US weekly jobless claims up 19,000; continuing claims at over 2-yr high

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- The number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance rose above expectations in the latest week while continuing claims for unemployment climbed to its highest level in over two years, the Labor Department said today.The number of first-time claims filed in the week ending Feb 23 rose by 19,000 to 373,000 from an upwardly revised 354,000 claims in the previous week. That's well above the 350,000 claims economists polled by Thomson's IFR Markets had expected.The unexpected increase in initial claims 'is a move towards levels providing a signal indicating recession,' said Joseph Brusuelas of IDEAglobal.'The level of claims this week now matches the four-week average recorded at the end of February 2001, immediately before the recession began in March,' said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.But Richard Iley of BNP Paribas (OOTC:BPRBF) said the level of initial jobless claims are 'still surprisingly low,' adding that 'historically, weekly claims of around the 400,000 level have been associated with recession and negative non-farm payroll prints.'The Labor Department also reported that the four-week moving average for initial claims decreased by 1,250 to 360,500.Economists prefer the four week moving average because it smoothes out fluctuations in the weekly data.For the week ending Feb 16, the number of individuals continuing to receive unemployment insurance rose by 21,000 to 2.807 mln from an upwardly revised 2.786 mln claims in the previous week. That's above the 2.800 mln claims economists were expecting and the highest level since October 2005.The four-week moving average for continuing claims increased 24,250 to 2.778 mln, the highest level since October 2005.'The continuing claim data is consistent with a strong 5.0 pct rate of unemployment with a risk to the upside for the February payroll period,' Brusuelas said.Rising continuing claims 'suggests that it is becoming more difficult for people who have lost their job to find new employment,' said economists from Bear Stearns. (NYSE:BSC) 'Jobs are a clue about what happens with the economy' and while this week's jobless claims numbers indicate softening, 'I don't think its going to change the dollar's direction,' said Meg Browne of Brown Brothers Harriman.

Kill the HR Speak

The HR profession has managed to create a bewildering array of meaningless terms. When you’re in the realm of HR strategy, it is nearly impossible to read an article or view a PowerPoint that isn’t littered with terms like “business partner,” “seat at the table,” “organizational alignment” or “balanced scorecard.” Every function within the HR profession deserves some level of credit for creating confusion. These terms often emerge when corporate leaders are fed up and want something different, a situation that can lead HR leaders to re-brand the same old approaches and tools under a different name: “talent management” becomes “human capital management,” for example.

Why is the proliferation of HR speak a problem? To begin with, it builds a language wall between us and the rest of the business. If you’ve ever sat with a CEO during executive committee meetings, you’ll note that most executives have a relatively limited vocabulary. It often includes “hard” and easily measurable words like “profit,” “stock price,” “ROI” and “market share.” Executives also use a quantifiable language, one which is primarily made up of numbers and dollars. HR practitioners, in contrast, use in their presentations and conversations “soft” terminology like “emotional intelligence,” “work/life balance” and “empowerment.” These are almost totally devoid of numbers and dollars. And because it so often amounts to Orwellian doublespeak, HR speak causes a great deal of anxiety and confusion among both managers and employees.

Full article here: http://www.workforce.com/section/01/feature/25/37/75/index.html

Top Jobs In 10 Industries

By Anthony Balderrama
Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com.Soon after you begin searching for a job, you might realize how many more opportunities are available than you initially thought. Information technology jobs like computer engineers and network systems analysts have high rates of growth.For some job seekers, it's a welcome discovery because they now have more choices. For others, it means they have to sift through more job posts to see what best suits them.Of the many factors you use to narrow down your search, such as salary and qualifications, one you should consider is projected job growth.A field that will experience an increase in demand and in newly created positions in the coming years means more stability. You don't want to switch to a new career only to be downsized shortly after you start.To help your search, we've put together a list of the top industries and the five hottest jobs in each, along with their median salaries. These jobs will experience strong growth and be in great demand for the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).Information technology1. Network systems and data communications analysts Projected growth by 2016: 53 percent Median annual salary: $64,600*2. Computer applications software engineers Projected growth by 2016: 45 percent Median annual salary: $79,7803. Database administrators Projected growth by 2016: 29 percent Median annual salary: $64,6704. Computer systems software engineers Projected growth by 2016: 28 percent Median annual salary: $85,3705. Network and computer systems administrators Projected growth by 2016: 27 percent Median annual salary: $62,130Service occupations1. Home health aides Projected growth by 2016: 49 percent Median annual salary: $19,4202. Makeup artists, theatrical and performance Projected growth by 2016: 40 percent Median annual salary: $31,8203. Medical assistants Projected growth: 35 percent Median annual salary: $26,2904. Skin care specialists Projected growth by 2016: 34 percent Median annual salary: $26,1705. Dental assistants Projected growth by 2016: 29 percent Median annual salary: $30,220Business and financial operations1. Personal financial advisors Projected growth by 2016: 41 percent Median annual salary: $66,1202. Financial analysts Projected growth by 2016: 34 percent Median annual salary: $66,5903. Management analysts Projected growth by 2016: 22 percent Median annual salary: $68,0504. Meeting and convention planners Projected growth by 2016: 20 percent Median annual salary: $42,1805. Cost estimators Projected growth by 2016: 19 percent Median annual salary: $52,940Health diagnosing and treating occupations1. Veterinarians Projected growth by 2016: 35 percent Median annual salary: $71,9902. Physician assistants Projected growth by 2016: 27 percent Median annual salary: $74,9803. Physical therapists Projected growth by 2016: 27 percent Median annual salary: $66,2004. Radiation therapists Projected growth by 2016: 25 percent Median annual salary: $66,1705. Registered nurses Projected growth by 2016: 23 percent Median annual salary: $57,280Education1. Preschool teachers, except special education Projected growth by 2016: 26 percent Median annual salary: $22,6802. Postsecondary teachers Projected growth by 2016: 23 percent Median annual salary: $56,1203. Self-enrichment education teachers Projected growth by 2016: 23 percent Median annual salary: $33,4404. Instructional coordinators Projected growth by 2016: 22 percent Median annual salary: $52,7905. Special education teachers, preschool, kindergarten and elementary school Projected growth by 2016: 20 percent Median annual salary: $46,360Sales1. Securities, commodities and financial services sales agents Projected growth by 2016: 25 percent Median annual salary: $68,5002. Counter and rental clerks Projected growth by 2016: 23 percent Median annual salary: $19,5703. Advertising sales agents Projected growth by 2016: 20 percent Median annual salary: $42,7504. Demonstrators and product promoters Projected growth by 2016: 18 percent Median annual salary: $22,1505. Sales representatives, wholesale and manufacturing, technical and scientific products Projected growth by 2016: 12 percent Median annual salary: $64,440Art and design1. Multimedia artists and animators Projected growth by 2016: 26 percent Median annual salary: $51,3502. Interior designers Projected growth by 2016: 19 percent Median annual salary: $42,2603. Fine artists, including painters, sculptors and illustrators Projected growth by 2016: 10 percent Median annual salary: $41,9704. Graphic designers Projected growth by 2016: 10 percent Median annual salary: $39,9005. Art directors Projected growth by 2016: 9 percent Median annual salary: $39,900Office and administrative support1. Customer service representatives Projected growth by 2016: 25 percent Median annual salary: $28,3302. Bill and account collectors Projected growth by 2016: 23 percent Median annual salary: $29,0503. Brokerage clerks Projected growth by 2016: 20 percent Median annual salary: $36,3904. Medical secretaries Projected growth: 17 percent Median annual salary: $28,0905. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants Projected growth by 2016: 15 percent Median annual salary: $37,240Installation, maintenance and repair occupations1. Medical equipment repairers Projected growth by 2016: 22 percent Median annual salary: $40,5802. Automotive glass installers and repairers Projected growth by 2016: 19 percent Median annual salary: $30,7203. Motorboat mechanics Projected growth by 2016: 19 percent
Median annual salary: $33,2104. Automotive service technicians and mechanics Projected growth by 2016: 14 percent
Median annual salary: $33,7805. Mobile heavy equipment mechanics, except engines Projected growth by 2016: 12 percent
Median annual salary: $40,440Construction1. Construction and building inspectors Projected growth by 2016: 18 percent
Median annual salary: $46,5702. Tile and marble setters Projected growth by 2016: 15 percent Median annual salary: $36,5903. Boilermakers Projected growth by 2016: 14 percent Median annual salary: $46,9604. Roofers Projected growth by 2016: 14 percent Median annual salary: $32,2605. Reinforcing iron and rebar workers Projected growth by 2016: 12 percent Median annual salary: $38,220

Shaky Economy Signals Opportunity To Refine Online Job-Hunting Skills

In a shaky economy, are you hoping to find a new job?
Even if you're tech-savvy, you may need to fine-tune your approach in today's quickly changing job market, experts say.
"There is a growing tendency, especially among younger job seekers, to turn to the Internet when they need to find a new job," said Gad Levanon, an economist at the Conference Board.
Sure, the Internet makes it easy to find and apply for jobs. But it also makes it easy for other applicants to compete for the same position.
At Monster.com MNST, potential candidates applied for 107 million positions and posted 16.4 million new resumes -- an average of 40,000 a day -- during the past year. Rival CareerBuilder.com lists more than 1.5 million jobs each month and works with more than 300,000 employers, including 93% of the Fortune 500.
Initially, these sites focused on management positions. But they have broadened their reach to a wider range of job categories encompassing everything from advertising to zoology.
While convenient, the influx of these new job sites creates new challenges for job hunters.
Security is a big one. Last summer, hackers attacked Monster.com and stole the personal details of several hundred thousand users -- names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other information.
And in November, hackers embedded malicious software into Monster's Company Boulevard pages, a section of the site designed to help job seekers research companies. Instead, the code turned visitors' PCs into remote-controlled zombies to deliver spam and malware.
The attack affected employment ads for a number of major brands, including Eddie Bauer EBHI, GMAC (NYSE:GM) Mortgage, Best Buy BBY, Toyota Financial TM and Tri Counties Bank.
Another challenge is finding the right job among all the clutter.
The Conference Board reported that online job sites had 4,270,000 listings in September. Sorting through all of them can be a full-time job in itself.
To make matters worse, the low cost of placing an ad makes them easy to forget. Some employers leave the listing up long after they've filled the position.
The first step in sifting through the mire is narrowing your search.
Start by searching the major job databases using keywords to describe the preferred position and other variables such as salary range and location.
Job-search engines from companies such as Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, Juju.com and JustPosted.com compile listings from all the major job sites, capture new job postings and tailor the results to individual users.
Another way to narrow searches is by using job-hunting sites that target particular industries or regions.
"One recent change has been the growing popularity of regional job sites," said the Conference Board's Levanon. Regional sites list fewer positions than the megasites but offer more-targeted selections.
Jobs.com breaks all of its listings down by geographic area. JobCircle.com offers jobs in the Mid-Atlantic area exclusively.
Other sites focus on particular industries: Jupitermedia's JUPM Mediabistro lists positions in the publishing industry, while Chicago Computer Guider lists technology positions in that city.
Again, these sites don't have as many listings as the larger sites. But for certain job seekers, they'll have just the right ones. Newstex ID: IBD-0001-23168690
Originally published in the February 21, 2008 version of Investor's Business Daily.

What It Takes To Be Great

The following is an excerpt from the article, "What It Takes To Be Great" published in Fortune magazine.

"The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call deliberate practice. It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice."

Simply hitting your minimum activity numbers is not deliberate practice, which is why most sales reps don't get any better. Picking up the phone 175 times each day with a goal of setting 6 appointments and running three appointments 75 percent of the time, continually observiing results and making appropriate adjustments - that's deliberate practice.

Link to full article:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/10/30/8391794/index.htm

Fed Sees Economic Slowdown

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve cut its growth forecast for the economy and said it sees higher unemployment for the rest of 2008.
The central bank said it now sees the economy growing at a rate between 1.3 to 2% this year, down from its previous forecast from October of growth between 1.8% and 2.5% for 2008.
The Fed also said it expects the unemployment rate for the year to be between 5.2% and 5.3%, up from the 4.8 % to 4.9% range previously given.
This gloomier forecast, which was hinted at by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in testimony to the Senate Banking Committee last week, was released along with the minutes from the Fed's two meetings it held in January.
The Fed slashed interest rates twice last month in an attempt to ward off a recession. It cut rates by three-quarters of a percentage point on January 22 following an emergency meeting the day before and followed that with a half-point cut on January 30.
According to the minutes from the emergency meeting, at least one member argued the Fed should wait until its regularly scheduled meeting later that month to announce a rate cut.
"Some concern was expressed that an immediate policy action could be misinterpreted as directed at recent declines in stock prices, rather than the broader economic outlook," read the minutes.
This meeting took place while U.S. markets were closed for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. But overseas markets were experiencing a steep sell-off that day, fueling fears that stocks would plunge on Wall Street when the U.S. markets resumed trading on January 22.

Will Microsoft's Proxy Threat Force Yahoo!'s Hand?

Despite considering a number of potential alternatives to a takeover by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) in recent weeks, Yahoo! Inc.'s (YHOO) options appear to be down to accepting the software maker's $41 billion takeover offer, returning to the bargaining table in hopes of drawing a modestly higher bid, or succumbing to a long and potentially ugly proxy contest.
That's the assessment of many analysts and corporate governance experts following media reports that Microsoft would not increase its offer for the Sunnyvale, Calif., Internet media company, and is gearing up to take control of Yahoo!'s board of directors. All 10 of Yahoo!'s board members are up for re-election at the company's next annual meeting. Microsoft must nominate its slate of candidates by March 13.
Analysts said Microsoft's move to threaten a proxy fight could be enough to force Yahoo! to enter deal talks, especially if the Internet company fails to make progress in arranging other deals. The company has been linked to transactions including mergers with News Corp. (NWS) subsidiary MySpace and Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) AOL.
"No board wants to be forcibly extracted," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst with Enderle Group, a San Jose, Calif., technology consulting firm.
Paul Lapides, director of the Corporate Governance Center at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Ga., emphasized that the mere threat of a proxy battle could be a powerful negotiating tool for Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft winning Yahoo! at its original offer price.
"Part of this is really just a matter of how do you get people to sit down and talk and get to a reasonable agreement," Lapides said, calling Microsoft's talk of a governance fight "another tactic to get it closer to the finish line."
This does not mean Microsoft will hesitate to carry through with its threat, but it does increase the chances that Yahoo! will reconsider its current position opposing the Microsoft offer. "It is easier to negotiate before you have dissident shareholders on your board," said Lapides who added, "Yahoo! is not against selling."
Since Microsoft made its unsolicited $31 per share offer for Yahoo! three weeks ago, there has been a strong sense that the software giant would ultimately prevail, given that the price it offered was a 60% premium over Yahoo!'s share price and that the latter faces a challenging year amid a budding recession, which is expected to damp online advertising revenues.
Another key issue affecting a possible proxy challenge is the significant shareholder overlap between the two companies. Capital Research & Management Co. is the top institutional shareholder in both companies, owning 2.7% of Microsoft shares and 11.4% of Yahoo!'s stock. Several of Yahoo!'s other top institutional shareholders, including Vanguard Group Inc., Barclays Global Investors, State Street Global Advisors and Fidelity Management & Research Co., are also Microsoft investors.
In a report issued last week, RiskMetrics Group (RMG) noted that this overlap in ownership could favor Microsoft because they were likely to be more concerned about Microsoft overpaying for Yahoo! than they are interested in Yahoo! fetching an even higher premium.

Microsoft's stock has fallen from $32.60 before its bid was announced on Feb. 1 to $28.42 on Tuesday on concern over the challenges of absorbing struggling Yahoo!.
Although Microsoft continues to hold the advantage, governance experts noted the difficulty of overhauling a company's board, even when the business is struggling and needs a change. One such expert, who asked not to be named, said Microsoft must come up with a qualified board slate that can pass muster with all the proxy solicitation firms that review these contests and make recommendations.
"It will still be incumbent on Microsoft to demonstrate that their bid offers good value," he said.