100 Lost Healthcare Jobs Nothing to Be Concerned About
Despite losing 100 healthcare jobs in hospitals, the Poughkeepsie-Newburgh-Middletown metropolitan area of New York still had industry job growth in August, according to state Department of Labor's labor market analyst John Nelson.
Over the last year, the area has gained 500 jobs in the industry, when hospitals are excluded. Nelson believes that the 100 positions cut at local hospitals was "just a blip."
"You have to keep in mind that these surveys are sample-based estimates, so that 100 is not really a real factor," said Nelson. "You probably won’t find a company that laid off 100 people. There could be minor cutbacks, but nothing big."
The Times Herald-Record checked this by calling area hospitals to find out how many healthcare jobs they had cut, but all of those that returned the calls said that they did not layoff any employees during August. Rob Lee, a spokesman for the Orange Regional Medical Center, told reporters that the facility he represents is in the process of recruiting for 125 vacant positions.
"Hospitals across the nation are struggling, and the climate in New York state is particularly challenging," said Judi Stokes, who is a spokesperson for St. Luke's. "New York state hospitals' operating margin are the second worst in the nation. While volatility in the economy certainly plays a role regarding increased costs for operations - such as utilities and supplies - the challenges are far greater and longer term."
According to Lee, the struggling economy could actually be partially to blame for the rising rates of illness. Stress can induce many health problems, but he says that he is not aware of the hospital he represents having an increased problem in patients not paying their bills.
Ageism, the prejudice against older members of the population, exists in many workplaces. From time to time, older employees find themselves pushed out or forced into early retirement for one reason or another, despite the fact that they are completely capable of fulfilling their responsibilities to the company. According to AARP, Chicago jobs exist that are extremely friendly to workers over 50 years old.
"Employers across the country are increasingly recognizing the importance of innovative practices as they seek to recruit and retain experienced workers," said AARP"s Illinois State Director Bob Gallo. "AARP is honored to award these four Illinois companies for being ahead of the curve."
The corporation chose to award these honors based on a number of criteria that showed concern for the needs of mature workers. According to a recent press release, these included; workplace accommodations, alternative work options (for example: flexible scheduling, job sharing and phased retirement), employee health and pension benefits and retiree work opportunities. BCBSA was chosen in part to its Mature Worker Program which has a variety of benefits for employees who are over the age of 55.
"AARP's recognition underscores Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's commitment to enhancing the lives of our members and employees -- of all ages," said BCBSA president and CEO Scott P. Serota. "We are proud to have a strong professional workforce of employees and are pleased to reward their dedication with competitive benefits, pay and human resources initiatives."
New Horizons was recognized for the training and wellness programs they provide for its employees who are over 50.
AARP will honor the winners at a dinner in Chicago that is scheduled to take place on October 7th.
Limited acceptance into nursing school and a group of RNs nearing retirement age has caused serve issues for employers. Since finding enough professionals to fill many healthcare jobs has become a serious problem, many hospital administrators are now focusing even harder on retention than ever before.
According to the Kansas City Star, the state is expected to have a supply of nurses that has decline by 2.3 percent in 2020. At the same time, the demand is expected to increase by 25.6 percent, making it extremely important for employers to hold on to ever nurse that they can. The newspaper also found that 13 percent of nurses make the decision to leave their career each year. This means that more than 9 percent of the positions for this healthcare job continue to be unfilled.
In an effort to encourage nurses to stick with the career and battle burnout, many employers are now offering better benefits, higher salaries and more training.
Susan Lacey, who is the director of nursing work force and systems analysis at Children's Mercy Hospital, told the newspaper that a new center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Nursing plans to address the problem in a variety of different ways over the course of the next two years.
The center plans to conduct a comprehensive survey of all of the local hospitals and clinics in order to find out which facilities have issues that need to be improved in order to keep nurses around. It also plans to create a Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy in order to provide education and technical support to those in the profession. They will also share the results of the survey and CSI Academy at an up-coming conference devoted to nursing work-force innovation.
"We believe the center will serve as a national model for strategic innovation in health-care transformation," Lacey told the newspaper. "It truly is one of a kind. We believe we can meet the demands with the available resources if we help to improve the environment in which nurses are working."
While having the perfect Web site is a goal of many companies, it's a hard feat to obtain. Search engines, such as Google, that rank Web sites according to content are often hard to read, and these sites don't always make their ranking rules clear.
One option many companies choose is to hire a firm to optimize your Web site for you. In the meantime, there are a few things companies can do to help the process along, according to an article by Macon.
First, making sure the site's content is relevant and unique is extremely important. Companies can help by posting new press releases and news articles on the site, which can be filled with keywords and relevant content, as well as some unique content. Another idea is to post articles or newsletters written by staff or other professional writers.
The Web site also should contain as many related links as possible, without overdoing it. This includes adding links to articles and news postings.
Companies should avoid having Flash headers or other animated content on the site, as these can't always be indexed on a search engine because they contain no text.
"Using Flash on sites today is like showing up at a 2008 school dance dressed like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever," the article notes. "A simple, informative site is best, and positions your business as one that is diligent about keeping up with today's changing world."
Finally, it's especially important the site contain title tags that can be indexed by search engines. Having correct tags you can plug into analytic tools will help maintain and trace traffic, as well as help analyze what keywords to use and what links are the most popular.
"Be sure to list your Web site everywhere, including on the rapidly-growing social networking sites," the article adds. "And any business that fails to include its Web site address on a print or broadcast ad anywhere at anytime is, well, eventually doomed."
MonsterTRAK.com, a part of Monster Inc. that deals with internships and entry level jobs, recently released a report announcing the top five industries for recent graduates. The results for this are based on the number of jobs posted by employers on the job search website.
According to the report, there has been a major shift in entry level job postings showing that medical and educational employers are now looking for more recent graduates than ever before.
MonsterTRAK.com's vice president and general manger commented on this, saying "[A]s the medical and educational sectors continue to add jobs, as well as expand online recruitment efforts, we expect their need for qualified applicants to outpace other white-collar industries that previously dominated year-over-year growth such as the slowing financial and business sectors."
"Because the majority of industries, regardless of the sector, will continue to face a shortage of talent generationally, many employers are looking to attract entry-level candidates by offering long-term growth potential and other perks." He went on to say that "[T]his remains good news for students who are undecided about a degree path, as well as recent graduates and young professionals still looking for their first opportunity."
Sales and business development came is as the top industry for employing recent graduates. This sector made up for a quarter of all the jobs posted for entry-level workers on MonsterTRAK.com. Positions under this category include jobs in account management, real estate, advertising and field sales.
Secondly was accounting and finance, which made up for nearly 15 percent of the job announcements on the website. Despite the current issues with mortgage and loan providers, there were still a good number of entry-level job postings for accounting positions, financial analysis, consulting and administration positions.
Third on the list was training and instruction. All together these education-related jobs increased 90 percent since last year.
Information technology and software development came next. Popular entry-level jobs in this sector included web and software design, consulting, online security systems, computer maintenance and help desk support.
Finishing off the list was the medical and healthcare industry, which had the highest growth over the last year, showing an increase by approximately 200 percent. Employers looking for newly graduated nurses, dental practitioners, pharmacists, physical and occupational therapist and general practice physicians posted the most new jobs.
New York Jobs in the IT Industry Expected to be Okay
Recently things have been pretty tough on Wall Street as many New York jobs get cut. No one knows at this time exactly how many individuals will soon be out of jobs, but experts don't expect the area's IT sector to take a very big hit.
Despite the fact that layoffs will likely occur, Robert Half Technology's VP of strategic alliances, John Estes, says that the situation will balance itself out in the long run. Those who do stand to lose their IT jobs in New York aren't expected to have a difficult time finding new employment. The one problem he foresees is that it may be difficult to find comparable pay.
According to Estes, a good portion of head IT people at investment banks and financial services firms were making somewhere around $200,000 a year. These individuals may struggle to find a new place of employment that can offer as much.
"There's going to be more high-quality high-tech people on the street," said Estes. "A lot of these people are high-dollar folks, and they may not be quite as happy as they were before."
He went on to say that there could be "culture clashes" if these individuals leave New York City and take lower-paying jobs elsewhere.
Layoffs shouldn’t be too much of a concern for those who have a lot of experience in the field. "[But] if you’re really good in IT, you won’t be on the street for very long," said Estes.
To illustrate this, Estes mentioned the fact that many higher-ups in the IT industry lost their jobs when the technology bubble broke around eight years ago. These individuals were also able to quickly find new jobs.
Earlier in the month Robert Half Technology reported that, despite issue in the economy, there is still a strong demand for certain IT professionals. Infrastructure specialists, including help desk workers and technicians, and those who are experienced with Web 2.0 and in business intelligence are amongst those who employers nationwide are looking to hire.
Virginia's unemployment rate continued to rise in July, as it climbed to a five-year high. According to the Virginia Employment Commission, 4.4 percent of the state's resident were unable to find work. This made July the second consecutive month that the state's jobless rate increased. As of a year ago, only 3.1 percent of the population was unemployed. Despite this increase, Virginia jobs were easier to come by than employment opportunities in many other states and the state continued to entice new businesses.
Volkswagen Group of America recently opened it's new U.S. corporate headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. Prior to this, the company was centered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. This location will also house the new headquarters for Audi of America. Combined, the two created 400 new Virginia jobs and invested $100 million into the move.
"We are happy to have this chance to give something back to our community," said Volkswagen Group of America's CEO and President Stefan Jacoby. "We work here, we live here, and we intend to give her. Our five-year education program is comprehensive and will serve as a catalyst for further educational entrepreneurship. It will help students whether they are in high school, technical school, community college, university or graduate school. With all of these programs, we will train teachers so they can share knowledge on automotive safety and environmental technology."
The number of Illinois jobs decreased in August, while the number of jobseekers continued to grow. This caused the state's unemployment rate to once again rise, although only slightly. The percentage of Illinois population that was unable to find work increased slightly, going from 7.2 percent in July to 7.3 percent, according to the state's Department of Employment Security.
During the same period of time, the national unemployment rate also increased, rising to 6.1 percent. This shows that, for the most part, it is easier to find a job else where in the country than it is in Illinois.
In August, IDES statistics show that there were 5,976,100 people on the payrolls of Illinois employers. This figure is down by 3,500 jobs since July, which makes last month the third month in a row that Illinois companies have reduced the number of people they employee. This is the first time in state in over five years that there has been this many months of consecutive employment losses.
In order to simply keep job statistics steady, Illinois employers must generate several thousands new jobs a month. The reason for this is that there are this many new workers entering the job force at one time. Unless a large number of new employment opportunities are created with in the near future, September will see another rise in the jobless rate.
As of a year ago, only 5.2 percent of residents of Illinois were unable to find work. Although this figure was still over the national unemployment average of 4.7 percent, it was certainly not as drastic as the statistics are showing this year. Over the 12 months, Illinois unemployment has climbed 2.1 percent, while the country as a whole has increased by 1.4 percent.
The industry that has taken the hardest hit in Illinois is the trade and transportation sector. In August this area of employment lost 3,300 jobs and lost 2,000 positions in July. Despite this, the industry remains the largest employer in the state, employing 1,216,200 individuals altogether.
Going against the national trend, Illinois construction industry actually added 900 jobs. Nevertheless, this sector has lost approximately 7,900 jobs during the last twelve months. Around 261,900 Illinois residents are employed by the industry at this time.
Education and health services also increased the number of jobs it provided by 500 positions in August. This means that the industry has seen a significantly increase in the last 12 months, rising by 10,600 jobs to employ 791,100 individuals in the state.
Other sectors that decreased the number of jobs provided included Manufacturing, which lost 700 jobs, and government jobs which lost 1,000 positions.
Applicant Tracking Solutions Provider Offers New Product
Small employers looking to purchase hr software has different needs than larger corporations. Both may be looking for an efficient option, but businesses with fewer workers also have smaller budgets and need a program that does not require a lot of time to master.
In hopes of fulfilling the needs of such employers, applicant tracking solutions provider myStaffingPro recently expanded its line of products with a new Express edition. MyStaffingPro Express has been designed to be a straightforward option that focuses on the essentials.
This system gives hr mangers the fundamentals, enabling them to post jobs, collect candidate resumes and manage other aspects of the hiring process. The implementation experience has been simplified into a five-step checklist which can be completed in a relatively short amount of time. This checklist gives the user immediate access to manage locations, job posting categories and job templates. Once the user has finished the checklist, they can immediately create and post a requisition to the candidate portal. Express also offers the optional inclusion of collecting and reporting on EEO data.
"Customers using myStaffingPro Express will appreciate the easy implementation and straightforward interface," said the company's director of sales, Ruth Ann Stover, in a recent press release. "myStaffingPro Express is a great starting point for small businesses that need an applicant tracking system. If the time comes when a more robust system is needed, any company can transition from our Express product to our Standard product. It's a win-win for everyone."
Helping to make the application process easier on job seekers, myStaffingPro express allows candidates to apply to positions and submit their resumes through either the companies career portal or a job board. After sending in their information, applicants then receive a thank you message and an e-mail that verifies that their resume has been received. Since many job seekers worry about employers receiving their information when they are unable to personally hand it to them, many applicants appreciate this confirmation notice.
Those who chose myStaffingPro Express also benefit from a central database that allows 24-hour access to applicant and requisition information. User only have to log into the program to have the up-to-date data at their fingertips. At any point during the process employers are able to remove postings from the candidate portal. This keeps the hr manager from having to deal with a stack of resumes for a position that has already been filled and gives them the ability to take down an announcement that contains errors.
Businesses interested in the program can find an online demonstration on the companies website and can receive a 30-day trial free of charge.
The unstable economy has caused many employers throughout a variety of different industries to layoff many workers. Rising gas prices, falling real estate sales and the national credit crisis are all working against business owners and making it more difficult to turn a profit. Lowering the amount spent on paying employee wages is one way that many companies are staying in the staying in the black.
Despite these wide spread problems in the job market, healthcare jobs continue to offer employers security. While the many industries throughout the country are doing away with jobs, healthcare employment opportunities continue to increase.
"If you had a new employer coming to Greenville that was bringing on board 550 new employees, it would be a big deal," said Doug Dorman, GHS' Vice President of Human Resources.
According to Dorman, these new healthcare jobs are in addition to the 450 new positions that were just created. This means a total of 800 new jobs for everyone from nurse and doctors to clerical workers and all other employees used to staff the five campuses.
Over the last year, GHS has opened two new hospitals; one at its Greer campus and one at Patewood. With the addition of the new jobs, GHS, which is the region's largest employer, would have a total workforce of around 9,300.
This staff increase will end up costing patients more. Patient's rooms will soon be going from $740 a night to $785.
"We had the same costs that you have at home," said Susan Bichel, GHS Vice President of Financial Services. "We have utility costs going up--other costs--all of our expenses are increasing as well."
With the economy being somewhat unstable, many businesses are suffering. As a result, employers are looking for a way to cut corners. Some seem the believe that, for the time being, they can get away without conducting background checks on new applicants. This can have horrible results!
Employers that do not conduct background checks stand to lose a lot of money in the event of a negligent hiring suit or a variety of other hiring mistakes. For example, according to the American Certified Fraud Examiners, the average amount that an organization with fewer than 100 employees loses per case of fraud is $190,000.
On top of this, law firm Reish & Luftman says that employers lose 60 percent of all negligent hiring/supervision jury trials. Businesses can avoid these legal costs by properly investigating their potential new hires.
Without conducting a background check an employer does not know if they can trust a new hire and rightfully so. According to Insurance & Technology, 30 percent of workers who launch an attack on the company have criminal records. By simply investigating an applicant, an employer can lower the level of risk to their organization.
Since workplace violence accounts for 18 percent of all violent crime, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, employers should consider protecting their office place from such. A good portion of individuals who commit such crimes have a history of violence, which would show up during a background check and give the employer advance notice before making a drastic hiring mistake.
Employers who think that dropping background checks is great way to save money should also realize that, according to a Right Management Survey, businesses that have to replace a bad hire usually spend as much as 3 times the salary of the job in question to correct their mistake.
Budgets may have to be adjusted to make background checks possible, but companies should never cut corners when it comes to safety and making good hiring decisions. Remember, a business is only worth as much as the individuals working for it.
Background checks(Click here) are not only to protect employers from making bad hiring decisions. In many cases such investigations help to keep safe all that come in contact with an employee, which is why they are particularly important in educational setting. If school administrators neglect to or are unable to conduct a thorough background check, students are potentially at risk.
According to Newark City Schools Personnel Director Cara Riddel, state law is now requiring that many certificated employees submit their fingerprints to both the BCI&I and the FBI by Friday.
She went on to say that approximately 80 percent of teachers and administrators already did so in March. This year there is a greater number of teachers and administrators having to submit to background checks due the fact the addition of investigations on educators with permanent or eight-year licenses has been added to the normal five-year license checks.
Despite the backlog, Jennifer Brindisi, a spokesperson for the BCI&I, says that the agency should be able to process the remainder without to much more of a delay.
Brindisi says that the BCI&I is all but caught up. "We're working as efficiently as we can," she said.
The bureau is able to process around 20,000 background checks a day, however this figure is subject to the complexity of the investigation in question and the offenses discovered. The increase in the number of checks required has caused the bureau to take as long as 30 days to process some of the fingerprints submitted.
"It's not as quick as what people hoped," said Brindisi.
For the most part, the delay is not expected to effect the school districts to any large degree. If an investigation does yield proof that one of the individuals who submitted their fingerprints is not suited to be around students due to a criminal past, things could get complicated.
There are some steps employers can take to ensure they recruit the best employees.
While the number of current job seekers has doubled from this time last year, employers are being faced with an abundant number of resumes and cover letters from those seeking work. While recruiting is often a time consuming process, the end results can often be rewarding.
According to an article by Recruit 2 Hire, there are five essential tips employers can take to recruit and maintain great employees.
The first tip is when reviewing a resume, an employer should consider the person's length of time on previous jobs, as a candidate with many short-term jobs could have a problem with commitment.
"It isn't necessarily a given that they were laid off because the company was cutting back," the article notes. "Star performers are not laid off if the company can avoid it. Be sure to check those references carefully, especially if the company is still in business. You don't want someone else's 'deadwood.'"
Employers also should look for gaps in employment and ask the candidate for an explanation, as employment lags could mean anything from going back to school to gaining a criminal record.
The candidate's resume should be closely scanned for overlaps in employment dates, which could either be a simple error or a sign that the candidate is falsifying information. Any overlaps should be explained by the candidate and verified by the previous employer.
Employers can benefit from having a copy of job descriptions when reviewing resumes.
"The more skills that match your job description, the more likely you will be to have a great match," the article states. "Focus on what they have done in the past that matches what you want them to do. If you need cold calls to develop new business, watch for that on their resume. Write a list of things you want them to do and then ask questions that will get those answers (or the lack thereof)."
Once done reviewing resumes, employers should sort them into two piles, one for those that look perfect and one for those that look good.
"Call the perfect ones on the phone and ask them why they want to work for your company," the article adds. "Pay attention to your instincts - if you need a receptionist, it is important that the person has a pleasant phone voice, that they are enthusiastic and articulate. If they don't make you feel good when you're speaking to them on the phone, they won't make a very good first impression on the customers who call your company."
Softscape, a recruiting software and applicant tracking provider, recently announced that it has been nominated for this year's Best Enterprise HR Software by the UK Software Satisfaction Awards. Instead of basing the winner on the decisions of a judge’s panel, the Software Satisfaction Awards are awarded based on the views of actual buyers and end-users of the business software applicants that have been nominated.
Since this award is rewarded in such away, many companies in the market to purchase HR software use the results to help reach their decision on which program will be most beneficial to their company.
"We are very pleased to be nominated for this prestigious award, and especially coming from the actual end users of our software," said David Watkins, Softscape's CEO. "This is further testimony to our unmatched focus on our customers' achievement. Softscape maintains some of the industry's highest customer satisfaction and retention rates (98%). We remain the vendor of choice because we offer customers the most comprehensive product offering, more flexibility and choices to support their long-term strategy, deep domain expertise, and superior service delivery."
Softscape focuses on providing their users with integrated human capital management (HCM) software. This enables the companies that have invested in their programs to mange their employees in a more effective manner, which in turn makes business run more smoothly. Those in the running for the various Software Satisfaction Awards will find out whether or not they won on Thursday, October 30th, when the winners will be announced. The event is scheduled to take place in London at The Brewery.
According to Florida Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, major federal highway funding is expected to run out by the end of this month. If something doesn’t change in the immediate future, this could mean problems for the highways and the loss of many Florida jobs. Peters says that the shortage of funds can be blamed on the fact that American's are driving less due to the high cost of gas.
At this time, the Federal Highway Administration estimates that will have to cut the highway program by around 34 percent this fiscal year. This would amount to the loss of $573 million for the state and as many as 20,000 Florida jobs.
Add to this the fact that building and improvement costs have skyrocketed. Recent figures from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials show that, in the last five years, the cost of concrete has rise 36 percent. Asphalt is up by 70 percent, steel has risen by 105 percent, and the diesel needed to fuel equipment is now 300 percent more expensive.
"It means that many projects in the pipeline are going to be stopped," said Aashto director of Engineering Tony Kane. "It means that states are going to be telling construction contractors 'Forget it, there's no jobs this year.'"
According to Homan, the DOT has not yet made any decisions on who and what will be cut from the budget. At this time, it seems likely that Orange County will see the loss of jobs.
“If the I-4 ultimate build-out were to be funded, it would certainly include federal funds," said Homan. "The same is true for SR 528 widening. Neither is currently funded for construction, and 528 is not even funded for design."
Secretary Peters is currently pushing a measure through congress in hopes of adding $8 billion dollars to the fund, which could help to protect many Florida jobs. As of now, the measure has passed in the House.
Kane believes that, even if the government does okay the money, more permanent solutions needed to be investigated. "It's a real bandaid. It's a short term fix," he said. "It's going to get us through this fiscal year but next fiscal year its going to be the same thing."
Recruiting Software Provider Recognized for Exponential Growth
Recruiting software provider iCIMS recently announced that the company was named as part of the 2008 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing North American companies. iCIMS acknowledged for its exponential growth over the last three years and was ranked 1,150, according to the list for it’s three year growth rate of 325 percent.
Every year Inc. magazine and Inc.com recognize the most innovative, dynamic and successful companies throughout the country with their 5000 list. Overall, the businesses making the list this year reported aggregate revenue of $185 billion and had a median three year growth of 147 percent.
iCIMS found itself amongst the top 23 percent of the list. The successful recruiting software provider had a median three year growth rate that is more than double the median found on the list. On top of this, Inc.com placed the company as number 83 on its list of Top Software companies.
"The Inc. 5000 gives an unrivalled portrait of young, underreported companies across all industries doing fascinating things with cutting-edge business models, as well as older companies that are still showing impressive growth," said Jim Melloan, who is the Inc. 5000 Project Manager.
"iCIMS is proud to have made the Inc. 5000 list for the third consecutive year," said the company's CEO and President, Colin Day. "While our corporate vision has expanded over time to encompass new functional capabilities within our platform, iCIMS' dedication to customer service and satisfaction has always been at the forefront of out mission. Our recognition by Inc. illustrates tremendous new customer adoption of our Talent Platform as well as iCIMS' ability to successfully support our growing client base year after year. We look forward to earning a spot on the Inc. 5000 next year as we continue to surpass previous growth records."
iCIMS began offering clients flexible, scalable recruiting and applicant tracking solutions in 1999. The company now offers services that assist employers with both their pre-and-post hire needs. Some of the companies that use iCIMS include Continental Airlines, Whole Foods Market and Tyco Electronics.
To view all of the companies that made Inc.'s 5000 list visit http://www.inc5000.com/. Results can be sorted by industry and region to make the information more easily viewed by the user.
New Jersey's unemployment rate remained below the national average of 5.7 percent in July, despite rising .1 percent to 5.4 percent. According to the state's Labor and workforce Development Department, employment figures remained basically unchanged. Only 200 New Jersey jobs were lost during the month between both the private and public sectors.
David J. Socolow, the state's Labor Commissioner, says that New Jersey's situations is only a reflection of what the rest of the nation is going through.
"During the first seven months of 2008, New Jersey's total nonfarm employment declined by a total of 14,100 jobs, or .35 percent, while the nation lost 463,000 jobs, or .34 percent, over the same period," said Socolow.
Jobs in financial activities decreased by 1,300 positions, while the leisure and hospitality industry did away with 1,100 jobs. During the same time, employers in the professional and business services sector created 3,100 new positions.
June's employment figures were also revised during the month of July to reflect the loss of an additional 200 jobs. Overall, the state lost 3,900 positions in that 30 day period.
Unemployment figures for the state can often be conflicting due to the fact that data is collected from several different sources. Adding to the difficulties of correctly figuring out New Jersey's job statistics is the fact that the percentage of the population that have jobs includes those that work outside the state, while the number of jobs considered only include positions listed in payroll data from companies with in New Jersey's state line.
The job situation in New Jersey may soon improve. According to the most recent Monster.com Job Index found that there was an increase in the number of positions posted by employers online during August. Out of 20 different industries, 14 showed signs of recovering as jobs increased.
"Employers are now stepping up their online recruitment efforts in preparation for the fall hiring season but activity in the job market remains muted compared to a year ago," said Jesse Harriott, a vice president at Monster in a recent press release.
Many individuals with something to hide often work at smaller businesses. The reason for this is simple; due to limited budgets, smaller employers are often more lenient in conducting pre-employment background checks.
These individuals often cost their employers a good deal of money through theft, drug related accidents and harassment or negligent hiring suits. Because of this, employers may think they are saving money by not investigating applicants, but in reality they stand to lose more than most firms charge to conduct an investigation.
Instead of neglecting background checks altogether, smaller employers should consider either conducting the investigation themselves or scaling down the process to fit their budget. Several options exist to make sure that the business is protected without having to pay huge fees.
Websites now exist that enable an employer to conduct a background check themselves. Depending on the site, the manner of payment may be different but options exist that offer monthly flat rates or pay as you go prices. The second of these two choices give employers that do limiting hiring the ability to only access the site, an therefore pay for its use, when absolutely necessary.
Another thing that small businesses should never forget to do is alert applicants that they may be the subject of a background check. Even employers who do not have room in their budget for such an investigation should have job seekers sign a consent form.
In many cases, those who are hiding particularly dark pasts will be discourage from seeking employment from the company due to fear of a background check. These forms can also be written to give an employer the write to conduct the investigation at a later date after funding is no longer an issue.
