Greenline Blog

Employers in June made cuts in jobs for the sixth straight month. It's much weaker-than-expected, payrolls decreased by 62,000 in May. The economy has shed 438,000 jobs this year, the worst start to a year since 2002. It appears that job seekers were finding it hard to find work with all the negative pressure from the housing collapse and credit crunch. The unemployment rate remained the same at 5.5% (8.5 million persons). Non-farm payrolls decreased by -62,000 jobs. Average hourly earning rose by 0.3%. Jobs strength came from the government which added  jobs, health care which added 28,000 jobs, retail sector added 9,000 and added 16,000 leisure/hospitality. Leading the jobs weakness was manufacturing, construction, and retail. The manufacturing sector lost 33,000 jobs and  the construction sector lost 43,000, in May. May job loss was revised from 49,000 to 62,000.

The top 400 U.S. taxpayers reported an average annual income of $214 million each….The median per capita income in the U.S. is $26,000.

As WSWS recently stated “the richest four hundred American taxpayers have amassed immense wealth, and that amount is steadily increasing, according to figures reported by the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.”

The best employees have the most leverage, in today’s market place. - Mike Thomas

With all the layoffs that are occurring in the economy these days, many people think they will be entitled to a severance, but you can’t count on that these days. In a slowing economy the old rules may not apply.

Remember severance is not a right; it is up to the employer’s discretion. Just because your employer offered a severance package to people last year, they may not offer the same package this year.

If you are an “At Will Employee” you do have some basic rights, when you are being laid-off, such as: you are entitled to your unused vacation pay and unemployment (if you are eligible).

With some companies a severance package may be offered for signing a separation agreement. Separation agreements have become very common with employers, basically you are signing your rights away, they typically state that you can never sue the company, that you will hold the employer harmless, some may not allow you to work for a competitor for 3, 6 or 9 months. If you see any of this type of language in the separation agreement, your employer should be offering you something to sign the agreement, such as 30, 45, or 60 days pay, if it is not offered don’t be afraid to ask for compensation to sign a separation agreement. So make sure you know what you are signing, before you sign….take the time to read the documents.

Employers in May made cuts in jobs for the fifth straight month. It's much weaker-than-expected, payrolls decreased by 49,000 in May. The economy has shed 324,000 jobs this year, the worst start to a year since 2002. It appears that job seekers were finding it hard to find work with all the negative pressure from the housing collapse and credit crunch. The unemployment rate jumped this month to 5.5% (8.5 million persons). Non-farm payrolls decreased by -49,000 jobs. Average hourly earning rose by 0.3%. Jobs strength came from the government which added 17,000 jobs, health care which added 34,000 jobs and leisure/hospitality. Leading the jobs weakness was manufacturing, construction, and retail. The manufacturing sector lost 26,000 jobs, the construction sector lost 34,000 and the retail sector lost 27,000, in May.

We all know that video
killed the radio star, but will it also kill the resume/CV? With sites like
CareerTV, Vault and TokBok
becoming increasingly popular in online networking, and with more and more video
resumes/CVs being uploaded daily, is the future of recruitment really going
completely paperless?

After watching my first video resume/CV, I must
say I wasn’t sold on the idea of the video resume; it needed a lot of work.


While I am sure out there somewhere is a stellar example of a video
Resume/CV and while this vehicle may work in some markets, it is still in its
infancy. When it matures, we may indeed be ready to go completely paperless, but
until then, I think it’s safe to say that traditional resume/CV has yet to be
overtaken, at least by video….yet.

Executive pay moved higher in 2007 and is poised to grow even further this year, according to the result of ExecuNet's 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report.

There is also upward momentum for the inclusion of perks in executive employment contracts, despite increasing shareholder scrutiny on such employment benefits. Those findings are based on ExecuNet's survey of 4,349 executives and 718 search firm consultants and corporate human resource professionals.

The survey was produced in partnership with Goldjobs, Financial Executives International (FEI), Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), and Dillistone Systems/Filefinder.

Executive Pay Trends That Will Shape '08 Employment Contracts

• Total executive compensation increased 5.7 percent in 2007 and is expected to grow another 6.8 percent in 2008
• Nearly half (51 percent) of executive compensation packages negotiated in the past 12 months featured parks, including company cars, club memberships, housing and favorable loans - up from 38 percent in 2006
• The number of hiring organizations adding incentives to attract top talent jumped to 54 percent last year compared with 36 percent in 2006

Source: ExecuNet 2008 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report

Industries Expected To Generate The Most Executive Growth In 2008
1. High Tech
2. Healthcare
3. Business Services
4. Pharmaceuticals/Biotech
5. Energy/Utilities

Despite the softness evident in the broader labor market, executive recruiters expect to realize a 17-percent gain in search assignments in 2008. Corporate management recruiters and talent acquisition leaders, on the other hand, are forecasting a 10-percent increase in executive job appointments at their companies. That follows a multiyear trend revealing that corporate hiring leaders remain more conservative about their organizations' employment outlook than the external talent scouts they regularly engage. Corporate recruiters in a number of industries are more bullish than their colleagues in other segments of the economy.

Careerbuilder.com published their top 10 commonly made interview mistakes,it’s definatly worth reading.

Never continue in a job you don't enjoy. If you're happy in what you're doing, you'll like yourself, you'll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined. — Johnny Carson