, we bring you some noteworthy story:

• So even when the stocks seem to be doing OK, they’re still skittish. Eek.
  Stocks advance after mixed data; Jobs report looms
• Are job loss numbers hitting the bottom? Please be true!
  Rate of job loss may be leveling off
• This one person felt frustrated with job seekers after a job fair. Worth a read.
  Seven observations from my day at the job fair

See ya tomorrow!

Most employers expect their staff levels to remain the same in the third quarter as recruiting patterns hold steady and job losses trend downward, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder and USA TODAY’s.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive among more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals, predicts several emerging trends in hiring, compensation and how employers are dealing with the effects of the economic downturn.

“The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that job loss is moderating, a trend that will hopefully continue in the second half of the year as the financial system and economy move toward recovery,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.  “Though we’re headed in the right direction, we’re not likely to experience significant movement in job creation in 2009.  Jobs will be added, but overall, businesses will continue to be conservative in their hiring and maintain focus on existing human capital.  Sixty-eight percent of employers said they don’t anticipate any change in their full-time, permanent headcount in the third quarter.”

Click here to read the full report.

Poor Tuesday. Lost in the sea of a shortened work week. It’s not the dreaded Monday. It’s not Hump Day/first of July. It’s not Thursday, which this week is Friday. It just sits there, waiting to be ignored.

The news stops for no one, however. And once again the news world was buzzing with huge stories (another plane crash, Franken being declared a winner of his race). In all that were plenty of stories about jobs, job search and the workplace. Here’s what we enjoyed reading today:

• A new minimum wage goes into effect this month for many people.
  State minimum wage going up a quarter
• If you’re looking for work, why not advertise on the back of your car?
  Another Sign of the Times
• We Work Buzzers would never, ever think of uttering a bad word.
  What the #%@&!?: The problem of profanity in the workplace
• Dumb economy’s depriving children of the joy of fireworks (and boring car trips to relatives they don’t care for).
  Jobs, Income Slow 4th of July Travel

And if you’re not already following us on Twitter, click that little link to the right of this post and join in the fun! –>

A new report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the unemployment rates in May of this year were higher in all 372 metropolitan areas than they were one year ago. The unemployment rate, which is currently 9.4 percent, was at 9.1 percent in May, up from 5.2 percent in May 2008.

The report, a Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment Summary, also showed 15 areas recorded jobless rates of at least 15.0 percent, while 21 areas registered rates below 5.0 percent. Among the 310 metropolitan areas for which nonfarm payroll employment were available, 295 areas recorded over-the-year declines in employment and 15 reported increases.

Other highlights include: Continue reading – What’s Unemployment Like In Your City?

The Monday of a holiday week. It’s always a beast to get through, and you know all eyes are on Saturday’s fireworks. (Well, if you’re American. If you’re not, then it’s just another Monday, probably.)

While you were mentally preparing your July 4th BBQ and tapping a Sousa march on your desk, this is what happened:

• Leading up to the next round of job loss numbers, here’s what some experts are looking for.
  Seeking Signs Of Stability In Job Numbers
• We like good news. Especially good news about jobs!
  Stimulus money creates jobs for youths
• This guy’s tired of Boomers getting lectured. And rightly so. Hear him out.
  Financially ailing boomers flock back to the workplace
• We’ve talked about unusual job seeker tactics before,and here’s another article on it. Job seekers are creative!
  Desperate job seekers use extreme tactics on résumés

When you’re job searching, not only is it important to do company research to impress the hiring manager with your knowledge and enthusiasm, you also want to make sure the organization is going to be a good fit for you.

Yesterday, Anthony wrote about finding a reputable employer. On the heels of that blog post, some new employer rankings were announced.

Today, the nation’s top 25 small and top 25 medium-sized companies to work for in America were announced at The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 61^st Annual Conference and Exposition, the largest gathering of HR professionals in the world 

Badger Mining Corporation was named the No. 1 employer in the small category, and for a second year in a row, Ultimate Software is the No. 1 medium-sized employer.

Continue reading – 50 Best Companies to Work For

A reader submitted this question to The Work Buzz, and I’m sure plenty of other job seekers and employees can relate.  

Amon Stone asks: How do you find a decent, honest company to work for? Any suggestions on what to look for?

It seems that a lot of companies in my area only hire through temp-agencies, and the last couple of jobs I’ve gotten that way have gone bust. In one case, I was told that the company I was working for would hire me after 3 months, 10 months later I was still considered a temp. They had me training new people that were making the same money as I was. It’s like I said to my boss “Aren’t I worth more money now than someone who just walked in the door? Aren’t I worth hiring?” I was told that there had been a hiring freeze in effect for over a year. So the temp agency blatantly lied to me when they told me that I’d be hired after 3 months, they knew that the company had a hiring freeze in effect. As a matter of fact, the girl that I dealt with in the office at the temp agency? Her husband was a manager at the company that I was sent to. I cant believe that she didn’t know about the hiring freeze. When I asked her about it, I was basically told that if I wasn’t happy I could leave the temp agency.

How do you find an honest company? Employees are made to jump through hoops to get a job, while the employers seem to be able to get away with anything. They know that there’s a whole lot of people looking for work, so they really don’t care about retaining employees. My only argument with that is, is it possible to run a successful business with a revolving door policy when it comes to employment. Continue reading – Ask The Work Buzz! Finding a reputable employer

Last week, I told you what laid-off workers are doing with their free time. So what about employed workers? How are they spending their time at work?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the 2008 results from its annual American Time Use Survey. The ATUS focuses on the average amount of time per day in 2008 that individuals worked, did household activities, cared for household children, participated in educational activities, and engaged in leisure and sports activities.

Here’s what it looked like for employed persons in 2008, according to the survey: Continue reading – How Much Time Do Employed Workers Spend Working?

This week the crew at CareerBuilder is at the SHRM conference in New Orleans (my beloved hometown). To mere mortals, SHRM doesn’t mean anything but it’s the the Society of Human Resource Management and this conference is where all the HR magic happens.  

We’re here this week to give you, the job seeker, an inside look into the minds of what hiring managers are thinking.

What have we learned so far? Well, people love SWAG. (I want to get my hands on a yoga mat.) More importantly, SHRM has a ton of new research about job seekers.

For example, the number of workers who think their job is not at risk dropped slightly to 47 percent compared to 51 percent roughly six months ago. That’s still almost half.

And it looks like people who are employed are not planning on staying put for the time being  — 80 percent of employed people are not searching for a job at all. What do you think about that? If you’re employed but not loving your job, are you actively looking for work or just happy to have a job in this economy?

Over the next few days, I’ll be attending many of the sessions and leting you know what is on the minds of the people doing the hiring and making the decisions about your workplace and benefits. Stay tuned…