Jobs Online Fall in June

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate rose 0.1 percent in June from May’s 9.4 percent to 9.5 percent. Considering the increase in joblessness across the country, it makes sense that there were fewer job listings advertised online during the month.

The Monster Employment Index, put out by job search giant Monster.com, dropped one percentage point in June. This means that there was a small decline in the number of jobs online last month. According to a recent press release from Monster, this loss of advertised positions was expected.

Job markets across the country have seasonal trends. On average, online recruitment slows during the month of June. Businesses that increase their staff during the summer months, such as employers in the leisure and hospitality industry, have already completed the majority of their hiring. Add to this the fact that places like school districts have not begun to hire new employees and you have a large part of the reason hiring is slower during the month of June.

According to Monster Worldwide, the year-over-year decline in jobs listed online that has been noted since the onset of the nationally experienced recession is showing some signs of slowing. Currently, the Index is down 28 percent, which is a note-worthy improvement from the rate of decline experienced in April and May.

“While U.S. online job availability has remained largely flat since January, the annual pace improved during the second quarter, suggesting some expansion in underlying employer demand for workers,” said senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Monster Worldwide Jesse Harriott in the company’s recent report. “Still, current levels of online job vacancies are at their lowest since January 2005, illustrating the extent to which hiring has slowed during this recession.”

Monster fond that online job availability increased in 8 of the 20 industry sectors monitored by the Index and 12 of the 23 occupational categories during the month of June. The largest increase in jobs listed online occurred in the real estate, rental and leasing area of employment. Representatives from Monster believe this shows signs that the industry is beginning to stabilize.

According to the report, the increased data in this area of employment occurred around the same time as the National Association of Realtors put out improved statistics on residential sales. This shows that the housing sector might be registering an increase in activity.

As far as occupations monitored by Monster go, the legal and protective services showed the greatest increase in jobs online. During the same period, Monster noted ease in demand for technically skilled positions.

According to Monster, the states with the largest of number of jobs online in relation to their populations were: 1.) Alaska 2.) Maryland 3.) Vermont 4.) Delaware 5.) Rhode Island 6.) Montana 7.) Virginia 8.) Connecticut 9.) Massachusetts and 10.) Wyoming.

Construction Project Means New Hospital Jobs

While many industries across the nation are practically bleeding jobs, the healthcare sector has continued to provide new employment opportunities. Despite this, hospital jobs have struggled in some areas as a result of a lack of funds. This means that any news of large scale hiring occurring in these facilities is a rather big deal for this area of employment in the sector.

According to a recent press release, Cogdell Spencer ERDMAN just signed a $88.8 million worth of contracts in Janesville, Wisconsin for designing and building onto existing hospitals in the area. This, of course, means new healthcare jobs after the facilities are completed.

After these two projects are completed they will make way for 500 new hospital jobs. Aside from these direct positions, the facilities will create indirect jobs and bring money to an area where the economy has been struggling for some time.

Of the $88.8 million, one contract is for $53.9 million and is for St. Mary’s Janesville Hospital with SSM Health Care of Wisconsin, Inc. and another is for $34.9 million with Dean Janesville Clinic with Dean Health Systems, Inc. Both of the projects are expected to begin in the third quarter of the year and should be completed sometime during the latter part of 2011.

The St. Mary’s project will take place on the new medical campus, which is located at the I90/I39 and Hwy 11 interchange in Janesville. The hospital design plans says that it will be a 160,000 square foot facility with special attention placed on creating spaces that are geared toward patient, caregiver, and family interactions. Upon completion it will be a multi-story facility including; 50 private patient rooms, an ER, imaging, laboratory, intensive care unity, six operating rooms, family birthing center, a sleep study center, administrative offices, a dinning area and an entry lobby.

The Dean Clinic will be four stories, focusing on outpatient care. Altogether it will be 150,000 square feet including; retail spaces, an urgent care center, a primary care center, a specialty care, an eye care center, a mental health facility, a pharmacy and several other important spaces.

Together these facilities will guarantee that better health care is available to the residents of Janesville, WI.

"We are very excited to be working with two healthcare systems so dedicated to bringing the highest level of quality, integrated delivery, innovation and patient focused care to the market," said Cogdell Spencer ERDMAN’s president Scott Ransom in the recent press release.
In order to come up with the plans and design for both the hospital and clinic projects, Cogdell collaborated with Shepley Bulfinch of Boston, MA.

Job Listings Continue to Fall in May

The national unemployment rate continued to rise is June, increasing 0.1 percent from May's 9.4 percent to 9.5 percent. This marked the 9th consecutive month of growing joblessness. Considering this, it is no surprise that job listings and other indicators showed further signs of decline during the month.

According to a recent report from the Conference Board, its Employment Trends Index (ETI) saw another moderate decline in June. Last month it lost 0.8 percentage points, falling from May's 89.1 to 88.4. Currently the Index is down 21.6 percent from the same month last year.

"Compared to the beginning of the year, the decline in the Employment Trends Index has significantly moderated, and we therefore expect job growth to resume around the end of the year," said The Conference Board's Senior Economist Gad Levanon in the press release. "However, over the last month, leading indicators of employment were mostly disappointing, suggesting the Employment Trends Index is still seeking a bottom."

During the month of June the indicators the Conference Board utilizes to create its ETI reported a mixed picture, which is why the decline was only moderate. Indicators that showed decline included: the percentage of respondents that they find "jobs hard to get", the number of employees in the temporary-help industry, industrial production, real manufacturing and trade sales and job openings.

The Employment Trends Index uses eight separate labor-market indicators, all of which have been found to be accurate in their own right. Afterwards, these areas are combined to give a better picture of the current hiring situation. By doing this, the Conference Board is able to get a better picture of whether or not the number of job listings and other factors affecting the job market are actually declining. It also enables them to see what the trends really are.

The eight areas that come together to create the index are: the percentage of people polled who say that finding a job is difficult (The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey), Claims for Unemployment Insurance (U.S. Department of Labor), the number of employees hired on a temporary basis (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), the percentage of firms that are not able to fill positions at the time (National Federation of Independent Business), the number of people hired by temp agencies (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), part-time workers hired for Economic Reasons (BLS), job listings (BLS), Industrial Production (Federal Reserve Board) and Real Manufacturing and Trade Sales (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

The Conference Board will be releasing its next Employment Trends Index at 10:00 am on August 10th. This report will highlight the condition of July's job market. The Conference Board releases its ETI each month on the Monday after the Friday that the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its employment situation report.

Visual Job Ads On HealthcareJobsOnDisplay.com

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are many cities throughout this nation where the only regularly occurring employment growth is in the healthcare industry. While others are struggling to find work, professionals in this sector continue to have options. For many in healthcare, the big question is which job search site to use.

A new Web site, HealthcareJobsOnDisplay.com, hopes to answer this question. Launched on the 13th of this month, the creators of this site put almost a year into its preparation, research, design, development, programming and testing.

Since many studies have found that the average Internet user is more drawn to visual images than they are words by themselves, HealthcareJobsOnDisplay.com has decided to market job listings as graphic ads. According to a recent press release, the company believes this benefits employers in two different ways. Not only are they able to advertise their available jobs, but they also have the chance to make their personal brand visible.

These highly visible ads make searching for a healthcare job easier. More information is available in a format that is easily processed by the human eyes, which means that the days of having to squint at small print on a computer screen are over.

"Our search function is the most important piece of the puzzle and we wanted to be different, not like every other job board out there, so we made sure that Branded, Creative, Display ads populate from the 1st search and it's all right there initially so employers have a chance to stand out, right out of the box. Employers and candidates will notice a difference right away from the very 1st search," said Ron Feldstein, founder and president of HealthcareJobsOnDisplay.com, in the recent press release. "We strived to create a unique, truly functional website and I we've done it."

Feldstein went on to say that with so many job boards competing online, it is important for a newcomer to find their niche and remain unique.

"To my knowledge there are no websites out there providing this kind of display ad search capability, and this level of customer service/design services. We are creating each ad individually for every client, which involves copywriting, design, and coordination. Sure it's a lot of work, but our clients and employers have already seen the difference in our approach and they appreciate the effort," said Feldstein.

Although the company has a creative team in place to handle designing ads, employers are able to provide their own cream ready advertisements.

In order to drum up interest in the Web site, HealthcareJobsOnDisplay will give the 1st, 100th, 250th, 500th, 1100th, 1250th, 1500th, 21ooth, 2250th and 2500th job seekers who upload their resumes a $50 gift card. The 1000th, 2000th and 3000th resumes posted will receive a $100 gift card.

Currently, HealthcareJobsOnDispaly handles only employment advertisements for positions located on the East Coast.

Chad and Cheezhead Podcast

This episode, the boys discuss the SHRM Conference, Monster's weak attempt at a feel-good moment, Twitter's role in job search, the mass quantities of duplicate content for jobs on the Web and an update on Jobfox's Rob McGovern.

Louisiana Jobs Supported by Healthcare Initiative

A national effort is underway that could lead to more healthcare workers finding jobs in Louisiana.

The federal government recently announced that it plans to expand investments in pay incentives for doctors and other healthcare professionals to work in Health Professional Shortage Areas throughout the country, including those in Louisiana.

A $200 million initiative by the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program will provide up to $50,000 in tax-free incentive payments to healthcare workers who agree to provide their services for at least two years in areas experiencing healthcare shortages.

Currently there are 170 job openings at National Health Service Corps community sites throughout Louisiana that need to be filled. The NHSC recruits trained workers who agree to provide healthcare services in under-served areas. The program then helps those workers repay educational loans.

Applications are currently being accepted for physicians, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, dentists, dental hygienists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, psychiatric nurse specialists, marriage and family therapists and licensed professional counselors.

“Many Louisianans struggle with access to health care services,” Alan Levine, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, said. “Of the 64 parishes in our state, 53 of them are entirely designated as shortage areas for primary care providers and 10 others are partial shortage areas. This means that 63 of 64 parishes don’t have enough primary care providers.”

On top of that, 60 parishes don't have enough mental health providers and 58 parishes don't have enough dental health care professionals. Of the healthcare providers in the state, 53 are currently participating in the NHSC Loan Repayment Program.

In order to be accepted, applicants must work at an NHSC community site; participate in Medicaid, Medicare and state children's health insurance programs; accept all patients regardless of ability to pay; and commit to two years of full-time outpatient clinic service.