Via MercuryNews.com …
A recruiter who left Google last year says that the company had maintained a “do not touch” list of companies including Genentech and Yahoo, whose employees were not to be wooed to the Internet search giant.
That revelation could be significant in light of this week’s disclosure that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent.
Via Bloomberg.com …
Companies in the U.S. cut an estimated 491,000 workers from payrolls in April, indicating the worst of the recession’s job losses may have passed, a private report showed today.
The drop in the ADP Employer Services gauge was smaller than economists forecast and the fewest since October. March’s reading was revised to show a reduction of 708,000 workers, down from a previous estimate of 742,000.
From InternetNews.com …
The Software as a Service business model is changing the way software is purchased and deployed by enterprise customers, experts told an audience of technology professionals here at the IDC Software as a Service Summit earlier this week.
Subscription software has been available on the Internet for years. What’s new is the willingness of companies to put key data and business functions on the Internet, a change made possible by technologies collectively know as “the cloud” or cloud computing.
Via Forbes.com …
Thanks to last year’s strong harvest of apples and the jobs that followed in juicing, packaging and shipping, Yakima, Wash., has the strongest employment outlook in the country for the second quarter of 2009, according to a quarterly survey by employment services firm Manpower.
“This is an agricultural base, a huge apple-growing region,” says Bill Cook, director of community and economic development for Yakima. “Last year’s apple harvest was huge, and it helped carry employment through the winter. Even in a normal economic year that wouldn’t happen.”
Via MediaPost Blogs …
comScore, Inc., in a study of Americans’ usage of the job search category, the fastest growing content site category in 2008, found that the category has seen the number of visitors grow 51% to 18.8 million visitors, as millions of Americans find themselves seeking new job opportunities. The final months of the year were some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008.
CareerBuilder.com Job Search led the category with 9.1 million visitors, up 78 percent versus year ago, followed by Monster.com Job search, Yahoo! HotJobsJob Search, and Indeed.com Job Search. SimplyHired, Inc. had the strongest growth rate of the top ten sites in the category, growing 161%.
From Workforce.com …
By now, the only thing that should be surprising about economic bad news is that the experts are surprised by it.
Yesterday, the figure of 573,000 new unemployment claims blew past the 520,000estimate from analysis firm Briefing.com. The payroll job loss tally from last week was a bigger shocker still. U.S. employers shed 533,000 payroll jobs in November, nearly 80 percent more than the 300,000 forecast by Briefing.com.
What’s an employer to do in the midst of this worse-than-expected recession? Business gurus call for counter-cyclicality—that is, avoiding layoffs or excessive cost-cutting; tapping the flush talent market; and stealing market share from competitors by going big rather than retrenching.
Via Business Week …
It was bad enough when Iceland got into financial trouble and practically sank into the frigid North Atlantic. It was worse when your next-door neighbor lost his home to foreclosure. But now things are really getting scary: Your own job may be at risk.
Unease turned to incipient panic on Dec. 5 after the government reported that the U.S. economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, making it the worst month for employment since the grim days of December 1974. The holiday party chatter is all about layoffs. Everyone wants to know how long the jobs hemorrhage will last and how bad it will get.
Via AP …
The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, the government said Friday. It was stark proof the economy is almost certainly in a recession.
The new snapshot, released by the Labor Department, shows the crucial jobs market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.
The jobless rate zoomed to 6.5 percent in October from 6.1 percent in September, matching the rate in March 1994. Employers have cut jobs each month this year.
Unemployment has now surpassed the high seen after the last recession in 2001. The jobless rate peaked at 6.3 percent in June 2003.
Via Reuters …
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Almost half of U.S. workers do not respect their boss and only half believe they are competent, according to an online survey released on Friday.
The study by Randstad USA, a unit of the world’s number two staffing company Randstad NV, found that the growing financial crisis has seen companies focusing more on their bottom line at the expense of relations with employees.
Via Bloomberg …
The U.S. lost more jobs than forecast in August and the unemployment rate climbed to a five- year high, heightening the risk that the economic slowdown will worsen.
Payrolls fell by 84,000 in August, and revisions added another 58,000 to job losses for the prior two months, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 6.1 percent, matching the level of September 2003, from 5.7 percent the prior month.
