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LinkedIn Adds A Recommendation Feature

by on Apr. 10, 2013


Previous look
New LinkedIn Recruiter

New LinkedIn Recruiter

Sporting a new look and with some new features — including a recommendation engine that ‘learns’ the kind of people a recruiter most want — LinkedIn Recruiter is getting an official relaunch this morning.

The redesign itself is an updating the classic LinkedIn Recruiter look to make it more consistent with the LinkedIn homepage redesign that was introduced last fall.

Parker Barril, Linkedin’s Talent Solutions head of product, unveiled the fresh, new LinkedIn Recruiter at a live and webcast user event — ConnectIn – in San Francisco. As he put it, “the consumerization of the enterprise,” the trend toward making products and services easier to use, “is influencing a new generation of products.”

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Industry News

Healthcare, Temp Bolster Meager March Job Growth; SHRM Predicts April Will Be Better

by on Apr. 5, 2013


Econ index March 2013

Econ index March 2013This morning’s dismal jobs report from the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says only 88,000 new jobs were created in the U.S. last month, the worst showing last June and far below the 200,000 range economists were anticipating.

“This is very weak labor market,” economist Martin Feldstein told CNBC after the report was issued.

Especially troubling was that the hiring slowdown came after months of growth that averaged almost 200,000. Last June, 87,000 jobs were added, but that was the only time since August 2011 that job growth dipped below 100,000.

Of the few sectors showing significant growth during the month, healthcare and temp were the strongest. Healthcare added 23,400 jobs in March, the majority of them — 15,300 — coming from new hiring in home health care, doctor’s offices, and outpatient facilities. Hospitals added 7,900 jobs.

Temp services grew by 20,300 new jobs; 3,100 fewer than in February, but well above the 14,500 average for all of last year.

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Industry News, Staffing

Q2 Forecast: Hiring Slows; Temping Not Much Affected

by on Apr. 4, 2013


CareerBuilder

CareerBuilderHiring is slowing from last year, and the trend is predicted to continue at least through the rest of the first half of the year. But temp hiring won’t be much affected, says a new report from CareerBuilder.

The job board’s quarterly employment forecast says the U.S. should expect somewhat slower permanent, full-time hiring through the end of June than it saw for the same period last year. That comes on the heels of a first quarter that was slightly better than what CareerBuilder’s survey foresaw three months ago, but which was still down from 2012.

Of the more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals distributed across industries and company sizes polled for the report, 26% said they expect an increase in their full-time, permanent headcount this quarter. Last year, CareerBuilder reported 30% foresaw a Q2 increase, and later, found 34% actually did add staff.

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Industry News

ADP Jobs Report Surprises Economists Who Were Expecting Bigger Growth

by on Apr. 3, 2013


ADP Employment report March 2013

ADP Change-in-Nonfarm-Private-Employment-March-2013ADP says the U.S. economy added 158,000 private sector jobs in March, an estimate well below what economists were expecting and a drop of almost 80,000 from the revised February number. It’s the smallest job growth reported by the HR services and payroll processing company since October.

Surveys of labor economists done before today’s report was released showed they were optimistic about March’s job growth. Bloomberg’s survey put the average prediction of 39 economists at 200,000.  USA Today estimated 215,000.

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Industry News

Fed Reserve Governor Says Too Many New Jobs Are Low Pay and Temp

by on Mar. 25, 2013


Average pay increases

Average pay increasesA member of the Federal Reserve Board is complaining that too many of the new jobs created since the recovery began are low wage, part-time, or temporary, or all three.

Speaking last week at a conference in Washington, D.C., Fed Governor Sarah Raskin said, “Flexible and part-time arrangements can present great opportunities to some workers, but the substantial increase in part-time workers does raise a number of concerns.” These include, she said, a lack of benefits, lower pay rates, and, often, no sick or personal days off.

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Industry News, Staffing

Roundup: Legal Developments You Should Know

by on Mar. 22, 2013


Counsel's Corner

Note: This article is not intended as legal advice. In all instances the reader is cautioned to consult with legal counsel when utilizing this information.

A part of the professional obligation of every person engaged in the staffing industry is to try to be current in the happenings of the legal world as it affects staffing industry activity. Here are some of the recent highlights. I welcome all comments and questions, and will try to reply promptly.

California’s Commission Contract Law

Effective January 1, 2013 a new California law requires that employees entering into employment agreements which involve compensation, even in part, on a commission basis must be provided a written contract detailing how the commission is computed and paid. Employers must provide the employee with a signed copy of the commission agreement, and obtain a signed acknowledgement of receipt of the copy. Not all commission and bonus arrangements are covered and it is not clear if the new law requires employers to implement written agreements with present employees having unwritten or verbal commission agreements. Best advice is to consult an attorney to get the answer.

A Busy EEOC in 2012

The most frequently filed charges were for retaliation (37,836), race (33,512) and sex discrimination,

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Industry News, Staffing

Staffing Companies Could Be Losers In H-1B Reform Efforts

by on Mar. 21, 2013


US Capitol

US CapitolStiff new immigration laws introduced by Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley could stop staffing companies from bringing in H-1B visa holders.

Declaring that “Somewhere along the line, the H-1B program got side-tracked,” Grassley reintroduced legislation tightening up the entire H-1B program. Similar efforts by the Senator last year went nowhere, but with the renewed effort in Congress to enact some form of immigration reform, some of his proposals could get make it into law.

A group of four Democrats and four Republicans –the so-called Gang of Eight — have been working for weeks to come up with a bi-partisan immigration reform bill. Among the thornier problems has been the issue of guest worker visas, especially in regard to the flow of low-skilled workers for jobs in construction.

Creating a path to citizenship, or at least removing or reducing the threat of deportation for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants is also part of the reform package the group says will be ready to present to Congress after it returns in April from its spring break.

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Industry News

Source of Hire Survey: Employers Up Their Use of Outside Agencies

by on Mar. 21, 2013


2012 Source of hire CareerXroads

2012 Source of hire CareerXroadsWith the worst of the recession behind, employers are again turning to outside recruiters for help filling their more challenging positions.

In the annual Source of Hire study from recruiting consultancy CareerXroads, three dozen of the largest U.S. employers report an upswing in their use of retained and contingent recruiters. The 3.1% of the jobs they filled in 2012 through agencies is still a shadow of the 5.2% they filled that way in 2005, but it does represent an improvement from 2009. That year employers filled only 2.3% of jobs via external recruiters.

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Industry News

Big Increase In February Jobs Helps Bring Unemployment Down to 4-Year Low

by on Mar. 8, 2013


Econ indicators Feb.2013

Econ indicators Feb.2013Economists were surprised and investors pleased by a jobs report this morning that said 236,000 jobs were created in February, which helped bring the U.S. unemployment down to 7.7%, the lowest in four years.

Every survey conducted before the numbers were released by the Labor Department had the average prediction showing between about 150,000 and 165,000 jobs added in February. Most also predicted that January’s 7.9% unemployment rate wouldn’t change. ADP’s job count, prepared by Moody’s Analytics and released Wednesday, came the closest to today’s numbers, reporting 198,000 private sector jobs were created during the month.

The jobs growth came across a broad range of sectors. The temp industry and employment agencies — registries, search, and the like — accounted for 21,100 new jobs in February, with the temp sector contributing 16,000.

Overall, the private sector created 246,000 nonfarm jobs, with the biggest gains coming in:

  • Construction — up 48,000 principally coming in the specialty construction trades;
  • Health care — up 32,000, with the gains coming in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and nursing and residential facilities;
  • Leisure and hospitality — up 24,000, with nearly all the gains coming from job growth in food services, bars and restaurants;
  • Retail — up 23,700 spread across a broad group of stores;
  • Manufacturing – up 14,000.
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Industry News

ADP Says U.S. Economy Shows Strong Resilience Adding 198K Jobs Last Month

by on Mar. 6, 2013


ADP report Feb 2013

ADP report Feb 2013Two days before the government releases its preliminary job count for February, ADP says the U.S. added 198,000 private sector jobs during the month.

The company, which processes the payrolls for hundreds of thousands of U.S. firms and provides other HR related services, also upped its initial January report from 192,000 to 215,000 new jobs.

The report surprised analysts. A survey of economists by Bloomberg News put the average of their estimates at 170,000. That same survey predicts that the report to be released Friday morning by the U.S. Department of Labor will show 167,000 new jobs last month. (The Labor Department’s report includes government jobs; the ADP report does not.)

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