Free Republic

With the job market in shambles, MBAs need encouragement wherever they can find it. For tea and sympathy, many are now turning to B-school support groups. Gillian Mager was in the midst of updating her MBA job club members on her networking efforts last June when she broke down in tears. Like most in the support group at the University of California at San Diego's Rady School of Management (Rady Full-Time MBA Profile), her job search had extended beyond graduation and she spent her days sending out reams of résumés, often getting no response back. Making matters worse, she learned...

The header The idea of a resume is to fit the most pertinent information into a small space. (On that note, a resume should NEVER, under any circumstances, be more than one page long.) Your name and contact information should not be size 40 font, and you should include multiple ways of contacting you; phone, address, and email are sufficient. The objective This should be no more than 5 or 6 words, and should state exactly what you are looking for. Keep in mind your wording could give them an impression of how experienced, or inexperienced you are. If it...

President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest ever recorded for any president at this point in his term. President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 47 percent in the latest Gallup poll, the lowest ever recorded for any president at this point in his term. The new low comes as Obama enters the home stretch in his push to enact his signature initiative, an overhaul of the nation's health care system, and escalates America's involvement in the Afghanistan war. Below are comparable ratings for other presidents since Gallup began...

CLEARWATER — If a dog were to accompany a restaurant chef to work, most people would have no problem with a state inspector kicking the dog to the curb. But when the food vendor happens to be a gas station, and its offerings stop at cans of Coke and bags of Doritos, and the dog is a charismatic chocolate Labrador named Cody, the response evolves into a public outcry — against the state. "Thumbs down on the Department of Agriculture. Tackle some real problems. Human customers bring more contamination — not to mention danger — than a well-cared-for pooch," said...

With data on November's unemployment rate and payroll jobs creation due to be released Friday by the Labor Department, President Obama convenes a meeting today at the White House to discuss what many Americans worry about more than health care, Afghanistan, or anything else-jobs. Mr. Obama's challenge is that his legislative and regulatory agenda dampens overall job creation. Mr. Obama's priorities, namely health reform, green jobs, high speed rail, climate change legislation, and increased unionization discourage employers from hiring. Until he abandons this interventionist agenda, the economy won't produce the jobs needed to reduce unemployment significantly. Naturally, these projects' supporters...

In what is becoming a perennial affair, the California budget deficit is projected to be over $21 billion in the coming year – including a $6 billion hangover from this year. With the same degree of regularity, in pursuit of stable education funding (a good idea), educators in California are calling for tax rate increases (a bad idea) and blaming Republican legislators for blocking those increases (an unproductive idea). Rather than call for more tax rate increases – one of the causes of our current problems –educators should call for policies that will increase private sector jobs so we have...

RealClearPolitics.com, which averages all recent national public opinion polls, now shows President Obama's job approval average has dropped to 49.9%, marking the first time this number has dipped below the critical 50% line. Obama's job disapproval average has also climbed to an all-time high of 44.6%, thus narrowing the approval/disapproval gap to a new low of +5.3%.

It might not be the smartest way of giving a zero-weeks notice at work, but you've gotta give this guy some credit for doing extra work and making a custom Mac OS X app just for the purpose of quitting. Supposedly the pop up prompt (which apparently doesn't do anything) was seen by the fellow's coworker who explained the situation: He believed he was in a temp-to-hire position, and after three months of extra hours and butt-kissing, turns out it's just a temp position. He was a good worker too. I'd have recommended him. Too bad he burned his...

Help me out here. What’s crazier – the abysmal failure the stimulus has been in Los Angeles County (like everywhere else) or how outrageously wasteful the plan was to begin with? Los Angeles County’s take of stimulus funds is by far the largest in California, which has received $18.5 billion in ARRA funds, intended to create 110,219.36 jobs statewide — a pricey rate of $168,264.08 per job. But Hollywood is a different story entirely. Hollywood — the geographic Hollywood as found on Thomas Guide map page 593 — has received $23,338,327 in grants, loans and contracting. This money has created...

Do you lead one? Do you have one? It's a pretty good question these days since there's a lot of talk about Tribes going around. And it seems to be an evolving situation but an interesting one since it's apparent that it's becoming a very powerful cultural phenomenon. I would say that it's probably because of the increased connectivity we all have allows us access to people who have the same views and values. For more on Tribes, I would recommend Seth Godin's book, oddly enough titled: Tribes. I had the priviledge of attending the recent PGC200 (www.pgc200.org) launch event...

The chief federal oversight official for the stimulus program said in a letter Wednesday that he can’t certify whether the number of jobs “created or saved” by stimulus funds is accurate. Recovery Board Chairman Earl Devaney was responding to a request for information by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a letter to Issa dated Nov. 17, Devaney wrote, “Your letter specifically asks if I am able to certify that the number of jobs reported as created/saved on Recovery.gov is accurate and auditable. No, I am not able to...

The Ice Age has been a longstanding problem for uniformitarian thinking, with many unsolved mysteries. No mere tweaking of today's climate conditions would cause such a catastrophe. A creationist model based on the revealed events of Scripture, however, offers a possible answer...

Hopefully this piece on CNN helps people relate how difficult it is to find a job to something many people have had experience doing: applying to college. The 650,000 jobs created or saved by the stimulus package so far make up only a small step toward correcting the gap between the tens of millions of unemployed people and the few openings that those people are fighting over. Even the administration's goal of creating 3.5 million jobs is far below what the economy really needs. With an official unemployment rate of 10.2 percent, the gap between the number of full-time job...

Why does God allow there to be evil in the world? Are we not all created in the image of God? Many ask, and few seem to have good answers, for the question of, "Why God didn’t just create us so that we would never have to experience pain, suffering, and sadness?" After all, He has the power to make the world free of evil, yet He chose instead to make us creatures with free will. Thus, free will was the door left open for the possibility of evil to exist. If we have the right to chose between...

Where jobs are: The U-Haul indicator Heading for a city with greater opportunities? It'll cost you. One measure of a region's economic health is the relative price of moving-truck rentals. [Related content: Family, getting started, jobs, middle class, prices] By Scott Burns It has been said that people vote with their feet. They pick up and go to where the jobs and opportunities are. Moving-company horror stories The hard part is that it costs more -- a lot more -- to move to where the jobs and opportunities are than to move to where jobs and opportunities are limited. My...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) – Congressional Republicans on Wednesday rejected the idea that the $900-billion economic stimulus plan being pushed by the Obama White House and Senate Democrats will preserve or create more than 3 million American jobs. “The important thing to appreciate about that number is that instead of being ‘creating’ 3 to 4 million jobs, it is ‘saving or creating’ 3 to 4 million jobs,” Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) told CNSNews.com during a press briefing. “The problem with that line is that you can’t ever prove a negative. You can’t ever prove that there was a job that would...

It is easy for us to read the Old Testament story of Job and critique him on certain points. But let's keep in mind that Job never read the Book of Job. He didn't know that things would turn out well in the end. He didn't know about the conversations that had taken place between God and Satan up in heaven. He didn't know why all this was happening. All Job knew was that one day everything was going beautifully, and the next day, the bottom dropped out of his life with no real explanation that he could see. Yet...

Listened to an interesting talk today by Jared Bernstein, chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden, at a New America think-tank conference on job creation. A few observations: 1) If Bernstein’s talk was any indication, don’t look for much public celebration by the White House if we get some good 3Q and 4Q GDP numbers. As he put it, “Absent robust job growth, it is not a true economic recovery.” He stressed this point several times. I don’t even think you will hear an administration official use the word “recovery” in 2009. 2) Bernstein trotted out several interesting slides —...

As companies begin unveiling their workplace benefits for next year, many employees are learning they will have to dig even deeper into their pockets for health coverage. Such price increases have become a fact of life during open-enrollment season, when workers sign up for their health plans. But the jump is expected to be steeper in 2010 than this year, as employers struggle with the impact of the recession and continually rising insurance costs. Employees will pay $4,023 on average in premiums and out-of-pocket charges next year, up 10% from 2009, according to a projection from Hewitt Associates, a benefits-consulting...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aided by a bleak job market, the U.S. military met all of its recruitment goals in the past year for the first time since it became an all-volunteer force in 1973, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Military services have been stretched thin by conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, giving added weight to recruitment efforts as President Barack Obama considers sending another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year.

I ask that the community please remember me in your prayers over the next few days. I totally unexpectedly lost my job this morning. It was totally unforeseen, so I am in quite a state of shock and anxiety. I had thanked God many times during the day over the past two years for this job, I believed it was his gift to me for the many challenges I've had in life. I am alone, so I will appreciate your remembering me.

Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. And even though the pace of layoffs is slowing, many companies remain anxious about growth prospects in the months ahead, making them reluctant to add to their payrolls. Thomas A. Kochan, a labor economist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. “There’s not going to be an upsurge in job openings for quite a while, not until employers feel confident the economy is really growing.” The dearth of jobs reflects the caution of many American businesses when no one knows what...

Hey everyone, as a long-standing freeper I am turning to my online friends for some help. I am competing for a new job and as you know the economy sucks and so do job prospects, so please help me out by taking 2 minutes to complete a facebook poll I just published to help me differentiate myself from the rest of the pack. Trust me, the job centers around online outreach so generating 500 or 1000 votes on FB will help immensely. Two minutes of time is all I ask and if I can return the favor just let me...

From its headquarters in a modest office park outside Sunnyvale, Calif., Bridgelux is hoping to spark a revolution in light fixtures for homes and offices across the U.S. It's ready to ramp up production of tiny light-emitting chips that blaze as bright as some incandescent bulbs but consume a fraction of the energy. To meet surging orders for its chips, it's prepared to spend $250 million over three years on gleaming cleanrooms. The question is, where should it put its plants?

I was born in 1948. When I was a kid, everybody had a mom and a dad, and the dad usually worked at a plant. Some days, friends in school would ask to borrow a dime to buy a snack, and it was often because their dad had been laid off. Then a few months later, the same kid had a new baseball mitt after dad was called back to work. The expectation for dads and kids was that people started a job when they finished school, and there you stayed until retirement, always at age 65. We are well...

"We continue to lose manufacturing jobs, government jobs, retail jobs, financial services jobs. The economy continues to contract," Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland More than 2.3 million Americans have lost their jobs since the stimulus went into effect, and that's a big chunk of the 6.9 million jobs that have been lost since the recession started last year. Many economists believe unemployment is a lagging indicator during a recession and is often the last part of the economy to recover. Vice President Joe Biden said last week the stimulus is working better than the administration had...

The economy may be growing again, but employers aren't hiring. Despite an emerging economic expansion, businesses were sufficiently skittish about the future that the job market continued its long, steep decline in August, according to a new government report Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, from 9.4 percent, as employers shed jobs for the 20th straight month, the Labor Department said. The increase was greater than many analysts had forecast, and it undermined hopes that the corporate sector will rapidly rebuild its workforce following the economic trauma of the last year. That in turn could keep a self-sustaining...

Another View: Lock the Law School Doors September 2, 2009, 10:00 am Dan Slater, a former litigator, argues that there are too many places at too many law schools, especially with the current hiring slump at law firms. This summer, in the staid world of legal education, where curriculum is uniform and scholars are trained in the art of like-mindedness, one dean hatched a contrary plan. In a memo to incoming students, Patricia D. White, the dean of University of Miami School of Law, surmised: “Perhaps many of you are looking to law school as a safe harbor in which...

According to their forecast, the unemployment rate will be at 10 percent through 2011. Three years after that, the jobless rate will have dropped only to 8 percent. And a decade from now, that rate will still be floating above 6 percent. Diane Swonk, an economist with Mesirow Financial, said she tends to agree with such bleak forecasts of jobless recoveries. "This is the exact debate that's going on in economics today," she said. "Because we have a severe recession, will we get a nice bounce? Or are we stuck in a period of slow, muted recovery, particularly in the...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported unexpectedly good news this morning, lowering the unemployment rate to 9.4% and noting a net loss of almost a quarter-million jobs in July. Most analysts tracking the weekly data, where an average of 550,000 new jobless claims a week had been the norm, expected a slight increase over June’s 9.5%. The reopening of car plants following the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler may account for the difference: U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to a government report on Friday...

Here's the good news: We have this thread that will keep on growing. Here's the bad news: Not everyone knows about this thread. So, enough of this chit-chat; let's look at jobs and careers. Start here now.

I just received this e-mail from a career website similar to Monster, Hotjobs and Careerbuilder. I'd like to share the contents with FReepers who are looking for jobs in this recessionary period. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Research has shown us that the only hot job market in the U.S. today is the Federal job market. This was illustrated recently when the largest-ever federal job fair the "Partnership for Public Service" has held in Washington D.C. This job fair has grown tremendously over the last few years. For example two years ago there were 1,500 job seekers attending. Last year the number of attendies...

"...Copeland, 53, says he has a 20-year work history in Missoula that includes managing programs, running political campaigns and washing cars. He worked as a personal secretary to actress Andie MacDowell when she lived in the Missoula area."

Yet, we are supposed to believe Obama's projections for the cost and benefits of Health Care or Cap and Tax?The bloom is coming off the rose. Obama's poll numbers continue to slide across the board. Rasmussen's approval index has a gap of -8. Only 48% of those asked to rate his handling of the economy in a CBS July 13 poll approved of Obama's handling of the economy. 44% disapproved. Those trends are likely to worsen for Obama as stories like this one in Time Magazine begin to sink in with the average public which pays little attention to the...

Not long ago, Lorena Dominguez looked forward to the future. She had a well-paid job at the Citroën automobile factory in Vigo, the town in northern Spain where she had grown up. She had recently moved in with her boyfriend Oscar, and had put her own apartment on the market. The two spent their weekends hanging out with friends in Vigo's lively waterfront cafés and were planning to travel this summer. It wasn't a bad life for the 23-year-old daughter of a longshoreman and a housewife. Then came la crisis. Domínguez first began to feel the effects of the recession...

LANSING, Mich., July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Standing united in opposition to a proposed expansion of Michigan's 100 percent employer-financed unemployment insurance system (HBs 4785-86), over 1,000 Michigan job providers, employing hundreds of thousands of workers, recently signed a letter to the State Senate urging defeat of this harmful legislative package.

Unhappy at work? You're not alone. The recession has left a lot of people out of a job, but many of those still employed aren't very happy at the office. That's because layoff survivors are often stuck with increased workloads, fewer benefits and even less pay. But they're staying put -- at least for now. Fifty-four percent of employed Americans plan to look for a new job once the economy rebounds, according to a survey from Adecco Group North America. The sentiment is even stronger among younger workers. Of those ages 18-29, 71% say they are likely to look for...

WASHINGTON — Friday's better-than-expected employment report from the Labor Department gave another sign that the U.S. economy may be bottoming out, but the jump in the unemployment rate is a reminder for millions of Americans that the outlook for jobs will remain bleak for some time.

Tips for older job seekers Update and rejuvenate: Spruce up your resume by keeping it short and emphasizing skills and achievements instead of the length of your experience. Be aware of your health and appearance. Recruiters can sense depression and illness. And a look that is too stylish or too dowdy can ruin a first impression. Your age is not the focus: Don't distract yourself with suspicions of age discrimination; keep a positive, confident attitude. Keep your college graduation dates off your resume and avoid discussing activities that might date you. If you seem overqualified, recruiters might make assumptions about...

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Laura Leiva is a fixture in front of the Palm Beach County courthouse. For seven years she has been selling hot dogs while studying to be a parlegal. But the vendors have been told their business is cutting into downtown sandwich shops. In May they say,they'll be ordered to leave public property and set up somewhere else. Lauras ready to trade in her cart, but there are no paralegal jobs.

<p>The Obama Administration has been dealt a terrible hand - perhaps the worst to any incoming team since 1933. A certain measure of appreciation for the difficulties they face is warranted.</p> <p>However, even some of the new President's most committed supporters - including business giants like Andy Grove and Warren Buffet - believe that he is trying to do too much, and thereby jeopardizing his chance of restarting this economy and making it stronger.</p>

It is a bit like speed-dating for America's jobhunters. Attendees at a "pink slip party" in Los Angeles, California Few party-goers will leave with even an interview At a trendy bar in Los Angeles, they queue to get in - smartly-dressed professionals, all looking for the right connection. "The best thing I could come out with is a job offer," a young woman says hopefully. An older man laments: "Opportunity has always come knocking on my door. For the first time in my life, no-one's knocking." "You have to try and stay upbeat," says another man, unemployed since his own...

President Obama said Monday that "only government" can shake the country out of recession, as he tried to settle doubts about his administration's costly economic recovery package during a prime-time press conference. Obama painted a bleak picture of the state of the economy, as he described scenes "across America" in which job-seekers are standing in long lines for scarce opportunities at employment

The Book of Job is one of the treasures of the Bible. It reveals a truth about authentic spirituality to every age. The background of the Book is a dispute between Satan, whom the New Testament rightly refers to as the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10), and God. Satan contends that Job served God for what He got from Him not for who God is. How rampant is this kind of self interested service of God in some of the Christian circles in our own time? How many self styled teachers seek to reduce Christian living to formulas? At...

IBM employees being laid off in North America now have an alternative to joining the growing ranks of the unemployed - work for the company abroad. Big Blue is offering its outgoing workers in the United States and Canada a chance to take an IBM job in India, Nigeria, Russia or other countries.

UP TO 11,000 JOBS MAY GO AT GE CAPITAL By PAUL THARP January 17, 2009 -- Jeff Immelt is swinging the sharpest ax of his career at General Electric and may cut as many as 11,000 workers from the payroll at the conglomerate's finance arm. The average paycheck for the disappearing jobs at GE Capital is $175,000 and is part of Immelt's mission to slash expenses at the division by $2 billion in 2009. GE Capital had enjoyed a long, profitable run as one of the world's most far-reaching financial firms, involved in everything from bankrolling jet airline fleets and...

Check here every day for new additions http://geo.craigslist.org/ http://www.monster.com/ http://www.indeed.com/ http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ http://www.careerbuilder.com/ http://www.dice.com/ http://www.jobbankusa.com/ http://www.vault.com/ http://www.job.com/

An unemployed Sacramento man has taken his job search to the streets. Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Healey wore a signboard listing his employment qualifications as he stood on a downtown sidewalk Friday near the Sacramento Convention Center. Healey called the tactic a "hail Mary" pass after six months of searching help-wanted ads produced only a handful of job interviews. He said he had 10 years of business management experience. The California Employment Development Department announced Friday that Healey has plenty of company. The state's unemployment rate rose to 8.4 percent in November, up from 8.2 percent in October.

Losing your job at home? Apply for a job in the Obama administration! What kind of job do you want there? Go to this site to overwhelm the folks with job requests: http://change.gov/page/s/application

I spoke out about all the Obama rhetoric spouted by my co-workers, now I'm out of a job.