Labor market Upturn
In the last four months we have seen a significant upturn in the labor market for the Electronic Interconnect Industry. The New Year has started with a bang, with all leading employment indicators trending upward and job opportunities expanding daily. In fact the war for talent is on in our industry. Many very talented individuals have left the industry for greener pastures, which is now creating a shortage of experienced personal. We expect the demand for talent in our industry to get stronger in the months to come.

As the competition for talent intensifies, recruiting and retention have emerged as top concerns for employers. With the economy on track and unemployment at a four and a half year low, business needs are propelling this competition. The major propellants of the competition are experienced employees eager to make a change.

If you have considered making a career change in the past or are looking to work for an organization whose mission is more in line with yours, now is the time we should talk.

So, if you’re ready to put your job search into high gear and see exclusive positions that are not always advertised send us an email (mike@greenlinegroup.net) or give us a call today (888-350-3371), too confidentially discuss your background and career objectives.

Labor Report: Springtime hiring burst
Abridged: Bureau of Labor Statistics WASHINGTON, DC -- Employers added 211,000 jobs in a springtime hiring burst that benefited almost all sectors of the economy and lowered the national unemployment rate to 4.7 percent. The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department, suggested that an accelerating economic expansion is putting companies in the hiring mood, brightening prospects for job seekers.

Hiring gains were fairly widespread. Construction, retailers, financial activities, education and health care, and government were among the sectors posting payroll gains. The unemployment rate, which dropped from February's 4.8 percent, ended up matching January's jobless rate, which was the lowest in 4 1/2 years. "Businesses are regaining confidence to the point where they are now actively hiring new workers," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment

With the economy growing smartly and the job market flowering, the Federal Reserve and other economists are keeping a close eye on wage growth. Analysts believe the economy emerged from an end-of-year funk and grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent or higher in the just ended January-to-March quarter. The economy is expected to moderate in the current April-to-June quarter but still turn in a good performance.

Higher demand for hi-tech workers
Abridged: CNNMoney.com NEW YORK, NY -- Tech workers are back in hot demand, according to a recent report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an employment consulting firm. Tech-sector job cuts in the first quarter of 2006 were 40% lower than the same quarter last year. The tech sector, which includes computer, telecommunications, electronics and e-commerce, announced 39,379 job cuts in the first three months of 2006, down from 59,537 in the first quarter of 2005.

Mergers and acquisitions have been a driving factor behind tech sector job cuts for several quarters. "Despite the inevitable job-cutting that typically follows mergers; the job market picture for the nation's tech workers is definitely improving. Many job seekers in high-demand fields are probably finding themselves in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiating employment terms," John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement.

"Some businesses may regret some of the job cuts they made in recent years ... Recent surveys suggest that employers are having an increasingly difficult time finding information technology (IT) workers." In a quarterly survey by the tech industry trade publication CIO Magazine, 26.3% of chief information officers said IT labor was hard to find and keep. That is double the 13% of CIOs who said the same thing a year ago.

Professional attire projects the right image
Abridged: LJWorld.com LAWRENCE, KS -- The rule of thumb is no matter what position you're applying for, always dress above it, says Becky Gonzales, senior manager of human resources for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Dressing right plays a big part in the way your professionalism is viewed. You can have great experience and great things to say, but they won't get heard if you're completely inappropriately dressed. You might be risking the chance of getting the job.

Dress up! Gina Starnes, associate director for employer relations at KUs University Career Center, spends a good chunk of her time telling students what they should wear for job interviews. For men, wear a suit and tie for most interviews. For women, wear a suit - a skirt or pants will work in most cases. And for everyone: Pay attention to the details like polishing your shoes, combing your hair, cleaning under your fingernails and avoiding too much perfume or cologne. Candidates also should keep their jewelry modest, Starnes says. Men should take out jewelry such as earrings that some prospective bosses might find inappropriate.

Dressing well for an interview is a compliment to the person you're interviewing, she says. It says, “I respect you.” I'm serious about working for you. Mary Rodriguez, human resources director for Lawrence Public Schools, says interviewers may not even notice exactly what a candidate is wearing. But in some ways, she says, that's the goal.

Many immigrants have jobs before crossing
Abridged: Associated Press SASABE, MEXICO -- When Pedro Lopez Vazquez crossed illegally into the United States this month, he was not heading north to look for a job. He already had one. His future employer even paid $1,000 for a smuggler to help Vazquez make his way from the central Mexican city of Puebla to Aspen, Colorado. "We're going to Colorado to work in carpentry because we have a friend who was going to give us a job," Vazquez said.

A growing number of U.S. employers and migrants are tapping into an underground employment network that matches one with the other, often before the migrants leave home. "It continues to become clear who controls immigration: It's not governments, but rather the market," said Jorge Santibanez, director of the Tijuana-based think-tank Colegio de la Frontera Norte. As debate over immigration heats up in the U.S., more and more U.S. companies in need of cheap labor are turning to undocumented employees to recruit friends and relatives back home, and to smugglers to find job seekers.

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, U.S. prosecution of employers who hire such workers has dwindled to a trickle as the government puts its resources toward national security. The few cases that are prosecuted, however, highlight how lucrative a business recruiting undocumented workers has become.

Women in the workforce
Abridged: Diversityinc.com LOS ANGELES, CA -- The percentage of women in the work force has declined steadily during the past five years. Sociologists and economists suggest that women may have already hit a wall in the amount of work that they can pack into a week. Others say many women simply are opting to raise families.

But it's not only time constraints and family demands that have taken a toll on the percentage of women in the work force. The decline for most groups of women since the recession of 2001 reflects an overall slowdown in hiring, which affected men and women roughly equally. "The main reason for women's declining labor-force participation rates over the last four years was the weakness of the labor market," says Heather Boushey, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research institute in Washington.

A startling report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, presented to Congress last month, says the decrease in the rate of women entering the work force is slowing the nation's economic growth. "The new factor at play," the report says, "is the change in the trend in the female participation rate, which has edged down on balance since 2000 after having risen for five decades.”

News We Missed
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1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd shift positions available.

Director of Operations – Southwest
Our client is PCB manufacturer in Southern California seeks an experienced operations manager in PCB fabrication. Strengths in manufacturing planning and systems, High volume and quick turn. Military and commercial product. Will oversee all aspects of a successful three shift operation. Must have a strong working knowledge of the printed circuit board manufacturing/engineering processes.

 

For a complete listing of available positions please visit our website: http://greenlinegroup.net/jobs.htm

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