Ask and you shall receive, my friends.

Here are six more companies that are hiring seasonal workers. If you’d like even MORE results, please go to CareerBuilder.com and search “seasonal” or “holiday help.” You can search more specifically within your preferred industry.

Durham School Services
Industry: Transportation
Positions hiring: Bus drivers
Number of position: 250

H&R Block Tax Services
Industry: Accounting and finance
Positions hiring: Office manager, client services,
Number of positions: 500+

Target
Industry: Retail
Positions hiring:Various
Number of positions: 25+

Tiffany & Co.
Industry: Jeweler
Positions hiring:Sales associates
Number of positions: 25+

U.S. Cellular
Industry: Wireless
Positions hiring: Cashier, greeters, retail wireless consultants, sales managers, store managers, bilingual (Spanish speaking) retail wireless consultants and cashier greeters, service technicians, customer service representatives, customer service operations , bilingual (Spanish speaking) Customer Service Representatives; marketing, accounting, finance, project management, public affairs, human resources, engineering, IS/IT, sales operations
Number of postions: 550+

Veolia Transportation
Industry: Transit
Positions hiring: Safety managers, maintenance managers, general manager, drivers and mechanics
Number of positions: 150+

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So are there any bright spots?

Yes, actually. Health care added 29,000 jobs in October. Temporary employment services had steadily lost jobs in the beginning of the year, but in October they added 34,000 jobs. Companies have the need for more workers, but they’re cautious of adding new permanent employees. If the economy struggles again, they’d prefer to not renew temporary workers’ contracts rather than layoff a group of employees.

Two CareerBuilder.com experts were on TV to discuss the job numbers and the job outlook this morning.

First up, watch CEO Matt Ferguson on CNBC.

And senior career adviser Michael Erwin was on CBS 2 in Chicago. Watch that clip here.

You can also read the detailed, full report from the BLS on its site.

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This past weekend PBS reran the episode “Nurses Needed” of its documentary program Now. Although it originally aired last fall, the facts remain the same. (At the end of the segment, producers do catch up with a featured patient to see how she’s doing one year later.) By 2020, the country could have a shortage of nurses nearing 500,000 or even 1 million.

Look at this study on nursing from the Department of Health and Human Services. In 2000, the amount of full-time equivalent (FTE) licensed nurses was 1,891,000. The demand for FTE licensed nurses was 2,001,500. By 2020, there will be fewer FTE licensed nurses at just 1,808,000. Yet the demand will rise to 2,824,900.

 A lack of nurses can translate into less attention spent with each patient, the program points out, and studies have proven that too many patients per nurse can negatively affect medical care. With fewer nurses in hospitals and other health-care facilities, the amount of patients per nurse will continue to grow. The program also  explains that fewer nurses are choosing to teach due to low salaries, therefore adversely affecting the number of new nurses. And many nurses are choosing to work for pharmaceutical companies because the pay can be substantially higher than hospitals, emergency rooms, clinics and many other health care facilities.

If nursing appeals to you–and it’s not an easy job, so it’s definitely not for everyone–this could be the right time to look into it. The demand for nurses will only increase in the coming decades, so you’ll be in demand. Depending on where you decide to work, wages can vary. Here are some median annual salary figures from CBSalary.com to give you an idea:

• Registered nurse: $66,427
• Intensive care unit (ICU) nurse: $67,548
• Head nurse: $85,967
• Critical care unit (CCU) nurse: $67,016
• Nurse midwife: $98,008
• Home-care nurse: $65,507

(Salaries vary by location, of course. And there are many other nursing options available.)

To watch the episode of Now, click here.

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I’ve always wondered, why is it that we feel the need to give an excuse anyway? Sometimes, we are sick and that’s a reason in itself; but other times, we just need a day away from the office. What’s wrong with that?

A new CareerBuilder survey says that the economy is playing a role in employees calling in “sick” to work. The annual survey on absenteeism shows 32 percent of workers have played hooky from the office this year, calling in sick when they were well at least once. Twenty-eight percent of employers think more employees are absent with fake excuses due to increased stress and burnout caused by the recession.

About 12 percent of employees said they played hooky from work to avoid a meeting, give themselves some more time to work on a project or avoid the wrath of a boss, colleague or client. Others missed work because:

• 31 percent needed to go to a doctor’s appointment
• 28 percent needed to relax
• 16 percent needed to catch up on sleep
• 13 percent had to run personal errands
• 10 percent had to catch up on housework
• s10 percent wanted to spend time with family and friends
• 32 percent just didn’t feel like going to work that day

Of course, CareerBuilder also asked employers to share the most unusual excuses they’ve heard from employees calling in sick.  Here are the top 12:

1. I got sunburned at a nude beach and can’t wear clothes.
2. I woke up in Canada.
3. I got caught selling an alligator.
4. My buddies locked me in the trunk of an abandoned car after a weekend of drinking.
5. My mom said I was not allowed to go to work today.
6. A bee flew in my mouth.
7. I’m just not into it today.
8. I accidentally hit a nun with my motorcycle.
9. A random person threw poison ivy in my face and now I have a rash.
10. I’m convinced my spouse is having an affair and I’m staying home to catch them.
11. I was injured chasing a seagull.
12. I have a headache from eating hot peppers.

Click here to read the full survey.

What about you guys? What excuses have you given to play hooky? Employers, what have you heard from employees?

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We were waiting for two big announcements this morning at CareerBuilder. One was about Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics  – our corporate headquarters are in downtown Chicago — and the other was about September’s unemployment numbers. Well, the Olympics are going to Rio de Janeiro and the job losses were higher than expected.

The Labor Department reported that U.S. employers trimmed 263,000 jobs last month. While that number is slightly higher than predicted and the more than the number in August (201,000), it still is much lower than the numbers we saw in late 2008 and into 2009. The largest job losses were in construction, manufacturing, retail and government.

“We’re not going to see job growth until the second half of next year. And even when it does start to grow, it’s going to be slow,” said  Marissa Di Natale from Moody’s Economy.com in today’s New York Times Economix blog.

Because the economy is still healing, we’re likely to see some fluctuation month to month, but CareerBuilder’s recent survey indicates that less employers plan to decrease staff levels in Q4 compared to Q3.  If you look at the number of jobs lost from May 2009 through September 2009, that average (307,000) was half of the average we saw from November 2008 to April 2009 (645,000). 

While the national unemployment rate hit 9.8% in September, there are areas in the country where that rate is much lower and much higher. If you’re thinking of relocating to greener (as in money) pastures for work, take a look at this interactive map from Forbes. It breaks down the unemployment rate of every county in the United States. Did you know the unemployment rate in Bismarck, N.D. is 3.3%?

Although the rising unemployment rate may mean more candidates applying to jobs, attendees at a recent conference for recruiting professionals discussed how this influx of candidates has not made it any easier to find the right, qualified talent for available positions. Translation: As a job seeker, you might be down, but you’re definitely not out. You just need to be competitive – something you should practice in your job search no matter the market.

What you want to do is continue to market yourself aggressively and look to those areas that are hiring today.  Currently, we’re seeing a demand for workers in health care, sales, customer service, technology and education.

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The latest Job Forecast from CareerBuilder and USA TODAY shows that, while employers are feeling more confident about the job market, the majority plan to keep their staff levels the same for the fourth quarter (October – December). The survey of more than 2,900 hiring managers and human resource professionals nationwide found that continued moderation in job loss, restrained hiring and cautious compensation changes are expected for the remainder of 2009. 

Here are some of the key findings and what they could mean for you:

• If you were laid off over the past year, make sure to keep bridges intact with your previous supervisor or HR department. Of employers who had layoffs in the last 12 months, one-in-four (26%) reported their company is planning to bring back some employees they let go earlier in the year.
• Employers are hiring, but it will still be restrained. At 68%, the majority of hiring managers don’t plan to make any staffing changes and 17 percent of expect to add headcount in the next quarter. And, while 10% anticipate a decrease in headcount, that’s down from 15% who answered the same question in Q3.
• Around the country, hiring in the South appears strongest for the rest of the year: 19% of hiring managers in the South expect to increase their full-time, permanent staff in the fourth quarter followed by 17% in the Northeast, 15% in the Midwest and 14% in the West.
• Pay levels are slowly being restored. Nearly one-in-five employers (18%) reported their organizations implemented pay cuts in the last 12 months.  Five percent of these employers said they restored pay to previous levels in the third quarter while 12% plan to do so in the fourth quarter.  Another 24% say they expect restore pay levels sometime in 2010.
• Employers will continue to be conservative with pay raises.  Half of employers (51%) anticipate no change in salaries for full-time, permanent employees in the next three months.  One-in-four (26%) expect to raise salaries between 1 and 3 percent, one-in-ten (12%) expect to raise salaries 4 to 10%, while 2 percent expect an increase of 11% or more. 

Want to know more? Click here to read the full press release or click here to download the pdf of the report.

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This latest report also shed some light on discouraged workers:

Among the marginally attached, the number of discouraged workers in August (758,000) has nearly doubled over the past 12 months. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in August had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

It seems many of the people we at The Work Buzz are hearing from these days are discouraged. They say there aren’t enough jobs, there aren’t the right jobs, there aren’t any jobs.

Yes, it is taking more time these days to find a job, but hopefully, we can help you fight that job seeker fatigue. For example, we told you this week about a new CBsalary tool that matches salaries to jobs.

Many of you tell us that you’ll take any job as long as it pays the bills. Here’s one way this tool might fit in. Say you need to earn $50,000 to support yourself and your family. Type in your location and that number and — voila! — you’ll receive a list of jobs that match that pay an average of $50,000 in your area.

While we’re on the subject, we thought we’d give you a list to start with. Here are 50 jobs that pay an average of $50,000 annually in the United States:

1. Millwrights
   Annual average earnings: $50,040*
2. Mechanical engineering technicians
   Annual average earnings: $50,070
3. Industrial engineering technicians
   Annual average earnings: $50,130
4. Vocational education teachers, middle school
   Annual average earnings: $50,150
5. Food service managers
   Annual average earnings: $50,400
6. Vocational education teachers, postsecondary
   Annual average earnings: $51,020
7. Dietitians and nutritionists
   Annual average earnings: $51,540
8. Pile-driver operators
   Annual average earnings: $51,650
9. Aircraft mechanics and service technicians
   Annual average earnings: $51,960
10. Court reporters
    Annual average earnings: $52,150
11. Chemical plant and system operators
    Annual average earnings: $52,160
12. Construction and building inspectors
    Annual average earnings: $52,240
13. Elementary school teachers, except special education
    Annual average earnings: $52,550
14. Lodging managers
    Annual average earnings: $52,570
15. Middle school teachers, except special and vocational education
    Annual average earnings: $52,650
16. Police and sheriff’s patrol officers
    Annual average earnings: $52,950
17. Forensic science technicians
    Annual average earnings: $52,970
18. Special education teachers, preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school
    Annual average earnings: $53,090
19. Tax examiners, collectors, and revenue agents
    Annual average earnings: $53,100
20. Boilermakers
    Annual average earnings: $53,110
21. Sound engineering technicians
    Annual average earnings: $53,150
22. Respiratory therapists
    Annual average earnings: $53,170
23. Advertising sales agents
    Annual average earnings: $53,230
24. Radiologic technologists and technicians
    Annual average earnings: $53,410
25. Appraisers and assessors of real estate
    Annual average earnings: $53,460
26. Educational, vocational, and school counselors
    Annual average earnings: $53,540
27. Vocational education teachers, secondary school
    Annual average earnings: $53,760
28. Employment, recruitment, and placement specialists
    Annual average earnings: $53,960
29. Insurance appraisers, auto damage
    Annual average earnings: $53,990
30. Electrical and electronic engineering technicians
    Annual average earnings: $54,050
31. Medical and clinical laboratory technologists
    Annual average earnings: $54,120
32. Real estate sales agents
    Annual average earnings: $54,700
33. Librarians
    Annual average earnings: $54,750
34. Training and development specialists
    Annual average earnings: $54,840
35. Music directors and composers
    Annual average earnings: $54,840
36. Special education teachers, secondary school
    Annual average earnings: $55,140
37. Surveyors
    Annual average earnings: $56,030
38. Property, real estate, and community association managers
    Annual average earnings: $56,280
39. Aerospace engineering and operations technicians
    Annual average earnings: $56,560
40. Engineering technicians, except drafters, all other
    Annual average earnings: $56,660
41. Legal support workers
    Annual average earnings: $57,060
42. Compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists
    Annual average earnings: $57,080
43. Editors
    Annual average earnings: $57,300
44. Claims adjusters, examiners, and investigators
    Annual average earnings: $57,630
45. Funeral directors
    Annual average earnings: $58,820
46. Public relations specialists
    Annual average earnings: $59,030
47. Sales representatives, services
    Annual average earnings: $59,150
48. Transportation inspectors
    Annual average earnings: $59,650
49. Arbitrators, mediators, and conciliators
    Annual average earnings: $59,780
50. Instructional coordinators
    Annual average earnings: $59,830

*National data according to the BLS

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Well, one day down; four to go, kids. In the meantime, here’s some reading material:

• Internships are about more than just getting coffee for the VP.
  Texas students find that Washington internships can open doors for jobs in future
• Are you to your company as Milton is to Office Space?
  How to be more social in the workplace
• This is one of those surveys that’s surprising…but not, if you know what I mean.
  Nobody Wants to Lead the Corporate Dance…

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• People forget that one of the worst parts of a job loss is the loss of social interaction.
  Layoffs test true friendships
• Another interesting look at the personal side of losing a job (and its salary).
  Some Tips for Noncustodial Parents After Job Loss
• You’re super awesome–so make sure the interviewer knows it, too!
  Acing the Job Interview Process
• Even lawyers get the blues.
  Laid-Off Lawyers Struggle in Establishing Their Own Firm

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