TBD on Ning

Job's

I have noticed an increase in Job's around here , probably near you also . Employers are advertising Job's and they have noticed very few are applying for them .

What do you feel is the reason few people apply , Is it like of experience or spoiled from being out of work for so long ?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on July 9, 2013 at 4:02pm

Temporary jobs becoming a permanent fixture in US as more employers seek 'just-in-time' labour

By Christopher S. Rugaber, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Mon, 8 Jul, 2013

WASHINGTON - Hiring is exploding in the one corner of the U.S. economy where few want to be hired: Temporary work.

From Wal-Mart to General Motors to PepsiCo, companies are increasingly turning to temps and to a much larger universe of freelancers, contract workers and consultants. Combined, these workers number nearly 17 million people who have only tenuous ties to the companies that pay them — about 12 per cent of everyone with a job.

Hiring is always healthy for an economy. Yet the rise in temp and contract work shows that many employers aren't willing to hire for the long run.

The number of temps has jumped more than 50 per cent since the recession ended four years ago to nearly 2.7 million — the most on government records dating to 1990. In no other sector has hiring come close.

Driving the trend are lingering uncertainty about the economy and employers' desire for more flexibility in matching their payrolls to their revenue. Some employers have also sought to sidestep the new health care law's rule that they provide medical coverage for permanent workers. Last week, though, the Obama administration delayed that provision of the law for a year.

The use of temps has extended into sectors that seldom used them in the past — professional services, for example, which include lawyers, doctors and information technology specialists.

Temps typically receive low pay, few benefits and scant job security. That makes them less likely to spend freely, so temp jobs don't tend to boost the economy the way permanent jobs do. More temps and contract workers also help explain why pay has barely outpaced inflation since the recession ended.

Beyond economic uncertainty, Ethan Harris, global economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, thinks more lasting changes are taking root.

"There's been a generational shift toward a less committed relationship between the firm and the worker," Harris says.

An Associated Press survey of 37 economists in May found that three-quarters thought the increased use of temps and contract workers represented a long-standing trend.

Typical of that trend is Latrese Carr, who was hired by a Wal-Mart in Glenwood, Ill., two months ago on a 90-day contract. She works 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., helping unload trucks and restocking shelves. Her pay is $9.45 an hour. There's no health insurance or other benefits.

Carr, 20, didn't particularly want the overnight shift.

"I needed a job," she says.

The store managers have said some temps will be kept on permanently, Carr says, depending on their performance.

Carr isn't counting on it.

The trend toward contract workers was intensified by the depth of the recession and the tepid pace of the recovery. A heavy investment in long-term employment isn't a cost all companies want to bear anymore.

"There's much more appreciation of the importance of having flexibility in the workforce," says Barry Asin of Staffing Industry Analysts, a consulting firm.

Susan Houseman, an economist at the Upjohn Institute of Employment Research, says companies want to avoid having too many employees during a downturn, just as manufacturers want to avoid having too much inventory if demand slows.

"You have your just-in-time workforce," Houseman says. "You only pay them when you need them."

This marks a shift from what economists used to call "labour hoarding": Companies typically retained most of their staff throughout recessions, hoping to ride out the downturn.

"We clearly don't have that anymore," says Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The result is that temps and contract workers have become fixtures at large companies. Business executives say they help their companies stay competitive. They also argue that temp work can provide valuable experience.

"It opens more doors for people to enter the labour market," says Jeff Joerres, CEO of ManpowerGroup, a workplace staffing firm.

But Houseman's research has found that even when jobs are classified as "temp to permanent," only 27 per cent of such assignments lead to permanent positions.

About one-third of temporary workers work in manufacturing. Temps can be found on production lines, repairing machinery and stocking goods in warehouses. About a fifth are administrative.

Shortages of doctors and nurses have led some hospitals to turn to temp agencies. Staffing Industry Analysts forecasts that spending on temporary doctors will grow 10 per cent this year and next.

Some school districts now turn to temp firms for substitute teachers. This lets them avoid providing retirement benefits, which union contracts might otherwise require.

Manufacturing unions have pushed back against the trend, with limited success.

"We run into this across all the various industries where we represent people," says Tony Montana, a spokesman for the USW, which represents workers in the steel, paper, and energy industries.

Todd Miller, CEO of software company Gwabbit in Carmel Valley, Calif., says about a third of his 20 employees are temporary. An additional one-third are contractors.

He says he's had no trouble filling such positions. People are "willing to entertain employment possibilities that they would not have six or seven years ago," Miller says.

If the economy were to accelerate, Miller says he might hire more permanent staff. But "I don't have tremendous confidence in this economy."

Only the health care and leisure and hospitality sectors have added more jobs during the recovery. But each is roughly five times as large as the temp industry. The proportion of all jobs in the temp industry is about 2 per cent, just below a record set in 2000.

Temp hiring has accelerated even though the economy has 2.4 million fewer jobs than it did five years ago. Temp jobs made up about 10 per cent of jobs lost to the recession. Yet they've made up nearly 20 per cent of the jobs gained since the recession ended.

A survey of companies with more than 1,000 employees by Staffing Industry Analysts found they expect 18 per cent of their workforces to be made up of temps, freelancers or contract workers this year, up from 16 per cent in 2012.

Shane Watson, who in November lost a job providing tech support for Blackberry maker Research In Motion, says contract work has helped him recover. He's on his third such position. Still, Watson, 36, misses the security of a permanent job.

Wal-Mart says it's been hiring disproportionately more temporary workers. "Flexible associates," it calls them. Spokesman Dave Tovar says temps allow store managers to provide permanent workers with more reliable schedules.

Online competitors are seeking to upend the temp industry just as Amazon and eBay disrupted retail. Employers spent $1 billion last year hiring workers for short-term projects through online labour exchanges, such as oDesk and Elance, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. That's 67 per cent more than in the previous year.

Freelancers in the online exchanges can be evaluated by employers, post portfolios and take online tests to demonstrate their abilities.

Gary Swart, CEO of oDesk, says his clients are mainly small or startup companies. But giants like AOL and Unilever are using the service, too.

When Hans Hess of Arlington, Va., was seeking a lawyer to do a trademark search for his Elevation Burger chain, he turned to Elance. He found a lawyer to do it for under $500.

"When I was using a big law firm, it could cost me $5,000 to get to the point of just filing a trademark," Hess says.

Gigwalk recruits temps for brief projects in retail, merchandising and marketing. Anyone who downloads Gigwalk's app can see pinpoints on a map signifying available jobs nearby.

Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, used Gigwalk this year to hire workers to check in-store displays of its products to ensure that a seasonal promotion was being handled properly.

"You can hire 10,000 people for 10 to 15 minutes," says Gigwalk CEO Bob Bahramipour. "When they're done, those 10,000 people just melt away."

Permalink Reply by Wayne Goodwin on July 9, 2013 at 4:07pm

I think a lot of employers are still holding back because of the mess with Health Care . May be wrong but believe it's true ....

Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on July 9, 2013 at 5:16pm

funny how some people seem to think that for profit insurance companies will provide you with better health care without government regulation...actually what they often do is provide a facade of health care with a myriad of things not covered..and in some cases are virtually worthless....gee wonder why they were against govt oversight?

Vermont announces rates under health 'exchange'

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Dave Gram, Associated Press 3 hours ago Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont regulators on Monday announced monthly rates for health insurance to be sold under Vermont Health Connect, the health insurance exchange being set up to comply with the federal Affordable Care Act.

Middle- and upper-class consumers who begin buying through Vermont Health Connect when it takes hold of Vermont's individual and small-group health insurance markets in January won't notice much difference in costs of insurance and benefits provided, according to the state's largest insurer and the chairwoman of Vermont's Green Mountain Care Board, which approved the rates.

But for those of moderate and lower incomes, federal tax credits and state premium subsidies designed to help pay the cost will make health insurance a better deal than it is now, GMCB Chairwoman Anya Rader Wallack said.

"For those who qualify for the tax credits and premium subsidies, there's a pretty big difference," Wallack said. "In terms of just comparisons with prices in the marketplace (today), the difference is less dramatic," she said.

Kevin Goddard, spokesman for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont agreed, calling the rates to be charged when people buy his company's insurance through Vermont Health Connect "comparable" to what they would pay without the exchange in place.

Rates being offered for the benchmark so-called "silver plan" for individuals will be a bit less than $395 per month for individuals buying a Blue Cross Blue Shield product, and $410 a month for those buying a similar policy form MVP Health Care. Those prices are similar to what an individual pays now for a similar suite of coverage options, Goddard said.

Lower-income Vermonters will get federal tax credits and state premium subsidies to cover some of the costs. For someone making the median individual income of about $34,000 a year, that will reduce the cost of the Blue Cross plan to about $230 a month, and the MVP plan to $252.

The Blue Cross family plan will cost $1,111 a month through Vermont Health Connect. For MVP it will be $1,151.

http://news.yahoo.com/vermont-announces-rates-under-health-13561603...

Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on July 9, 2013 at 4:58pm

american corporations are logging in record profits...american workers are at a record low for the percentage of the gdp that is their share...american workers have not had an increase in income since app 1976 while the cost of goods and services they have to pay for have all risen...and the workers get blamed for their predicament which is analogous to the asiana air pilot blaming the passengers for the crash. american business has outsourced as many jobs as they can to foreign countries up to and including not just manufacturing but also accounting , payroll, human resources and so forth. some american corporations only american presence is in their sales establishments and central corporate offices. yet the propaganda has sold the dimmer bulbs on the concept that somehow the problem is the fault of the workers, not the management. in texas it is common to hear people tell me that workers should be happy to work for minimum wage...and fund their own health benefits and save for retirement....the disconnect between their preferred fiction and mathmatical reality is mindboggling..in fact one employer was telling me that the illegals were the cause of the high prices cause they made too much money....smells a tad like racism..