Job Search News

Of all the pre-employment tests available on the market today, background checks are the most important for jobs that deal with children or other vulnerable members of society. By conducting such an investigation on a candidate before they are hired for such a position, employers and nonprofit organizations can drastically increase the safety of those who will come in contact with the worker. Knowing this, criminal background check provider IntegraScan has decided to supply many youth organizations with free screenings.

According to a recent press release, IntegraScan will soon begin supplying youth groups across the country with $500,000 in services each month. With many organizations trying to make ends meet while the economy is struggling, background checks are often being neglected. This means that many young people could be at risk. IntegraScan hopes to stop this by conducting these investigations free of charge.

Those who receive this assistance from IntegraScan will now be able to make sure that the employees and volunteers they hire have no criminal history. Since a large percent of those who commit crimes have a record, this will drastically reduce the amount of problems an organization could possibly have.

IntegraScan believes that is important to keeping children safe from those who have a history of sex crimes against minors, violent assault or drug usage. Despite this, their donation is just a start. The company urges parents to question the leaders of the organizations their children are involved with so that they know what steps are being taken to ensure safety.

Organizations that want to sign up to receive free background screening from IntegraScan can do so by signing up on the company’s webpage and registering for a free account. The $500,000 worth of screening does not have any additional requirements or further stipulations. Interested parents and organizations will also find other ways they can help to safeguard America’s youth on this website.

When conducting a job search during a time of economic struggle, there are a lot of things to consider. In many cases, finding work in one particular area is not likely. At the same time, another city may have plenty of opportunities. Because of this, being willing to relocate for work increases a person’s chances of finding employment. Knowing this, more would-be workers are now willing to move for a jobs, according to a recent press release.

WorkTree.com, one of the largest paid membership job search websites, just announced the results of their job search trends report for the month of May. The website takes the data from such things as typical careers searched, desired salaries and level of education to determine what job seekers are hoping for. According to the report, May’s data showed an increase in the number of people willing to relocate for employment.

“We continue to see large numbers of highly qualified individuals actively seeking employment,” said WorkTree.com’s Board of Managers Chairman Allan Martin in the recently press release. “One particularly interesting statistic - the willingness of people to relocate for work - is on the rise. It is the first time in many months we have seen that the number of new members willing to relocate is actually greater than the number of people unwilling to relocate for a job.”

According to the release, WorkTree.com also found out that the most popular careers job seekers searched for in May were in the fields of information technology, human resources, accounting/ finance , engineering and manufacturing/ operations. In April sales made the list, but the data shows that it is no longer at the top of the list. These top five fields represented 43 percent of all the career fields searched for during the month.

With unemployment on the rise, it is no surprise that the salary expectations of job seekers fell in May. According to WorkTree.com, over half of those using the site are now looking for anywhere between $40,000 and $80,000 a year. In April 21 percent of those searching for jobs were focusing on positions that paid between $90,000 and $120,000. This salary range now represents only 10 percent of the searches yielded.

There was also a small decline in the level of education held by the job seekers in May. The data shows that 71 percent of WorkTree.com’s users held either a bachelor’s or masters degree. During the previous month 76 percent of users had this level of education.

In many states hospitals are struggling to find workers to fill vacant nursing jobs due to a lack of trained professionals. Over the next few years this problem is expected to grow in to a full-fledged shortage unless something is done now. Hoping to cure what could become a serious issue for patient care, Maryland has already begun to take steps toward tackling the problem through education.

According to a recent press release, donors have pledged $15.5 million to help educate new nurses over the next five years. Through these funds, 17 schools in Maryland will be receiving grants that will enable them to hire new nursing faculty members and increase the number of students the teach.

By doing this the number of nurses graduating is expected to increase by 300 students. On top of this there will soon be 20 new nurse training positions opened for those who would like to help educate the next wave of Maryland RNs. All of this has been made possible through the fundraising campaign called “Who Will Care?”

“Less than two years ago we predicted that unless we increased the number of nurses being educated in Maryland we would be short 10,000 nurses by 2016,” said Carmela Coyle, Maryland Hospital Association’s President and CEO, in the recent press release. “Today we are thrilled to announce real progress and are committed to maintaining the momentum we need to reach our goal of adding 1,500 students.”
Chet Burrel, campaign Co-Chair and CareFirst BlueCross President and CEO, feels that this program will also benefit the medical community.

“With major efforts underway to expand health care access, it is likely there will be an even greater need for nurses,” said Burrell. “We have pledged significant support for the program, and the progress of the campaign brings us a step closer to addressing the question of who will care for the next generation of Marylanders.”

Without these funds, Maryland schools would have to continue to turn away a lot of applicants each year because they lacked the teachers to train them, according to the campaign’s Co-Chair Ronald R. Peterson, who is also the President of Hopkins Health Systems.

“Yet the number of nurses graduating in Maryland is not keeping pace with the nurses we will need in the next 10 years. These grants will begin to increase the number of nurses so we won’t face a huge chasm when almost half of the nursing workforce retires just as the baby boomer generation’s health needs reach their peak,” said Peterson. “When the economic downturn ends we will face an exodus of nurses who postponed retirement and expanded their hours.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Rhode Island’s unemployment rate continued to surpass the national jobless percentage of 9.4 in May. During the month, the state’s unemployment rate climbed a full point from 11.1 percent to 12.1 percent. This means that the Rhode Island job market became significantly more competitive for those currently out of work.

Rhode Island’s limited economy and small size have caused it to be hit harder by the national recession than many other areas. Over the course of the last 12 months the state’s unemployment rate has climbed 4.7 percent from May 2008’s 7.4 percent. Despite this, Rhode Island’s situation was not the worst in the country. Michigan had a jobless rate of 14.1 percent and Oregon’s unemployment rate was 12.4 percent.

May marked the 15th consecutive month that non-farm Rhode Island jobs declined. During the month employers did away with a total of 1,100 jobs. This brought the state’s payrolls down to 463,500 positions, according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT).

This job decline means that the number of people looking for work increased to 68,500 individuals, which is 5,800 more unemployed residents than there were in April. Altogether 26,600 more people are jobless in Rhode Island than in May of 2008. Currently 497,600 residents have jobs in the state.

The government sector lost 500 jobs last month. According to the DLT, temporary Census Bureau workers being hired off after they finished their work for the 2010 survey caused this decline.

The state’s professional and business services lost 300 jobs in May and the catch-all category of “other services” saw a decline of 200 positions. Other sectors that saw a loss of 100 jobs each included: healthcare and educational services, information, transportation and utilities, manufacturing and leisure.

Not all of Rhode Island’s industries lost positions during the month. Accommodations and food services gained 500 positions, according to the DLT. The construction sector, which has been suffering form the housing market crisis, saw the creation of 300 positions.

Two areas of employment in the state, financial activities and natural resources and mining, remained steady for the month.

The year-over-year job decline was most notable in the mining and logging sector, according to the BLS. Despite not losing jobs in May, this area of employment has seen a 33.3 percent decline over the course of the last 12 months. Other industries to post a large than 10 percent decline over the course of the year included construction, with a 12.1 percent loss, and manufacturing, which lost 10.1 percent of its positions.

Writing a resume is more than just listing past work experience, especially when competition for available jobs is high. A job seeker has to catch the attention of an employer who may only look at the document for as little as 10 seconds. Because of this, many professionals utilize services that specialize in writing resumes. Before deciding if you should take this path, there are a few things to consider.

Resume writing services cost money, which you may not have in abundance if you’re currently unemployed. This being said, the results might be worth it if you are inexperienced in creating such documents. If you can’t afford to this, there are many resources available on the Internet for resume writing tips.

You should also consider your grasp of the English language. If you frequently make spelling or grammar mistakes a resume writing service could easily help you make your application look more professional. Those who lack these skills and the funds to pay a professional might want to get a friend or family member to look over their resume. Often other people will catch small mistakes you might have missed.

Some resume writing services focus mainly on creating professional looking hard-copy documents. The question is will this fit your needs? If you’re planning on applying for a variety of positions that accept applications over the Internet, it may not. In this case you need to find a service provider who can create a document that transfers easily over the web without messing up the margins. On top of this, the person who will write your resume needs to have some knowledge of applicant tracking systems.

Many employers now utilize software that scans resumes submitted via the Internet for particular key phrases. This means that if their job listing requires a certain certification and you fail to mention the fact that you have this, then your resume will likely never been seen by human eyes. A resume writer should know how to work in this important information to make sure that a computer program doesn’t incorrectly weed you out.

If you decide that you need help writing your resume, talk to other professionals you know before choosing a provider. Finding out about their experiences can help you avoid using a writer who delivers poor results or creates documents that don’t land jobs.

Before agreeing to use a certain writing service, sit down with the individual who will be working on your resume. Let them know the kinds of positions you will be applying for, your accomplishments and past work experience. This will help them create a document that is both tailored to the correct type of employers and stands out.

When conducting background checks, knowing if a potential employee has a criminal record is not the only thing businesses are looking for. In many cases an employer needs to know if the applicant has the proper education and other credentials necessary to perform the job in question. According to a recent press release one provider of employee screening is hoping to help businesses keep better track of such information.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) announced this week that they have updated their Continual License Verification (CLV) service. This part of the company alerts employers such as hospitals when a workers professional license is nearing its expiration date. The program used to send out these notices, however, can only provide employers information on workers that they originally verified the license on. This is because ESR has to have the expiration date on record, which is taken care of during the initial background check.

Employers utilizing this service will be sent a link to a secure web page, when the worker in question’s license is near expiration. From this page the user can then indicate if the employee will be obtaining re-verification or if it is not necessary because that individual no longer works for the company. Without such a system, trying to keep track of an office full of workers’ professional certifications can be difficult.

“For workers that require a professional license, it is no longer sufficient to merely verify the license once at the start of employment,” said ESR’s president Lester S. Rosen in press release. “Employers need solutions that protect them during the entire time the person is employed. For hospitals and other employers that need to ensure that workers maintain their licenses in good standing, this is a unique solution that provides a system to manage and audit the process.”

ESR developed this software originally for hospitals. Due to stringent requirements put on these employers by the Joint Commission on Accreditation, only workers who have undergone primary source verifications can fill positions that require professional licenses or certification.

While unemployment continued to rise in many places across the country in April, finding jobs in Washington, D.C. became easier, according to the most recent data U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the month, the metro’s jobless rate dropped 0.3 percent from March’s 5.9 percent to 5.6 percent.

During the same month the national unemployment rate rose 0.4 percent from March’s 8.5 percent to 8.9 percent. This means that, despite the economic recession affecting the majority of the country, job seekers in D.C. aren’t struggling as badly to find work as those located in many other places.

Although the D.C. metro saw some relief during April, the area’s jobless rate is still significantly higher than it was a year ago. During the same month in 2008 only 3 percent of the area’s residents were unable to find work.

The only problem with using unemployment rates to gauge the economic state of an area is the fact that certain portions of the population are not included in the figures. Discouraged workers who have given up on finding employment and have exhausted their benefits are not factored in, nor are individuals who have taken part-time jobs when a full-time position was not available.

According to the Bureau, non-farm jobs in D.C. have fallen by 1 percent over the course of the last 12 months. The largest decline in employment in the area experienced over this period of time was in the mining, logging and construction sector. During the last year employers in this area have done away with 10.7 percent of these positions.

Other areas of employment that have seen the loss of a significant number of positions in the area over the last 12 months include: information (a 6.3 percent decline), manufacturing (a 4.1 percent loss), financial activities (also a 4.1 percent decrease), trade, transportation and utilities (3.8 percent loss), and leisure and hospitality (a 2.7 percent decline).

The industry that saw the largest increase in positions over the last year was the education and health services sector. Due to the necessity of many of the services provided by this industry, it continues to create new jobs despite most economic issues. This fact has caused many experts to refer to this sector as “recession proof”.

Other area of employment that the Bureau says increased the number of jobs they provide over the last year in D.C. included: professional and business services (a 1.1 percent gain), the government sector (a 1.4 percent increase), and the “catch-all” category called “other services” (a 0.5 percent rise in jobs).

Jobs in Atlanta have been harder to come for some time now, but data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the strain on the area may be lessening in the area. March marked the first month that unemployment in the metro decreased in 20 months. During the month the city’s jobless figures decline only slightly, going from February’s 9.2 percent to 9.1 percent. Now, according to the Bureau’s most recent statistics, April continued to deliver signs of possible improvement in the area.

In April the metro area’s jobless rate remained the same. Although this may not be as positive of a sign as decline in unemployment, the percentage staying flat actually says that the Atlanta job market could be beginning to improve.

According to many experts, when the unemployment rate begins to level out this means that the massive large-scale layoffs could be over in the area. This doesn’t mean that looking for employment in Atlanta will be as easy as it was before the beginning of the recession. Given the size and scale of the economic troubles that have hit both the area and the rest of the country, it will still take a while for the job market to completely recover.

Only time will tell if this is true. If it is not a sign of a recovery on it way, the stabilizing unemployment rate could be, at the very least, the beginning of the job losses slowing down. Even this is a good sign for the area, because if fewer jobs are done away with each month, new positions coming in to the metro will be more likely to have a great effect on the area’s economy.

During April the state of Georgia saw a small decline in unemployment. For both February and March the state had a jobless rate of 9.2 percent. In April the Bureau says that 9.3 percent of Georgians were without work. During the same month of last year only 5.8 percent of residents did not have a job.

For many larger companies, trying to handle all various responsibilities that go along with trying to find the best talent to fill numerous staff vacancies can be difficult. Posting jobs online and managing other tasks related to recruiting new workers for a large number of staff vacancies can be overwhelming on a good day, but when the economy is suffering the need to utilize a services that handles businesses’ recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) needs grows.

In times of economic strife, the number of unemployed individuals rises significantly. This means that, for every job listing placed on the web, the number of people who send in their resumes skyrockets. Since HR professionals have many day-to-day responsibilities, trying to find the time to go through so many applications, without neglecting other tasks, can be difficult, especially at companies that have a large number of employees.

Instead of trying to handle all of the work associated with recruiting new workers in-house, many larger employers find it much more efficient to hire an outside company to take care of all of their RPO requirements. Doing so frees up HR workers to handle other responsibilities without having to do without new workers. By going with one company to handle all of their recruitment needs, instead of various agencies like some do, larger companies also usually stand to save a significant sum of money.

RPO firms can help out a lot, but this doesn’t mean that the business utilizing it won’t still have to handle some things. . If a company fails to sit down with a representative from the agency they are working with and outline their recruitment strategy and their hiring objectives, then no matter how talented the recruiters are, they may fail to meet the company’s needs. Since each business has its own needs, a recruitment processing firm can’t be expected to know what will fit each organization without being told.

Although an RPO agency can take care of the majority of a company’s recruitment needs, someone from the business still has to monitor its RPO activities. Initial direction can make sure that everything is on the right track, but continual monitoring makes sure it stays there. By doing this a company can also find out if the firm they are working with is not a perfect fit for them before too much money is spent on these services.

Over the course of the last year the unemployment rate in Boston has been rising steadily. Although the Bureau of Labor Statistics has yet to release April’s jobless rate, March’s remained the same as February’s percentage, but both were more significant higher than the rates of the same months in 2008. In March of last year only 4.3 percent of people didn’t have jobs in Boston. Still the unemployment rate remains below the 8.9 percent average of the country.

Despite the rising jobless rate, there are still Boston jobs that employers are struggling to fill. According to a recent press release from Manpower Inc., companies across the nation are having difficulty finding qualified workers for ten positions in particular.

“In the four years we have performed this research, the same positions appear on the list again and again,” said Manpower’s President of the Americas Jonas Prising in the recent release. “Despite the current economic instability and high unemployment, there are still skills that the U.S. workforce seems to lack.”

This means that those who have experience in these fields most likely won’t struggle to find work in Boston anytime in the near future. Topping the list of hard to fill jobs was engineers.

Considering the rising need for those to fill healthcare jobs, it wasn’t surprising that nurses made the second spot on the list. These professionals are in such demand that many areas of the country are experiencing a nursing shortage, which has caused the creation of extra incentive packages.

Coming in at the third spot was skilled/manual trade positions, followed by teachers. The second of which makes sense since the education sector provides services that are necessary no matter what state the economy is in.

The rest of the list included: sales representatives, technicians, drivers, IT staff, laborers and machinist/machine operators.

“Our workforce needs to be more open to retraining and upskilling for jobs that are in demand,” said Melanie Holmes, vice president, world of work solutions for Manpower North America, in the same press release. “And, our government, business leaders and educational facilities need to take action together to ensure students are being enticed to enter these fields.”

Those who are still looking for work in Boston should consider this advice and decide if being retrained to fill one of these positions is something they might be interested in.