Category: Your Career (Page 58 of 62)

      More Americans are delaying retirement

      May 11, 2010 /

      Here’s an interesting article on 6 reasons why more Americans are delaying retirement.

      Early retirement is no longer the goal of most workers. Even retirement at age 65 now seems unattainable to many people. The majority of Americans now expect to work until age 65 or later.

      The number of Americans planning to retire before age 65 has dropped from 50 percent in 1996 to 29 percent today, according to a recent Gallup survey of 1,020 adults. Meanwhile the proportion of people planning to work until after age 65 has increased steadily from 15 percent in 1996 to 34 percent this year. This is the first time in the 15-year-old survey that more current workers planned to retire after age 65 than before it. Another 27 percent of current employees plan to retire exactly at age 65.

      Many of the reasons are financial. The stock market correction over the past several years following the financial crisis certainly had an effect. Even without the crisis many Americans had done a poor job of saving for retirement.

      At the other end of the spectrum, many people just like their careers and want to stay active in their jobs. Those are the good stories.

      One issue that may change involves health care. Many continue to work until 65 in order to keep their group health insurance. With the new health care reform bill, perhaps it will easier for many to retire early.

      Your Career, Your Compensation

      Working with HR

      April 29, 2010 /

      Whether you’re looking for a new job or you’re in a company with an HR department, knowing about the HR operations can give you a big edge. A recent article on Yahoo! Finance explains some of the current dynamics in the HR world. One issue is that HR departments are shrinking, so they also have fewer resources and rely on outside help.

      One issue involves catching their attention at a time when HR departments are getting flooded with resumes. Your cover letter and your resume need to be targeted to the desired position.

      With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, HR managers are inundated with responses for every job posting. In fact, some companies are hiring outside firms to post jobs and sort through resumes, presenting only a dozen or so qualified candidates for consideration. How to make the cut? Be sure your resume and cover letter highlight the skills asked for in the job posting; HR tosses applications that don’t meet all the basic criteria. And ask yourself what in your background fits the company’s needs, says Mike Wright, senior vice president of outsourcing sales with Hewitt Associates.

      Another angle: Approach an in-house recruiter or hiring manager before they post a position. Try using business-oriented social-media sites like LinkedIn.com to meet contacts, says O’Donnell. Judi Perkins, founder of FindThePerfectJob.com, says she found most of her clients jobs this way. When you score an interview with HR reps, take it seriously — you never know how much say they have in the process. And ask them what qualities they look for in employees. “You really need to sell them on your abilities,” says O’Donnell.

      There’s also all sorts of privacy issues in the workplace today as well. Just assume that HR is watching you, and that your actions in and out of the workplace can impact your career.

      Your Career, Your Workplace

      With profits rebounding Wall Street starts hiring again

      April 14, 2010 /

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      The economy seems to be rebounding, banks are reporting huge profits, and now we’re hearing that Wall Street is hiring again.

      Will this trend continue and result in significant numbers of new hires? Nobody knows, but this is still a good sign. Wall Street firms will start with high end jobs like traders and risk managers, but it can be expected that support staff and entry-level positions will follow. As the economy ramps up, lean firms will want to make sure they don’t leave money on the table.

      If you’re out of work, now is the time to get really aggressive. Go back to many of the contacts that said no several months ago. Chances are they might be rethinking their approach.

      Your Career

      Job market showing signs of life

      April 2, 2010 /

      We’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence that hiring has been picking up, and today’s job numbers confirm the trend with some good news on the jobs front.

      Employment in the U.S. increased in March by the most in three years and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent as companies gained confidence the economic recovery will be sustained.

      Payrolls rose by 162,000 last month, less than anticipated, figures from the Labor Department in Washington showed today. The March increase included 48,000 temporary workers hired by the government to conduct the 2010 census, as well as job gains in manufacturing and health services.

      The government revised January and February payroll figures up by a combined 62,000, putting the March gain at 224,000 after including the updated data. Caterpillar Inc. is among companies adding staff, indicating the recovery that began in the second half of 2009 is starting to foster the jobs needed to lift consumer spending and sustain the expansion.

      Let’s see if this can be sustained. Much of the stimulus money is still in the pipeline, so we can expect more hiring resulting from those federal dollars and they work their way through the economy. Also, manufacturing seems to be picking up, so that could also have a very positive effect.

      Your Career

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