A disturbing and disheartening trend for job-seekers is the spate of listings out there that say if you don’t have a job, don’t bother applying for this one. It’s a kind of discrimination, and it’s legal. But it may not be for long. [More]
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Not Just Hair Dye: An Older Guy's Guide To Getting A Job
By 7.25.11
It’s not just a matter of putting on a few doses of “Touch of Gray.” John shares his strategies for getting a job as an older guy in the youth-obsessed technology field. While the last story we wrote about this focused on the power of personal connections to open doors, John makes sure that his resume is very nice and Google-friendly. [More]
"And That Was When I Started Coloring My Hair" – An Older Man Looks For Work In The Recession
By 7.20.11
David was out of a job for two years and faced the difficult prospect of being a 54-year old looking for work as an IT manager. He carefully edited his resume so it had no hint of age. The only dates it mentioned were his last 10 years of experience. After sending his resume to a lot of places, he finally scored an interview, only to have the hiring manager react “dumbfounded” when she saw his age and his gray hair. The interview went well enough. The rejection email came a week later. “And that was when I started coloring my hair,” David writes. [More]
Goldman Will "Sach" 1,000 Workers Because it Only Made A Billion Dollars Last Quarter
By 7.20.11
Goldman Sachs netted only $1.09 billion for the quarter, which isn’t enough to please investors, spurring the company to shed 1,000 jobs. The trading-focused bank suffered a 63 percent drop in trading fees collected from the first quarter. [More]
Unemployment Rises To 9.2%
By 7.11.11
Dashing hopes buoyed by preliminary reports on Thursday, the official Labor Department jobs report on Friday said the economy only added 18,000 jobs last month. This brought the unemployment number up to 9.2% from 9.1%. But one man’s gloom is another’s boon… [More]
Strong Jobs Data Lifts Markets
By 7.7.11
Markets rose as a day before the Labor Department releases its official monthly jobs report, two other reports came out that strongly suggesting it will be a pretty good one. [More]
Formerly Beleaguered Auto Industry Now Hiring In Droves
By 7.7.11
Massive hiring by several vehicle manufacturers is a telling sign that the auto industry has straightened out of its skid. General Motors and Honda are looking for a combined 3,500 new workers, and Volkswagen added 2,000 employees at a new plant. [More]
Consumer Spending Sputtered In May
By 6.28.11
In a sign of economic wheel-spinning, consumer spending fell by an inflation-adjusted .1% for May, the government announced Monday. [More]
New Service Adds Your Drunken Facebook Photos To Employer Background Checks, For Up To Seven Years
By 6.21.11
The FTC has given thumbs up to a company, Social Intelligence Corp., selling a new kind of employee background check to employers. This one scours the internet for your posts and pictures to social media sites and creates a file of all the dumb stuff you ever uploaded online. For instance, this sample they provided was flagged for “Demonstrating potentially violent behavior” because of “flagrant display of weapons or bombs.” [More]
Why Unemployment Rising To 9.1% Is Good News
By 6.3.11
The newly released US jobs report shows the unemployment rate rising to 9.1% for May, the highest it’s been all year. On the face of it that looks like a faltering recovery. But hidden in this raw number is good news. [More]
Don't Move To These 10 Cities If You Want To Have A Job
By 5.24.11
Do you enjoy the process whereby you perform tasks for others in exchange for compensation? Then don’t move to any of these 10 cities. They’re the worst ones for job seekers! [More]
Gas Prices Drive People To Buy Homes Closer To Work
By 5.20.11
A survey by Coldwell Banker of its realtors finds that gas prices are figuring big in the calculations made by new home buyers of where to live. 75% said the spike gas prices is influencing decisions made by their clients, pushing them to choose homes closer to where they work. [More]
How Should Wait Staff Handle Rude Customers?
By 5.15.11
Anyone who’s worked on a wait staff looks at their dining out experiences in a totally different way than the uninitiated. Understanding the pressures and perspective of servers can give you a deeper understanding of how to handle disappointments. For starters, you realize that customers have just as significant a role as servers in making it a pleasant dining experience. That’s what I’m told, at least. Full disclosure: My food industry working experience is restricted to one hellish day working at a student union Chick-fil-A. [More]
McDonald's Hires 62,000 At Job Event, Turns Down 938,000
By 5.2.11
McDonald’s reports that it has hired 62,000 people who applied during its April 19 nationwide job event. If that sounds like a lot of people who want to work at McDonald’s, get a load of this number. They say they got over a million applications, meaning they turned down over 938,000 wanna-be burger flippers. [More]
How To Win A Skype Interview
By 4.24.11
When you’re hunting for an out-of-state job, you may find prospective employers would rather save some coin by interviewing you over Skype rather than flying you out for a sit-down. The relatively new format may leave you inexperienced, but you’ll have to make the most out of your awkward video chat to beat the competition. [More]
Be Aware Of The Pitfalls Of Self-Employment
By 4.23.11
Just as cubicle drones envy their freelancer friends who make their own hours and seemingly take vacations at will, self-employed folks sometimes long for the regular paycheck and built-in benefits of a day job. [More]
Sitting Can Literally Kill You
By 4.18.11
If you’ve ever worried that you were slowly dying by spending your days trapped in cubicle-land, you don’t have to worry anymore. You’re right. And according to new research, the threat isn’t merely existential. Sitting for long periods of time set off a chain reaction of events that quicken your shuffle off this mortal coil. [More]
McDonald's To Beef Up Workforce With 50,000 More Employees In April
By 4.5.11
Confirming that no matter how bad the job market gets, America’s hunger for fast food makes burger-flipping a growth industry, McDonald’s announced plans to hire 50,000 new American employees April 19. [More]
