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Gov. M. Jodi Rell recently announced that steadily declining tax revenues and an increasing budget deficit will result in the State of Connecticut continuing cost saving practices and finding new ways to save money.

The state previously issued a government hiring freeze, among other orders. Rell directed the state budget office to immediately provide her with a list of administrative actions that can be undertaken to reduce the deficit.

“The State of Connecticut is simply running out of cash, and with two months remaining in this fiscal year, we are also running out of time,” Rell said in a press release. “With no deficit mitigation plan on the horizon from the Legislature, it is up to me to make the difficult choices to find any and all savings in this administration.

“Borrowing our way out of this is fiscally unwise," Rell continued. We must address the spending side, something lawmakers have artfully avoided for months now. The citizens of Connecticut are practicing fiscal prudence in their homes during this recession and they expect the same of their government.”

During the past several months, Rell has ordered:

• five rounds of rescissions totaling $178 million
• three deficit mitigation plans totaling $1.10 billion
• unpaid leave of executive managers saving $1.1 million
• a hiring freeze and out-of-state travel ban

It was recently estimated by the Office of Policy and Management that Connecticut is facing a $667 million deficit, reflecting the recent infusion of more than $380 million in federal stimulus funds and a steady decline in tax collection.

On March 20, OPM’s deficit estimate of at least $667 million not only reflected the recent infusion of more than $380 million in federal stimulus funds, but a steady decline in tax collection.

“Since that estimate was delivered, the daily deposits received by the Department of Revenue Services during the critical month of April have continued to show a grave weakness,” Rell wrote in a letter today to OPM Secretary Robert Genuario.

“Although the Legislature has not yet completed its work on the third deficit mitigation plan – most notably, reporting on its review of unappropriated or ‘off-budget’ accounts – I have offered suggestions for a fourth mitigation plan. To date, the General Assembly has not taken any action on those suggestions.”

Rell has requested that OPM complete its analysis by April 16 and include actions that will provide savings during the current fiscal year, as well as during fiscal year 2010 and 2011.

“The urgency of this fiscal crisis cannot be overstated.” Rell added. “I am deeply concerned that the General Assembly has still not completed its work on a mitigation bill that requires it to identify $220 million in savings from off-budget accounts. While the statutory deadline for that has come and gone, our financial problems have not.”

Labels: Connecticut government jobs

Despite the strength of the mining industry, Western Australia job growth is expected to slow down slightly before the year is over.

According to the newest report by the Melbourne Institute(MI), annual employment growth nationwide is expected to slow down to 2.2 percent in March of next year, which is down 0.6 percent from this year. The real cause of the diminishing job gains is believed to be the high interest rates that the Reserve Bank has set.

“The outlook for labor remains gloomy,” , Dr. Michael Chua, of MI’s applied macroeconomics teamsaid. “The decline in dwelling commencements and the number of building approvals are indicative of further possible slowdown in the labor market, particularly in the construction sector.”

Although the institute expects there to be fewer new jobs, it predicts that the unemployment rate will remain steady at 4.3 percent through the beginning of 2009.

Throughout the country the number of positions created may slow, but Queensland and Western Australia are expected to remain the strongest states in this regard. Since the economy of both of these areas is driven by mining and resources, the institute believes they will have the strongest economic growth in earliest part of 2009.

“The stronger growth for Queensland and Western Australia is consistent with the relatively stronger consumer sentiment observed in these two states in June,” the report stated. “Although the continued demand for commodities and the associated improvement in the terms of trade tend to support the Australian economy, the prospect of rising inflation in China and India, and continued weakness in the US, poses an additional downside threat for Australian growth.”

Elsewhere in the country, Victoria and New South Wales are expected to have unemployment rates as high as 4.6 percent in March of 2009. NSW job growth will likely drop to 1.8 percent by the same time period, which is down from 3.2 percent this March. The institute has predicted that Victoria’s employment growth will slow down from 2.8 percent to 1.7 percent.

Labels: Western Australia jobs

With unemployment rates in many corners of the country increasing and reaching all-time highs, some states are doing whatever they can to help job seekers find work. In Florida, you'll soon be able to look for a job in your pajamas, without ever leaving your house.

Brevard Job Link, located in Brevard County, Fla., is hosting a virtual job fair to help the unemployed connect with potential employers. The virtual job fair starts at midnight Wednesday and continues until April 17. Click here to see more Florida jobs online.

About 50 companies plan to participate in the fair, including Parrish Medical Center, which has between 20 and 30 jobs to offer at various levels. Officials there said the virtual job fair is a great way for them to reach all kinds of people who are searching for a job.

According to an article by News 13, recruitment leaders say there is a lot of competition, forcing employees to take extra care when filling out online applications.

"Be thorough in your work experience, include a cover letter, and, oh definitely, follow up," Recruitment Leader Ashley Bauer said in the article.

There are many workers without jobs in Florida, which hasn't been exempt from the current economic decline. The state saw its unemployment rate increase from 8.8 percent to 9.4 percent during February.

Florida had a total non-farm employment of 7,503,400 workers during February, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 7,552,900 workers during January and a 5.1 percent decrease from last year.

Labels: Florida jobs

Precision Resources recently announced it has chosen Kenexa for its ATS services.

Precision Resources is a nationwide staffing firm that specializes in engineering, construction and maintenance. The company will employ Kenexa's enterprise recruiting software solution, which will enable a greater understanding of hiring practices throughout the organization.

"We have a long-standing relationship with Precision Resources' parent company, Zachry Holdings, Inc.," Kenexa CEO Rudy Karsan said in a press release. "Now that Precision is using the same reliable Kenexa system, the two organizations will be able to track hiring metrics across all business lines.

"With an integrated and standardized database of candidate information, the companies can make better decisions on how to keep attracting the very best talent in the industry," Karsan continued.

Kenexa's SaaS applicant tracking system allows companies to turn their Web sites into interactive career centers, while at the same time reducing the cost and time per hire. The system integrates Kenexa's testing and assessment technologies to identify the most talented candidates.

The software includes requisition creation, processing and posting, resume searching, sorting and filing, applicant workflow, interview scheduling and tracking and candidate communications and reporting.

"We were looking for a solution that would offer not only the traditional candidate tracking functionality of a standard applicant tracking system, but that also would allow our recruiters to mine candidates, create hot lists and separate information into the specific categories that are the primary drivers to our database," Jeff Roach, director of field leadership and nuclear recruiting for Precision Resources, said in the article.

"With Kenexa's system, we can do all of that, plus segment our database by client, allowing our recruiters to use information unique to each of our clients while still enjoying global oversight of the entire process," Roach added.

Labels: ATS

Construction jobs are among those most troubled by the current economic recession. Keeping with that trend, Rhode Island construction jobs during February continued to see the biggest over the year decrease in jobs.

Rhode Island's construction industry employed 17,900 workers during February, according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is down from 18,600 workers during January and a 16 percent decrease from last year.

The state's construction industry has suffered over-the-year job losses every month for the past six months, by 5.5 percent during September 2008, by 7.8 percent during October 2008, by 8.8 percent during November 2008, by 11.7 percent during December 2008, by 12.7 percent during January and by 16 percent during February.

Other industries in the state that saw an over-the-year jobs decrease during February were:

• manufacturing by 9.8 percent
• trade, transportation and utilities by 5.7 percent
• information by 5.5 percent
• financial activities by 4.4 percent
• professional and business services by 6.1 percent
• leisure and hospitality by 1.7 percent
• government by 2.2 percent

The only industry that saw an over-the-year jobs increase during February was education and health services, which employed 100,500 workers, up from 99,900 workers during January and a .5 percent increase from last year. The mining and logging industry employed 200 workers, the same as during January and last year.

Overall, Rhode Island's unemployment rate increased from 10.3 percent to 10.5 percent during February. The state had a total non-farm employment of 467,300 workers, down from 469,600 workers during January and a 4.2 percent decrease from last year.

Labels: Rhode Island construction jobs

With the economy suffering, unemployment continues to rise. In March, 8.5 percent of the country was collecting jobless benefits. Another sign that finding work has become difficult for many is the fact that job listings online continue to decline.

According the Conference Board, which uses job listings to determine its Employment Trends Index (ETI), the ETI fell once again in March. In February the Index stood at 92.2 percent. Last month it dropped 2.3 percent to stand at 90.1 percent. Only a year ago, the ETI was 22.1 percent higher than it is now.

Despite the fact that the ETI continues to fall, some experts believe that the report may have actually shown that there is some improvement in the economy.

“While we see a continued sharp fall in the ETI, the decline was not as strong as in the previous four months, suggesting that the most intense stage job losses may be behind us,” said The Conference Board’s Senior Economist Gad Levanon in a recent press release. “However, the drops in each of the eight components of the ETI in March signal that many more jobs will disappear over the next several months.”

The Conference Board has seen a consistent decline in its ETI over the last 20 months, which ahs been marked in all of its 8 components. This decrease has been particularly significant over the course of the last six months. The most notable area that this has been in is the declining number of temporary help and part-time workers hired by employers for economic reasons.

In order to be able to remove non-significant findings, The Conference Board uses 8 different labor-market indicators, which have all been proven important markers in their own right. By using all of these indicators together, The Conference Board is able find out which underlying trends are most important.

The eight labor-market indicators utilized by The Conference Board are; the percentage of job seekers who respond that they are finding jobs are hard to come by (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey), initial claims for unemployment benefits (U.S. Department of Labor), the percentage of businesses that report having positions they are unable to fill at the moment (National Federation of Independent Business), the number of workers hired by the temporary-help industry (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), part-time workers hired by companies for reasons grounded in economics (BLS), current job listings and openings (BLS), Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board) and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

The Conference Board releases its Employment Trend Index every month at 10 a.m on the Monday after the Bureau of Labors Statistics puts out its employment situation report. The report on April will be released on May 11th.

Labels: Job Listings, Jobs

Although the technology industry has lost jobs amidst the current economic recession, the losses haven't been as bad as those seen in some other industries.

TechAmerica recently released its 12th annual Cyberstates report, which showed a .6 percent decrease in Q4 2008 technology employment, compared to a 1.3 percent decline in all private sector jobs, according to an article by InformationWeek.

During the last four years, the high-tech industry has created 382,900 jobs, with 77,000 of those jobs created in 2008. That's only a slight decrease from the 79,600 jobs created in 2007 and the 139,000 jobs created in 2006. The industry currently has 5.9 million workers in the United States.

Last year marked the fifth consecutive year of gains in software services and engineering and tech services, the industry's two strongest sectors. Software services created 86,200 new jobs last year, while engineering and tech services gained 26,600 new jobs.

"The U.S. high-tech industry continued to add jobs in 2008; however, future growth is clearly jeopardized as a result of the current economic downturn and the volatility of global financial markets," TechAmerica CEO Christopher Hansen said in the article.

"While we suffered losses in the fourth quarter, our industry has weathered the storm better than most, and the results of our report indicate that the tech industry is well positioned to help lead America's economic recovery," Hansen continued.

However, some sectors did lose jobs. The semiconductor industry lost 10,900 jobs last year, while communications services lost 12,700 positions.

The report showed that 39 states experienced net tech job growth in 2007, with the greatest gains in Texas at 14,700job, Georgia at 13,100 jobs, Washington at 11,300 jobs, North Carolina at 5,500 jobs and Virginia at 5,300 jobs. Virginia also had the highest concentration of tech workers for the fourth year in a row. For every 1,000 private sector employees in that state, 92 of them work in the tech industry.

In 2007, California ranked highest for the number of tech jobs, with 942,700. Texas had 474,100, while New York counted 304,200. Florida ranked fourth, with 280,300 tech jobs and Virginia had 276,100 tech jobs.

Labels: Jobs