May 6, 2013
Recruiting, Staffing & Employment News – May 2013
Numbers are okay
Employment growth was up over last month, the economy grew 2.5%, unemployment numbers are down to 7.5%, so far so good, the big numbers are looking okay.
Dialing down, job growth was mostly driven in the professional and business services (+73,000), food services and drinking places (+38,000), retail trade (+29,000), and health care (+19,000) sectors.
In April, Redfish Technology’s main placement growth was in mobile video advertising, mobile financial services, mobile application tools, and enterprise content management.
In tech hot spots, such as Silicon Valley, there’s intense competition for tech talent; at the same time there is reluctance to change jobs by many in the sector. “Staffing firms in the technology space are definitely very active today,” said Scot Melland, chairman, CEO and president of Dice Holdings, “and they’re seeing their businesses do pretty well.”
CareerXroads did a source of hire survey recently that shows that as we pull out of the recession, the largest U.S employers report growing usage of retained and contingent recruiters, especially with the harder to fill roles. In 2005, reportedly 5.2% of jobs were filled by external recruiters, compared to 2.3% in 2009 and now at 3.1% in 2012.
The survey further reports that at 24.5% the biggest percentage of external hires comes from referrals; that is the lowest percentage since 2001. In 2011, the companies in the survey said 28% of their external hires were the result of referrals.
April 8, 2013
Recruiting, Staffing & Employment News – April 2013
Slow Spring It Would Seem
In March, Redfish Technology hit its 20,000th job order and reported high tech has been especially hot in the e-learning, software-as-a-service, cloud, disruptive software and gamification sectors.
The development side of hiring has been predominantly for product managers, quality assurance and delivery managers, and on the sales and sales support side for managed services, account executives, and client services engineers. (more…)
January 7, 2013
Recruiting, Staffing & Employment News
Stable but Slow,
Employees Optimistic
Despite ADP’s optimistic report of 215,000 new private sector jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor reported gains of 168,000 in private payrolls, which was slightly higher than analysts’ forecasts. The overall growth in employment including government cutbacks netted an increase of 155,000. November payrolls were revised upward.
The goods-producing sector rebounded by 59,000 in December after a loss of 1,000 in November. Construction jobs also showed gains of 30,000 following a November dip of 10,000. Manufacturing increased 25,000 over a small increase of 5,000 the month before. (more…)
November 26, 2012
Cyber Monday E-commerce Records / Productivity / Hiring
Cyber Monday e-retailing predictions!
Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after Thanksgiving’s online shopping extravaganza. It is the online retail equivalent of Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day.
In 2011, Cyber Monday was the biggest day in the history of US e-retailing at $1.25 billion in online retail sales, and beat the other top holiday shopping days.
(more…)
March 12, 2012
Staffing & Employment News
from Redfish Technology
How strong is the recovery?
+ Online jobs advertised grew in February, January and December, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine® (HWOL). The Supply/Demand rate stands at 2.9 unemployed for every vacancy. “In a positive sign the Supply/Demand rate dipped below the 3.0 level for the first time since November 2008,” said June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board. “This reflects both significant gains in labor demand as well as drops in unemployment levels since the end of the recession. Labor demand is up 227,000 over the past three months, continuing to narrow the gap between the unemployed and available jobs. With the monthly level of job demand around 4.4 million, labor demand is back in line with the pre-recession series high in 2007.”
+ The U.S. Economy added 227,000 jobs in February. This is the third consecutive month of gains over 200,000. December and January numbers were also revised upwards. (more…)
January 9, 2012
Staffing & Employment News
Growth Stronger than Expected
from Redfish Technology
December’s employment report showed progress in job creation with a stronger showing than expects. The unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, December payroll jobs hit a fairly healthy 200,000, private payrolls hitting 212,000. (more…)
July 11, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
Gloom and confidence, contradictory predictions on hiring and profits
Gloomy employment report numbers a surprise
The Employment Report for June has been called “moribund” and “abysmal”. On the eve of the report however, ADP predicted month-to-month strength in private payroll data, estimating a 157,000 gain. Other analysts also predicted better gains, projecting 125,000 in June. Instead, the BLS reported private payrolls at 75,000 and overall nonfarm payrolls at 18,000 due to declines in government sector employment (39,000 in June, 48,000 in May).
Confidence down despite projected rise in profits
The Conference Board measure of CEO Confidence dipped in the second quarter to 55, after rising in Q1 to 67. Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center said: “CEO confidence cooled considerably in the second quarter, a reflection of a sluggish U.S. economy. Looking ahead, expectations are that this slow pace of economic growth will continue. Regarding the outlook for profits over the next 12 months, the news was a bit more favorable, with about 70 % of CEOs anticipating profit increases.” (more…)
June 15, 2011
 Shannon Tinker Employers Beware:
When Social Media Says Too Much…
By Shannon Tinker
This month, Redfish explores the importance of background checks and references before extending a candidate a job offer. Responsible hiring decisions usually include basic steps to double-check that a candidate’s credentials are legit. With an applicant’s consent, employers can quickly get reports about a candidate’s credit and criminal record, and this is perfectly legal.
In addition to old school, traditional background and reference checks, employers now have access to data that would make even the most seasoned Private Investigator blush. Social media has opened the playing field making it fairly easy to gather personal information about most of the computer using public. Employers can learn a lot about a job seeker through her online profile, in fact, if they’re not careful, they can learn too much. (more…)
June 3, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
Lower Private Payroll Numbers than Expected, partially due to Re-entry of Discouraged Workers in April?
The jobs market gained momentum over the last few months; in the prior three months the number of jobs added averaged 220,000. The May figures released today however came in lower than expected. While private-sector employment added 83,000 jobs, this was a disappointing reversal of previous months’ growth. Expanding Industries include professional and business services (+44,000), health care (+17,400) and mining.
When an economy is healthy, monthly payrolls gains of around 150,000 are considered healthy; in order to recover from a downturn economists expect increased upwards of 250,000 monthly.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics release questions whether the May numbers are a temporary soft spot or a new trend. Severe domestic weather is not apparently a factor according to the Labor Department, but high energy prices and Japan’s continuing challenges probably are.
“There are good reasons to suppose the third quarter will be better because we have seen some easing in commodity prices, gasoline prices are starting to come down and the bad effects on vehicle production of the Japanese problems will start to unwind,” said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, reported Reuters.
The good news is that initial jobless claims have eased from elevated levels. And while the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent last month from 9.0 percent in April, this is probably due in part to the re-entry of discouraged workers who were motivated by the April hiring momentum, and re-entered the job market.
May 9, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
Most Robust Growth in 5 Years, Yet Mixed Messages about the Employment Outlook
Friday’s employment situation report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was stronger than anticipated with non-farm private payroll showing increased employment of 268,000 last month, surpassing March’s strong showing of 231,000. This growth is the most robust in five years, and marks the seventh straight month of employment increases. Nonetheless, jobless rate climbed and government jobs fell by 24,000.
The 43,000 surge in jobless claims is explained by various factors but nonetheless was higher than last month. The unemployment rate went from 8.8% to 9.0% month over month. The longer trend remains positive: “The economy has added 2.1 million private sector jobs over 14 consecutive months, including more than 800,000 jobs since the beginning of the year. The unemployment rate rose to 9.0 percent, but remains 0.8 percentage point below its November level”, according to Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. (more…)
March 4, 2011
Staffing & Employment News
Respectively Healthy Improvement
Before the revolutions started driving oil prices up, there was some heady optimism. It persists despite the anticipated impacts of expensive oil. Americans must be feeling optimistic, “auto sales reportedly rose 27% in February”, NPR reported, “as the economic recovery continued and consumers felt more comfortable taking on a car payment.”
The jobs report today showed a “respectively healthy gain” for the month of February, at 192,000, and December and January revisions were up a net 58,000. Professional and business services, health care, transportation & warehousing, construction, mining, and manufacturing all showed increases. ADP estimated yesterday that February’s private payrolls increased by 217,000 (a little higher than today’s report), and the Monster employment index went up 7 points to 129 in February with a sharp pick-up in online job recruitment. (more…)
July 1, 2010
The Job Market is Soft But Growing
While overall employment fell in June for the first time this year (largely due to the winding down of the federal census employment), private employment (exclusive of government jobs) increased for the 6th month in a row. ADP reports the addition of an estimated 13,000 workers to private payrolls in June, indicating slower job growth than expected. The Commerce Department revised the GDP to 2.7% from 3%, however CEOs and staffing companies see hiring increased.
May 5, 2010
Staffing & Employment News
From the Redfish Technology May Newsletter.
According to Bloomberg, the growth in corporate profits is an encouraging sign for a V-shaped recovery. The economy is expected to grow at 4% this year, which is up from the 3% prediction derived from a survey of economists earlier this year. This capital will be invested in equipment and hiring according to Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist in New York at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. (more…)
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