ATM and self-checkout machines manufacturer NCR recently announced that it will be creating 916 jobs in the Atlanta area. A spokesperson for the company said that that it plans to increase its workforce in Georgia by 50 percent during the course of the next 26 months. Anywhere between 60 to 80 percent of these new jobs will be in Peachtree City, which is part of the metropolitan area that makes up Atlanta.
This news comes at a time when the Atlanta jobless rate was up to 6.5 percent in September from 6.2 percent in August. The most recent statistics from the state Department of Labor show that 17,200 jobs in Atlanta last month, which is almost half the number it has lost in the last year. Experts believe that these new Atlanta area jobs will make up for the 500 positions cut by Panasonic in Peachtree City.
Although these jobs may take the place of the others lost as far as statistics go, Matt Forshee, who is the president and CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, said that few of the employees effected by the Panasonic cuts will have the customer service skills needed for these positions.
According to Forshee, Fortune 500 company NCR has plans to train somewhere around 6,200 employees a year in Peachtree City. These positions will help the economy further because workers who are from out of town will be staying at area hotels and eating near-by restaurants. "I just tell 'em welcome to Peachtree City and plan to stay," said Harold Logsdon, who is the Mayor of Peachtree City.
The other 20 to 40 percent of the Atlanta area jobs will be going to Duluth. The company currently has around 600 employees in this part of the metro.
NCR already has plans to invest $15 million in upgrades to the 360,000-square-foot Peachtree city facility. At this time, 300 people in logistics there. Forshee said that when the company finishes adding all the new jobs, NCR may be the largest private employer in the county.
"Georgia's thriving business environment and large, multilingual work force will enhance NCR's ability to provide cost-effective service delivery and the world's highest levels of customer satisfaction and solution availability," said NCR's senior vice president Christine Wallace in a recent release.
The decision to do away with these jobs was reached as a way to fix some of the city's budgeting problems. According to the mayor's office, cutting these Hartford jobs will save the city more than $6 million a year. Hartford won't begin to experience most of these savings until the next fiscal year.
Thirty of the Connecticut jobs to receive the ax will come from already vacant positions that will not be refilled. These jobs were already budgeted for.
Another 46 of these jobs will come from not filling in staff vacancies from employees that announced their desire to retire soon. After these positions are taken into account, Hartford will only have to layoff 56 workers.
The Mayor has made it a point to reassure residents that none of these layoffs will take place at the city's police headquarters or fire stations. According to him, none of the positions will affect the well being or safety of the city's residents.
"With the financial crisis impacting cities across the nation and with the announcement by the Governor of deep cuts to the state budget, we had to move decisively to maintain a balanced budget and keep our fiscal house in order," said Perez in a recent statement. "These layoffs will not impact public safety and have been formulated in a way to maintain the quality of core city services."
Aside from this, there has been no word as to which of the offices will lose employees.
"The City's request for concession by impacted unions was not successful," said the mayor. "All impacted employees will be provided with transitional assistance to help them find positions outside city government."
Search engine optimization, a tactic used to help Web sites receive higher rankings on search engines such as Google, seems to be helping many law firms throughout the country.
Alyn-Weiss & Associates, law firm marketing consultants, recently completed a national marketing effectiveness survey showing that the number of corporate, transactional and defense law firms using SEO and getting cases and referrals as a result has tripled in the past two years.
The survey revealed that 59 percent of law firms used SEO during the past two years, compared to 20 percent the previous two years. From 2007 to 2008, 20 percent of firms said they received cases because of SEO, compared to 8 percent from 2005 to 2006.
"Joining a legal network to stem competition from the national firms also appears to be a trend for local and regional firms," Bob Weiss, president of Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc., said in a press release.
The number of firms in the survey reporting they were members of networks increased from 32 percent to 48 percent. Those memberships appear to pay off, as 44 percent of the firms that are members of legal networks said they received significant amounts of work from other members of the network. The survey also showed larger firms seemed to benefit more than smaller firms from membership in a network.
"More than 80 percent of firms of more than 50 lawyers in our survey which said they were members of a network had obtained work from membership," Weiss noted. "In short, our survey confirms that a firm's Web site is an effective sales tool, not just an online brochure.
"To stave off the national firms, regional and local firms should consider membership in a law firm network," he added.
While networks, online marketing and SEO are the new trends, the survey shows the most effective marketing tactics for law firms continue to be seminars, presentations, trade and community group memberships and client entertainment.
HireRight, Inc. recently announced that it has successfully integrated its background check and drug screening capabilities with Taleo Business Edition Recruit. This will allow users of Taleo's program the ability to manage their background check and drug screening programs through a single, integrated interface and sign-on.
"As the provider of the original and most utilized pre-integrated screening solution for Taleo, we are excited about bringing the screening functionality and user experience that has been so popular with large employers to the small and medium-sized businesses taking advantage of Taleo Business Edition Recruit," said Rob Pickell, who is the president of marketing and product management at HireRight.
HireRight's addition to Taleo's prodcut includes an ordering feature that enables users to order a quality background check or drug test from their computer. The results are then made available on the program as soon as the test and check have been completed. By doing this, HireRight eliminated the necessity of entering data more than once, which significantly reduces the possibility of errors.
"Our small and midsize customers are accustomed to a high level of efficiency, intuitiveness and ease-of-use," said Jason Blessing, who is the group vice president and general manager of Taleo Business Edition's full line of products. "The HireRight pre-integrated solution supports our users' expectations for ease of use and gives them robust capabilities for managing an efficient and effective employment screening program from a single user interface."
This edition of Taleoss HR software is used predominately by small and mid-sized employers. HireRight's easily used interface helps to save time during the process of background checks. Many of these businesses do not employ an individual who handles only investigations into applicants past, so it is important that they be able to maximize the time spent on this responsibility.
Many industries throughout the country are suffering, such as finance, construction and manufacturing. Because of this, employers are laying off workers in order to keep their profits intact. One sector that seems to be immune to these issues is the healthcare industry. This sector has many employment opportunities that often over look, such as healthcare sales jobs.
Often called medical sales representatives, or reps, individuals with this healthcare job work on the behalf of pharmaceutical companies to sell much needed equipment or medicine to professionals in the field. They are responsible for getting the products of the company that they work for out to the people who need them most.
Medical sales representatives usually have a general geographical location that they sell with in. They also usually specialize in on particular product or in a specific medical area. As part of this, they often make presentations or organize events for healthcare professionals so that they can learn more about the products they offer.
Because of the amount of time these individuals spend face-to-face with doctors and nurses, it is important that they have good interpersonal skills. Being a good public speaker also comes in very handy, as a working knowledge of medical concepts.
In order to be successful in this field, an individual would need to be good at managing time, making their own schedule and, for some, budgeting the money used to fund a conference. Other responsibilities include keeping up to date with changes in the industry, developing sales strategies and creating and maintaining working relationships with medical professionals.
According to CNNmoney.com's Salary Wizard, the median salary in this field is $59,730, but some make more than $200,000 a year. Their pay is often accompanied by large bonuses. Aside from normal benefits, individuals with healthcare sales jobs often get expense accounts, company vehicles, and a variety of other incentives.
Recently the state government of Nevada has gone through a budget crisis, as are many other areas in the nation. At the early onset of this, many employees were afraid that they would be laid off. Despite these fears, very few Nevada government Jobs(Click here) were actually cut.
According to Personnel Director Shelley Blotter, only nine state employees lost their jobs due to the budget issues. Altogether Nevada employees 19,156 permanent full-time workers.
Blotter went on to say that several of the nine individuals who lost their positions have already found jobs with another agency. At this time, she said that there may be other people who have lost their state job but that the paperwork has not yet made it to her department. Despite this, she says that she doubts the number of positions lost in the end will be significant.
Howard Skolnik, who is the state's Director of Corrections, recently announced that his department had to do away with three nursing positions in the Southern Nevada. According to NevadaAppeal.com, only one of these lost government jobs showed up on Blotter's list.
With the economy struggling as it is, many employers are unable to justify hiring new workers. Local governments, which are the source of many jobs, aren't immune to these problems. Boston is one of the cities that is suffering from budget problems brought on by economic strife.
On October 16th Mayor Thomas M. Menino requested his top finance officials to begin a detailed analysis of the city's spending. In addition to this, he ordered a hiring freeze, which means there will be no new Boston government jobs in the near future.
One of the major areas that Menino wanted his financial officials to pay strict attention to was capital improvement projects currently in the works. He's asked those in charge at the city's Redevelopment Authority to expedite any imminent projects in order to encourage Boston construction jobs. These announcements came only a day after Governor Deval Patrick initiated the worst single round of midyear budget cuts in the state's history.
Boston officials have said that they are still sifting through these budget cuts, which amount to more than $1 billion, in order to determine how the city will be affected.
"These are difficult times," said Dorothy Joyce, who is Mayor Menino’s spokesperson. "The city has been through them before. We'll get through them again. It is true, it will be difficult, but we will adjust."
The projects which the city is planning on pushing through as quickly possible, and in the process create many Boston jobs, include various roof repairs to several schools and community centers, maintenance at the Boston Common, city ball field, one municipal buildings in Uphams Corner and the Veronica Smith Senior Center in Brighton. In addition to these there are also plans for repairs and equipment purchases for the city's Fire Department.
Combined, the projects are expected to create and retain over 21,000 Michigan jobs and generate over $1 billion in new investment in the state.
“Our aggressive economic strategy is attracting new job-creating investments from growing national and international companies,” Granholm said. “Our competitive business climate and outstanding workforce are attracting the kinds of companies that are helping to diversify our economy, and we will continue to go anywhere and do anything to bring new jobs like these to Michigan.”
A partial listing of the companies involved include the following:
Ohio-based Consolidated Biscuit Company (CBC) will invest $12 million in a new manufacturing center in Tecumseh. The expansion is expected to create 1,058 new Michigan jobs, including 500 directly by the company.
State incentives have been approved to encourage General Motors to develop and produce the new Chevrolet Volt in Michigan along with additional advanced energy and conventional fuel vehicles and components.
Chicago-based Accretive Health LLC, a leading provider of revenue-cycle management services to hospitals, plans to expand operations in Detroit and Kalamazoo. The aggressive expansion is expected to create 650 jobs over the next five to seven years.
Bissell, Inc. is one of the world’s largest and oldest suppliers and manufacturers of floor-care products, including sweepers, vacuums, deep-cleaning machines, and cleaning formulas. Bissell plans to invest approximately $9 million in an expansion and the opening of an innovation center at its facility in Walker. The innovation center would be a centralized location for research and development related to Bissell’s new and existing product lines.
Genesis Seating will invest $3 million to relocate from Cascade Twp. and expand in Kentwood. The project is expected to create 131 new jobs.
San Diego-based Sequenom, a genetics and molecular diagnostic company is creating a second research location by purchasing lab space in Grand Rapids. The project includes a capital investment of approximately $20.25 million over five years and the creation of up to 523 jobs by 2013.
A2 Media Corporation, an interactive agency developing software that lets marketing and communications professionals in the auto, biotech and financial sector manage their digital activities, will invest approximately $2.7 million in relocation and expansion of its current Ann Arbor site to a larger facility in the city. The project is expected to create 128 new jobs, including 63 directly by the company.
Barracuda Networks, a leader in e-mail and Web security applications, plans to expand its research and development center in Ann Arbor. The project is expected to create 351 new jobs, including 185 directly by the company.
AT&T Internet Services plans to build a high-tech call center that will take in-bound calls for high speed internet (DSL) customers in need of assistance with their internet service. The call center will be located in an existing facility in Detroit and is expected to create 300 jobs.
In her 2008 State of the State address, Granholm emphasized the importance of creating opportunity in the changing world of the 21st century.
The report monitors the hiring patterns in 20 major cities that the largest increase in high paid New York jobs and executive positions elsewhere were in technology, healthcare and the industrial sector.
"There are segments of the job market that are clearly strained right now, but it's critical for job seekers out there to realize that even in this market -- with headlines about the government bailout and corporate layoffs -- people are being hired for their dream jobs every day," said president and CEO of TheLadders.com Marc Cenedella.
The company found that in San Francisco there are 2 job seekers for every $100,000+ job posted online. In both San Diego and Washington, D.C. there were 3 individuals looking for employment for every vacant position on the web. Boston, Houston, New York and Seattle had 4 job seekers for every 1 job listed on the Internet.
The areas that are attracting the largest number of individuals looking for highly paid jobs are New York, San Francisco and Boston.
TheLadders.com also asked those who use the site to help find work a variety of questions in order to determine how those who are used to making $100,000 or more a year feel about the job market. Over half, 58 percent, reported that they expect to have a new job within the next six months, if not sooner. Not all feel so optimistic though, as 55 percent of participants reported feeling a general lack of stability.
Many are considering leaving their area in hopes of finding new jobs. Approximately 63 percent said that they are willing to relocate for work, while 46 percent said that they are already trying to find a new position outside of their own cities.
Despite the fact that the current economic strife has curtailed the number of entry level jobs that many employers are providing, hiring managers are still looking for recent graduates who are talented. In many cases, the problem is that the jobs are in one location while the best potential employees are in another. Were jobs more abundant, many might hold out for positions closer to home, but a new survey shows that many graduates looking for entry level jobs are willing to move for work.
Experience, Inc., an entry level job search site, recently polled Generation Y for its 2008 Hot Cities Survey and found that 85 percent of those who are fresh out of college are willing to move within the U.S.. Another 70 percent responded that they would be willing relocate outside of the country.
The survey found that 44 percent those polled citied their careers as the reasoning behind considering to move. Hoping to find a more favorable social scene was the reason that 19 percent said they would be willing to relocate. Another 6 percent said that were thinking about moving for family reasons.
Despite the obvious willingness to move, 33 percent of entry level job seekers said that a high cost of living would be a reason that they might turn down a company's offer for employment.
The survey also asked participants where they would most like to move. New York was they most popular metropolitan area, with 12 percent of entry level job seekers reporting a desire to move there. Washington, D.C. and Chicago were the top locations of choice for 8 percent of those polled. San Francisco, which appealed to 7 percent of participants, came next. The fifth slot was a four way tie between Seattle/Tacoma, Atlanta, Boston and Charlotte, all of which were attractive to 5 percent of those polled.
"Employers have the opportunity to attract a larger entry-level talent base by sourcing beyond their geographical boundaries," said founder and CEO of Experience Jenny Floren. "It's imperative that recruiters understand what motivates Gen Y and then promote the comprehensive benefits of their job opportunities, including the aspects of living in a specific region. When organizations can attract and retain large number of young professionals with optimized workforce development efforts, there can be a real economic boon to the city."
At this time, Experience.com is the largest career site in the nation for entry level job seekers. The website finished the survey in August of this year. Altogether 277 individuals participated in the poll. More than 100,000 employers use the website to look for talent that have attended 3,800 different colleges and universities.
Background checks(Click here) can save employers in all industries from many problems, but they are particularly important in certain lines of work. Employees that will be responsible for the well being of others have a larger chance of effecting the lives and health of others and, therefore, should always be subject to a pre-employment background check.
Because of similar reasoning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California recently passed a bill that requires the state's 70,000 emergency medical technicians to be the subjects of mandatory criminal background checks. Last year he vetoed similar legislation after saying that he disapproved over changes that were made to the bill that made it possible to keep secret certain details about the misbehavior of these professionals.
The Assembly bill that Schwarzenegger has agreed to stands to bring the licensing and certification system in California up to date. In 2007 a variety of problems were discovered with the system during the Bee investigation.
"EMTs provide vital services that help Californians in their time of need, and because of the critical role they play, it is important to that we have a universal statewide standard that will prevent those who are unqualified or have a past criminal history of becoming EMTs," said Schwarzenegger in a statement put out by his office.
"By signing these bills into law, we are increasing safety and accountability within the emergency medical services field and ensuring that Californians have the best EMTs available at any given moment," he said.
The legislation, Assembly Bill 2917, which made the mandatory background checks possible, was originally introduced by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico. In addition to the background checks, the bill also makes it where EMTs have to be certified in the county that they will be working in and will create a statewide EMT registry.
This is expected to help to stop EMTs who have criminal records or negative employment histories from trying to obtain certification in different counties in hopes of finding a weak spot. The Bee investigation found that this problem had been occurring for some time.
The registry will make it possible to track EMTs throughout California. In order to pay for this, EMT fees will be raised. According to Torrico, the statewide system will make it possible to create a standards for certification, disciplinary orders and conditions of probation for EMTs that have gotten themselves into trouble.
In addition to this, EMT employers will now be able to check to see if an applicant has been subject to a background check already and if they have had past actions against either their certification or license.
Deepwater Wind was recently chosen as the developer to construct a wind energy project off the shores of Rhode Island. The project is expected to create 800 new Rhode Island jobs with annual wages of $60 million. The company has pledged a private investment of $1.5 billion to the local economy, according to an article by Market Watch. A wind project also was recently approved in New Jersey.
The project by Deepwater Wind was chosen out of seven proposals. The energy project will result in a facility that can provide 1.3 million megawatt hours per year of renewable energy, which amounts to about 15 percent of all electricity used in the state. The project is expected to cost more than $1 billion to construct, with funds coming from private investors.
The exact location of the project has not yet been decided, and should be determined from the results of a Special Area Management Plan process. Final approval of the project is contingent on regulatory approvals from state and local governments.
"Today marks a major step to bring wind power to Rhode Island and to reach our goal of at least 15 percent of all electricity in the state be renewable energy," Governor Donald L. Carcieri said in the article. "Of the many forms of renewable energy alternatives available, wind is the proven leader. Wind power is clean, green power that is not subject to variations and increases in fuel price. Rhode Island is uniquely positioned to lead the nation with the development of this country's first off shore wind farm.
"This is much more than an energy project," Carcieri continued. "This is about creating a new industry in Rhode Island; an industry that puts Rhode Island at the epicenter of the emerging alternative energy market. Deepwater Wind will help bring new economic activity, jobs and opportunity to Rhode Island. From construction through operation, Deepwater Wind projects will provide high-quality, green collar jobs. Further, Deepwater Wind's jacket foundations are the ideal cost-effective solution for the deeper waters in our region."
Deepwater Wind was established to develop utility-scale offshore wind projects in the northeastern part of the United States. So far, the company's major investors include FirstWind, a developer of on-shore wind projects; D.E. Shaw & Co., a capital investment firm with experience in the energy sector and Ospraie Management, an asset management firm with a focus on alternative energy.
The outlook for New Jersey jobs in bioscience remains positive. Currently, the state is one of the top five areas for biotechnology in the world. Over the last ten years, the number of employers who specialize in this sort of work have almost tripled.
At this time, more than 10 percent of the country's employment in drugs and pharmaceuticals is in New Jersey. In addition to this, the state also has over 5 percent of all of the nation’s research, testing and medical laboratories, medical devices and equipment subsectors.
The state continues to benefits from the presence of the numerous high paying jobs associated with bioscience. Because of the strength of this area of employment, a large portion of New Jersey's workforce is considered more educated than is the national average.
As far as venture capital invested and patents issued during the course of the last six years goes, the state is fourth in the country. Altogether, $2.78 billion in venture capital was invested in New Jersey by bioscience employers who are attracted to the area, at least in part, by the high presence of skilled employees.
At a recent conference discussing the industry and furthering it's influence in the state, Debbie Hart, president of BioNJ said that, "[W]henever we can foster good, high-paying jobs, stimulate research opportunities within our academic institutions and be a part of the solution for addressing the health concerns for our citizens --I know we are doing our job. Working together -- we all can win."
While many other industries are downscaling the number of jobs they provide, bioscience employment remains relatively steady.
With the economy unstable, employers are less likely to create new jobs. As profits decrease, many businesses have to put aside increasing their payrolls in order to continue to stay above water. Because of this, the number of new jobs posted online fell in September, according to The Conference Board, a nonprofit business membership organization and research center, most recent Help-Wanted Online Data Series (HWOL) report.
Nationwide, the number of new jobs posted online dropped by 216,000 last month to 4,418,000 unique ads. The most recent decrease in employment opportunities continued to follow the trend that started in May of 2007.
"All in all, indications are that employment will deteriorate even more rapidly in the near term," said Gad Levanon, who is the Senior Economist at The Conference Board. "The current HWOL data indicates that labor demand was down in September even before the tumultuous events in the financial sector during the end of the month."
Levanon went on to say that there is a close correlation between employers need for new workers and unemployment.
"As demand drops, unemployment will rise as it becomes more difficult for the unemployed to find jobs," he said.
Since May of last year, The Conference Board has noted that the difference between the portion of the population that is unemployed and the number of new jobs advertised online has increased significantly. Currently there is approximately 2 unemployed workers for every help-wanted ad placed on the Internet.
Many times the loss new job announcements occurs in one or another of the Census regions, however, in September, it happened almost universally across the board. The larger states, of course, experienced a greater loss because they had a larger number of jobs to start with. Texas, which saw the biggest decrease, fell by 30,300 new jobs. California, New York and Pennsylvania followed suit.
Despite the decrease of new jobs posted on the Internet, there is still a significant demand for talent for higher paying occupations. As of now, these positions make up around 60 percent of the employment announcements online. The problem with this is that the individuals trained for such jobs only make up approximately 20 percent of the portion of the population that is currently unemployed.
Recent statistics show that Virginia jobs in Halifax in the tourism industry grew in 2007, according to the county's Department of Tourism. All together, the sector employed over 500 people, generated more than $2 million in taxes. Visitors to the area spent approximately $35.4 million in the community.
"In a very challenging and competitive market, tourism in Halifax County continues to demonstrate growth," said Halifax County's Director of Tourism, Linda Shepperd. "This is a testament to the dedication and hard work of organizations and attractions, public and private, that continue to offer events and activities that attract thousands of visitors to our communities each year."
Virginia is still one of the most popular locations in the country for tourists to visit during their vacations. This industry continues to make a huge contribution to area’s revenue.
Statewide, data for 2007 shows that visitors to Virginia spent $18.7 billion, which was an increase of 5.8 percent from the previous year. This means that the state is well over the national domestic travel increase of 4.7 percent. Altogether, the tourism industry employed 210,000 Virginia residents. According to the statistics, if tourism was considered its own industry, then it would be the 6th largest employer in the state.
"Tourism has such a positive financial impact on Virginia as a whole and on local areas as well," said the Virginia Tourism Corporation's president and CEO, Alisa Bailey. "You can see how so many of our localities depend on tourism to bring in money and sustain jobs that otherwise would not exist."
Problems with the economy this year may make the statistics for 2008 less positive than those most recently reported. Since many people across the nation now have less disposable income, there is a good chance that tourism growth will have slowed down slightly.
