Tag Archives: Jobs

Job Layoffs Continue To Increase

November 12, 2012   Ebonne Young   No comments

Photo Credit: ecominoes.com

The number of layoffs by companies has increased to 41.1 percent in October. This increase is the highest the U.S. economy has seen in five months. Most jobs are being cut in U.S. owned auto plants in Europe, with a total of over 10,000 positions being cut.

Consultants from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. reported a total of 47,724 planned job cuts in October which was a jump from September’s 33,816 job losses. Ford plans to lay off 10,900 of its employees in Belgium and the United Kingdom. The total layoffs for the year so far stand around 433,725 which are down from 521,823 at this same time period last year.

The months of October, November, and December typically see higher layoff activities and weaker third quarter earnings greatly contribute to that. Consumer product industries are calling 5,250 cuts whereas electronic companies are announcing 4,491 due to a slowdown in consumer and business spending.

This data comes shortly before the U.S. labor market report which will be expected to show modest job growth which was around 125,000 jobs from last month.

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U.S. Postal Service Plans to Cut 35,000 Jobs

February 26, 2012   Rebecca Welk   2 Comments

This past week, the United States Postal Service made the announcement that they plan to cut nearly 35,000 jobs, including 30,000 full-time jobs, and close 223 processing centers around the country.

Patrick Donahoe, the Postmaster General, said that over $20 billion needs to be cut from the budget by the year 2015. By making these recently announced cuts, the Postal Service is still only cutting $2.6 billion, which is not enough. If these cuts are not approved, the USPS could be losing $182.5 billion per year within the next three years.

Over the course of the past five years, the USPS has cut 140,000 workers, but still has nearly 650,000 jobs as of the end of 2011.

Photo Credit: www.newslincolncounty.com

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Thomas Edison Job Interview Tests: Would You Have Passed?

February 23, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.mentalfloss.com

Do you think you could have passed Thomas Edison’s job interview test?

Edison was infamous during the 1920s for his interview exams.  He would hand job-seekers a 150-question exam before he would consider hiring them.

The exams were tailored to the applicant’s industry, but with major emphasis on facts.

Edison refused to release any sort of lists with his test questions, despite frequent requests from the press.  The only way to know of any sort of question was through the test-takers.

Edison’s tests however soon became a popular trend.  Other companies began requiring similar entrance exams.

Edison considered 90% a passing score, and only 35 out of 500 applicants ever passed the test.  Try to answer some of these questions, then head over to mental_floss for the answers:

    • Who was Francis Marion?
    • Where is the River Volga?
    • Who invented logarithms?
    • What is the first line in The Aeneid?
    • What war material did Chile export to the Allies during the War?
    • Who was the Roman emperor when Jesus Christ was born?
    • Where is the Sargasso Sea?
    • Of what is brass made?
    • Who was Leonidas?
    • Who discovered the X-ray?
    • Where do we get shellac?
    • Why is cast iron called Pig Iron?
    • Who was Bessemer and what did he do?
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CNN Lay-Offs

November 16, 2011   Meagan Cahuasqui   4 Comments

It has been reported that the Cable News Network, better known as CNN, recently lay off 50 workers within its employment.  Among the unfortunates were librarians, photojournalists, and technicians.  The reason for the sudden lay-offs: a change in work flow and technological advances.

The cuts that took place were from the newsrooms of Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and D.C.  A part of the money saving changes to be made is the movement of certain departments that can work with the minimum will be transferred over to Atlanta.

The process of letting employees go took place during employee appreciation week.  Those cut loose were taken by surprise and according to one now former staff member CNN “is not the friendly company it used to be” and whether it is because of the economy or ratings is not clear.

Another employee in the know stated that the lay-offs were more than 50 and closer to 70.

To add salt to the wounds, after letting many of its employees go, the company’s Atlanta office immediately hired new people for about the same number cut and did not invite those let go to apply for newly created positions.  It gave the cut employees the options of accepting severance pay or reapplying for jobs with broader descriptions.

According to CNN’s Senior Vice President, Jack Womack, the company’s goal is to reduce the number of media editors within its Image + Sound department.  In an e-mail to the staff he claimed the assessment came after a three-year analysis of the company’s costs and work habits.  Although the e-mail was made known to the public, CNN has yet to make an official statement on the issue.

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9 Jobs at Risk of Extinction

October 08, 2011   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.people.howstuffworks.com

Technology is continuing to take jobs away.

Here is a list of 9 jobs that are near extinction.

1. Watch Repairers: People are now more likely to buy new watches then get them repaired.

2. Paperhangers:  Paperhangers install, repair, and replace wallpaper in homes, but nowadays most people prefer to paint their homes that use wallpaper.

3. Camera and Photographic Equipment Repairers: With the digital camera becoming more common and film obsolete, those in this profession are becoming useless.

4. Computer Operators: With advancements in technology, this job is becoming obsolete.

5. Desktop Publishers: This job consists of putting materials together for physical printing, but now computers can do the same thing.

6. Drilling Machine Operators and Tenders:  This is another job being replaced with computers.

7. Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators: The use of emails has made this job one of the past.

8. Semiconductor Processors: Improvements in chip components have basically made this new industry fall.

9. Blending and Dyeing Machine Operators and Tenders: These types of jobs are being transported overseas and are no longer relevant.

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Pessimistic Bernanke Down On the Economy, Jobs

June 08, 2011   Fouad Egbaria   No comments

The market experienced another net negative day after decidedly pessimistic comments by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke in Atlanta on Tuesday. Bernanke explained that, if gas prices eventually, in his words, “moderate,” and the situation in Japan ameliorates, the economy will receive a shot in the arm. When and if that will happen any time soon is the question everybody’s asking.

Bernanke, speaking on the shaky job market, perhaps made the understatement of the century, saying that the job market is “far from normal.” As has been recently documented, jobs have not appeared nearly as quickly as expected. In fact, public sector jobs will be cut even further this summer, as many more teachers and state and local officials will be out of a job on the heels of spending cuts across the board. As Ryan Larson (a senior equity trader at RBC Global Asset Management) echoed, Bernanke’s words don’t exactly bring anything new to the table. However, they do confirm some people’s fears that the comeback that was supposedly materializing has potentially plateaued, or at the very least slowed down considerably, obviously bad news for a nation that needs jobs and needs more overall economic production in order to dig itself out of a sizable deficit.

On the bright side, Bernanke predicts overall improvement throughout the second half of the year pending the aforementioned issues of rising gas prices and crises in Japan. He also cites the possibility of an extension of low interest rates and other similar measures as courses of action that can be taken if necessary, although a new round of stimulus funds should not be expected by anyone. In short, Bernanke’s words are a dose of bitter realism to a struggling economy and the millions of unemployed Americans with no real job prospects on the horizon.

 

Contains information from CNNMoney.

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Job Losses Increasing at State and Local Levels

June 07, 2011   Fouad Egbaria   No comments

As we enter the new fiscal year (beginning on July 1st), it’s clear that the failing job market will receive no help from governments at the state and local levels. Greg Daco, an economist at IHS Global Insight put it bluntly: “We’re on a downward path. It’s not looking good.” While the private sector had added a significant amount of jobs, the public sector has done just the opposite, losing approximately 23,000 jobs a month for the past three months. Since April of 2008, over 500,000 public sector jobs have been lost.

Sadly, this seems to only be the beginning, as state governments are planning on cutting spending across the board, particularly spending that goes toward education, social services, and local governments. Federal stimulus money did its part for a while, but now state and local governments will be forced to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. Those working in education will likely be hit the hardest, as many layoffs are imminent. According to economists, it will take at least a year for these governments to recover, as it is usually the norm for state and local governments to take longer to recover (i.e., as opposed to government at the federal level).

However, amongst the various twists and turns along this downward path the economy has taken, it is important to remember the tragedy that these cuts represent. Educators, many of whom are likely very, very good at what they do, have been and will be laid off in the coming months. The real tragedy is the fact that kids everywhere will receive a lesser education due to factors beyond their control, beyond the control of their parents, and even beyond the control of the local governments around them. The need to cut education funding is perhaps the most emotionally resonant and significant aspect of this economic downturn; that is, in a time of outsourcing, a gradual falling behind in subjects such as math and science vis-a-vis nations like China and India, and an increase of American independence on products made overseas, one would think that education would be the last thing to be cut. Nobody in their right mind would ever willingly cut education, for both practical and emotional reasons. How can we deny–or severely limit–the youth of America an education that will provide them intellectual fulfillment and practical incentives (e.g., job opportunities) for the future? The fact that such cuts are an inevitability is an ominous sign of how bad things might become and how bad they’ve been to get us to this point.

 

Contains information from CNN.

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Solar Energy is On

April 22, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   1 Comment

Solar energy, once widely criticized as expensive and inefficient, is catching on with cities across the country thanks to innovative programs and the growing appeal of alternative energy.

Solar Mosaic, the city of Oakland’s “crowdfunding” program, sells solar tiles to residents for $100 each. The city hopes that the program will create a solar array on the roofs of budget-strapped schools, youth centers and churches. These arrays will allow Oakland’s residents to generate energy savings and scale back fossil fuel emissions without having to spend thousands on personal solar arrays.

“There is this huge gap between the population that wants to go solar and the people that actually have,” Billy Parish, president of Solar Mosaic, told SolveClimate News. “We saw an opportunity to connect those dots.”

The project is expected to attract green-collar workers to the city, which struggles from having some of California’s highest crime rates and 17.5% of its population living below the poverty line.

On the other side of the country, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City plans to put the city’s sealed landfills to good use. On Thursday, he announced that he will build solar plants over sealed landfills that could generate power for over 50,000 homes. The construction of solar plants is only part of the city’s PlaNYC project, which includes providing low-cost financing to business owners who conserve energy, planting trees and rooftop gardens and using hybrid vehicles.

“PlaNYC is our agenda for a greener, greater New York that will help guide our city to a better future,” Mayor Bloomberg told the New York Daily News.

Solar energy’s lack of emissions and relative convenience makes it appealing to many cities hoping to save energy, reduce air pollution and attract jobs.

 

This article contains information from Reuters and New York Daily News.
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College Graduates Struggle to Get By

April 21, 2011   Jacob Blanchard   1 Comment

In today’s economic climate, many recent college graduates suffer from mal-employment. Mal-employment is a term describing the predicament of graduates who cannot find careers in their fields, and must resort to low-skilled, low-pay jobs just to get by.

Today, about 60 percent of college degree holders hold jobs that require college degrees, compared to 75 percent in 2000. About 1.9 million graduates under age 30 were mal-employed between September and January, according data compiled by Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.

Tiffany Groene, 27, is a Chicago resident with a master’s degree in public administration. Despite her strong educational background, she has spent two years searching for a job in her field. She currently works as a server, and she is returning to college for a master’s degree in education.

“It’s hard to convince people that what I am doing is relevant,” said Groene.

Like Groene, many mal-employed graduates unable to find careers return to school in order to shift their focus and retool their skill set. And while college graduates are still more likely to find employment than those without higher education, the inability to find careers in their field raises troubling questions about whether or not a college education is worth years of dedication and debt.

Some recent graduates, hoping that they don’t seem overqualified, even downplay or exclude their education in resumes in order to get any job. Connecticut resident Kirk Devezin II, 24 has been unable to get job interviews related to his recent communication degree. His interviews have been for barista and cook positions, and even one for a carwasher.

“It just seems like it was just a big waste of time,” Devezin said. “And I’m $20,000 in debt.”

But there is hope. Unlike Devezin, most experts agree that securing a college degree is the best path away from unemployment. The employment levels for college degree-holders are significantly higher than those without college degrees. Even mal-employed graduates make slightly more than the average high school educated worker, at $476 compared to week to $433.

Still, it pales in comparison to the $733 a week for the average job that requires a college education.

“The value of the degree is still there, it is just not returning as much in investment as it would a few years ago,” said Carl Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

 

Contains information from chicagotribune.com. Read more here.
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