So why are more companies not yet hiring?
U.S. Workers are still filing a large amount of unemployment claims and this is after five weeks of declines in this area.
Where are the culprits and which industries are still hurting? It’s apparent as we have seen over the last year is that a gradual stabilization of the economy does not naturally translate to a increase in the labor market stability.
The gripping effects of the recession have no indications of going into a double dip as economist like to call it, trade gaps are narrowing, imports and exports are up, and yet bottom line profits are not improving.
Where are the jobs going and why even after the influx of billions of dollars in stimulus funds…the unemployment rate still hovers around 9-10%?
Does your professional network actually work for you?
This is a great informational article I found on the web and a topic I bring up to a lot of people I have discussions with. The networking craze has, to say the least, become a huge activity for professionals both young and old.
However, the networking game has to be played right and you need to manage, massage, and treat your network like a living, breathing thing. I do not hesistate to mention that I know of individuals who have in excess of 500 people in their professional network, unless you are a small business owner, come on? These are great tips to professionals on how to evaluate and recontruct your professional network to better serve you.
According to Margeret Steen of Hotjobs:
1. How many former co-workers’ contact information do you have?
Focus particularly on your peers and people above you in the organization.
The more people you’re in touch with, the better. If you need to beef up the number of people in your network, a tool like LinkedIn can help, both with searching and with keeping up with former colleagues’ job moves
2. Does your network include a handful of people who could serve as references?
These people need to be willing to recommend you — and they need to know your work well. “References can’t be vaguely positive,” Civitelli said.
If you can’t think of four to six good reference candidates, you need to step up your networking to make sure people you work with know about your achievements
3. How many of your contacts have you communicated with in the past six months?
This is a measure of your active network.
“You don’t need to talk to everyone in your network every three minutes,” said Richard Phillips, owner of Advantage Career Solutions. But you should check in regularly, even if you just send a brief email saying you hope all is well. That way, when you do need to ask for job-hunting help, it will be “emotionally much easier” to make the contact.
4. Have you had lunch or coffee with someone from your network in the past month?
Make a point of meeting in person with a former colleague or another professional connection every few weeks
5. Have you attended a professional event recently?
Attending professional conferences will help you expand your network beyond former colleagues. Becoming active in a professional association will also boost your resume
6. Have you added any professional contacts in the past month?
Your network needs to grow in order to stay vital. Try to add new contacts — either by getting back in touch with former colleagues or by meeting new people — frequently
7. Are you networking “outside the box” — that is, making connections beyond your former colleagues and friends?
Job opportunities can arise from unexpected sources. Marianne Adoradio, a career counselor in Silicon Valley, recommends expanding your network to include some people outside your industry and at different stages of their careers, who can tell you about trends and opportunities you might not otherwise hear about
8. When your professional contacts get in touch with you, do you answer?
“People just kind of steer away from you if you’re not responding,” Adoradio said.
What if a contact is asking for job leads and you don’t have any? “You do have the ability to offer something of great value,” Phillips said: encouragement. This will also increase the chances that that person will help you sometime in the future
Keep your chin up America!!!
Brief profile of the charmed American autoworker
Producing and assembling cars in this country can be a very lucrative profession. Many insiders have blamed the union system for the fallout of the Domestic auto-industry. The economic fallout is beginning to hit autoworkers, but it won’t affect them like it hits those in other industries. The UAW has set up a golden platter of benefits and protections for the members of its union. I’m glad we have these men and women in the factories to make our cars. It’s a physical job…but these aren’t neurosurgeons.
Here are some tasty morsels to chomp on next time you hear another news story about the auto crisis:
1) Unionized members make an average of $24-30 an hour (you do the math). Not too shabby.
2) In GM’s case: The combined “legacy” benefits (pensions, insurance, retiree benefits, etc) equates to nearly $70 an hour. Not an actual rate, but an overall analyst driven calculation of what “total” labor and current retiree benefits is costing GM. Workers are not getting paid $70 an hour as some stories suggest.
3) In the early 1980’s, the UAW created a program called “job banking” which pays at least 90% of a laid off autoworkers salary until the union can find them a new position elsewhere. The job banking practice was implemented as a way for autoworkers to “absorb the punch” when automated, robotic technology was introduced on the assembly line. The terms and conditions vary by automaker, because each labor contract is different. GM factory workers who get laid off start out at “sub pay,” in which they receive unemployment benefits, and GM pays the difference, up to most of their salary, for 48 weeks. After that, laid-off employees go into the jobs bank, which averages almost $62,000 a year — plus benefits, without reporting to work. In the meantime, the company tries to find them jobs elsewhere. That sucks!
4) In 2005, nearly 12,000 autoworkers were drawing a full salary without ever setting foot in an auto plant. Most simply had to show up at a local union hall and hang out.
5) Over the last 15 years, nearly 83,000 autoworkers have lost their manufacturing job, however, 91,000 new positions were created in other states.
6) Delphi, the parts wing of GM, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1999 because UAW would not agree to a wage cut.
Interesting information and compelling reasons why these men and women so cherish their jobs. With the onset of the government bailout, many of these perks are changing or going away. Late last year, the GM job bank program was suspended (actually the UAW allowed it to be suspended, hmm) due in part to the auto crisis. The union provides a very secure blanket of protection over its workers and gives them tremendous incentive not to leave. In the same light, the UAW is doing a horrible disservice for this population of workers. This is all they have ever known considering most autoworkers never leave the industry and retire with healthy pensions. Sadly, this causes a career black hole that provides an illusion that every other American worker has these same benefits and freedom of labor expression. Autoworkers will become lost in a corporate world that does not look out for them. They have skills on the assembly line- but where will those skills be transferred? Many of them will find good work in certain trades or other manufacturing capacities, but nothing with the same “bling bling” of the auto assembly line. With the reality of the disappearing job bank system- this will be a shocker for many leaving the union. To a degree, the auto worker has become easy pickings for ridicule and scorn. The general public has become aware of how well they are paid and the security of employment they are offered – and to a degree – are jealous.
Despite a loss in members, the UAW is still a $2 billion dollar organization with approx. 550, 000 due paying members. They have some nice assets too.
The Black Lake Country Club and Reuther Center is a $33 million dollar golf course and retreat owned and operated by the UAW. The course itself is $6 million dollars. The UAW is losing money on this forested beauty every year as more members leave the union. I truly hope our bailout funds keep this course afloat, being a golfer, I’d love to play it someday… but not for $33 million bucks.
Pretty isn’t it? I heard they’re hiring part time caddies with benefits and life time pension.
I should have been an autoworker.
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