Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama administration’s stimulus package is shoring up the labor market.The payroll decline was more than forecast and followed a 322,000 drop in May, according to Labor Department figures released today in Washington. The jobless rate jumped to 9.5 percent, the highest since August 1983, from 9.4 percent.Unemployment is projected to keep rising for the rest of the year
Thursday, July 02, 2009
467,000 Cut In June
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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11:22 AM
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Astronology - Unleash the Hidden Talents of Your Employees
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Posted by
Andrew Katz
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12:17 PM
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Tweaking Benefits and Coping With Your Job While Ill
First the Washington Post has an article about Washington-area firms tweaking benefits plans with works absorbing more health costs but gaining perks.
Next, the New York Times has some advice on protecting your job while coping with a chronic illness
Lastly, the atlanta illustrated has the top 5 things to say when caught sleeping at your desk at work (how many HR professionals have heard these excuses?)5. "They told me at the Blood Bank this might happen."
Hilarious!
4. "This is just a 15 minute power nap they raved about in the time management course you sent me to."
3. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the Whiteout. You probably got here just in time."
2. "Did you ever notice sound coming out of these keyboards when you put your ear down real close?" And the NUMBER ONE best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk...
1. Raise your head slowly and say, "...in Jesus' name, Amen."
Posted by
Andrew Katz
at
5:08 AM
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Rules For Posting Your Resume Online
Want to post your resume online? Well we have some advice to protect yourself.
-First, from Coffee with Viktor, five rules for posting your resume online
-Second, Examiner has some advice for job seekers to protect their resume while online.
-Lastly, Human Resources Executive Online has some advice for Human Resources executive about how to tweak their relationship building to include social networking online. Which, in the end, may be a return to how it always was done.
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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6:05 AM
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Labels: Human Resource Executive, Identity Theft, Resume, social networking
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Filling The Gap, Job Descriptions, Obama's Healthcare Plan, etc.
We're reading all the articles so you don't have to...
-BizTimes talks about Human Resources filling the gap with interim executives
-Vault has job descriptions. They're not as good as the ones we do at Astron Solutions.
-WebProNews says that Yahoo! is putting a new spin on the recruiting process by launching pay-per-candidate for their Yahoo! HotJobs
-Workforce Management talks about how an economic crisis is creating an opportunity for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). "As companies slash payrolls and tighten their belts in other ways that squeeze employees, the association is trying to make itself indispensable to HR professionals."
-Lastly, the Chicago Sun-Times talks about President Barack Obama being pressed on healthcare during his ABC special by an Human Resources executive:
One questioner -- Marisa Milton, vice president of health care policy for the HR Policy Association, a public policy advocate for human resource executives -- said that "other industrialized nations provide coverage for all their residents" with "high quality care" without spending more money."A lot of those countries employ a different system than we do," the president said. "Almost all of them have what would be considered a single-payer system in which the government operates what is essentially a Medicare for all."
The president said he didn't think it wise to attempt to "completely change our system root and branch" since health care is one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It "would be hugely disruptive," he said, arguing that citizens would be forced to change their doctors and insurance plans "in a way I'm not prepared to go."
End-of-life issues were raised as well; right now it is estimated that nearly 30 percent of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget is spent on patients in their final year of life.
Jane Sturm told the story of her nearly 100-year-old mother, who was originally denied a pacemaker because of her age. She eventually got one, but only after seeking out another doctor.
"Outside the medical criteria," Sturm asked, "is there a consideration that can be given for a certain spirit & and quality of life?"
"I don't think that we can make judgments based on peoples' spirit," Obama said. "That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules that say that we are going to provide good, quality care for all people.
"We're not going to solve every single one of these very difficult decisions at end of life," he said. "Ultimately that's going to be between physicians and patients."
Posted by
Andrew Katz
at
5:55 PM
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Labels: Economic Downturn, employee recruitment, executive, healthcare, Human Resource Executive, job description, Obama, recruiting, SHRM, Society For Human Resources Management, Yahoo
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Using Twitter and Facebook to Find a Job
Will the recovery favor the internet-savvy in other fields as well? (Or: maybe this guy was just a super employee who, if he hadn’t been wasting his time tweeting, would have found a job in 10 days?)
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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1:48 PM
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Vault's Layoff Tracker
Wanted to pass this along, but Vault has been keep track of all the big layoffs that have occurred. Definitely worth checking out.
Also from Vault's blog "Pink Slipped", advice on how to make being laid off, pay off.
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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12:22 AM
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Obama on Same-Sex Benefits
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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4:21 PM
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Astronology - Open Communication....How Important is it really?
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Posted by
Andrew Katz
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2:38 PM
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Saturday, June 13, 2009
View From the Seats
The Phillies had about as bad a top of the first you can have at home. Bastardo was all over the place and walked way too many. Jason Bay hit a bomb of a homerun. The Phillies had 3 errors, including a two base error by Ryan Howard that should have looked like this in the boxscore: E-3, laziness. Seriously. Made Luis Castillo look like a good fielder (just kidding). And then instead of walking Lugo to get to Dice-K, Bastardo finally throws a strike and Lugo hits what should have been a single to center...which of course Shane Victorino let go past him leading to the bases being cleared.
So the Red Sox have 5 runs on 3 hits and 3 Philly errors. Although I won't be back, I wouldn't mind them raining out this game. It's nasty here and I can't stand to see the BoSox win anymore. Will update later if there's anything worth updating from The City of Brotherly Love.
UPDATE: realize I sent this to the wrong place...but hope you enjoyed my baseball update :)
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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7:54 PM
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Friday, June 12, 2009
Google, Twitter and Employee Surveys
-First up on our Friday is Wallet Pop which has an article about Google fighting brain drain with an algorithm
-Social Media Today continues by talking about Twitter and the cost to a company by judging the opportunity cost of not allowing employees to use it during work hours
-Lastly, HR Resource talks about the value of employee engagement surveys as part of a change management strategy
Have a great weekend!
Posted by
Andrew Katz
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7:27 AM
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Labels: Employees, Google, HR, Management, salary survey, Twitter

by Ethan L. Chazin, President and founder of The Chazin Group.



