General

March Unemployment Update

April 5, 2014 by Tim McMahon

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly report on Friday April 4th for the month of March. In it the adjusted U-3 unemployment rate and the unadjusted U-3 were very similar at 6.7% and 6.8% respectively. In an effort to provide unbiased data, Gallup poll’s conduct a similar survey also on a monthly basis, but the Gallup numbers don’t always agree with the government numbers. See our BLS vs Gallup comparison chart to see how well the two rates compare. See BLS vs Gallup unemployment comparison.

	Adjusted	Unadjusted
BLS	6.7%	6.8%
Gallup	7.4%	7.5%
Difference	0.7%	0.7%

Current U.S. Unemployment Rate

According to the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, [Read more…] about March Unemployment Update

Job Related Cancer Risks

December 21, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Over the years one of the highest risks of exposure to hazardous chemicals has been in the work environment. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has developed a list of the top priority substances to be aware of. This priority list is not a list of “most toxic” substances, but rather a prioritization of substances based on a combination of their frequency, toxicity, and potential for human exposure. The complete CDC list contains 275 substances including Arsenic, Lead, Mercury, Benzene, Cyanide and Asbestos.

The difference between most of these chemicals and asbestos is the way it affects your body. Most chemicals are absorbed and then cause problems as they travel through your bloodstream. The problem with asbestos on the other hand is that the little fibers get inhaled and stuck in your lungs and eventually they can cause a problem called Mesothelioma. [Read more…] about Job Related Cancer Risks

Job Hunting: 5 Great Ways to Attract Prospective Employers

October 3, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Getting the job you want can be tough, even in the best of times. So what can you do to maximize your job search success? These five industry insider secrets will help you stand out from the crowd, and can even bring potential employers straight to you.

1. Keyword Optimize Your Resume

In an age of internet marketing and search engine optimization, even your resume should be easily searchable. In a competitive market where as many as several hundred qualified applicants are competing for the same job opening, employers are increasingly turning to computer algorithms to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Of course, it’s a terrible idea to keyword-stuff your resume; however, thinking about terms that employers might be searching for is an easy way to bring potential employers straight to your doorstep.

2. Stop Chasing Job Postings

The first stop for most job seekers is typically [Read more…] about Job Hunting: 5 Great Ways to Attract Prospective Employers

10 Reasons You Should be Blogging

September 5, 2013 by Guest Contributor

No experience is necessary to become a blogger. So, if you enjoy writing and have a lot to say – what are you waiting for? It could open up a lot of doors…

Here are 10 reasons why you should enter the blogosphere.

1. You can use it as your new CV

Your blog can act as your CV to showcase what you can do by highlighting your skills and capabilities. You never know who might be looking at it – perhaps a potential employer or recruiter? [Read more…] about 10 Reasons You Should be Blogging

The Internet: An Economic Ecosystem for Exciting Job Growth

August 8, 2013 by Guest Contributor

An enormous amount of money changes hands online every day… The Internet plays host to a huge variety of economic activity, from online purchases to electronic banking. Until recently, the economic impact and potential of the Internet had not been studied much. However, in 2011, a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute revealed just how big a role the Internet plays in economies around the world.

The McKinsey research looked at the impact of the Internet on the G-8 nations of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the UK and US plus some emerging nations, including Brazil, China, South Korea and India.

The findings of the report were surprising. Although it had been clear that online activities contribute economically to most countries’ GDP, the extent of the Internet’s economic value was revealed to be much greater than predicted. The average contribution made by the Internet to a country’s GDP was 3.4 percent. To put this result into perspective, online economic activity now makes up a larger portion of total GDP than the energy sector or agriculture.

Internet Creates Jobs

The other big finding from the McKinsey report is that the economic impact of the Internet is [Read more…] about The Internet: An Economic Ecosystem for Exciting Job Growth

Teaching Teens The Importance Of Workplace Safety

August 7, 2013 by Guest Contributor

When your teen goes off to their first day at work it’s an exciting prospect, inviting feelings of pride and worry similar to that you had when they first went to school. Going off to a summer job can be exciting but it can also be dangerous. Teens should be aware of the risks and cautious on their new job.

ID-10018659 — Even Working with Pets can be Dangerous

Some surveys have established that up to 80% of American teenagers have had at least one job by the time they leave high school. Worryingly, other figures suggest that there is about a 3% annual incidence of non-fatal injuries in American industry overall but some jobs like firefighting and foundry work can have as high as 13% annual incidence of injuries. Fortunately not many teens are firefighters or work in a foundry.

However, other less obviously dangerous jobs are often taken by teenagers including pet and pet supply stores which average 10.3 injuries per 100 workers… which is just under the 10.9 injuries per 100 workers at an Iron Foundry. Equally dangerous is mobile home, travel trailer and camper manufacturing. Even more dangerous are Skiing facilities at 11.5 injuries per 100 workers. You might not think ice manufacturing would be dangerous but the annual injury rate is 11.9%.

Even if your teen just works in a store like Lowes or Home Depot there could be [Read more…] about Teaching Teens The Importance Of Workplace Safety

Although He Swept Floors Joe Knew the Key to Success

February 14, 2013 by Guest Contributor

If you are a young person seeking a job or a “better job” this article by Dennis Miller gives you some critical advice on the activities and attitudes that will allow you to get ahead in today’s world.

“The key to success is so simple. I can’t understand why more people don’t catch on. Working hard is only part of it. The key to success is responsibility. The more responsibility you have, the more successful you will become. “

How to get more responsibility?

“All you have to do is do your job and watch your boss. You will quickly find there are parts of his job he either hates or does poorly. People normally won’t give you responsibility. You just take the job and start doing it, and soon the responsibility is yours.”

How do you know what jobs he hates?

“You will know what they are; listen to what he complains about in the lunchroom. Ask him about it, and volunteer to help.”

Joe, Knew

At one time in my life, I was fortunate enough to have a very interesting mentor named Joe. He was in his early thirties, with a track record the envy of men twice his age. When he was in high school, he got a part-time job at a corrugated-box plant. It was owned by a large chain with production facilities all over the country.

Joe started by sweeping floors after school. He was a likable young man sweeping floors in a heavily unionized shop, being paid by the hour. His general manager was named Rico, the son of an Italian immigrant.

Rico had a typical office for the time: a private door and large window so he could observe the production floor. Joe finished his sweeping and asked Rico if he wanted him to wash all the finger marks off his office windows. It wasn’t long before Joe was responsible for the floors, office windows, and many other special tasks that Rico assigned him.

When Joe got out of high school, he enrolled in [Read more…] about Although He Swept Floors Joe Knew the Key to Success

Occupational Stress and How It Affects You

November 21, 2012 by Guest Contributor

Occupational Stress = Lack of Control

People who experience stress at the workplace say they feel overwhelmed by their demanding jobs and feel they have little or no control over them. In fact, that is the main issue when it comes to stress: control. If you have control over something there is little chance for it to affect you negatively. If you do not have control over your job, you are not only not doing it properly, but you’re also letting it get to you and you can end up being stressed and feeling under pressure. European studies on a quarter of a million people yielded some startling results: occupational stress increases the risk of heart attacks and deaths occurred due to heart disease by 25%.

The interesting find is that apparently people working a lower skilled job are more prone to developing job strain than those who have a higher skilled one. For examples lawyers experience less stress than a factory worker in charge of a machine. This is connected to the concept of freedom. How? Well, researchers have observed that occupational stress develops in people who don’t have the freedom to make any decisions in their line of work. Once you have that, you get feedback and are motivated by the things that happen after you’ve made the decision. Someone who is just executing some tasks is more likely to get frustrated and stressed by the lack of freedom and control.

Occupational Stress Management

Doctors say that if you have a stressful job, you could reduce the risk of developing a stress-related illness by choosing a healthier lifestyle. It goes without saying that you should not be smoking – if you are, there are ways you could give up without adding more stress, such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) – nicotine patches, nicotine gum and even electronic cigarettes. Exercise regularly, eat little or no red meat and have fun, go out with your friends, take long vacation is your job lets you and have a hobby. The key is to have a life outside work and not let work be your life.

Bottom line, if you have a stressful job that you simply can’t handle, look for another job giving you more control or try to work with your current boss to see if you can control some aspects of your current position. If you’re feeling up to it, go for a career change and become a licensed practicing nurse (do a quick search of lpn online and see what comes up), or an electrical technician or some other position that matches your skills and desires– the world is your oyster.

Your Credit Score During Unemployment

November 19, 2012 by Donald Turner

Your credit score

is one of the most important factors that lenders look at when deciding whether or not they will extend credit to you. Therefore, it is important that you try to maintain a credit score that is as high as possible. But with unemployment remaining at all-time highs around the nation, many are worried about what will happen to their credit score if they lose their job. But there are ways to maintain your current credit score and even improve it while you’re looking for a job.

Losing Your Job Doesn’t Affect Your Credit Score

There are a few different factors that affect your credit score: your payment history, amounts owed, length of credit history, and type of credit used. While creditors may consider your current income or employment history in their credit granting process, being unemployed will not, in itself lower your credit score. This is because your income level or current occupation doesn’t come into play when credit bureaus calculate your score. Rather, it is what you do with your credit, whether you are working or not, that will be important.

Making Your Payments on Time is Important

Being late on your payments will be reported on your credit file and therefore cause your score to go down. As such, you should strive to continue to make your monthly payments on time even if you lose your job. And this is precisely why you need an emergency fund of 3 to 6 months expenses. This way you can continue to make your payments while you look for a job. If you find that your current income doesn’t allow you to make all of your payments, contact your creditors to try and work out a solution. In some cases, they will agree to modify your monthly payments, reduce your interest rate, or even allow you to make your payment later than the regular due date.

One thing to avoid above all is having accounts canceled for non-payment and sent to collections. Even if you do pay off the bad debt after it’s been sent to a collections agency, the derogatory information will remain on your file for seven years.

Avoid Using too Much of Your Credit

When you’re unemployed, it may be tempting to use credit cards to make more of your purchases, thinking that you will be able to pay off the debt later on when you start working again. Even if this is true, this can have a negative effect on your credit score.

One of the factors involved [Read more…] about Your Credit Score During Unemployment

Are You Ready to Start a Small Business?

November 17, 2012 by Melanie Bayon

Start a Small Business-

So, you have a great idea to start a small business, but you’re not sure if you’ve taken all the steps you need to in order to make your business a success?

Many people get to the “great idea” stage, but can’t get beyond that because they don’t know where to go, but if you feel you have a good product or service to sell, you can make it profitable if you do some leg work first.

Research… Before You Start a Business

The first thing you need to do is check that your idea can actually work. Carefully analyze how much it will cost to produce your product and then double it. (Everything costs twice what you expect).

Look up similar products to see if you have something that people will want to purchase and what price they are willing to pay. Don’t count on producing the lowest cost product. Competing on price is a losing game. Create a unique product or a higher quality product or a product that fills a unique niche. Supplying a “want” is easier to sell than a “need”. One way to discover a want that needs to be filled is to keep your ears open. Whenever you hear someone say the words “I wish” you know a want is about to follow. If enough people have that same wish, that idea may be the basis for a new market sensation.

Find out how much time it will take to make your product and if there are any extra costs, like shipping, that might eat into your profits. If you can give numbers and facts for all of these areas and show your product to be profitable, you’re at a good spot to give your business a shot.

One big difficulty for new businesses is the cost to get started, so make sure you have the cash on-hand to cover the early costs or get a loan to help you get through the rough spots. There are plenty of lenders out there that specialize in small business loans, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding a loan if you have a detailed plan.

If you need help creating a business plan the U.S. Government operates the “Small Business Administration” which provides training, counseling, information on loans and grants and information on working with the government. Often the best strategy for getting started is to start small and see how it goes and work out the bugs before getting yourself into a lot of debt. Many businesses don’t generate a profit for the first year or two so during that period you want to keep debt to an absolute minimum.

Do You Have Customers?

The greatest idea in the world is worthless if you can’t get it to your customers. Use as many ways as you can think of to get your idea to your target customers as quickly as possible to help your Small Business get off the ground. Self-advertise locally, get your product in any shops or businesses you can, and make yourself a presence on the web. Open Twitter and Facebook accounts dedicated to your product and even get a website going with information so people outside your immediate area can start buying. Getting your name and product idea passed around is the quickest way to get consumers to start purchasing from you, so you need to get yourself out to as many people as possible as quickly as you can.

Some Guru’s suggest gauging demand for your product by running Google Adwords ads before you’ve even created a product and see what people click on and even test sales pitches. Once you find out what they want you can tailor your product to thier needs and know what kind of prices to charge and better gauge your profitability. Of course you can’t actually accept any money until you are ready to ship the product but this way you know what people want and how to sell it to them before investing heavily in a product that you can’t sell. Murphy’s Law definately applies to a new business, everything takes longer and costs more than you expect. So, you need larger margins than you ever thought possible in order to run a profitable business.

One interesting new way to raise funding (and guage interest and even find customers) for your new idea is through “crowd sourcing”. Organizations like Kickstarter.com allow you to presell your idea to potential investors not necesarily for a share of the profits but often for the priviledge of receiving one of the first items produced or simply a line in the credits page of your new movie or App. Recent items funded include a new ultra thin wallet where investors get one of the first items off the assemply line. In this case, the entrepeneurs wanted to raise $10,000 and ended up raising $203,488 because people kept ordering their wallets through Kickstarter. Other successful projects that received funding included a space age jacket that can change how much it insulates based on how much Argon gas you pump into it and several new Photography projects, video projects and computer apps. On kickstarter you won’t receive any money until your project is “fully funded” based on your initial cost estimates and what you list as needed to get started. But it is an excellect way to get start-up funding, gauge interest and recruit customers all at once. And you don’t give up a share of the business or burden your start-up with debt.

Have You Talked to a Lawyer?

Before starting a big venture like your own business, it’s always good to check with a lawyer first. A couple of hundred dollars could help you avoid any law or copyright infringement, which could save you thousands of dollars or more down the road. Knowing that your business is secure and legal will keep your business from getting bogged down in legalities as it begins to grow, which can be invaluable you’re your company becomes successful. But remember, Lawyers are by nature overly cautious. Many a good business would never have started if they had asked a Lawyer first. So keep it legal but don’t let the Lawyers discourage you if your market tests show you have a profitable idea.

Starting a Small Business takes Time and Determination

If you aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to making your business work, there’s no way it can be successful. However, even a good, well tested, idea can take a lot of effort to get it off the ground. You have to truly believe in your idea and be willing to make sacrifices to get it off the ground. If you’re willing to work hard and push your business into becoming successful, you can make it happen.

If you take the time to make sure your business is viable, find your target customers, and then put in the work and effort necessary to make your business successful, you’ll be able to turn your “great idea” into a profitable business that will get as big as you are willing to push it. You can do it if you’re passionate and prepared.

10 Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Home Business

7 Tips to Finding More Clients for Your Home Business

Small Business Credit Cards

Five Unusual Business Ideas

Open Your Own Restaurant

How to Start an Auto Repair Shop

How to Start a Day Care Center

10 Ways to Make Money Online

The Joys of Outsourcing

Current Trend to Virtual Offices

Is Business Insurance on Your Priority List?

Is it Time to Expand Your Small Business?