Category: Your Education (Page 19 of 22)

Guess Who’s Hiring?

December 15, 2010 / Michelle Burton

Delhi, India Metro Train

The figures are in. According to Forbes, the U.S. has a 9 percent hiring outlook for the first quarter of 2011. Under the circumstances, this is decent, if not good news for Americans. The adjusted Outlook for Quarter 1 2011 is up from +5% during the same period last year and +5% during Quarter 4 2010. The latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey also revealed:

-Five Straight Quarters of Employment Growth: Employers report a positive overall hiring Outlook since the start of 2010, according to seasonally adjusted data.
-Widespread Stability: The percentage of employers planning to keep staff levels unchanged persists at unsurpassed levels, and those in seven of the 13 industry sectors surveyed expect to remain relatively stable compared to Quarter 4 2010.
-Current Outlook Still Below Past Decade’s Average: Despite positive signals, the Quarter 1 2011 Outlook is nearly five percentage points below the average Outlook from 2001 to 2010.

Although the hiring outlook in the U.S. shows positive signals, other countries are set to hire at a much higher rate. India is first place on the Forbes list of best countries for new jobs, with a 42 percent net hiring outlook for the first quarter of 2011. China is close behind at 40 percent, and Taiwan is third with a net employment outlook of 37 percent. In fourth is Brazil with a 36 percent net hiring outlook, Turkey is in fifth with 27 percent, and Singapore is in sixth with a 26 percent net hiring outlook.

“The results are striking, if not surprising,” Forbes said referring to “that unbelievable job growth” reflected in the survey of 64,000 human resource directors and senior hiring managers from public and private companies worldwide.
The survey shows that almost half, 47 percent of them, of expectations for hiring in the first quarter of 2011 came from 10 countries in the Americas, 24 percent from eight countries in Asia and the Pacific, and 29 percent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
“This is very much a macro-economic look at new job creation,” the staffing firm’s chairman and chief executive, Jeffrey Joerres, was cited as saying.

Your Business, Your Career, Your Education, Your Workplace

careers Forbes job market jobs recession

Workers Stop Retiring, Gen Y Starts Worrying

December 13, 2010 / Michelle Burton

Gen Y_I Need a Job

If you take a look at Census Bureau data on why any given industry may experience job growth over a period of 10 years, retirement is usually listed as one of the reasons why certain fields will have an impressive percentage of job openings for the decade. But according to a new analysis by a senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, “the median length of time on the job rose markedly during the recession, as fearful workers—particularly baby boomers—clung to their existing positions and a few new employees were hired on.”

The analysis, by Craig Copeland, is based on the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which asks Americans about their job tenure every two years.

As of January 2010, workers reported they had been on the job a median of 5.2 years, up from 4.9 years in 2006. In 2010, 29.8% of all workers said they had been on the job for 10 years or more, up from 26.7% in 2006.
Among men aged 60 to 64 still working full time, 56.8% had held their current job for 10 years or more, up from 48.1% in January 2006 and 52.4% in January 2008. Such numbers indicate that aging boomers understand that finding a new job is tough for older folks. Indeed, according to a new analysis by the AARP of Department of Labor Statistics’ average duration of unemployment for older laid-off job seekers rose to 44.9 weeks in October.
Even in 2008, “people were switching careers,’’ says Copeland. “We even had a program where we were looking at how large employers were trying to retain their employees. But once the recession hit, that wasn’t a problem. Workers weren’t retiring.”

Other scary news for older Gen Y’ers and graduating seniors is: baby boomers are not the only workers holding on to their jobs. All workers are holding on to their jobs to avoid competing with, well, college graduates, older Gen Y’ers, and the more than 4.2 million unemployed workers currently looking for jobs.

Although the recession is officially over, Copeland is quick to remind Americans that, “the unemployment rate has barely budged; it stood at 9.8% in November compared to 10% the year before.”

For more information about the job outlook for all careers for the 2008-2018 decade, visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook at http://www.bls.gov/oco/.

Your Business, Your Career, Your Education

careers jobs recession unemployment unemployment rate

Only 22 percent of students at for-profit colleges graduate

November 24, 2010 / Staff

We’ve done a number of posts about for-profit college scams, so we aren’t too surprised by the terrible graduation rates reported in a new study.

For-profit colleges graduated an average of 22 percent of their students in 2008, according to a new report from Education Trust.
That average palls in comparison to bachelor’s-seeking graduation rates at public and private non-profit colleges and universities for the same year, which averaged 55 percent and 65 percent, respectively.
The report, titled “Supbrime Opportunity” (PDF) also reveals that for-profit colleges increased their enrollment by 236 percent from 1998 to 2009.
The median debt of for-profit college graduates — $31,190 — far outpaces that of private non-profit college graduates, which stands at $17,040, and is more than triple the median debt for those from public colleges, which is $7,960.

The government has helped to create this monster with easy access to student loans for these institutions, who now have the incentive to accept as many students as possible. Then they make money regardless of whether they provide value to their students.

Fortunately, the Obama administration has proposed new rules to make it more difficult for many of these for-profit colleges to waste taxpayer dollars.

Your Career, Your Education

for-profit college for-profit college debt for-profit college fraud for-profit college scam for-profit education student debt crisis student loan reform student loans

Best Business Schools

November 21, 2010 / Staff

BusinessWeek is out with its new rankings of the best business schools. It’s a good place to start if you’re considering an MBA.

Your Education

graduate school MBA

Making Online Education Work for You

October 2, 2010 / Staff

Online education establishments are now bigger and better than ever. Not only are they the perfect solution for people who cannot attend college for any reason, but they are now equally respectable as offline education. Establishments such as www.onlineeducation.com offer a range of courses to suit every potential learner, and even offer financial aid and scholarships. They also provide a range of resources and a support network to ensure you get the best from your online education.

Order text books in advance. If you plan on borrowing them from a library, check how long you can have them for, and what their availability is like. Books online often sell out fast, so keep your eye out for good prices and ensure you have all the recommended reading. Not only does this ensure you get a balanced view on each topic, but it also gives you more material to reference in assignments.

Set up a work area. Having a desk and chair purely for work is a great idea, if it’s possible. Store your textbooks nearby, and have a notepad and pen for note making. Make sure any other equipment you may need is to hand, too. Keep your mobile and TV away, to try and minimize distractions.

Schedule your study time. Work out how much time you need to spend each week, and divide this into days. Look at where you have free time, and are least likely to be distracted. Then schedule in blocks of study time, remembering to allow yourself to have breaks. This is good for stopping procrastination, as you know you only have to study for a certain amount of time. Www.onlineeducation.com gives you information on how many study hours each course needs, and what you should be reading during this time. There is also support available to help, including advising on self-study.