Career Center News Obama: Private, public sectors must create jobs AZ career centers see crush of job seekers Medical program seeks diverse MS students Ready to hire? You have many employee options Specials Recommended @ Amazon: The Purpose Linked Organization: How Passionate Leaders Inspire Winning Teams and Great Results   Alliances Meet more IMDiversity Employment Opportunity Network allies

Career Center News

By The Associated Press

Obama: Private, public sectors must create jobs

By BEN FELLER

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Monday the public and private sectors must find more ways to create jobs to continue the U.S. climb out of an economic recession.

Obama said the economy has pulled back "from the brink" but still has a long way to go, especially in creating jobs. The president said job losses would continue for weeks and months to come and called for bold, innovative action by his administration, Congress and the private sector to create more good-paying jobs.

Obama made the remarks at the start of a White House meeting with economic advisers. The session was open to reporters and streamed live on the White House Web site.

He also said the U.S. must break out of a "debilitating gridlock on trade policy," by ending the false choice between a wide-open, free wheeling import policy or fearful, protectionist approach to trade. He called for a more balanced policy of letting the world know America wants to compete and trade -- fairly -- with anyone. He gave no specifics.

In opening remarks, Obama credited his stimulus package for recent upticks in economic numbers, including a significant boost in manufacturing that was reported on Monday.

But, he said, "The reason we're here today is because we just are not where we need to be yet. We've got a long way to go. We are still seeing production levels that are significantly below peak levels and most distressing is the fact that job growth continues to lag."

Other Recent Readings of Interest

• "Recession over" gov't may say...but not job losses

AZ career centers see crush of job seekers

By EDWARD GATELY

East Valley Tribune

MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Lawrance Hester did electrical work in the construction industry before the economy went south. Now, he's among the ever-growing legion of unemployed struggling to find work and get back on track financially.

The Chandler resident was at that city's new Goodwill Career Center last week perusing employment possibilities, dismayed by the low pay offered by numerous employers.

"These jobs now, they're talking about $8.50 to $10 an hour," he said. "How do you live on $10 an hour? You've got a family and stuff, and you've been making $36 or $40 an hour, and some of these jobs offer you $7.25 an hour. It almost forces you to go into business."

Gracie Vasquez, also of Chandler, lost her inspection job several months ago and was looking at online job ads at the Goodwill center, at Alma School and Ray roads. She's taken odd jobs here and there to help make ends meet, but has found nothing steady.

"I'm looking for anything," she said. "I've done a wide variety of clerical, warehouse and inspection. I've been looking everywhere. There's a lot of jobs, but it depends on if they want you."

Evidence of continuing high unemployment can be found at any career center across metropolitan Phoenix. The Goodwill Career Center in Chandler just opened Tuesday and already had a steady stream of people needing help.

"We have 10 career centers within our territory, and nine in Maricopa County, and in those 10 centers we've seen over 80,000 visits so far this year," said Lisa Wilham, Goodwill of Central Arizona's vice president of mission services. "In all of last year, we had 64,000 visits, so the volume is definitely increasing."

The centers help job seekers create and update their resumes, draft cover letters, and search through job leads and apply for jobs online or via fax/telephone. People also can meet with local, hiring employers face to face.

"It's taking people about three to four visits to a career center before they're successful in finding employment or they've moved on to a different area," Wilham said. "In the past, what we've seen ... is two to 2.4 visits per individual."

Employers appear not to be shedding as many jobs as during the previous nine months, but it's still taking a long time for those who lost their jobs to find work, she said.

"You still have those same candidates out there who may have lost their job over the last six to nine months and who are competing for very limited spaces," Wilham said.

The Maricopa Workforce Connections career center in Gilbert remains slammed with people desperate for work, said Terry Farrell, center coordinator. The center offers skills assessment, career development and retraining, and placement services. It also works with employers to help them fill openings.

"People's attendance to our job-readiness workshops have been off the chart," he said. "We're seeing a trickle of job postings coming in, but it is a trickle in comparison to what we were seeing in years past. The foot traffic is probably right around 5,000 a month, and we're used to about 3,000 to 4,000."

It's harder to help people because volume is so high and resources are limited, Farrell said.

"If there was more money, then everybody who ... wanted some type of training or education, we could definitely give it to them," he said. "But then, even when they're trained, with the trickle of jobs coming in, you're still stuck.

"In the past, we've had about 29 employers a month coming into the center, and now we're at maybe four to five," Farrell said. "That's better than (last winter) when we had zilch, nothing."

------

Information from: East Valley Tribune, http://www.eastvalleytribune.com

Medical program seeks diverse MS students

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Organizers of a mentoring program for students who want to pursue a medical career are seeking more Mississippi applicants.

The Summer Medical and Dental Education Program is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It's a free, six-week preparation project that's held on university campuses across the country.

Program director Norma Poll says Mississippi was chosen for outreach because less than 20 applications are submitted each year from the state, a national leader in obesity and heart disease rates.

Poll says the program's goal is to increase diversity in medicine and dentistry while focusing on underserved communities. Applications are now being accepted at www.smdep.org.

Ready to hire? You have many employee options

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG

AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Even though the economy is still suffering and many small businesses won't be hiring for some time, some companies are thinking about taking on more workers. The question for many is, what kind?

Some business owners will hire full-time or part-time employees, while others will consider going the independent contractor route. Temps are another option.

Each kind of worker has its pros and cons. With an employee who's on the payroll, for example, an owner is responsible for salary, employment taxes and insurance that is required by law, such as workers compensation. At the same time, that employee may have more of a commitment to the company than other types of workers.

Here are the kinds of workers an employer should consider:

EMPLOYEES

An owner has the greatest responsibility for employees who are given staff positions. There are many federal and state labor laws to be aware of, and expenses like employment taxes -- Social Security and Medicare -- and workers compensation insurance to be paid. If the employee is laid off, the company ends up paying for some of the unemployment benefits.

But for many companies, hiring employees is the best way to build for the long term.

"If you know you're growing, then find someone who's really committed, said Arlene Vernon, president of HRx Inc., an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based HR consultancy. "They're going to think for the benefit of the organization."

The temporary employee, meanwhile, "is going to be clocking out at 5," she said. And an independent contractor may be juggling jobs for other companies.

Anyone who has hired employees knows it can be an iffy proposition. When someone doesn't work out, there are issues about how to handle the dismissal, and the search for a successor can take time.

But with the right employee, a company has a chance to grow.

"The person is more readily integrated into the culture of the organization, which can have a hard-to-measure but real impact on the productivity of that person and those around him or her," said Jay Keegan, CEO of Adams Keegan, a Memphis, Tenn.-based human resources management firm.

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS

Many small business owners use independent contractors because they can be engaged for a specific project, which means different people for different jobs. And because these workers are self-employed, there's no need to pay the taxes and insurance that go along with a full-time hire. They also don't provide benefits to independent contractors.

Some small businesses ask employees they had to lay off to work as independent contractors. That can be a huge plus, since the worker is already familiar with the company, what it does and what its culture is like.

One of the downsides of an independent contractor is that a business could be competing with others for the worker's time and attention. On the other hand, if they like the work and the pay, they're likely to keep working with you.

There's also a tax caveat to be considered. Because companies don't need to pay employment taxes when they use independent contractors, the IRS is on the lookout for abuses in which a worker is called an independent contractor, but is being treated like an employee.

The key distinction between the two types of workers is control. If an owner has the right to control aspects of the job like the place of work and the hours put in, and if there is too much supervision of the worker, the IRS is likely to consider this an employer-employee relationship.

The IRS has information about the differences between employees and independent contractors on its Web site at www.irs.gov/businesses/small/.

TEMPORARY WORKERS

First, it's important to distinguish between someone you hire temporarily, and a worker who comes from a temporary staffing agency. Someone you hire for a limited time is still an employee under the law, and so you'll have to pay for taxes and insurance. Someone from a temp agency technically is working for the agency and so you don't need to pay that money.

Many companies turn to temp agencies so they can try out a worker before committing to a permanent hire. The worker also gets to give the boss a tryout.

"They each have the opportunity to evaluate whether they're a good fit and are meeting their needs," Keegan said.

And if the employee doesn't work out, the company doesn't have to deal with severance issues like unemployment insurance, Keegan said.

The minuses with temporary workers include the fact that they may not have the kind of commitment to the job as someone who knows the job is theirs. And co-workers may not work as well with someone who's here now but likely to be gone soon.

Temps can also be expensive, since you're paying fees to the agency. And if you decide to take the worker on full-time, you could be paying a fee in the thousands of dollars.

But, Keegan noted, the payment to the agency may be worth it if you've found a great worker.

Previous Edition's Headlines

• Read All

Also of Interest

• Main News Headlines by the AP from IMDiversity.com's Multicultural Villages
• Your Weekly Horoscope

[Back to Top]

[Back to IMDiversity Career Center Home]

[Add IMDiversity Career Center to your IE Favorites]