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Posted on 16th May 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, job advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, Networking

With reporting by Emily K. Fuller

In an increasingly competitive job-market, standing out amongst the masses is key. A stellar resume serves as a great example of your accomplishments and capabilities, of course. All things being equal, the resume can be an effective tie-breaker. But chances are that with the current average 6:1 ratio of applicants-per-job posting, there are others whose on-paper presence is just as appealing. An outstanding resume can help you to the interview, but a little networking on your part can go a long way, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a recent survey of Quebecois government employees found that 42.7 percent of workers found their job through a ‘personal network.’

What’s more, a recent study from the National Institutes of Health, Effects of Networking on Career Success: a Longitudinal Study, showed a consistent significant positive correlation between career prospects and income on one hand and networking activities on the other.

To land your next job, be sure to keep your resume sparkling, and to create and maintain your connections by exploring these ten dimensions of networking.

Get a Head Hunter
Don’t do this alone. Everyone needs an advocate at some point. A good employment agency can be worth its weight in gold. Great employment counselors can give you valuable market intelligence and actionable feedback concerning your marketability – and how to improve it. These seasoned seekers know who’s who in the hiring business. (We’d prefer you chose Vitaver, of course!)

Family Matters
It’s not fair, but it’s the way of the world. Leverage your family, and their professional contacts. They’re going to be your best pushers, anyway (we hope!) Put the word out in your family that you are looking for a new job. Telling parents and extended family about your search can be a good way to get your resume into the right hands.

Start Your Own Networking Group
If you must, join a networking group. I say this just a little tongue in cheek, because the weaker networking groups are often groups of struggling, unconnected people themselves. You’ll see after you run into the third person trying to talk you into selling her scented candles. Look to join the groups that the successful people are in. My preference is for ones with some sort of fee or barrier to entry – for example, Chamber of Commerce members, who have paid a fee and many of whom will be established. (Remember, people who can’t afford to pay a lousy networking group fee probably can’t afford to hire you, either!)

No group nearby? No problem! Start your own! This is great experience, it sets you up as a leader in your business community in your own right, and a wonderful way to build a network of professionals in your desired field.

Guerrilla tip: Can’t afford to join a good one? Contact the organizer anyway. Offer to join the cleanup or planning committee. This goes for professional organizations, too. After all, you’ve got more time than money. Don’t let them freeze you out!

Establish Yourself as an Expert
Don’t wait for others to do it for you. Start the best blog in your niche! Make it the go-to website for information and commentary in your field, if you can. Starting your own blog or online resource on your own initiative also shows you are relatively techsavvy, and can help demonstrate your versatility as an employee.

Social Media Helps
Blogs are wonderful for longer-form writing, but they are so 2004. Use the newer social media tools like a global corkboard. Think Twitter and Pinterest, among others. Get involved, but don’t let it become a time sink. Let the Internet community know you are looking for a new position. Set your Facebook or Twitter status to alert your preexisting network to your job search. Consider adding “#hashtags” that connect to your area of interest to increase traffic, and to expand your search to people outside your current network.

Connect With Past Organizations
Reunions reunions can offer more than a night of reminiscing. Turn your next school or military unit reunion into a networking opportunity! Bring plenty of business cards, and dress to impress with a smile; a friendly attitude can speak louder than your accolades. Remember, you’re starting a relationship, not closing a sale.

Volunteer Your Time For Valuable Networking Opportunities
Volunteering your time is a wonderful way to get involved with the community, and to expand your connections. Bring business cards, and talk to other volunteers or coordinators about your area of interest. Working for “free” may just land you your next job! Charities are great places to get started, and often welcome people in your shoes. Look for Kiwanis, Rotary Clubs, veterans service organizations, political campaigns – anything. The whole idea is to serve your community, yes, but also to get shoulder-to-shoulder with successful people who will notice what you can do.

Yes, Use LinkedIn
Update your profile photo, resume, and certifications, and build your network of professionals on LinkedIn, an online networking forum. If you aren’t on it yet, think “Facebook” for professionals. Some tips to set yourself apart: Start or join a group involved in your area of interest, and post to get your name out there. There are plenty of groups specifically devoted to networking, too, which offer great advice for landing the career of your dreams. The site also offers a job-posting hub, and connects you to anyone in your network that may be a link, or have an extended link, to your desired company.

Throw A Networking Party
Mix business and pleasure with a networking party! Encourage friends to bring business cards, but keep the party casual. A relaxed environment can help to take some of the pressure off of the job hunt, and be a fun way to meet new people. Just make sure to keep the drinking to a minimum.

Attend Seminars, Lectures, and Workshops To Increase Connections
Continuing your education can be a great way to keep your skills sharp, and to open the door to new job opportunities. Dress professionally, and make a good first impression. You never know who you may meet that can assist you in your job search. As always, bring business cards, just in case. Join Toastmasters and work on your public speaking skills. Most importantly… get off the damned couch!

Finally, follow up. Send thank you notes. Email. Call. Treat people to coffee. (Coffee’s cheap. Lunch and dinner are expensive. If you have to spring for a meal, make it breakfast.) Most importantly, give. Give more than you get, and help the people around you. Networkers know who the sponges are. Do your best to help everyone you meet. Small acts can go a long way when you’re building your network for new job opportunities.

Despite “End” to Recession, Hard Times Persist

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Posted on 18th April 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, Employer, employment, Employment News, job search, unemployment

A recession, goes an old Wall Street proverb, is simply a period of time in which wealth and capital returns to its rightful owners. E.g., the Rockefellers.

Well, the recession – according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which is, apparently, the arbiter of these things, is over. It ended in 2009, says the Bureau. But it’s hard to tell from the labor market. Meanwhile, The Great Recession of 2007 has created a veritable shockwave that continues to affect consumers both in the U.S. and around the world.

And when I say “consumers,” I mean, “people.”

According to the 2009 Stress in America Survey by the American Psychological Association, 78% of Americans reported money problems as a significant contributor to stress. Though the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a drop in national unemployment following the initial crisis, unemployment rates still hover over 7%, meaning millions are still out of a job. When you adjust for the decline in the labor participation rate, which reflects the number of people who gave up on the job search altogether, whose unemployment benefits ran out, or punted and began to take disability, the unemployment rate is over eleven percent.

Unemployment typically has a domino-effect on the jobless, their families and communities, and future generations of income-earners. The unemployed are at a greater risk of developing anxiety and depression as a result of a sudden lack of income, and often survive on money earmarked for later retirement to make ends meet after a drop in resource. The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies observed more than 60% of those unemployed were dipping into retirement accounts for their daily needs. Imagine saving funds diligently for decades with your company’s 401(k) only to have to withdraw early, incurring hefty early-withdrawal fees.

While two-thirds of Americans had a savings account in 2010, the average balance was a meager $30,000. One-third of Americans has no savings or retirement fund as a financial backing. Both may be forced to delay retirement indefinitely to cope with these global effects of unemployment.

The families of the unemployed are often left to deal with the fallout of economic devastation. Money issues are historically problematic for couples across time. Increased pressure during times of economic distress may be the straw that breaks the family’s back. A study by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons found that rates of ‘non-accidental head trauma’ more than doubled in times of economic recession. The global effects of unemployment often bleed beyond the bank account, and rend the fabric of the family unit.

The effects of unemployment are unfortunately rarely self-contained to those who lose their jobs. The Journal of Labor Economics reports that children of unemployed Fathers have reported earnings an average 9% lower than those children whose fathers retained employment, and are more likely to have access to social services and unemployment insurance.

The distress of the economic downturn is in part the result of changes in societal structure; these same changes continue to create a different landscape for the unemployment market. Many salaried workers are seeing labor and budget cuts following the economic collapse, leaving many workers with less earning potential. Company cutbacks may mean fewer workers left to cover an existing workload – contributing to job stress, depression, presenteeism and employee burnout.

Those that retain employment may see a drop in compensation, cuts in employee benefits, or slashed pensions. The unemployed are left to compete with the average six-person-per-job posting market, only to receive 11% less compensation, on average, when they re-enter the workforce.

Increasingly, more jobs considered ‘low-skill,’ requiring minimal, if any, higher education, are being filled with over-qualified employees; this means fewer jobs for the less-educated, complicating the issue of employment for those who are already vulnerable to a workforce demanding more educated staff.

The changes in the national and international economy present a challenging road ahead for families across America and the globe.

Nevertheless, I posit that the correct course of action is not to give up, despite any adversity, as long as one draws breath and is capable of contributing. As French General Ferdinand Foch said at the Battle of the Marne, “My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.” General Creighton Abrams, then a tank battalion commander in the American Army in the darkest days of the Battle of the Bulge, said, “They’ve got us surrounded, the poor bastards!”

You may have to change your methods. But keep fighting. Fight hard, and fight every day, and fight smart, and you will get your break.

We’ve got excellent opportunities with reliable Clients in Vitaver’s CAREER section.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Employment Scammers and How to Spot Them

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Posted on 28th March 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, job advice, job search, job tips, scam

Times are tough out there. Which means a lot of workers are getting less picky about what they apply for – and many of them have let down their guard to trust someone – only to be disappointed. Increasingly desperate job seekers Stephen A. Cox of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) writes, “The dismal employment rate means that a lot of people are desperate for work and may be grasping for any job which creates a great opportunity for scammers.”

There are some well-established red flags, though, that can help tip you off to an employment scam. Here are some of the warning signs, according to the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau:

Orphan email addresses. Use caution when responding to any generic email address with a domain that does not correspond with any business’s Web site, or with emails going somewhere other than to a company executive or the human resources department.

Sites promising access to “previously undisclosed federal jobs.” All federal jobs are posted on www.usajobs.com.

Emails that don’t greet you by name. This is a classic sign of a spammer, not someone legitimately looking for a qualified applicant for a real opening.

“I saw your resume at Jobsite.com” when you never posted anything at Jobsite.com.

Job guarantees. Legitimate companies have a hiring process and screens. They don’t want anyone who is going to reflect poorly on their company, or who will be a potential source of liability. They aren’t going to guarantee a job to you, sight unseen, without knowing anything about you.

“Thousands of jobs!” Be wary of any email or web site boasting that they have thousands of jobs at Fortune 500 companies clamoring to fill them, without providing more specifics, advises the New York State Department of Labor. Legitimate recruiting firms advertise specific jobs to targeted applicants, and will have detailed information about relevant openings.

Phone numbers with area codes 809, 876 or 284. These are Caribbean phone numbers. The scammers lure you into calling the number and listening to a long recording of someone reading job listings. You are busy writing down these “leads.” They are busy charging you $5 per minute in phone charges.

Premature demands for a Social Security number. For the most part, you aren’t required to provide this information until at least the interview stage. Be wary of anyone holding themselves out as an employer who demands personally identifying information, including your date of birth and Social Security Number before you actually come in for an interview.

Requests for money up front. Legitimate businesses do not require a “deposit” to “reserve your place” for a job, nor do they require money for a “background check,” which should be among the last steps in the process before you are formally offered a position, anyway. However, some jobs will request you provide an official set of fingerprints from your local law enforcement agency, and there may be a fee to have this done. You normally pay that fee to the local law enforcement agency, though, not to the employer.

‘Get rich quick’ schemes. These should be obvious by now, but people still fall for them.
Many fake offers promise a high salary and benefits package in exchange for little work and minimal to no experience. Still other phony employers make equally baseless claims to give you a job from the comfort of your home. Though both of these scenarios sound ideal, they are often an effort to exploit the unemployed or student population that are desperate to secure an income. There are many job opportunities that do offer options to telecommute or work from home; however, it is vital to do your research on the company to confirm that the offer is real.

It’s prudent to be cautious when you are applying for a new job. Monica Vaca of the Federal Trade Commission suggests that applicants “follow up with the offices of any company or organization mentioned in an ad or an interview by an employment service to find out if the company is really hiring”. Some employment scammers may falsely claim to be recruiting for a business that isn’t actually hiring. This is why it is crucial to always do your research when looking for a new job. The Better Business Bureau can help you to research a company’s reputation, and the Federal Trade Commission is another handy resource for additional information about employment scams and other common scams (www.ftc.gov/bcp/index.shtml).

Doing your research on a promising job offer can pay off by saving you valuable time and money. As the age-old adage goes, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Real jobs nationwide in Vitaver’s CAREERS section.

Regulatory Changes Mean It’s Time to Update Your Employee Handbook

Posted on 14th March 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, Employer, employment, HR, hr management, human resources

It’s important for any employer to put together a detailed employee handbook. Putting your workplace policies on paper not only heads off problems before they occur – but they are also invaluable defenses in case of an employee lawsuit down the road.

But the employment law landscape is constantly changing, as is your work force. Federal and state laws change every year. Technology changes. Ten years ago you didn’t need a social media policy, for example. Even five years ago, you could get away without it. But now it’s a must.

Your policy manuals, including your employee handbook, shouldn’t be gathering dust in a binder on a shelf. You should put key people in charge of maintaining it and keeping it up to date.

For example: Your employee handbook should have been updated to reflect the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law in 2010. For example, the ACA requires employers to provide reasonable break time for nursing mothers. Your handbook should reflect the new requirement.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA), also received an important update in 2005. The law requires employers to extend health benefits to employees who have been ordered to active duty in the Armed Forces for up to 24 months. The old law only required 18 months. USERRA was updated again in 2006, with more stringent notice requirements, though these wouldn’t necessarily be an employee handbook issue.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was likewise amended in 2008 to allow workers at certain companies to take unpaid leave to care for a convalescing wounded service member. If your handbook only contains language addressing the pre-2008 version of the FMLA, you need to update your manuals.

Technology and Gadgets
Your employee manual should clearly spell out your company’s policies on the use of company-issued devices such as computers, cell phones, smart phones and smart pads. For example, you may want to restrict downloading new apps or programs (to prevent viruses). You may choose to prohibit games, personal calls, etc. This is less of an issue than it used to be, with widespread flat rate usage and unlimited calling plans. But including this information gives you a leg to stand on if you need to discipline or terminate an employee with a lax or careless attitude toward the responsible use of company-owned gadgets.

You may also want to have a policy in your handbook that addresses the use of mobile technology, texting, and the use of camera phones while on duty.

Social Media
Employees using social media have posed a series of challenges to employers and HR managers. Some employers have attempted to impose broad restrictions against workers using social media accounts. The National Labor Relations Board, however, has reigned in what restrictions employers are permitted to impose on the social media activities of off-duty employees. The Board has held that workers should be free to discuss company business and work conditions online or offline without fear of reprisal, for instance – and has struck down broad, vague, sweeping statements such as prohibitions on ‘disrespectful’ speech on social media pages.

Your handbook should, however, contain language that states that the employer may monitor employee social media activity.

You may want to restrict employee use of company intellectual property, such as logos and images, without obtaining company permission.

Sexual Discrimination Issues
States are issuing gender-related discrimination rules and regulations at an increasingly hectic pace. Not only do you need to keep your handbooks updated to reflect state rules on gay, lesbian or bisexual employees, but you must increasingly address transgender discrimination as well.

As a matter of policy, your handbook should also provide for multiple means of reporting sexual harassment, while providing for confidentiality and privacy. The handbook should state that the company will not tolerate harassment on the job.

Putting it together
It’s important to have an experienced attorney with a focus on employment law review your employee handbook periodically. Attorneys who focus on this practice area generally stay current not just on new laws and regulations coming out of Washington and your state capital, but also on recent developments in case law.

Also, make sure your employees sign to acknowledge receipt of your employee handbook. Alternatively, having an electronic version allows you to email it to your employee accounts, which facilitates periodic updating and provides an electronic paper trail that shows that your employee received the information.

Check out Vitaver’s blog for more advice for employers and job seekers!

Veterans Struggle to Enter Tight Job Market

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Posted on 26th February 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, Employer, employment, Employment News, find jobs, unemployment, veteran

veterans employment While there has been some good news for job seekers in recent months as the economy sputters along in a halting “recovery,” one group has still been largely left behind: Younger veterans.

According to this NPR report, the unemployment rate among former warriors between ages 18 and 24 was over 20 percent last year, and was also over 10 percent for older veterans between 25 and 34. This cohort would include junior NCOs and junior officers who finished their initial service obligations with management and leadership experience – some of it extremely intense – who are also struggling to be accepted in the civilian workplace.

It’s a strange set of circumstances, because many employers value the maturity, discipline and ability to perform under stress that many servicemen and women develop by starting their careers in the military.

The Federal government – one of the few large employers that has actually expanded its employment rolls over the last five years – grants veterans preference on civil service exams. They have created a website, Vetsuccess.gov, devoted to connecting veterans with jobs called and Walmart – the giant big-box retail chain – has announced plans to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years.

Beginning this Memorial Day, Walmart has also publicly committed to hiring any honorably discharged veteran who applies within 12 months of leaving active duty.

That’s good, but the bulk of Walmart’s work-force consists of retail and stock work at $8-10 per hour. Walmart isn’t even promising a 40 hour week. In this day and age, with the job-killing features of the Affordable Care Act taking hold, few employers are – and many employers are actively slashing their roster of full-time workers, limiting employees to 20 hours per week to sidestep the onerous health insurance mandates.

Moving up the employer food chain, however, there are some other opportunities. For those who are entrepreneurial-minded, for example, the financial advisory firms Edward Jones and Bank of America Merrill Lynch have also rolled out programs to attract and recruit military veterans into their ranks of financial advisors.

Edward Jones is looking to hire 500-800 military veterans per year over the next eight years.

What do employers like about veterans? For one thing, they can be reasonably confident there is no significant history of criminality – at least for recently discharged veterans. If there were criminal behavior, it would generally be reflected in the discharge status. Additionally, possession of a security clearance also indicates that the veteran has passed a detailed review of his or her personal conduct. Veterans have a good reputation in the work force for trust and integrity, says James Schmeling, managing director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families in an interview with Financial Planning magazine.

For more detailed information on initiatives to hire veterans within the financial services industry, see the Financial Planning feature here.

Veterans also have other resources to assist them with job-hunting, from contacts within Guard and Reserve units they often join after leaving active duty to specialized job fairs, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Hire a Hero” campaign. The Chamber of Commerce sponsors regular job fairs across the country in which employers get a chance to connect with veterans and those still in the military who are about to enter the civilian work force.

A new social networking site, RallyPoint, has also evolved to meet the demand, as a sort of LinkedIn for military and veterans.

In some cases, too, veterans are choosing to skip going directly to the civilian full-time labor force, choosing to use their GI Bill benefits to enroll in school full time.

Indeed, the Post 9/11 GI bill has increased participation dramatically, from 366,000 veterans in 2010 to over 646,000 last year, according to NPR’s reporting.

How can you maximize your chances of success transition from the military to the civilian workforce?

1. Have someone look over your resume. Military people are notoriously bad at keeping jargon out of their resumes. Speak with someone you trust in the civilian world with business experience and have them see if your resume makes sense to them. (I recommend doing this all the time. It’s a great icebreaker and could well lead to your next job right there).

2. Emphasize leadership and responsibility. Many combat arms troops think they don’t have marketable skills. But leadership is very marketable, if presented right.

3. ETS to where the jobs are. This might not be where your family is or where your favorite duty station is. Schofield Barracks and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii are great places to live. But not if you want to get into petroleum engineering. You might need to head to North Dakota.

4. Get out of your comfort zone. Don’t just go to the same places your buddies are going to.

5. Think five years ahead or more. It may be tempting to go back to Afghanistan or Iraq as a contractor. But those efforts are likely to scale back significantly in the years ahead. What then?

At Vitaver we are committed to helping veterans in any way we can.
Check out our CAREERS section, your next job might be right there.

When Geeks Dance, Charity Wins – Vitaver Announces First Ever “Dancing Geeks” Charity Competition for IT Professionals

Posted on 31st January 2013 by Pablo Vitaver in Articles

Ft. Lauderdale, FL. – Vitaver, a Florida-based staffing firm announces their first ever “Dancing Geeks” contest designed to promote charitable giving and bring the IT/Technology community together in a fun and meaningful way. Vitaver has long supported local community organizations and now aims to spread their mission of community engagement through an entertaining and fun contest. DancingGeeks.com encourages IT and Tech professionals to submit dorky dance videos set to their favorite songs. The contest intends to raise awareness while also promoting local IT/Tech businesses and encourages viewers to vote on the dorkiest and funniest dance routines, with Vitaver donating $10,000 to charity in the name of the winners: $5,000 to First Place, $3,000 to Second Place, and $2,000 to Third Place.

The contest will allow voting on the dorkiest and funniest dance routines, with Vitaver donating $10,000 to charity in name of the winners.

IT and Tech professionals are encouraged to enter the video competition and show their best geek dance moves. The rules are simple: record your dorkiest dance moves to a song of your choice and submit the entry through the DancingGeeks.com website.

The online content will be accepting submissions via DancingGeeks.com from January 15 through April 14, 2013. Voting ends on April 15th, with first, second, and third place winners announced on April 16, 2013.

“We want to bring the IT/Tech community together for charity in the most hilarious way we know possible. Our hope is that this event will become an annual tradition,” says Pablo Vitaver, CEO of Vitaver. “The goal is to support nonprofits that are doing great work, while also supporting our fellow business community. And, we want to dispel the myth that geeks can’t dance!”

Vitaver is encouraging IT professionals to “moonwalk their way into first place in the name of charity,” and will be donating $10,000 to area nonprofits on behalf of the first, second, and third place Dancing Geek video winners. Winning teams will be able to select which nonprofit(s) their donations go to from the list of participating nonprofits.

Participating charities include ClassWish.org, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, IT Women, Geeks Without Bounds, and the South Florida Digital Alliance.

IT and Technology professionals interested in participating or sponsoring Dancing Geeks are encouraged to visit DancingGeeks.com for more information or to complete and submit an entry form.

Will Temp-Worker Surge Translate to Lasting Employment Gains?

Posted on 25th January 2013 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, career advice, career tips, employment, Employment News, perm job, temporary jobs, unemployment

The good news is there’s been a surge in hiring. The bad news is that they’re temp jobs.

Recent employment surveys indicate that America’s retailers went into the holiday season expecting Santa to bring some brisk business. Analysts estimated about a three to five percent increase in holiday retail spending four our large retailers – which was enough for them to boost holiday staffing by 10 percent over previous years.

In the short run, this is no doubt a positive sign. We welcome any expression of strength and confidence among the consumer – especially if the spending is fueled by savings rather than debt.

The question, though, is this: Will the holiday hiring surge translate into an increase in permanent employment? It’s too early to tell.

Observers have been predicting a sea change toward temporary hiring, contracting and employee leasing for years. The cost of committing to new permanent employees is just too risky – especially now, with the fallout from the Affordable Care Act resulting in reams of new ObamaCare regulations on employers coming out every week. And the uncertainty over the fiscal cliff doesn’t help, either.

The potential expiration of the payroll tax holiday by itself threatens to reduce worker spending power by 2 percent, which is itself enough to make a dent in consumer demand. That effect, of course, will be magnified by layoffs and furloughs of government workers and government contractors that arise from the sequestration provisions of the Budget Control Act that threaten to take hold on January 1, 2013.

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that if Congress and the President do not reach a deal, and we do go over the ‘fiscal cliff’, the economy will incur a nasty 2.9 percent retraction in the first six months of the year alone.

Employers, naturally, do not want to expose themselves to the needless risk of having permanent employees on staff when these events come to fruition over the next two years. It is natural, then, to expect them to do only the necessary hiring, and then only on a temporary basis, while they wait to see what the future will hold.

Hurricane Sandy didn’t help. The storm took out a lot of flagship New York City retail locations and depressed demand in the Northeast at a crucial time – putting a significant damper on holiday demand and sales. Macy’s took it on the chin. Kohl’s got whacked with a 5.6 percent year over year sales decline. Wet Seal was down 5 percent. Nordstrom lost 1.1 percent in same-store sales in November.

Analysts were predicting a respectable 3.3 percent increase for these businesses over the previous holiday period. But early indications from November were disappointing, suggesting a real growth figure of around 1.6 percent. That doesn’t even account for population growth.

These declines represent a bigger chunk of business than their single digits reflect: Their costs are relatively fixed, but the revenues come out of the most important quarter of the year, by far.

That doesn’t bode well for cash reserves for these companies going into the Year of the Fiscal Cliff, followed in 12 months by the Year of ObamaCare Onset.

The tell will come in January. Last year, the retail giant Target reported it had retained about 30 percent of its Christmas temporary work force. If the recovery is real and lasting, Target will likely increase the number of trained holiday workers it retains in permanent positions.

It’s like Puxnatawny Phil seeing his shadow on Groundhog Day. If Target doesn’t increase its temp to perm retention rate in January from last years’ levels, we’re likely in for a longer winter.

The Union Assault on Freedom of Association

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Posted on 21st December 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, Employment News, job hunting, unemployment

The State of Michigan – the Ground Zero of America’s union-strangled zombie legacy car manufacturing industry and the modern-day Mordor of union orcs – turned against its oppressors this month. The lame-duck legislature passed a “right-to-work” law. In a nutshell, the law disallows unions from taking an automatic cut from workers’ salaries against their will.

Until now, workers in a variety of Michigan industries – or what’s left of Michigan industry, anyway – were forced to disgorge union dues every month in order to keep their jobs. The Unions, in turn, used the money to donate to pro-Union Democrat candidates who in turn would support policies that many rank-and-file union members opposed. The union member had no choice: Pay the Danegeld, or lose your livelihood. “If you don’t want to be in the union, get another job,” goes the pro-labor argument.

It’s the same deal that Daniel Day-Lewis’ character, Tomas, faced in the wonderful movie The Unbearable Lightness of Being – and in the novel by Milan Kundera. Tomas, a doctor, spoke out against the Czechoslovakian communist regime – and we shortly see him washing windows.

The freedom to go get another job, illustrated.

(Tomas later took his medical skills and productivity and emigrated from Communist Czechoslovakia to Geneva, Switzerland).

All Americans have the natural right of freedom of association, enshrined in the 1st Amendment. That freedom has no meaning unless we also recognize the freedom not to associate with objectionable organizations and movements. The Michigan legislature recognized that natural right, and codified it with right-to-work.

Now unions have to earn their membership. Unions in Michigan are no longer entitled to a share of a workers’ paycheck against their will, any more than a rapist is entitled to the use of woman’s body.

The law, of course, has the orcs howling.

Richard Eskow, a senior fellow (whatever that means) with an organization called “Campaign for America’s Future,” has penned an essay for the Huffington Post. His aim: to commandeer the language used to describe the issue. It’s not a ‘right to work’ law, claims Eskow. It’s a “right-to-shirk!”

The argument, at its heart, is an anti-freeloader argument. The unions have historically negotiated improvements in pay, retirement, medical benefits and workplace safety concessions from industry. The right-to-work law, argues Eskow and his pro-labor allies, allow workers that don’t pay union dues a “free ride” on the dues-funded activities of others.

Says Eskow:
And while we’re at it, let’s stop calling the states that have adopted this legislation “right to work.” They don’t give people any new rights. They take rights away, by making it illegal for employees to organize and negotiate together. They even take away employers’ rights – to sign a certain kind of contract.

This is, fundamentally, a lie.

The law does not “make it illegal for employees to organize and negotiate together,” any more than laws against rape make it illegal to have sex.

It just forces both sides to obtain consent.

I cannot overstate how twisted Eskow’s reasoning is – though he is not the only pro-labor voice to make the argument. Even if it is possible that a non-union worker would benefit from union activities and contract negotiations, his reasoning makes no more sense than saying spousal rape or child rape should be legal because the victims benefit from living in the rapist’s house.

The Western Kentucky Teamsters have also done their best to obfuscate the unionist assault on the freedom of association:
Indiana’s proposed “Right to Work” Act is not just anti-union, it is anti-democratic. Under the law if a majority of workers in a plant vote for a union, those who opposed the union would not have to contribute dues to the union.

To continue the rape analogy – a law that prevents a majority of workers at a plant from voting to strip the property of a minority is no more anti-democratic than laws against gang rape. At any rate, a democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner. We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy – and the AFL-CIO of Western Kentucky has forgotten that the point of living in a constitutional republic is to protect the rights of the minority from the depredations of the mob.

The Medicaid Law

To illustrate how absurd the union’s position has become, consider this: Prior to the passage of Right-to-Work, Michigan law required any parent or relative acting in the role of in-home caregiver for a disabled child or loved one – and receiving Medicaid benefits for it – to join the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. The union then forcibly took their monthly cut from the caregiver. The union had made precisely zero contribution to improving the caregiver’s working conditions. They negotiated no favorable pension agreement with Medicaid officials. They simply took their cut – and used it to fund candidates who would vote to increase the caregivers’ taxes in order to provide generous benefits for public employee union members.

Pro-union forces sought to have the arrangement in which dues were stripped from in-home caregiving parents and sent to the SEIU enshrined in the Michigan state constitution, with Proposal 4. That was a bridge too far, even for Michigan, and the measure failed.

If it weren’t for the protection of pro-union Democrat legislators, the Justice Department would have been broken up under the RICO Act. They’ve prosecuted individuals for far less egregious offenses.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in Vitaver’s CAREER section!

Sustaining Job Growth: How the Fiscal Cliff Could Affect Employment

Posted on 13th December 2012 by James Mulvey in Articles

career, employment, Employment News, job hunting, job market news, unemployment

2012 has put many Americans back on the employment path. As of this past November, the unemployment rate has dropped below 8 percent. Job growth as a whole has increased as has spending on recruitment and training. But negotiations between policy makers in Washington threaten to undo all the progress the job market has made this year. Unfortunately, most small startups may be blindsided by a change in tax laws. The consequences could affect hiring and job growth in 2013. Here’s a look at how the “fiscal cliff” could affect IT:

Higher Taxes Threaten Job Market
The phrase “fiscal cliff” has been used to define a set of changes in tax laws for federal agencies and privately owned companies. If imposed, such tax cuts would limit the tax provisions employers use to write off expenses, such as those commonly associated with assets and hiring. Unfortunately, many new tech companies have been too pre-occupied with R&D and product promotion that they’ve failed to recognize the possible impact “fiscal cliff” policies could have on hiring.

Congressional Budgets project a fiscal impact of over $530 billion, which could return the un-employment rate back to 9 percent in 2013. This is why many are getting a little panicked as 2012 comes to a close. We’ve fought so hard to bounce back from a recession of epic proportions; the fiscal cliff threatens to put the country back into a slight recession. As of yet, nothing is set in stone. Small business owners can take precautions in order to soften the impact any “fiscal cliff” changes may have on their organization.

5 Steps To Prep for Fiscal Cliff
• Training – Government spending cuts means less money for hiring new employees. Analysts recommend employers train existing personal to fill the void of positions they might need. Training existing employees may save companies money in the long run and once the economy bounces back, hiring can peacefully resume.

• Price Reductions – Reducing the price of products sold can salvage business-to-business relationships. Many customers will be affected by increased taxes. Reducing prices will soften the blow for them.

• Extending Contractual Agreements – Companies who have contractual agreements with federal agencies should extend the terms of their agreement. Such changes will foster earnings in the long run and give companies more time to conjure up new business leads.

• Adjust The Terms of Service – Small business owners may save money, and retain employees if they make a switch to subscription-based services as opposed to monthly contracts. Offering customers incentives in exchange for long-term subscription agreements will help companies retain business.

Concluding Thoughts
It’s taken our country nearly 4 years to recover from the depths of recession, and policy makers are forced to take action in order to get our economy back on track. However, members of congress fail to release that the job market is still fragile and that any changes imposed could undo the progress employment has made this past year. It’s a slippery slope; on the one had you have our nationwide economy to consider, on the other you have the fragile job market. A reduction in tax incentives for employers while the economy is still in a state of recovery may not be the best idea.

By keeping a watchful eye on spending and more importantly, the relationships employers have with clients, jobs may be protected. In other words, protect your business and you will protect jobs. Though one thing is certain, the risk of damage to job market growth in 2013 is real. Lets hope “fiscal cliff” policy makers are able to find a balanced approach for implementing new tax laws this coming year. The health of our job market depends on it.

About the author: James Mulvey is a technology writer and blog director at Colocation America, a data center company based in Los Angeles who specializes in colocation and dedicated servers.

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Flex-Time: Why Your Company Should Offer It

Business Management, HR, hr management, Management Tips, Small Business Administration, Time management

Posted on 29th November 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

A couple of generations ago, you could have a “Father-Knows-Best,” 9 to 5 schedule at an office or factory job, complete with a two-martini happy hour and still attract the best talent.

Those days are no more – due to a combination of factors:
• Women are now graduating from college and attaining masters’ degrees at higher rates than men.
• A higher percentage of women is now either working or seeking to reenter the workforce than past generations.
• Women are now engaged in demanding professions outside of traditional female-dominated professions like teaching and nursing.
• Women are increasingly entrepreneurial.
• The price of a desirable 3-bedroom home in the suburbs in a school district has now been bid so high it takes two incomes to pay for it.

This means that the pressure to balance career and family life is that much more intense than in previous years. Businesses can no longer expect men to shoulder a rigid, inflexible shift, plus all required overtime, because today’s men are more likely to be married to women who themselves have demanding careers in their own rite – or who are small business owners.

To retain the top talent – the very people with the most options – it’s now necessary to give them some flexibility to solve scheduling problems, arrange for timely child care pickup, and be able solve small problems that arise as independently as possible.

If they can’t solve those problems one way or another, something is going to give. And the employer will ultimately pay the price, either in reduced productivity, increased turnover as good, desirable employees with families or other outside interests find opportunities offering them greater flexibility elsewhere, or both.

Consider: If you aren’t offering some form of flex-time or telecommuting, other employers are leaving you in the dust.

The Family and Work Institute’s 2012 Survey of Employers found that the percentage of employers who offered flex-time or allowed employees to change clock-in and clock-out times increased from 66 percent in 2005 to 77 percent in 2012.

The number of employers who allowed employees to take personal time off during the day to take care of family issues without docking pay increased from 77 percent in 2005 to 87 percent in 2012.

The number of employers who occasionally allowed workers to do their jobs from home exploded, from 34 percent in 2005 to 63 percent in 2012.

Additionally, another study from Cranfield School of Management found that workers who were granted more flexibility actually put in more hours than workers on a strict clock. They also reported greater work intensity, greater productivity, lower stress levels and greater company loyalty.

It seems that you have to give a little to get a lot.

How much? A recent study by Brigham Young University of 24,000 IBM workers indicates that those granted substantial flex-time wind up putting in as much as two days’ worth of extra hours, compared to workers who don’t.

Now, employers need to go into flex-time understanding labor laws. You need a crystal clear understanding of exempt vs. non-exempt employers and salary rules versus wage and hour laws. Otherwise, you could find employees racking up hours – even overtime hours – without a way to account for their activities at work. Flex time is easier with salaried employees, because there’s simply no need to keep tabs on their hours. They receive the same salary each week no matter how many hours they work, provided they show up at least one day. But technology allows employers to keep tabs even on hourly workers working from home or outside the office. oDesk.com, for example, offers a “clock” function: Workers log in and start the clock running. The timer records their hours; the employer automatically receives a screen shot of their computer every ten minutes to help maintain accountability and keep workers on task.

Find great jobs in Vitaver’s CAREER section

Top 5 Tech Trends of Tomorrow

Posted on 13th November 2012 by James Mulvey in Articles

career advice, Information Technologies/Telecommunications jobs, IT, IT jobs, IT trends, job hunting, Technology

The tech industry moves too fast sometimes
During the next five years IT department budgets are top 5 IT trends 2013 expected to shrink. As companies grow, so do their needs for more storage, faster hardware and up-to-date software systems. Another area of concern is the fact that many seasoned IT professionals will be retiring. That being said there may be a shortage of qualified professionals. The solution? Keep an open mind and more importantly, keep up with these forthcoming trends:

Embrace In-House IT
Rapid growth in IT also means increased network complexity. With a number of New employees should be encouraged to step in and learn new skills. Workers not yet skilled in a specific area of IT may develop a firm grasp on mobile IT tools. As we move forward into this decade, mobile devices like smart-phones and tablets will be used to communicate with company servers. Embrace the trend of accessing company networks remotely. Training employees in new areas of IT might lead to higher retention rates.

Virtual Data Centers
Virtual Servers will support accelerated growth rates while on a tight budget. VPS servers are also becoming cheaper options for small business online. Shared servers over a private network is a hybrid system that is expected to evolve even further these next few years.

Mobile Security
Mobile devices as IT tools mean enterprises will need more network security. Device level security as well as encryption of information will be key. Be on the look out for mobile networking security as it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

Centralized Software Networks
If and when everyone starts using their smart-phones to access centralized servers at work, software clashes might occur. Investing in a centralized software management system will force everyone to use the same operating procedures to communicate at work. Network security will be easier to maintain, as all devices shall be using the same platform.

The Big Data Craze
Enterprise level companies will require more enterprise level support. The collection of data sets so large is known as Big Data. Big Data has become almost impossible to process store and access using traditional IT management tools which is why we expect to see an explosion of services dedicated to helping companies sort through the mess. Due to its difficult working nature, researchers are still hard at work looking for ways they can improve the management of Big Data. If you work for a large corporation rest assured, Big Data will be tamed in the years to come.

James Mulvey is a tech writer and blog editor at Colocation America. He covers a wide variety of topics within the data center industry, from tech trends to industry news.

Awesome IT JOBS in Vitaver’s CAREERS section. Check them out!

Big Data: We’re Looking for a Few Good Nerds (And When We Say “Few,” We Mean 4.4 Million of Them)

Posted on 9th November 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

big data, career advice, career tips, Employer, employment, Employment News, job hunting

10 or 15 years ago, it was all about bandwidth. big data hiring ‘Rich, golden fields of bandwidth, waving in the wind,’ went one well-known technology company. Back then, the major difficulty for the IT industry was preparing an infrastructure that would support what we now think of as Web 2.0 – particular streaming video in vast quantities. Maximizing throughput and minimizing data chokepoints was the order of the day – and fiber-optic installers were working overtime.

Now that that fiber and T-1 backbone has been largely built-out, data producers are looking for efficient ways to store it, secure it from corruption or compromise, and preserve it against loss.

Call it the clouds of data moving over those waving fields of bandwidth – though the term ‘data farm’ is more apt.

The demand for data storage translates into a need for large numbers of high-speed computers with tons of memory, stored in climate-controlled, fortified and secured facilities with redundant power supplies, biometric access systems, collocation facilities to minimize latency drag, and all the racks, cables, coffee machines and institutional brown carpeting and white tile floors and fluorescent lighting that always seems to go along with that.

Uncle Sam Wants You… To Hook Up These Servers
The industry that supports all that is called Big Data – and Big Data wants help.

The IT and HR consulting firm Gartner, Inc. now projects that Big Data is going to need another 4.4 million workers worldwide to service the exploding need for data – and that within the next three years. Gartner also projects that 1.9 million of these jobs will be in the United States.

That’s a lot of demand pull on a limited number of highly-skilled computer and electronic engineers and technicians.

And that 1.9 million figure is just for the IT pros. Gartner estimates that an average of three support workers will be needed to support every pocket-protector as the industry builds out. The challenge: There simply aren’t enough qualified technicians to meet demand. Gartner estimates that two-thirds of those IT jobs are not going to be filled.

Drivers of Demand

Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is by far the biggest driver of the Big Data explosion, according to Gartner’s global research director Peter Sondergaard.

“Cloud is not merely about cost-cutting, the end game is not just cheap on-demand services. In fact, 90 percent of these services are still subscription based, not pay-as-you-go,” Sondergaard said. “We are just at the beginning of realizing the cost benefits of cloud, but organizations moving to the cloud are also attracted by the new capabilities they do not get today. It is bringing new approaches to designing applications, specifically for the cloud, and providing more resilience by architecturing failure as a design concept. Cloud also teaches us about services and service levels, and the contrast between what the business wants for outcomes versus IT’s old methods of getting there.”

Mobile Technologies
The second catalyst driving Big Data growth is the SmartPhone revolution. Smartphones and pad devices are getting rapid and deep penetration – and their limited onboard storage and increased access to online applications is forcing industry to rapidly build out their data storage capabilities.

Gartner projects that there will be 1.6 billion new smart mobile device purchases in 2016. At least two out of every three workers will own a smartphone, and 4 in 10 workers will be mobile. Sondergaard anticipates that iPads will be more ubiquitous than Blackberries. Apple is selling tens of thousands of iPads on single purchase orders to IT directors seeking to transform their field forces. The Blackberry was primarily a communication device. But the iPad is becoming much more than a communications platform – it’s increasingly becoming a presentation medium and customer interface medium as well. By 2018, says Sondergaard 7 out of every 10 workers will be using a tablet or similar device.

“Mobile is about computing at the right time, in the moment. It is the point of entry for all applications, delivering personalized, contextual experiences,” Mr. Sondergaard said. “It means: marketing gets more time with the customer; employees become more productive; and process flows get dramatically cut.”

Social Media and AV
The third catalyst driving Big Data is Social Computing. First it was MySpace, then Facebook. Then Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest – each of which is generating its own demand for server space. More technologies are on the horizon. And, of course, lossless audio and lossless video formats will also become more and more in demand as consumers wean themselves away from heavily compressed MP3 files (good riddance) and expect 5.1 and 7.1 audio and high-def resolution, even right down to the mobile level. The potential is there for surround sound headphones, for example – and the demand for bandwidth and storage space will explode as more media is converted to the superior file formats.

““Big data is about looking ahead, beyond what everybody else sees,” Mr. Sondergaard said. “You need to understand how to deal with hybrid data, meaning the combination of structured and unstructured data, and how you shine a light on ‘dark data.’ Dark data is the data being collected, but going unused despite its value. Leading organizations of the future will be distinguished by the quality of their predictive algorithms. This is the CIO challenge, and opportunity.”

So What’s Needed?
Think data architecture, for the most part. And low-voltage security system experts, since these data farms are going to have to be stored somewhere – and they will all have access control systems of some sort. Biometric systems are becoming the industry standard in the top-end facilities. A recent report for IT Business Edge indicated that the industry anticipates a need for business intelligence analysts, networking engineers, cable jockeys (someone’s gotta run all that wire!), a CIO type, a data center manager type (three shifts and a head), analysts, garden-variety screw-turners who can open a computer crate and replace a faulty bus, fan or disc array, and of course a facilities manager who knows how to fix the AC.

I’m also thinking the need for espresso machine repair professionals and pizza delivery drivers will be intense.

We’ve got quite a few network engineering jobs ourselves.

Check out Vitaver’s CAREER section!

Florida Workers to Lose Substantial Unemployment Benefits

Posted on 30th October 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, Employment News, Florida, job hunting, unemployment

The good news is the unemployment rate has finally unemployment benefits florida fallen in Florida. The bad news is that while it hasn’t fallen all that much, even that modest improvement in unemployment rates will result in a massive decrease in unemployment insurance benefits for Florida workers as of the beginning of the year.

This is because a lot of Florida’s unemployment insurance benefits were actually funded from Washington, under a large unemployment extension provision that Democrats pushed for in exchange for extending the so-called “Bush tax cuts” for another year, back in 2010.

Those tax cuts are slated to expire in January, as well, unless Congress acts to change the law.

Currently, Florida allows for 23 weeks of unemployment benefits. But workers receive an additional 37 weeks of benefits, if they qualify, because of the federal extension.

But Congress committed that money with strings attached: The federal unemployment dollars would only go to states with sufficiently high unemployment. As of last week Friday, Florida reported an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent. Much higher than the national average (now 7.8 percent), but not high enough to qualify for the federal unemployment extension.

Florida unemployment benefits already rank among the lowest in the country: Florida only replaces 25 percent of pre-unemployment earnings, while other states tend to replace up to half, which places Florida third to last in the country for unemployment benefit income replacement rate. The maximum unemployment benefit in Florida is only $275 per week, and the average actual benefit payout was about $231, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Furthermore, Florida is undergoing some fiscal constraints itself – and plans to cut their existing unemployment insurance benefits from 23 down to 19.

That’s about four months and three weeks from the time you begin receiving benefits. That’s a tough row to hoe – especially with the ranks of the long-term unemployed still at record highs. The National Employment Law Project estimates that some 41 percent of unemployed workers don’t find employment for 6 months or more. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that as much as 30 percent of unemployed people last year were out of work for more than one year. And according to reporting by the Palm Beach Post, 58 percent of individuals have not found a job by the time their benefits run out.

Furthermore, it’s getting more and more difficult for these long-term cast-offs from the employment market to find gainful employment: There is a growing trend among hiring managers to restrict recruiting to those who are currently working. The unemployed, state many ads, need not apply.

Florida workers aren’t alone in January. California, North Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Texas will all see their federal extensions expire – potentially affecting up to 400,000 unemployed workers.

Originally, 39 states received federal unemployment benefits. After the new year, only eight states will remain on the program: New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Alaska, Idaho and the District of Columbia.

“These cuts are coming faster than the economy is improving,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “More workers will have to survive without any jobless assistance and families will have less money to put back into the economy.”

But ultimately, unemployment benefits have to come from somewhere – and that money’s being taken out of the economy too. Under current law, Florida employers have to pay anywhere from $180 to $420 per year for every worker in unemployment insurance benefits. This is a tax disincentive to hiring. While a strong economy can generally absorb that cost, if you make unemployment insurance premiums too high, fewer companies will hire – or they will use contractors or otherwise bring on workers off the books – denying the system needed income tax benefits and payroll tax benefits. Workers suffer from this, too, because they don’t have access to benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans.

Unemployed? Over a hundred of Florida-based jobs in Vitaver’s CAREERS section.

Can You Make Money Programming Mobile Apps?

Posted on 25th October 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Android Apps, career, career advice, Career choice, iPhone Apps, IT jobs, job hunting, job search

A century ago, some idiot said “everything that can be invented has been invented. That was before the Airplane and the atom bomb.

Well, now the slogan goes “there’s an app for that.” But apparently that’s not true either, because there are new smartphone apps being created every day. And if you’re a smart, unemployed or underemployed, tech-savvy individual, you can do it, too.

And yes, you can make money.

This is an overview of the thriving cottage industry of smartphone app development. I am not going to try to tackle the technical issues here: There are dozens of platforms, and technical requirements vary for each.

A Jobs Powerhouse

Pun intended. If you have a job, thank Steve Jobs. Because according to a recent report by the Application Developers Alliance and CTIA – The Wireless Association, the advent of the iPhone in 2007 led directly to the creation of over half a million jobs in applications development and related fields alone.

Among the report’s key findings:
• 45 percent of adult Americans own a smart phone.
• That’s an increase from 35 percent in 2010.
• The number of applications carried by Apple’s App Store has increased by 40 percent in the last year.
• Android apps and market penetration growth is roughly matching Apple’s.
• Developers live and work in all 50 states.
• While traditional technology centers like California and Washington are still driving the hiring, 2nd tier technology center states like Texas, Oregon, Colorado and Virginia are also developing a vibrant apps development industry within their own borders.

The study also found diversity among the employers seeking workers with app development skills. It’s not just very large employers, nor is it all micro-tech firms with just one to three programmers working for many different clients. The study’s authors found that employers all across the size spectrum were actively seeking to beef up their development staff.

It’s not surprising. In addition to the GDP generated directly by the app developers and all the workers who support them, mobile apps are also becoming key drivers of market share for companies in all manner of industries. Real estate on a smartphone reinforces critical top-of-mind awareness, and having a solid and user friendly mobile app has become an important selling differentiator as companies compete for business.

How money is made

There are two basic models for making money: Work for hire, or pay-by-download. Both are pretty much self-explanatory: Under the work-for-hire model, your work is the property of whoever hired you. You can be brought on as a statutory employee, or you can work as an independent contractor for someone who wants your app to leverage his or her business. In either case, you typically don’t have a residual right to royalties for your work. But you do get your money up front. So under the work-for-hire model, you give up a substantial upside. But at least you get your money up front. This is important if you have bills to pay and mouths to feed now. But you might have to do some digging to get those jobs.

Under the pay-per-download model, you design an app, hang a price tag on it, and then put it up for sale on sites like Apple’s App Store. If your app sells, you get money: Anywhere from 50 percent to 80 percent of the download price.

Now, Apple doesn’t approve every app. Indeed, they’ve had some weird rejections, including one recent case where they rejected a WWII game because it used the “Rising Sun” emblem of Imperial Japan. But if your app doesn’t make the Apple cut, there are workarounds. You just have to get a little creative with marketing.

Choosing your Application

If you are relying on getting paid per download, the iPhone and iPad are your best bets. There are certainly a lot of them, and Apple has had more success getting people to pay for a download.

If you’re looking for sheer numbers for mass market appeal, you will probably want to develop for the Android. And plenty of developers write apps for both. You will probably want to get an emulator – a computer program designed to mimic the behavior of a cell phone operating system. And you may want to get your own phone for each model you are developing for.

Selling Your App

There’s a middle ground between working for hire and relying on a per-download revenue split: You can also develop an app with a specific industry in mind – and then go sell it. If you hit on a winning application for a company, there’s nothing wrong with contacting the VP of marketing or acquisitions and selling your idea. You can negotiate to sell the entire kit and caboodle, or have the company, rather than the customer, pay you per download. If you do go for the per download idea, make sure you lock in the terms for a certain amount of time. Otherwise the company could simply go to someone cheaper tomorrow – while still building on your ideas, and leaving you with nothing to show for it.

Already a developer? Find your next job in Vitaver’s CAREER section!

Reality-Checking the Jobs Report

One Texas hospital publicized a policy that prohibits hiring anyone with a body mass index of 35 or over.

Posted on 18th October 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, career advice, employment, Employment News, find jobs, unemployment

The October jobs report was a doozy: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the economy actually added some 114,000 nonfarm payroll jobs. Which actually isn’t much. But somehow, it was enough to cause the official unemployment number – the number we usually think of as the unemployment number – to fall from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent.

Why? Because while nonfarm payrolls came in right at forecast – boding no change in the unemployment rate at all, the household survey, a telephonic poll, indicated that employment increased some 873,000.

This was extremely welcome news for the Obama campaign, which needed something – anything – to distract attention from the President’s disastrous debate appearance against GOP candidate Mitt Romney. And it should be welcome news for anyone who cares about the economy and American workers.

But the report was also met with skepticism: How could such a modest jobs increase cause such a huge drop in the unemployment rate? It makes no sense.

The idea that the economy suddenly sprouted nearly a million jobs for no particular reason doesn’t pass the smell test. The disconnect was too big to explain away: The work force increased by 418,000, the number of employed jumped by 873,000, while the ranks of the unemployed fell by 456,000.

Try to figure that one out!

All told, average monthly job growth has actually been lower in 2012 than it was in 2011 – 143,000 per month this year, compared to 152,000 last year. The number of new jobs it takes to maintain equilibrium with the increasing population – new graduates, immigrants, etc., is closer to 200,000 per month, so we’re not even treading water at this point – and hiring has been slower, not faster, on a year-over-year basis.

Furthermore, an economy growing at 2 percent per year should generate about 150,000 jobs per month. A survey indicating an 873,000 job increase suggests and economy growing at 5 or 6 percent. Implausible.

I don’t believe the economy created 873,000 real, quality, full-time jobs for a second. If it wasn’t a bad sampling, it probably reflects the fact that companies across the country are reacting to ObamaCare by slashing their full-time workers and replacing full-time jobs with two part-time jobs. That creates more jobs, McJobs, anyway, but does nothing to advance the interests of workers looking to raise families, pay off student loans, and buy new houses and cars, which is what it would take to rejuvenate our flagging manufacturing and housing industries. $8 per hour jobs are not going to make a middle class – no matter how many of them we create. Manufacturing, meanwhile, hemorrhaged 16,000 jobs.

The best thing about the report, though, was the increase in the labor force participation rate. Recently, we’ve had a trend of weak jobs reports, but because the unemployment percentage doesn’t count ‘discouraged workers,’ the sheer numbers of individuals giving up on finding employment has perversely worked to decrease unemployment percentage. If you add back discouraged workers into the pool, the real unemployment rate is over 22 percent.

This last report reversed the trend – the labor force participation rate bumped to 63.6 percent. So at least some people have gotten up off the couch and gone back to work.

I’m not the only one suspicious of the job numbers. Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric and a man who knows a thing or two about the economy, is calling foul – accusing the Obama Administration’s Labor Department of manipulating the numbers to make the President look good right before the election.

I’m not too sure about that. We know the New York Times isn’t above that. But most career folks in the middle ranks of federal service take more pride in their work than that. If political appointees were cooking the books, it wouldn’t take long before some of the worker bees were blowing the whistle.

Furthermore, the Bureau of Labor Statistics generally massages the numbers beyond all recognition. There are valid reasons for this, but consider this point from Forbes:

Because the sample of households is small relative to the total number of households, the series is notoriously volatile. In August, for example, the raw data (Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA)) showed the number of jobs fell by 568,000. In September, that same number showed an increase of 775,000 jobs (NSA). The BLS reported this as 873,000 SA which is the number that the media got all excited about. Using the NSA data, over the two months, 207,000 jobs were created, or 103,500 per month on average. This leads to a very different conclusion from a single 873,000 data point.

The bottom line – while the increase in the labor force participation rate is welcome news, it’s also precisely what you would expect as employers dump full-time workers to dodge the ObamaCare mandate and replace them with full-time workers. Indeed, it is just as we predicted in this column from earlier this year.

Note: I originally planned to include something about the exclusion of at least part of California’s data, but I’m not convinced there’s that much too that at this point. Feel free to convince me in the comments!

New jobs in Vitaver’s CAREERS section daily!

Obesity Discrimination Becoming a Fact of Life

4 comments

Posted on 26th September 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, career advice, career tips, employment, Employment News, job hunting, job search, obesity

Someone once wrote a joke news story headlined “Unemployment Rating Among Young, Hot Women Holding at Zero Percent.”

It’s funny because there’s a ring of truth to it. Attractive people are far more likely to get hired in positions that interact with the public than unattractive people.

But obesity also correlates strongly with higher health care costs – and employers are coming under increasing pressure to rein in these costs. Why? Because actual claims experiences still largely determine health insurance premiums in the workplace. A healthier workforce means fewer health insurance claims, which means lower premiums.

How big is the effect? Huge: Health care spending was 56 percent higher for obese individuals than for non-obese individuals, according to Helen Darling, the CEO of National Business Group on Health. And health care premiums now run nearly $10,000 per year per employee. Which means that choosing an obese employee over a normal-weight employee, all other things being equal, would potentially cost the employer some $5,000 to $6,000 per year, in the long run, in increased premiums alone.

That leaves aside increased absenteeism, lower productivity levels among out-of-shape workers, and spillover effects into workers compensation premiums.

A recent study published in the International Journal of Obesity confirmed anecdotal reports of what activists are calling size and weight discrimination.

An overt, written company policy that actually discriminates against Jews because of an elevated risk of Tay-Sachs disease, or discrimination against African Americans because of an increased risk of high blood pressure or sickle-cell anemia would be clearly illegal: Both groups are a protected class under federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

Overweight people don’t get the same kind of protection under the law, though. They are simply not a protected class under federal anti-discrimination laws.

And so we have an increasing number of large employers enacting specific policies requiring hiring managers to discriminate against overweight people.

States probably won’t protect you.

Only Michigan – a historically pro-union, pro-labor state – has a statute on the books that includes the obese as a protected class under its anti-discrimination laws. And companies aren’t exactly flocking to Michigan to hire people.

You can expect weight and build discrimination in the workplace to continue – and it’s not just Mom and Pop shops doing it. A recent Aon Hewitt study indicates that as many as half of large employers expect to provide significant disincentives to employees, including increasing employee costs for health insurance, if they are overweight or smoke.

Meanwhile, workers at Jones Lang LaSalle, a Chicago real estate company, receive a 200 dollar bonus for taking a medical exam each year and hitting certain objectives. If they don’t smoke, and they aren’t overweight, they get a 10 percent discount on their contribution to their health insurance plan. And Broward County requires employees to submit to a blood sugar and cholesterol test, or they get their pay docked by $40 per month.

The U.S. military prohibits promotions, decorations or any other “favorable personnel action” for those who do not meet height / weight standards – and eventually discharges those who do not come into compliance – not because of operational or tactical considerations, so much, but specifically to control health care costs.

More companies, too, are embracing “wellness programs,” designed to lower health care costs and increase productivity by making weight loss programs, smoking cessation and exercise programs available to workers at free or substantially reduced costs.

Some critics of these programs have filed suit, claiming, for example, that discrimination against the obese amounts to a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). It’s too early to tell whether the courts will rule with them. But even if they do, that will not change the huge disparity in health care utilization and expenditures between obese and normal weight individuals. So unless health care costs are fully socialized, employees will still have a marked incentive to discriminate. It just may go underground.

Hurricane Isaac Hits the Unemployment Rate

Posted on 19th September 2012 by Sally Davidson Parker in Articles

career, employment, Employment News, Hurricane Issaac, job hunting, unemployment

When Hurricane Isaac grazed the Gulf Coast states and hit Louisiana, unemployment also took a hit; unemployment numbers were at the highest point in two months. Nine states were affected by Isaac, and 15,000 more people than the previous week joined the rolls of the unemployed. U. S. Labor department numbers record 367,000 newly unemployed the week before the hurricane, and 382,000 afterwards.

But the unemployment rate itself dropped, how can this be? Because many people’s benefits expired, and they are no longer on the books. Add to that the number of people who have had no benefits for a while and those that have given up looking for jobs, said to be at an all time low of just over 60-percent, and you have a true unemployment rate of between 11- and 12-percent. Then add to that all the underemployed people, the slowest economic recovery since the Great Depression, and a presidential election, and you end up with media spin and smoke and mirrors. Job creation, while much better than a few years ago, is not effectively keeping up with unemployment. And it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon.

The Federal Open Market Meeting of the Federal Reserve met September 12th and 13th and announced several interventions meant to keep inflation below 2-percent and to support a stronger economy. They will increase their mortgage-based securities purchases $40 million more per month to keep long-term interest rates low. They will also keep the federal funds rate between 0- and ¼- percent through 2015. And if neither of these policies works, they will continue to increase their purchase of mortgage-based assets to continue putting pressure on keeping interest rates low in order to encourage economic growth.

What does this mean for the average job seeker? The game is smaller and there are more competitors. It’s time to polish that resume to a high shine, practice your interviewing, and network more than you’ve ever networked before. Mortgage rates will remain low, and that’s good for people seeking homes or are refinancing, but that’s not usually the unemployed. Mortgage rates aren’t the only long-term interest rates, though. The Feds are hoping that the lower interest rates will entice companies both large and small to expand, invest, and increase their hiring. That’s good for everyone.

For those in Mississippi and Louisiana who lost their job because of the hurricane, take hope. Both states have authorized disaster unemployment insurance in certain areas. Self-employed people who have also found themselves out of work may qualify as well; proof of income and other information is required. The following parishes in Louisiana are eligible: St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Lafourche, Livingston, Ascension, Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany. Contact your local Louisiana Workforce Commission office. Eligibility in Mississippi is limited to the following counties: Adams, Amite, Clarke, Forrest, George, Hinds, Lincoln, Marion, Pike, Stone, Walthall, Warren, and Wilkinson. Contact your local Mississippi Department of Employment Security office.

Partisan Wrangling Veterans Jobs Program

Posted on 14th September 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, employment, Employment News, job hunting, unemployment, veteran

The Veterans Job Corps Act (S. 3457), is a bill sponsored by Bill Nelson, a Democratic Senator from Florida. It is currently being considered in the Senate, though has yet to pass the House. The bill is a priority for the Obama Administration, and the President has indicated that he is eager to sign the bill into law as soon as possible.

A recent report from the Department of Labor indicated that War on Terror-era veterans still have a 10.9 percent unemployment rate – markedly higher than the 8.3 percent unemployment rate nationwide, and also higher than the 6.6 percent unemployment rate among veterans generally.

Among other provisions, the Veterans Job Corps Act would allocate $1 billion over 5 years to hire veterans, largely doing maintenance work in the National Park System. The law is, in part, modeled on the Civilian Conservation Corps of the Great Depression era, which was a federal program to put idled workers back into the labor force and provide them some money so the economy wouldn’ t go into total collapse.

However, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), initiated a filibuster of the bill. The lone dissent was Senator Rand Paul, a Republican representing the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He took the podium and called on the Senate to attach an amendment to the bill cutting off aid to Pakistan unless it frees a jailed Pakistani physician named Shakil Afridi. Afridi worked closely with the CIA running an immunization program in Pakistan – but his real work was collecting DNA samples that helped us to locate Osama Bin Laden. Afridi was tried and convicted for treason – not for helping the U.S. find Bin Laden, but for connections with another radical Islamic group, Lakshar-e-Islam.

As filibusters go, this one wasn’t much. Senator Paul spoke for only 15 minutes. The Senate soon held a cloture vote to break the filibuster, which passed overwhelmingly with votes from both parties. The bill is ready for an up or down vote.

Nevertheless, Democrats are trying to develop the meme that a Republican filibuster – already over and done with – is holding up the bill. Indeed, Politico fell for it, hook, line and sinker. They ran a story already blaming the hold-up on a single Republican, without mentioning any of the significant objections and criticisms of the bill.

Republicans Objecting
Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma. Coburn has criticized the bill, though, for two reasons: He does not want a law that excludes older unemployed veterans from consideration. He also argued that the program is redundant, expensive, and at any rate, unlikely to pass muster with more fiscally conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives.

“We already have six veterans’ job programs,” said Coburn, according to reporting from the Army Times. “Not one of them has a metric on it to see if it is working. There has not been one hearing to see what the jobs program that we are running now are doing.”

Will Smoking Cost You Your Job?

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Posted on 7th September 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, job advice, job hunting, job market news, unemployment

It’s simple economics. It costs employers more to keep a smoker on board than a non-smoker. And ObamaCare doesn’t change that. Indeed, it may make it even easier for employers to calculate what employees who smoke cost them – not just in terms of increased absenteeism, but even more directly, in terms of increased premium.

A provision in the new health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, expressly allows insurers to charge employers much more for people on group health care plans who are smokers.

The natural result: Widespread discrimination against smokers.

Is discrimination legal?

From time to time I hear people, when confronted with some tale of some perceived workplace injustice gasp “that’s discrimination!” and assume that just because a company’s personnel decision may involve discrimination it must be illegal. That is simply not the case.

Yes. Discrimination is legal, except where that discrimination screens applicants and employees out based on membership in a specific class designated by law. Nationally, federal law protects employees and job applicants against discrimination on the basis of race, creed, religion, sex, national origin, or veterans status. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) further protects those with physical or developmental disabilities, provided they are capable of safely doing the job with reasonable accommodation. That’s it.

State law may add some additional protected classes to those listed under federal law – such as gays, lesbians and transgenders.

Beyond that, though, company’s discriminate all the time. For example, they discriminate against those with felony records, drug addicts, the lazy, the incompetent, drunks, those who are habitually tardy and those known to steal office supplies. And yes, the also routinely discriminate against the overweight.

There is nothing in federal law that prohibits companies from discriminating against smokers, though some 29 states have passed legislation restricting the practice. In reality, though, where smoker discrimination lawsuits have been filed, the courts have generally ruled in favor of the company, not the smoker.

According to John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University and one of the architects of differential premiums for smokers going back to the 1980s, every employee who smokes costs the employer “more than $10,000 in additional expenses that are ‘totally unnecessary”.

Some employers have actually overtly banned even off-the-job smoking, including the World Health Organization, Scotts Miracle-Gro, the City of Atlantic Beach, Florida, Crown Laboratories and the Cleveland Clinic.

Expect employers to take heed of those costs.

If, during the interview process, you let slip that you are a smoker, you will do yourself no favors. What are the tells?
• Yellow nicotine-stained fingernails.
• Smell of tobacco. Smokers can’t smell it, but it’s very noticeable to non-smokers within a few feet.
• A glimpse of a pack of cigarettes or a lighter in your purse or pockets.
• Being sighted in the parking lot, grabbing a quick smoke before or after your interview.

For your state’s specific laws regarding smoker discrimination in the workplace, click here.

What should you do?
• Quit smoking. Geez. How many hints do you need?
• Don’t smoke prior to your job interview. The smell’s a giveaway.
• Wash your hands thoroughly before the interview.
• Don’t smoke, even if your interviewer invites you for a smoke.

The job market is tough. There’s no need to make it tougher. Smoking is plenty tough on your wallet, too, all by itself. If you just lost your job, you can perhaps take advantage of the change in routine to break the smoking habit. Seize the day. Carpe diem.

Hourly updated employment opportunities in our CAREER section!

Study – Veterans Struggling to Transition to Civilian Work Force

Posted on 30th August 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, Employment News, find jobs, job advice, job hunting, Military, unemployment, veteran, Wounded Warrior Foundation

Over six out of ten veterans report their post- unemployed veteran discharge transition to civilian life as “difficult,” according to the Veterans Employment Challenge Survey. This study, conducted by Prudential Financial, surveyed some 1,845 veterans of all services.

According to the survey, 69 percent of veterans report finding new employment as their biggest challenge in coming back to the civilian world. Nearly all veterans cite at least one challenge to finding employment. 98 percent of them reported at least one factor making transition difficult. 68 percent of veterans report three or more challenges to their employment prospects. Many of these veterans have been thoroughly tested on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. But they are now caught between a force drawdown quickly gaining momentum on one hand and a stubbornly tight labor market on the other. Indeed, the survey finds that one in five Post 9/11 veterans are unemployed and actively seeking employment. That’s 20 percent – a rate more than twice that of the general population. At this writing, the official national unemployment rate is 8.3 percent.

Mismatch
While 71 percent of transitioning veterans reported that they feel that employers respect their military service, only about half – 56 percent, believe that employers appreciate the value of the training and skills they picked up in the military. 58 percent of transitioning veterans struggle with the applicability of their military skills to the civilian workforce. (As a former infantryman and tanker, I feel their pain!)

And half of them, 48 percent, report that non-veterans do not understand military culture.

Long term observers of the military from a sociological perspective have long reported a widening cultural gap between the civilian sector and the military. With the transition in the 1970s from a conscript force to a much smaller, all-professional military, it is increasingly rare to find hiring managers and supervisors who have military experience themselves. While a couple of generations ago, Viet Nam era veterans and draftees were common in the work place – and they themselves cut their teeth in the work force under the supervision of millions World War Two veterans, today’s crop of veterans are working for supervisors who have no frame of reference for understanding today’s military and the challenges they face, as well as the value they bring to the work force.

Distressingly, one in four veterans – 24 percent – believes that employers may actively avoid hiring veterans, because of a perception of emotional difficulties or veterans bringing in “too much baggage.”

Half of respondents worry that non-veteran managers do not understand military culture (48%), and about a third feel non-veteran co-workers are intimidated by veterans (32%) or that they won’t be able to relate (37%).

Meanwhile, many veterans aren’t exactly jumping in with both feet. Nearly half report they didn’t feel fully ready to transition. Some are taking time off to use their Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits for school. Others simply need to depressurize after a stressful combat tour and consider their options.

Of those attempting to enter the civilian workforce, a substantial portion of veterans, 46 percent, report difficulty in competing with those who have a perceived job-hunting advantage, by virtue of not having taken time out of the work force to serve.

About half of those reporting they weren’t ready to transition believe they need more job-specific or technical training to compete.

Among veterans who reported they were not ready to transition, 40 percent of them cited mental health issues related to military service. 22 percent reported a physical injury related to military service as a contributing factor.

Note: Vitaver is a proud partner of the Wounded Warrior Project, and is committed to providing employment opportunities for veterans of all ages. Honorably discharged veterans are encouraged to apply for all positions.

Unemployment in Florida – A Case Study

Posted on 17th August 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Business Management, employment, Employment News, Florida, job market news, small business, unemployment

Florida has the world going for it: A warm climate that makes it a popular retirement destination for “snowbirds” from the northeast, beautiful, sandy beaches, an abundance of beautiful women, and Burn Notice, filmed in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, that serves as a weekly commercial for the Florida Tourist Commission. Furthermore, it has no state income tax, and among the country’s most favorable asset protection laws, providing nearly unlimited protection for home equity, life insurance and annuities against the claims of creditors and bankruptcy.

All these things should attract capital by the metric ton. And they do. But unemployment in Florida remains stubbornly high. It reached 9.9 percent last December, but dropped to 8.6 percent in May. Not because of any secular improvement in the job picture, but because so many people dropped out of the workforce entirely. Those people aren’t included in the usual unemployment numbers. Almost 70 percent of the ostensible decline in unemployment was because of people leaving the work force, rather than through true job growth.

According to a recent report, if the labor participation had remained constant between December of 2011 and May 2012, the unemployment rate would have been 9.5 percent.

Even so, despite Florida’s many advantages, the unemployment rate is still higher than the national average of 8.2 percent – and occasionally spikes much higher.

Why is Florida having a hard time? Look to Florida’s history.

Florida has long been a kind of a commercial “wild wild west” located in the East. The state’s beaches and swamps have hosted a notorious boom and bust economy for generations. This isn’t just a phenomenon from the 2000’s, or even from the 1980s: Florida has been the home of tremendous housing booms and speculative overbuilding, followed by spectacular busts, since at least the 1920s.

Those scams you grew up hearing jokes about, where real estate developers enthusiastically sold worthless swampland? Well, that really happened, and it happened in Florida… in the 1960s and 1970s.

Florida’s history, then, is a microcosm of the economic cycle itself: A few entrepreneurs make some money on one development project. And so they sell it across the country. Florida looks great on picture postcards, and the Florida story is easy to sell to New Englanders. Especially in the winter. So the northerners buy, and then start reselling themselves. Meanwhile, other people start building hotels and high-rises, and they all want to get in on the action – before it’s too late. So trainloads and shiploads of construction supplies head south from all over the country – along with all the construction workers and support people it takes to build these high-rises.

And so the madness begins. And thanks to the miracle of modern finance and a worldwide savings glut thanks to those hard-working and saving Asians, who stubbornly refuse to consume their earnings themselves but insist on lending it to us.

And as the bubble grew and grew, Florida needed more and more construction workers, more and more mortgage brokers, and more and more real estate agents to feed the beast.
I knew we were in trouble in 2004, when my waiter at my local Longhorn in Fort Lauderdale tried to sell me a home loan when I was ordering my salmon salad.

Well, all bubbles pop eventually – and Florida real estate was no exception. When builders realize there are no buyers, they stop building (though it takes time for them to figure that out, and they usually complete all the in-progress high-rises, leading to an “overhang” of built-but-unsold property.

But once they stop building, those construction workers and real estate agents and mortgage brokers don’t go away. They moved their families from all over the country to Florida, and it’s hard for them to move away. Those people are now either unemployed or underemployed.

Meanwhile, even while the economy recovers, there’s not much point in putting these construction workers back to work building houses. After all, there is too much unsold inventory, built during the last boom, to go through before it makes sense to build more homes. It doesn’t make sense to build more when one out of every five homes in Florida is sitting vacant already.

Florida has seen this before. Indeed, it seems to go through this process once each generation – though in this case, the problem was aggravated by the Asian savings glut, which drove interest rates to record lows and drove lenders to relax underwriting standards so far we had no underwriting standards at all.

Years ago, one hilariously insightful wag noted “a recession is simply an economy in which capital returns to its rightful owners. I.e., the Rockefellers.” There is some truth to this. But the process is painful. The human cost comes directly, in the form of millions of displaced workers nationwide, in this case.

So how will Florida dig its way out? Well, time heals all wounds. Over time, natural population growth and a gradually expanding economy will fill in all those unsold condo units all over Florida. Already, the state is attracting “vulture investors,” buying up the inventory at a discount.

The Florida climate is still dreamy, compared to the Northeast, though Florida is getting some competition for affluent retirees, as Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize and a variety of Caribbean destinations become more and more attractive.

We’re also seeing large numbers of “half-backs.” That is, people who moved from the Northeast to Florida giving up on Florida and moving “halfway back” to the Carolinas.

In the end, Florida will work things out – and the labor market will reach equilibrium again. Until the next boom starts.

100+ Florida jobs in Vitaver’s CAREERS section!

Vitaver & Associates, Inc. Listed Among The Top 5 Companies Hiring by Fox News

Posted on 8th August 2012 by admin in Articles

career, Career choice, career tips, Employment News, find jobs, fox news, job market news

Check out Vitaver CAREERS section,
your dream job may be a step away.

Self-Employment’s Hidden Costs

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Posted on 24th July 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Business Management, career, career advice, Career choice, career tips, self-employment, self-motivation, small business

With unemployment stubbornly sticking north of 8 percent, Self-Employment Cost the prospect of self-employment becomes more and more tempting. A significant number of the unemployed or under-employed are forced into unemployment out of economic necessity. Some of you will jump at the first chance to go back on staff as a W-2 employee somewhere. Others will relish self-employment and embrace the challenges. In either case, though, you have got to be aware of the substantial hidden costs, traps and challenges of self-employment.

FICA Taxes

Lots of self-employed individuals forget about this one: Until they file their taxes. But if you make more than $400 this year from self-employment, you may be in for a nasty tax surprise:

Normally, employers will zap an employee’s paycheck for 4.2 percent of their income for FICA taxes – the combined set of taxes that goes to fund Social Security (OASDI) and Medicare (hospital insurance). So most working stiffs barely notice what comes out of their paychecks. But it gets even worse: Workers only pay a portion of their payroll taxes. The employer picks up the lion’s share of the tax liability, and forwards payroll taxes to the IRS every year in a process that’s invisible to the employee.

If you’re self-employed in any capacity, expect to pay a total of 13.2 percent in self-employment taxes this year, and 15.2 percent in self-employment taxes next year. That means you get to keep less than 85 percent on every dollar you make in net income from self-employment. Just put that money aside as you earn it and forget about it until you file taxes.

A lot of self-employed artists, consultants, massage therapists, music teachers, yoga instructors, fitness coaches, computer technicians, and everyone else you can imagine forgets about this tax – and undercharges substantially.

Business Acquisition Costs

This is huge – and it’s something most W-2 workers don’t see. But it takes time, effort or money or all three to land a new client. Every piece of new business, or every new client, needs to be identified, courted, presented and closed-on. This could take hours, weeks, or months. You might have to invest time writing cover letters or proposals and negotiating. You may have to advertise – and spend time developing your advertising materials and strategy. You may have to network. You may have to buy business lunches. New customers can cost hundreds of dollars’ worth of your cash or your time. These hours aren’t directly billable to any one client – and the expenses aren’t something you can pass on directly. You have to account for them and work them into your fees. Many new self-employed individuals grossly underestimate the cost of business acquisition.

Medical Insurance

This one’s usually obvious. But when you were employed by someone else, chances are they paid half of your medical insurance premiums for you. Now that you’re self-employed, it’s all on you. If you and everyone in your family are in good health, you can still do OK by buying a high-deductible policy for yourself and your family. If one of your family members has some health issues, you will have to pay more – if you can get insured at all. Health care reforms won’t force insurers to stop discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions until 2014. In the meantime, you are on your own. You may be able to extend coverage via COBRA. This may work for you if you do have some health issues.

Unemployment Insurance

When you were employed, your employer paid unemployment insurance premiums on your behalf. Then when you lost your job, most of you could qualify for benefits to keep a roof over your head – at least for a period of time. There’s no unemployment insurance for the self-employed, though. You can’t be laid off, and if your income falls, authorities figure it’s your fault. Go get some clients!

Well, I’m self-employed, so that’s what I do, as a freelance writer. But that solution isn’t so easy for some people, depending on your industry, skill set and temperament.

To mitigate this issue, you may consider starting a corporation, and becoming an employee of that corporation. However, for you to qualify for unemployment benefits, your corporation must pay unemployment insurance premiums on your behalf.

Accounting / Bookkeeping Fees

Starting a business? Accounting is half the battle. If you don’t have a method for tracking income and expenses, you don’t have a viable business. But this takes time, money or both. At a minimum, you will need to set up a spreadsheet and spend time maintaining it. Or you may need to invest in accounting software. Or hire a bookkeeper or accountant. You didn’t need to worry about this as an employee. But when you become self-employed, it’s extremely important.

Disability Insurance

What happens to your income if you become sick or hurt? For most regular employees at established companies, disability insurance kicks in. Disability insurance provides a cash income cushion while you recover from an illness or injury, or retrain for a new job. Your employer was probably paying the premiums on your behalf as an employee benefit. But good disability coverage is expensive, and difficult to qualify for. It’s based on your medical history and your income, but you have to be able to verify your income to get an individual plan. This is very tough to do for the newly self-employed, because you usually have to come up with several years’ tax returns.

Which means your real disability insurance coverage is going to come from your savings, at least for a while.

Vacation

Remember those blissful vacations from your job where you could take off a week or even two weeks and not have a care in the world? And you’d still get paid? Those days are over. When you’re self-employed, you eat what you kill, no exceptions. There are no vacation days, no paid-time-off (PTO) days, and no paid holidays. Three-day weekends now have a price in lost productivity. Weekends are no longer really “off.” And you may need to set up a reserve fund to keep you going through the whole holiday season when business is often slow.

Overtime

Were you used to earning overtime? Fugeddaboutit! Overtime is for W-2 employees, not for the self-employed. That’s for working stiffs. Not for you! You might be able to raise your rates to account for an extra work load. Or you can subcontract part of it out. If you hire someone, though, you will have to pay overtime for hours worked over 40 in a week!
All these are real costs of self-employment, and you’ll need to pay them, one way or another, either in cash, or in the form of increased risk. Be sure to account for these explicit and implicit costs when pricing your services as a self-employed individual.

Or find a job that covers all that in Vitaver’s CAREERS section!

So ObamaCare is Constitutional. Now What?

Posted on 16th July 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

Business Management, health, health benefits, Healthcare, healthcare reform bill, HR, hr management, human resources, Obamacare, Small Business Administration

And so it has come to pass that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the Patient So ObamaCare is Constitutional. Now What? Protection and Affordable Care Act, or “ObamaCare,” constitutional, albeit by the thinnest of margins. The Justices ruled, 5-4, that justifying the so-called “mandate” under the Commerce clause of the Constitution doesn’t hold water. But they also ruled, 5-4, that the mandate does pass muster, if you look at it as a tax. This is because Congress certainly has the nearly undisputed plenary power to levy taxes. The fact that both Congressional Democrat supporters and the President Obama furiously denied that the mandate amounted to a tax throughout the deliberation process in Congress was not, ultimately relevant to the decision.

The practical effects of the ruling:
• No more filibuster protection! Revenue bills don’t need a 60 vote majority in the Senate. This law can be overturned with a simple majority. This Senate election cycle just became critical for both parties. It won’t be pretty. Think “two dogs in a pit.”
• The Democrats have a tough battle to sell this. The last time they made an election over this law, the Democrats lost 60 seats in the House. And they have more seats in the Senate up for grabs, by far, than Republicans do this cycle.
• The Supreme Court essentially determined that the Democrats passed the biggest tax increase in American history.
• The law is now projected to cost 2.6 trillion over the next 10 years – nearly triple the original 10-year projections in 2010.
• The law could well be repealed in its entirety next year.

Actions for Individuals
Now that we’re here, what does that mean for individuals?

First, don’t make bets you can’t afford to lose. The temptation for young and healthy people to save a few bucks by canceling coverage now is strong. After all, come 2014, the penalty… oops, I meant “tax” … for not having coverage is only $95, under the current law. It goes up sharply from there, but the tax is still much cheaper than maintaining coverage.

But what happens if you lose the bet? If you get sick or hurt without coverage, and the law gets repealed next year, you could be left with a pre-existing condition and no creditable coverage at all. Which will make it expensive or impossible for you to get individual coverage at all. And if the law is repealed, then 2014 won’t save you. The provision that forbids insurance companies from discriminating against individuals with pre-existing conditions would likely get thrown out with the rest of the law. If Congress keeps this provision, after all, we’re back to the mandate question, because a universal mandate would be the only way to make this workable.

Recommendations For Employers
Meanwhile, HR professionals and plan sponsors should begin setting up their compliance calendars. We’re still waiting for the Department of Health and Human Services to finish writing tens of thousands of pages of regulations to administer the plan. And of course, if there’s ever something that stimulates job creation, its tens of thousands of pages of regulations!

Plan sponsors can, however, begin their employee census, and making headcount projections. We definitely recommend working to open lines of communication with your employees about what to expect with the new law coming down. Be aware that there are anti-freeloader provisions written into the law that act as a disincentive to businesses to hire beyond 50 employees. Specifically, The new law requires employees with 50 full-time employees or more to provide coverage, or pay a fine of $2,000 per employee – except for the first 30.

But the average cost of a health care plan is much greater than $2,000 per employee per year in most cases. So where employers do expand, they have a powerful incentive to drop their employer plans and throw people onto the state exchanges.

But this throws another monkey wrench into the gears and we’re still working through it: Where there is no state exchange set up – and a number of state governors have already made it know they will not comply with the law’s mandate on state governors – what happens then? Well, nobody knows for sure yet. Another round of litigation is in the works, even as the clock is ticking away to 2014.

Purely as a matter of execution, the PPACA is already coming off the rails.

Which is just another testament to how poorly the law was designed and crafted.

Unemployment Takes Physical Toll on Workers

Posted on 6th July 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career, employment, job hunting, job search, Job seeker, unemployment

In my last post, we took a look at the psychological toll that extended periods of unemployment can have on those who are out-of work. So the last post concentrated on the mind. This one concentrates on the body: Research indicates that there may be physical health ramifications to long-term unemployment as well, over and above the psychological challenges. For example, some data is already suggesting a correlation between cardiovascular disease and unemployment. Causality has not yet been established yet: Sick or obese people may simply have more difficulty finding work, or may be disinclined to search energetically for work for other psychological reasons. But unemployment certainly isn’t good news from a medical perspective.

Mortality Impact of Unemployment
Unemployment affects mortality: Researcher by economists Till von Wachter and Daniel Sullivan concludes that older male workers who have been consistently employed, and who have recently experienced a job loss, experience have a 50 to 100 percent higher mortality rate than those who have not been laid off – enough to equate to an average of 1.5 years off an older workers’ life expectancy, in the aggregate.

Unemployed men are also 25 percent more likely to die of cancer, though again, that is not necessarily purely causal – unemployed men, for example, have less access to quality health care compared to their employed cohorts. But the price is paid one way or another.

For the most desperate and vulnerable, the pain of daily rejection becomes unbearable without help. For some, unemployment becomes literally a matter of life and death. Recent data from the Center for Disease Control confirms that suicide rates generally follow the business cycle – with suicides peaking during recessions and depressions, while falling when economic times were good. Official CDC numbers don’t yet address the current recession, as their numbers lag. But the Department of Defense is already reporting a sharp increase in suicide rates among troops – many of which are in the Reserve Components, and therefore struggling with the economic downturn right along with everyone else.

Some good news: There are more tools and resources available now than in generations past, which can help people struggling with the psychological and physical side-effects of long-term unemployment:
• We have a more organized public health outreach program to help people struggling with depression and suicidal ideation. (If you need help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.)
• There are more support groups and online mutual assistance communities available.
• Health insurance is more likely to cover mental health services than in past years, as many states have passed so-called “mental health parity” mandates requiring that insurance companies treat mental health disorders and treatments the same way they treat other medical disorders, illnesses and symptoms.
• The Veterans Administration has greatly expanded its mental health services to help those returning from wars.
• New generations of anti-depressants are far more effective, with fewer side effects, than ever before.

Furthermore, the traditional sources of support haven’t gone away. Pastors, priests, rabbis, teachers, doctors, counselors, and others involved in the human professions have broad networks of their own, and can help refer you to other resources that can help…

We’d be happy to help… Check Vitaver’s CAREERS section.

Unemployment Takes Mental Health Toll

Posted on 2nd July 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

employment, health, job advice, job hunting, unemployment, well-being

Most people are reasonably resilient. And most of us try to put a positive spin on life. But the fact remains that long-term unemployment is taking a severe mental toll on many Americans. It’s one thing to withstand the short-term shock of an unexpected layoff. But the current downturn has thrown people out of work for periods of time not seen since the Great Depression. If present trends can continue, those recently laid off can expect, statistically, to be out of work for six months or more. And some have been looking for work for years.

But for those who have been out of work the longest, unemployment insurance benefits are beginning to run out. The result may be a reduction in the nominal unemployment rate – as these individuals disappear from the labor force, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates it. But the real human costs of unemployment – heretofore masked, in part by unemployment insurance benefits – are just now beginning to show themselves. Clinicians are reporting increases in mental health admissions already. Children are getting pulled out of private schools and sent to inferior public schools. Marriages are coming under increasing strain due to financial pressures. Men who had been working in male-dominated professions, such as construction, have been hit hardest – and are beginning to doubt themselves, especially as they cede more and more of their responsibilities as family breadwinners to women.

The result: Depression. Not the economic kind, which can be cured with a job, but the psychological kind. If left unchecked, this insidious disease can take hold of a once productive, faithful and diligent worker and sap him of hope, batter his dreams, and leave him a broken shell of his former self.

Left with the combination of too much time on their hands and persistent feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness from months of effort with no success in finding work, some workers turn to alcohol and drugs to drown their sorrows. Or they may simply become withdrawn and irritable – and pay the price in their relationships. Some may become emotionally or even physically abusive under the strain – or may themselves become victims of verbal or physical abuse. Research by Kerwin Charles and Melvin Stephens recently found an 18 percent increase in the probability of divorce following a husband’s job loss and 13 percent after a wife’s, according to a report from the New York Times.

Dr. Melanie Greenberg, writing for Psychology Today, identifies a number of factors that contribute to deteriorating mental health through a period of job loss:
• Work role centrality. Those who rely a great deal on their ability as providers and as professionals for their sense of self-worth. An extended period of unemployment is a blow to the emotional solar plexus of these people – and very difficult to overcome.
• Social undermining. “Unemployment-related psychological strain can be aggravated by criticism and negative judgements by one’s spouse, family members, friends & colleagues,” writes Greenberg.
• Financial strain. People for whom unemployment results in severe financial difficulties experience greater emotional stress than people who don’t need the income. (This is the kind of scintillating insight they award Ph.Ds for in the social sciences.)
• Stress appraisal. People who see unemployment as negative and stressful are likely to experience more negativity and stress than people who don’t. This is great stuff from Psychology Today!

Greenberg also lists three factors that predict better mental health through a period of unemployment:
• Positive core self-evaluation: One’s sense of oneself as worthy or unworthy, competent or incompetent, having failed or succeeded, writes Greenberg.
• Time structure. This one you can use. Those who have routines and projects to structure their time tend to fare better, psychologically, than those who don’t. If you stay busy, you have less time for negativity and brooding.
• Re-employment expectancy. Those with better re-employment expectations tend to do be less prone to becoming depressed while unemployed.

Sure, we’ve had some fun at Greenberg’s expense here. But the core points remain:
• Keep your routine going. Routine builds discipline. And Lord knows you need discipline to have a good chance of finding re-employment in today’s job market.
• Stay fit. Get exercise and eat healthy. This is good for mental health for its own sake. It’s also good for your employment and future earnings prospects.
• Keep your distance from negative people. You already know you’re out of work. You don’t need nagging or judgmental people reminding you of the fact. You may need to be forthright and direct in asking for your spouse’s support.
• Spend time with focused, successful people. This can be difficult. But they will be able to point you toward more opportunities than people who are both out of work and spending their time wallowing in their sorrow. It’s not easy. But you don’t want to be one of these people. Surround yourself with people who are where you want to be in their careers and in their lives.
• If you need immediate help, don’t hesitate to get it. Depression is an illness, like any other – and it’s not your fault. If you feel like the pressure is too much to bear, and you begin feeling like there’s no point in going on, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
• Remember that depression often responds very well to modern treatment – if you seek it out. Don’t try to beat depression on your own. Help is out there.

Good luck, and thanks for reading! See you again soon, here on the Vitaver blog!

Your next job may be right here, in Vitaver’s CAREERS section!

Mood Tracker Survey: Workers Will Move To Where They Are Recognized

Business Management, Employee Appreciation, Employee Motivation, employee recognition, HR, hr management, small business

Posted on 22nd June 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

“Doing a good deed is like wetting your pants in a dark suit. It gives you a warm feeling, but nobody notices.”

I got that line from a Peanuts cartoon when I was 8 years old. I haven’t seen the cartoon since. But Charles Schultz, rest his soul, was on to something:Too many workers are working hard, and doing great jobs, with insufficient recognition for their efforts.The assertion was confirmed this month with the release of the Spring 2012 GloboForce Mood Tracker Report, which measures the rate at which workers feel adequately rewarded or recognized for their work.

The key findings:
• The overall recognition climate is improving overall: The percentage of employees recognized within the past three months increased from 44 percent in the fall of 2011.
• The percentage of employees that reported that being recognized for their accomplishments made them more satisfied with their work rose from 73 percent to 81 percent during the same period.
• The percentage of employees that reported being satisfied with their workplace recognition was 55 percent – an increase from 48 percent from fall of 2011.
• Still, over half of all workers surveyed – 55 percent, would quit and go to another job if they felt their efforts would be better recognized. Which tells me that 10 percent are lying about their satisfaction!Specifically, the Globoforce researchers found a significant positive correlation between the frequency and recency of employee recognition and general work satisfaction. The authors of the study concluded that poor recognition practices were a significant contributor to employee turnover. Which naturally increased recruiting costs, decreased employee efficiency and caused managers to spend too much time screening and training new workers, ultimately harming profitability.The difference is dramatic: Of those employees who reported not having been recognized in the last year, over half reported they were looking for a new job. Of the employees who did report being recognized for their accomplishments, only 23 percent reported they were looking for a new job.

Furthermore, of those employees who reported never having been recognized, 26 percent report that they “love their job.” For employees who report having been recognized in the last month, 76 percent report they love their job. That number increases steadily in direct correlation with the recency of their last recognition.

Low and No-Cost Recognition Ideas
“Soldiers will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

If you’re an employer, it needn’t cost you an arm and a leg to substantially improve your employee recognition practices. Cost for these gestures are minimal – yet can mean a lot for your best employees:
• A premium parking space for the employee of the month.
• Another name added to a large plaque
• A free movie pass to the top customer service representative.
• A half-day off with pay.
• Hand-written notes of appreciation to junior employees from top executives.
• Create permanent display of photos of workers who accomplished extraordinary things- and descriptions of what they did.
• Hold weekly meetings at the department level, specifically to recognize and praise top performers.
• A company hat, t-shirt, golf-shirt or other premium of nominal value.
• A promotion – even if it’s a job title, though the employee will expect more money to follow in short order.
• A better computer or chair

Employees shouldn’t be content with mere trinkets, however. If you are consistently adding significant value to the company’s bottom line, and you can readily quantify that, and it’s over and above the terms of your job description, it’s reasonable to expect some sort of tangible reward, too. A bonus, a promotion – anything. Maybe not every month, but enough to make you to want to keep performing!

If this is you, don’t be content with trinkets. You may be worth more to another employer who values your contributions with cash or other more tangible compensation. Recognition is important, but don’t allow yourself to be bought too cheaply. Update that resume – and never, ever stop building your Rolodex of contacts.

Get Paid to Change the World

Posted on 4th June 2012 by Lia Blanchard in Articles

career advice, Career choice, career tips, job advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, non-profit

Wouldn’t it be nice to change the world for the better… and get paid to do it?

When looking for work, many folks often consider entering the non-profit sector. Whether it’s a particular mission you are already passionate about or just the thought of putting your talents and skills to meaningful use, the thought of serving a higher purpose has a lot of appeal.

Then the objections kick in:
“Non-profits don’t pay enough, and I have a family to support.”
“Non-profit work is for rookies, and would be a step down for me.”
“Ugh, I can’t imagine working in an office where everyone is a left-wing do-gooder!”

These objections have varying degrees of truth, and deserve closer examination.

“Non-profits don’t pay enough”
The non-profit office is typecast as run by a multi-tasking skeleton staff working long hours with outdated technology and equipment. This is often true. A 2010 Nonprofit Quarterly examination of Bureau of Labor Statistics information found that “those who work for non-profits are likely to be paid less than their counterparts in the private sector or in government, and particularly in higher-level jobs and management.”

That said, non-profits often offer benefits and perks that simply aren’t found in the corporate world, including intrinsic personal rewards. Doing good feels good, and being perceived as a white knight by your friends, family, and community feels pretty nice too. Studies have shown that non-profit workers have higher morale and job satisfaction than those in government or private sector careers.

The benefits package offered to employees of non-profit organizations often makes up for what is lacking in cash compensation. Insurance plans are often top-notch, work schedules are flexible, and retirement plans and vacation schedules are generous.

“Non-profits are for rookies”
Charitable organizations often attract a younger workforce. The pay might be lower, but the opportunities for leadership are greater, and the non-traditional hours that are often required is less of a deterrent for those who do not have a family waiting for them at home. This has grown the perception that “charity work is for rookies.”

The truth is that many business people in mid-career make the switch from the for-profit to the non-profit world. Reasons vary – corporate burnout, desire to make a difference, desire for more flexibility – but combined with less need for monthly income and more need for insurance and retirement benefits, non-profit work becomes very attractive.

Caution: Non-profits can’t offer the same level of professional development as their corporate counterparts. The resources for training and skills grooming often just aren’t there, so professional development programs are often lacking or nonexistent.

“Non-profit workers are a bunch of liberal do-gooders”
This stereotype persists even in light of several well-known non-profit organizations whose causes advocate “conservative” values – the National Rifle Association, Operation Rescue, and the Christian Coalition are but a few examples.

Your goal is to find an organization whose mission resonates with your personal beliefs and values. Your co-workers will also be passionate and committed to that cause, whatever their political leanings.

Caution: “Social welfare organizations” with an overt political agenda are being closely looked at by the Internal Revenue Service, as many feel the tax-protected status they enjoy is being abused.

Take a closer look
There are many things that need careful consideration when contemplating a career with a charitable organization. A few starter questions to ask yourself are:
• How might I contribute to the causes I am most passionate about?
• Is the total compensation package, wage plus benefits, enough for me and my family?
• Is personal satisfaction in “making a difference” as important to me as earning a higher wage?
• Am I a self-starter? How much personal responsibility for developing my career can I carry?

Myths and misconceptions abound when exploring the differences between the non-profit and for-profit cultures, but with a little research and some soul-searching, you may find that “changing the world” is indeed your calling.

We have non-profits as our Clients!
Check Vitaver’s CAREERS section to find a job with them.

Making Yourself More Employable: Finishing High School

Posted on 24th May 2012 by Sally Davidson Parker in Articles

career advice, career tips, education, employment, GED, job hunting, Job Search Tips, unemployment

Dropping out of high school seemed like a good idea at the time. You weren’t doing so well, or perhaps had family obligations, so off you went to join the ranks of the employed. Now the economy isn’t as good as it use to be; you’ve been laid off and are having a difficult time finding reemployment. Now is the time to finish your high school diploma or get your General Education Development (GED) certificate.

According to a study by Dr. John H. Tyler of Brown University, adults who went back for their GED (in Florida) increased their income from 13-20% within six years of receiving the credential. This jump in income was due primarily from the ability of certificate holders to find employment now that they had their GED. On top of that, according to the Alliance for Excellence in Education, the U.S. Bureau of Labor, Department of Labor and Statistics reported high school drop outs over the age of 25 years had a 5% higher rate of unemployment in 2011 compared to high school graduates. Add that to the approximate $7000 per year less you earn as a high school dropout and you’ve got yourself over a financial barrel for the long term.

The GED consists of five tests; reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. Costs vary from state to state, ranging from $50-150. Each state also has its own passing scores. Free practice tests are available on line to gauge your current abilities and help you focus on what areas you need to work on.

But, you say, I don’t have the money. The answer, bluntly; find it. Getting a GED or high school diploma will help you become more employable and is worth the financial sacrifice. Talk to your state’s unemployment office to see what assistance they can offer. Speak with your local community college’s financial aid office. Stop by your local Career One Stop center to see if there are any programs or funding that can help you. Lastly, suck up your pride and ask a financially solvent friend or family member for a loan.

You have the time and you have the ability. Finances can be overcome in the short term. Lack of a high school diploma or GED is a barrier that will affect your employment for the long haul. You are worth the investment.

Your next job might be right here, in Vitaver’s CAREERS section

Military Spouses and the MyCAA Program

Business Management, find jobs, job hunting, Obamacare, Small Business Administration

Posted on 18th May 2012 by Sally Davidson Parker in Articles

Career adivce, career tips, job advice, job hunting, Job Search Tips, Military, MyCAA

You’ve taken the plunge, tied the knot, attached the old ball and chain; whichever way you phrase it, you’ve gotten married. However, your marriage includes one extra member; a branch of the United States armed services. Along with the traditional vows of “love, honor and cherish” comes the unspoken agreement of “moving at least every three years” and “the possibility of being a single parent when your spouse is deployed in a war zone.”But the unasked question often should be “What about my career?”

According to the Office of Military and Community Family Policy at the Pentagon, as of the end of 2011 the unemployment rate for military spouses is at 26%. In response to this, the Department of Defense has developed the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account Program (MyCAA), tailored to the needs of those spouses who may need an extra boost in career development and employment assistance. It is designed to help spouses gain education and/or licensing in occupational fields that are more easily transportable from duty station to duty station.

This program is limited to spouses of those service members in the initial grades (E1-5, W1-2, and O1-2). It pays up to $2000 per year (up to two years) for education and training programs that will lead to an Associates Degree (no General Studies or Liberal Arts-it must be in a specific field) or a professional license (real estate, cosmetology, etc.).

The program also offers assistance with career exploration, resume writing, interviewing techniques, and much more. In partnership with local programs such as One Stops, MyCAA is able to help spouses explore career opportunities and improve job search skills with the overall goal of decreasing military spousal unemployment.

As a “Devil Pup,” (daughter of a retired U.S. Marine), I’ve often heard the adage “The only thing tougher than a United States Marine is his wife.” Dated? Yes. (Dad retired in the 1970’s.) True? Most definitely. Military spouses have an additional set of issues unique to their situation that most married couples never have to encounter. With the help of MyCAA, the armed services are looking to alleviate at least one of these issues; take advantage of it.

Great jobs in Vitaver’s Careers section

ObamaCare: Job-Killer?

8 comments

Posted on 20th April 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

When Congressional Democrats were selling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – “ObamaCare,” in 2010, they ballyhooed it as a great job creator. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D – CA), then the Speaker of the House, even as she was arguing that we would have to pass the bill to see what was in it, was also arguing that the bill would create 4 million jobs over its life (the CBO and most Democrat projections looked forward 10 years), and 400,000 jobs “almost immediately.”

There was at least some theoretical basis for the hope. Proponents of the bill note that American manufacturers and other global industries are always in competition with companies from other countries – many of which have government-provided or heavily subsidized universal health care. Foreign companies don’t have to account for the costs of medical coverage for employees, argued ObamaCare supporters. American firms have to adjust the price of labor inputs to account for the cost of health care, and some companies were staggering under the burden of contractually-obligated “Cadillac” health plans awarded to retirees who were no longer even on the assembly line, contributing to production.

Alas, the Democrats’ rosy scenario did not blossom as they had hoped. In testimony before Congress, Congressional Budget Office chief Douglas Elmendorf projected a net loss of 800,000 butts in jobs as a result of the bill – thanks to a combination of reduction in demand for labor and increased incentives for workers to leave the work force and join the greatly expanded Medicaid rolls—crippling state budgets and resulting in higher taxation across the board.

That was in February of 2011. The skies have been darkening since then: If the Affordable Care Act survives the Supreme Court (as of this writing, Intrade was recently forecasting a 63.4 percent chance that the Supreme Court would strike it down), the Congressional Budget Office projected that the law would cause the Treasury to hemorrhage red ink: The cost over the next ten years would soar from a projected $900 billion to a whopping $1.76 trillion – nearly double the original estimate.

Among the laws most curious provisions: The 50 employee mandate. The law requires employers with over 50 employees to provide health insurance for all their employees – or face a healthy fine. This mandate threatens to have a crippling effect upon the job creation power of tens of thousands of smaller businesses, struggling to reach the next level.

Especially if these businesses rely on a relatively unskilled or uneducated work force: The law provides a substantial disincentive to businesses to hire that 51rst employee. The second they do, marginal costs on the first 50 employees explode. They must either provide coverage (the law also prohibits plans with high deductibles and other cost saving measures, maximizing the damage to the economy), or send those employees to the “exchanges” to buy their own coverage. The businesses must then pay a fine of $2,000 per uncovered employee, excluding the first 30. That translates to $40,000 and up.

This is not going to just affect a few businesses at the margins. This will affect thousands of businesses across the country. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that it will take in close to $10 billion in revenue from this penalty alone.

And that’s not counting businesses that choose not to hire beyond 50 people.

Large, connected businesses with substantial reach into Washington, such as McDonald’s, have been successful in obtaining a waiver from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, exempting them from the more onerous aspects of the law.

But smaller employers – restaurants, retailers, chain stores, good sized auto shops, and many others, don’t have that option.

Seasonal businesses will be especially hurt – as will communities with seasonal industries: It is simply not cost effective for businesses to hire a full time employee and provide health insurance benefits when the employee will only be on board for a few months out of the year.

A Perverse Incentive
On top of the 50 employee mandate, businesses will also pay an additional penalty if any of their employees qualifies for subsidized coverage on the exchanges because of their low household income, thanks to the so-called “free rider” provision.

Businesses will have an incentive to hire from relatively affluent communities – disadvantaged or minority candidates are statistically more likely to qualify for a federal subsidy on the exchanges – generating a potential liability for the business of $2,000 to $3,000 per hire for creating a job, depending on the circumstances: A deal-killer for low-margin businesses.

With any luck, Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Human Magic 8-Ball, will cast a vote striking down the health care mandate, joining with his likely votes against – Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts, and send the law back to Congress in a 5-4 vote.

At Vitaver we’ve got great talent! We’ve got awesome jobs!

Are “damaged goods” your best employees?

Posted on 9th April 2012 by Pablo Vitaver in Articles

Business Management, HR, hr management, management, Management Tips, Recruitment

If your employees won’t need pressure-coping skills, imagination to innovate, ability and fortitude of character to prevail against adversity, tenacity to stay the course and persist because it is the right thing to do, then you can do with perfectly adjusted individuals who grew up in Brady family idyllic environments, needing nothing, wanting nothing and therefore not needing to struggle, negotiate or finagle to survive.

Otherwise you need people with all or some of the skills above. Where and why they learn them?

There are 2 schools: Family (home, extended family, church, etc.); and schools proper (all levels).

A healthy, balanced, complete family does take good care of their kin. This may include games (simulations) of situations where one has to be creative, even patient and persistent to win. They surely help to develop the children. Needs are satisfied and there are no reasonable ‘wants’ left unattended.

Schools surely teach their science well. A well rounded, well-educated graduate is prepared to work well with other graduates. They have a common language; they share understandings, dos and don’ts. They play very well all the items on the table. But what about items not in the table (off the wall, out of the blue, from out of bounds, out of the box, etc.) and not in the books?

Problem is that one can only learn to swim in the water. For someone who never experienced, the teachings about dealing with new situations, new environments, etc. will not help when thrown in a pool.

We learn because… we have to. When the best answer is creative, intuitive, gutsy, risk-embracing, surprising the competition with a completely new approach, when they need to negotiate with street-smart people… school is of little help.

A happy family did not normally prepare you to persist on an adversarial, demotivating, harsh environment, such as it is required in most companies at one point or another, as the result of harm done to it by self, competition or regulation. One become really good at what he/she needs to learn to… survive.

Good families and good schools often produce what they aim to: happy, almost ‘perfect’ people that had a relatively easy life. Those are not the soldiers you need to win the battle that the Marketplace often turns to.

The most prestigious law firms have hundreds of ‘white shoe’, Ivy League graduates, but when they need to win in Court, they hire outside litigators. Why? The outside litigators are the ones that do not have a Harvard Law Degree, but they are street smart, creative, persistent to the point of obsession. They are not as ‘fortunate’ as their big law firm peers, as they come from more modest and often ‘imperfect’ backgrounds. They are fighters, they win.

Adversity, especially on the forming early years, provides the need for people to learn the skills they will need to win. If you need those in your Team, hire them.

Our Recruiters can sense exactly what you need for your project!
Contact Vitaver for best talent!

Green Card attached to Diploma?

Posted on 9th April 2012 by Pablo Vitaver in Articles

Business Management, Employment News, HR, hr management, Management Style, Management Tips, offshoring, Outsourcing, remote job

Employers will find Software Engineers, here or elsewhere. If here, taxes and spending stays here. When highly trained professionals are not allowed to stay, they hold a grudge and they take with them (the knowledge and grudge) to wherever they go, which may be countries unfriendly to the USA. They could work on many projects actually destined to harm us in ways other than commercial or trade… Some of the brains working on missile, nuclear and other programs have been trained at MIT, Cal-tech, Georgia-tech and others. They would not take the jobs of our citizens, we are not producing enough engineer graduates. To stay on the lead, we need fresh talent and plentiful. When we are competing for them, poaching from others and raising their rates so dramatically, we are not just slowing our pace of innovation but hurting our ability to compete globally with increased costs to produce locally. The job will get done. Here or elsewhere is up to us.

Need to hire? Contact Vitaver, we will find what you are looking for locally.

Looking for Work When You Have Small Children

Posted on 3rd April 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, find jobs, job advice, job hunting, job hunting with children, job search, jobs for parents

Unemployment and job searching are hard enough. Adding small children to the mix makes things even more stressful. But the problem is getting increasingly common. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the number of children with an unemployed parent doubled between 2007 and 2010: Up to 7.5 million children have at least one unemployed parent, as of 2010. 2.8 million of those children are under the age of 5. That works out to one in every nine American children.

But parents of young children have expenses that won’t go away: Those pesky little devils still seem to expect to eat every day, it seems. And no matter how much I ply them with coffee to stunt their growth, they’re constantly growing out of those clothes.

Managing Health Benefits When You Lose Your Job
It’s imperative that you get a handle on your family health benefits. If you were the medical and dental insurance carrier, verify the end date of your coverage. If your coverage is going to remain in force for a while, great! Refill all your prescriptions on the last day of coverage, and make your family medical appointments and schedule treatments before the coverage ends.

While you’re doing that, speak with your human resources representative to see how much COBRA costs. But shop around – if you and your family members are in good health, COBRA is rarely the low-cost option. You may consider electing a high-deductible plan on the individual market. You can also apply for a short-term medical plan – typically up to 12 months in duration, depending on the market. These plans are frequently stripped down to keep premiums affordable to people in between jobs, or taking temporary absences from the work force. If you or a family member has health challenges, then COBRA may be your best bet. But if you can’t afford COBRA premiums, then call your state’s Department of Human Services to determine if your children are eligible for one or more state assistance programs or Medicaid programs.

Remember: Don’t let coverage lapse! If you have more than 63 days’ break in credible coverage, under the terms of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it will get much tougher to get coverage for an adult’s pre-existing conditions when you do get insurance again!

Make Time for Job Hunting
This is a toughie. Between depression, laziness, and the pressures of raising young children, it’s easy to get taken off task. Before you know it, half a day is gone. Then half a week. Then half a month. But the clock is running, and you can’t be without an income forever. You need time alone to make phone calls, set up appointments, and focus on nothing but the job search. When people offer childcare, accept it. They wouldn’t offer if they didn’t want to help. If the guilt kicks in, counter-offer with a barter.

Stick To Your Schedule
Your routine is your lifeline. Sticking to a regular, disciplined schedule is imperative for both you and your children. Kids thrive on routine. Even though it might be a different routine, predictability in scheduling will help them maintain a sense of stability. This is even more important for you; now is not the time to spend all day in pajamas watching daytime television, mourning the loss of your past life. It’s a bad example for the kids and a bad habit to establish.

Keep Up Your Network
It’s easy for those with young children to get bogged down in the day to day activities of child-rearing. But don’t lose contact with your former co-workers and business associates! Email isn’t enough. Strive for regular personal contact is better. Coffee and the occasional lunch may cost a few dollars but are well worth the investment. Sustaining these ties keeps you abreast of recent developments and it keeps your name on people’s lips.

Expand your network on both a personal and professional level. Remember that neighbor who wanted to get together for coffee? The parent of your kid’s friend at pre-school who wanted to set up a play date? Now is the time to do it, not only since you have the time but also because these people may be treasure troves of information and assistance. Join professional, civic, and charitable organizations that align with your interests, talents, and abilities. It is time to widen your net; don’t be shy about it.

Helping Children Cope
Attitude is everything. Children are incredibly perceptive; little sponges that pick up your every mood. Stressed? Your children feel it. Sad? They feel it. Frustrated? They feel it, too. They know something is up, so level with them. They don’t need to know every detail, but they do need to know what changes they might expect that might concern them.
Don’t dismiss their fears and anxieties. Remember – you’re their whole world. Four year olds don’t have much perspective yet. Meanwhile, Keep the doom and gloom out of the house and maintain a realistic optimism. Bear in mind that children are much more adaptable to change than we are as adults.

Since you will be (more than likely) spending much more time with your children, take some lessons from them and apply it to the job search. Look at how easy it is for your kids to go out and make friends on the playground! Take risks, ask questions, and get yourself out there. Relearning some of these skills as an adult may help lead to your success.

P.S., I want to publicly thank Ms. Sally Davidson-Parker, for lending her valuable insights to this column. She’s been through the job-hunt with small-children wringer herself, recently, and her insights were invaluable.

Jason

Looking for a job? Check out Vitaver’s CAREER section!
You won’t leave empty-handed!

Job Hunting for Older Workers

32 comments

Posted on 27th March 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, career tips, employment, job advice, job hunting, job search, older worker, Retirement, seasoned professionals

A lot gets written about how much harder it is to find gainful employment once you’ve got some gray hairs. And it’s true – it’s probably tougher to get work through the want ads when you’re over age 50 or so than it is for younger workers.

Let’s look at what employers may be thinking:
• Is this person going to drive up our health insurance premiums?
• Will health problems cause higher absenteeism or lower productivity?
• Will the older worker be willing to work as much overtime or weekends as the younger worker?
• Will the older worker demand more money than we can afford?
• Will the older worker be able to stay up to date on our technologies? Is he already behind?

It’s true, the older worker faces a number of obstacles when trying to return to the work force. Some of them are due to prejudices and unwarranted fears about older people. And sometimes they are, indeed, grounded in reality – even though there are laws prohibiting age discrimination, older workers do, indeed, cost more in health insurance premiums than younger workers (until they turn 65 and qualify for Medicare). And older workers usually can’t do a 30 year career with the same employer if they’ve already done a 30 year career somewhere else. So employers looking for those kinds of career tracks are going to gravitate toward younger workers.

But let’s turn this around: If you cut your teeth on a Commodore 64 in your 20s, you have a number of advantages, as well – if you use them.
• You have a much more extensive network than younger workers. (You have been building your Rolodex, right?)
• Your contacts tend to be at a higher level of seniority. That translates to more lucrative opportunities for you, if you can hang on.
• You likely earned more at your last job than the youngsters did. Your unemployment benefits are therefore generally higher.
• You have had an opportunity to save more money. This helps buy you time to search.
• You probably have a wider skill set than the younger workers. For example, you may have been exposed to marketing, sales, accounting, project management, legal and compliance issues, multidisciplinary team environments, or working in a broader variety of economic conditions than your younger peers. This is an important value-add that you can bring to nearly any team.
• Soon to turn 65? You will qualify for Medicare. That means you are no longer a burden on your employer’s health care system.
• You can bring emotional maturity to a young workplace. This is a rarity in some circles – and much appreciated by management.
• Interested in sales? You have a much more lucrative natural market for nearly anything you can imagine than a youngster. From financial services to cars, your age is an advantage, because your more affluent natural market translates into more revenue for your employer – and higher commissions for you.

So how you can minimize your disadvantages and accentuate your advantages? Try this:
• Ditch the want-ads. Instead, work your contacts. Meet them in person – for coffee. It’s cheap. Pick up the phone. Or embrace social media. Your advantage is in your contacts. People don’t use want ads to reach very experienced workers.
• Work out, and watch your weight. It is extra important to keep in shape as an older worker.
• Go to smaller companies. As an older worker, you can leverage your contacts to make a bigger dent for a small business’s revenues and opportunities than you can for a large company. You might be a drone in a large company – but a hero to a small one.
• Stay active in your church, synagogue, charitable activities and other community functions. Volunteer for positions of leadership. People will see how well you do in a leadership capacity – and opportunities will come your way.
• Consult. If you’ve been paying attention, and working to improve yourself your whole career, you can start a consulting business for extra money, and to keep your name “in the ring.” Often, the excellent contacts you make while consulting can lead to referrals for other consulting opportunities, as well as full-time job opportunities for you. Or, you may choose to keep consulting full-time.
• Write a book. If you have been focused and you’re a veteran of your field, you may even be able to write the definitive book on you area of expertise, a book or e-book published under your name can help you in two ways:

1.) You can earn money from sales.
2.) You will have established yourself as a subject matter expert in your field. This gives you an ideal ‘jumping off point’ to differentiate yourself during job interviews.

• Work on an advanced degree, if you don’t have one already. A higher number of your peers will have them, now that you’re older. That MBA or masters’ degree in information technology is probably a more important credential now than it was when you were 30, if only because your competition has one. On the other hand, if you don’t have a four year degree, nobody cares much by now what you did as an undergraduate.

Above all, don’t get discouraged. If you have applied yourself diligently thus far, you will find a slot! When times get tough, companies aren’t looking for rookies and people they need to babysit. They want people with current skills, yes. But they want people who can leverage those skills, manage people, and apply a mature approach to problem solving.

That’s you.

Check Vitaver’s CAREERS section, to find a job that suits you!
Or submit your resume to see what we got to offer you.

6 Tips on How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Posted on 19th March 2012 by Michael Gabriel in Articles

career advice, career tips, Emloyment tips, job hunting, job search, Job Search Tips

It’s not good to live in the bubble. At some point, you have to step up the game and get out of there if you want to see a huge positive change in your life, such as land a much better job or open more doors for more wonderful opportunities.

Yet we also know going out of your comfort zone isn’t the easiest thing to do. That’s why we’ve prepared simple but highly effective tips so you can do it with greater confidence and commitment:

1. Be more interested in other fields.
What does it feel to be a programmer? Am I creative enough to be a florist? What if I go back to school? You can begin with this type of questions.

2. Slowly pursue them.
As much as possible, never allow any form of self-doubt to be your answer. Rather, find other means to pursue them. We’re talking about reading books, watching videos, really going back to school, or even talking to people who have already found success in these areas.

3. Always remember: you are your own competition.
One of the major reasons why you’re afraid to step out of your comfort zone is competition. Though you can learn a lot of things from the stronger bunch in the group, there’s no use comparing yourself to them in the long term. You are different, and you create your own journey.

4. Get help.
Think of the process as moving into a new city or even a new world. You don’t know anybody, and sometimes no matter how you plan it, you don’t have any idea where to begin. That’s why you have to be more open to help.

Strengthen your support system. Let your family and friends know of your decisions and let them commit to help you in any way should you find yourself stuck at something. Learn from the brilliant minds. Attend their conferences, sign up their webinars, buy their books, or check out some of their past interviews in YouTube.

5. Do it slowly.
Being able to conquer something you’re uncomfortable with at the shortest amount of time is definitely a huge feat. However, many can’t do that. If you belong to the latter, just do things slowly. Mix things up a bit. For example, if you want to learn how to play salsa, you can take Saturday classes. If you’re planning to be a website designer instead of a writer, begin with simple designs, like templates for blogs.

There’s no time limit, provided you remain consistent.

6. Be more accepting to failures.
Here’s another reason why you don’t want to try anything else: you don’t want to fail. But life is full of failures. Even if you’re in the bubble, you’ll encounter things you have no control of. It may be cliché, but hey, every failure you encounter in life (both personal and professional) teaches you a lesson. Learn from them and make sure you don’t make the same mistake again the next time around.

Your dream job is in Vitaver’s CAREERS section!

47% Of Employers Check Applicant Credit Reports – Here’s What You Can Do

Posted on 8th March 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, Employer, employment, employment background check, job hunting, job search, unemployment

Rightly or wrongly, your credit history is becoming an increasingly important factor in your life. It’s not just about applying for credit anymore; now even your car insurance company may be looking at your credit report when underwriting your application. The data shows that people with good credit tend to be better drivers with fewer accidents than those with poor credit. Insurers have taken notice.

And so have employers. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, some 47 percent of employers do conduct a credit check on at least some job applicants, and 13 percent conduct a background check on all of them.

That’s going to make it tough on people who have been out of the work force for an extended period of time: Obviously, if you’re out of work, it makes it tough to keep paying your bills on time.

What jobs are most likely to ask for a credit check? Any job that involves you handling large amounts of cash, jobs that require you to oversee a budget, and jobs that require a security clearance. This includes law enforcement, some military jobs, jobs with defense contractors, and anything in the intelligence services, such as the CIA, DIA, etc. Some states, however, such as Illinois, restrict employers from using credit reports as a hiring criteria in some circumstances.

Few employers need or expect a credit score of 800 or more for a job. A 30-day late payment here and there isn’t going to hurt you.

But there are some credit issues you definitely want to avoid:

Maxed credit. If your credit report shows you running all your credit cards flat-out, and you are maximizing all your lines of credit, this shows employers you are having trouble living within a budget. The key metric is your credit utilization ratio. 100 percent is bad. Try to keep that ratio below about 25 percent, to qualify for the best loans.

Liens. If you have a lien against you, it shows that for whatever reason, you didn’t pay an obligation, and you let things get so bad that the creditor had to go to court against you. To avoid them, stay in close touch with your creditors, and pay them what you can, even if it’s less than the full amount owed. Few creditors will file a lien if you are at least paying them something reasonable.

Foreclosures. These aren’t pretty, but they don’t represent the same black mark on your credit report that they used to – simply because so many of us know good people who have gotten over their heads with a house. Nevertheless, it’s still a ding against you, and you may want to be prepared to answer questions about the foreclosure during the interview or clearance adjudication process.

Bankruptcy. These are still something to be pursued as a last resort. A recent bankruptcy can make it difficult to get or keep a job requiring a top secret clearance, for example, or certain jobs in the financial services industry.

What’s more, while most negative credit information stays on your credit report for only seven years, bankruptcies can remain on your report for as long as 10 years. Worse than that, when you apply for many jobs, they don’t ask “have you declared bankruptcy in the last 10 years.” They ask, “have you ever declared bankruptcy?
Old bankruptcies aren’t a deal killer. But a lack of bankruptcies can serve as a tiebreaker between you and an equally qualified candidate.

So what can you do?
Well, just like you try to iron your shirt and straighten your tie before you go to an interview, you should pay attention to dressing up your credit report, too, prior to hitting the job trail.

Pull a report on yourself. While employers have to pay money to pull a credit report on you, federal law entitles you to a free credit report on yourself from each of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, TSR, and Equifax.

Go over your credit report and find anything inaccurate. A significant number of credit reports do contain significant errors, thanks to everything from sloppy clerks to identity theft. Notify the credit bureau about each inaccurate entry in writing. By law, they have 30 days to correct the information, or confirm that it is accurate.

For more information on disputing an item in your credit report, including a sample dispute letter you can send, visit this site from the Federal Trade Commission.

Pay up anything delinquent. If everything is current, you are in a much better position than if you have delinquencies on your report.

Settle. If you are underwater, but you have a lump sum of cash to work with, consider making a settlement offer with your creditor. Many times they will take a smaller lump sum and agree to mark the account “settled in full” on your credit report rather than try to continue to collect on you. “Settled in full” doesn’t look as good as “paid in full,” on your report. But it’s a lot better than a delinquency or default status.

What not to do.
Don’t run out and close accounts thinking you will lower your credit score. According to the Fair, Isaac Corporation, all this does is drive up your credit utilization ratio – and lower your overall credit score.

Also, if you must close an account, close the newest ones first. The length of your credit history is one of the factors that goes into calculating your credit score. The longer the relationships you have, the more weight they have in your report. Nurture your longstanding credit relationships.

Your dream job is waiting in our CAREER section! Don’t miss it!

Part 2: America’s Unique Value Proposition: Freedom

Posted on 27th February 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

american dream, career advice, employment, Employment News, Freedom, job market news, unemployment

Things are tough in America, these days. There’s no doubt about it. The American work force is struggling to adapt to a changing global economy. The competition from foreign workers – especially in manufacturing – is growing increasingly intense. And that’s not changing any time soon. Countries like China will continue to adopt technologies, and produce a more and more educated work force. They’ll be moving up the manufacturing value chain, with the Asian Tiger economies like Thailand and Malaysia right behind them.

American workers have a hard row to hoe. And the solution, in the aggregate, cannot be to become the low-cost provider. No American can compete with a rural Cambodian on price alone. Unions have been a thorn in the side of American manufacturing, yes – and with disastrous results for their current crop of members (outside of the public employee unions). But keep in mind America’s unique value proposition: America has never been the ‘low-cost’ provider of anything in the global economy. America’s value proposition is and always will be something better than that: Freedom.

That’s more than a word. Freedom – and the economic attributes that only a free people can develop – is still a global economic catalyst, and a powerful argument for American prosperity going forward:

Ingenuity. Freedom encourages and rewards inquiry, innovation and progress. The world still looks to the United States for new inventions and scientific breakthroughs in computer science, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and engineering. Slaves keep their heads down and try to stay out of trouble. Free people still create. And Americans can still outcreate any communist regime.

The rule of law. Yes, there is corruption throughout American public life. But it is nothing like that openly and shamelessly practiced in most of the rest of the world. In America, bribery and graft are aberrations, and the guilty know they run the risk of being brought down at any time (Illinois residents, take note!). Much of the world’s population has resigned to being powerless to fight it. It’s business as usual throughout the developing world. Americans, on the other hand, don’t accept it – and still have access to a functioning court system to combat it. American companies may move manufacturing abroad. But their core headquarters functions, and all their capital-raising functions, are still located here in the U.S. – largely because they can do business on a level playing field.

Respect for Property Rights. People in foreign countries live under the gun: They know the government could come in at any time and nationalize their assets. Not just their businesses, but everything they own. The older people in China remember the horrors of Mao Tse Tung and the Cultural Revolution. Zimbabwe has all but collapsed as wealth fled the country to escape their brutal nationalization policies. Cubans remember how wealth fled the island after Castro took power – and Venezuelans are always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Viet Nam is still near the bottom of the manufacturing value chain nearly 40 years after the communists sacked Saigon – and Cambodia never recovered from the brutality of the Khmer Rouge and the mass collectivization of farms and wholesale destruction of property – much less from their wanton disregard of human dignity and life itself.

None of this works to save manufacturing jobs in the U.S. But as job seekers, be very cognizant of where the opportunities lie. Chances are the key to your future advancement is not going to be in the factories. In view of the terrible job creation track record of U.S. manufacturers in recent years, it would be crazy to hitch yourself to that wagon.

Instead, you should direct your efforts at the “head sheds” – the corporate headquarters elements. Develop the skills that will be in demand, on site, no matter what the economic situation:

• Information technology and on-site networking and repair.
• Communications, including satellite communication and audio-video.
• Security.
• Relationship-oriented (not commodity) sales.
• Marketing.
• Public Relations.
• Construction (it’s cyclical, yes. But it can’t be sent to China).
• In-person customer service.
• Research and Development.
• Health Care.
• Education.

Each of these fields has a significant barrier to entry that no foreign provider can readily surmount. All of these fields maximize America’s strengths, and none of these jobs can be readily outsourced abroad.

Remember: People from all over the world are still emigrating to America to raise their families and to seek their fortunes. The opposite isn’t happening. The American dream is still alive and well, and to the rest of the world, the huddled masses yearning to be free, the American Dream still exists.

In his 1630 sermon, “A Model of Christian Charitie,” the early American theologian John Winthrop described our infant nation as a “shining city on a hill.” Nearly four centuries later, America is still that city – a beacon of freedom and hope to the rest of the world.

Don’t forget it.

Your DREAM JOB is just a step away! Step in & grab it!

Part 1: It’s 2012. Do You Know Where Your Job Is?

Posted on 21st February 2012 by Jason Van Steenwyk in Articles

career advice, employment, Employment News, job hunting, Outsourcing, unemployment

If you’re out of work, and you usually worked in a company tied to the manufacturing industry or related to customer service and call centers, chances are good your job was permanently exported abroad – to Asia to be specific. A variety of factors – some the result of bad U.S. policy and some that are utterly beyond our control- have combined to make it extremely difficult or impossible for low-or-no-skill U.S. workers to compete.

That doesn’t just hurt people manning the looms in South Carolina textile mills and operating stamps in car factories in Detroit. When a factory closes, it lays off a lot more than the blue collar rank and file. The job losses cover the entire socio-economic spectrum. The factory lays off its line assembly workers, its janitors and maintenance workers, its clerical and payroll workers, its engineers and information technology workers, its accounting staff and managers.

It also cuts off the support of the guy who ran the lunch counter across the street, the coffee shop at the end of the block, and the guy who mows the lawn out front and takes care of the grounds.

All those functions are now being done abroad, for a fraction of the price. And even the Chinese are struggling: Emerging manufacturing industries in Viet Nam, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan and India are giving even the low-wage Chinese a real run for their money. Why? Their wages are even lower. Chinese policymakers are themselves caught in a squeeze, putting a damper on their economic growth, as Chinese workers are increasingly displaced by lower-wage competitors.

That said, the Obama Administration seems to be doing its level best to make things even worse. Case in point, Obama recently gave a speech at a Boeing plant in Everett, Washington, lauding the benefits of his administration’s economic policy and the gains Boeing made in creating manufacturing jobs from Washington to South Carolina. The irony, of course, is that not too long ago, his unionist Labor Protection Board was trying to strangle the new South Carolina plant in the crib. Meanwhile, his own so-called “jobs czar,” General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, recently shifted GE’s X-ray imaging equipment’s operations to China.

Ford, meanwhile, is in the process of opening three plants in China – and it makes sense, now that China’s rapidly expanding middle class and affluent populations now represent at once the largest and fastest-growing car markets in the world. Henry Ford wanted his own workers to be able to afford Ford cars. Why shouldn’t China experience the same thing?

“Those jobs aren’t coming back,” warned the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, at a recent jobs summit, with President Obama in attendance.

The decline in American manufacturing is bigger than Obama – and Obama’s policies are not at the root of the problem. In fact, America has been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs for a generation. Indeed, the number of manufacturing jobs in the United States – actual, raw numbers – has fallen by some 40 percent since 1979.

Consider this: The largest company in the world, as measured by market capitalization, is now Apple. And Apple, for all its creative energy, is a manufacturer. As of 2011, its global work force was only about 63,000 people: 43,000 in in the United States and 20,000 abroad. In contrast, General Electric, at its peak, employed 400,000 workers: Nearly half a million people – a number larger than the United States Army maintains on active duty.

Wide spectrum of jobs is available at Vitaver’s CAREER section!

Under the Gun: Avoiding Joining the Ranks of the Chronically Unemployed