From The Wall Street Journal:
- "Average Job Seeker Gives Up After 5 Months." The amount of time unemployed workers spent looking for jobs before giving up rose sharply last year to 20 weeks, compared to 8.5 weeks in 2007, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And labor-force participation, the number of Americans who are working or looking for jobs, has fallen to its lowest level since the mid-1980s.
- "Enough with 'Call of Duty,' Answer the Call in Room 417." More companies are getting creative and introducing online games into their recruiting strategies. Marriott now utilizes a hotel management game similar to Farmville on Facebook, which has users manage a Marriott kitchen. Players buy food and meal ingredients, hire staff, purchase equipment, direct tickets to cooks, inspect food orders for quality, and more. The game is designed to give recruiters and hiring managers a little more insight into candidates' decision-making processes and how they would fit into the organization.
- "Many Graduates Delay Job Searches." The Labor Department has found that since May 2007, the percentage of the population under 25 who are currently employed has fallen more than seven percentage points to 45.1 percent. With Baby Boomers delaying retirement and the pace of job openings not keeping up with population growth, there are simply fewer positions for younger workers. The falling employment rate can also be attributed to young workers heading straight for graduate school, or choosing to travel, volunteer, or get unpaid work experience instead of immediately entering the workforce.
And one more, from ERE.net:
- "Dice Survey: Tech Demand Pushing Up Salaries, Fill Time." According to a new report by Dice.com, 65 percent of IT employers expect to do more tech hiring in the second half of the year. To be sure, Indeed.com reports that posting for IT jobs increased 41 percent over May 2010. With the unemployment rate for computer and math occupations sitting and a mild 3.8 percent, employers are struggling to find qualified candidates to fill their positions. As a result, time to fill and salaries, too, are growing. Forty-seven percent of the respondents Dice surveyed said new hire salaries are slightly to significantly (7 percent) higher than last year.
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