Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
The nation's payrolls added 88,000 jobs in March, a mediocre showing. This is the first month since June 2012 when the number of jobs added didn't top the break-even threshold of 100,000 jobs. That's the amount economists say is needed each month to keep pace with population growth. Forget about erasing the jobs deficit caused by the recession.
So when you see a number like 88,000, you can really view it as negative 12,000. We are not advancing, we are declining. That's not news to the 4.6 million long-term unemployed.
Then comes the news from various interest groups, all interpreting the U.S. Labor Department's monthly report. The missive from the American Staffing Association points out that temporary help jobs were up by 20,300 in March and up 6.4 percent from a year ago.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Today's alarming financial news is the rise in first-time unemployment claims to 385,000, up 28,000 and also above expectations. The U.S. Labor Department report shows the labor market is weakening, not that it was anything resembling strong in the first place. It makes me want to cry, because every piece of news like this makes me even more distraught about the future of the 4.8 million long-term unemployed.
I've covered unemployment issues or more than a decade and the future for those who are out of work beyond the normal six months funded by state benefits is very bleak. These aren't lazy bums, but desperate people who are financially and emotionally devastated by their situation.
But, let someone else talk.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Laura Carlin Mattiacci, the lawyer who represented Marla Pietrowski in a $1.7 million whistleblower case, describes her client as a stickler for the rules.
"If you met her, she's a rule follower," Mattiacci said.
It's an interesting question: Where is the line between an employee who is the courageous upholder of company ethics, and the one who is a annoyingly blind follower of every rule and regulation beyond any common sense?
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Read this, and you can almost hear the frustration: "IF the government went unemployed for a period of time. Had bills mounting up on them. Looked for work and only could get something way, way, WAY below the payscale they are used to. IF ONLY, they would take that job and have to scrape on the bottom of the food chain for awhile to see what it's like to have employers walk all over you because they know you are "desperate" for employment. Then and ONLY THEN -- will the government come up with a REAL solution to the unemployment situation and realize how URGENTLY it needs to be addressed!!!!
Frustrated by government gridlock? Oh definitely, and it's a scenario that Carl Van Horn, a Rutgers University professor and the author of "Working Scared (Or Not At All)" lays out in his book subtitled "The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream."
Van Horn, director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers in New Brunswick, bases his book on research the center has conducted over the last 15 years, including interviews with 25,000 workers. The quote that opens this post is from one of those interviews.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Is the American Worker Disposable?
"When I hear people talk about temp vs. permanent jobs, I laugh," said staffing industry analyst Barry Asin, who is quoted in a new book by Rutgers University public policy professor Carl E. Van Horn. "The idea that any job is permanent has been well proven not be true. We're all temps now."
Van Horn asks the "American Worker Disposable" question in the title of the second chapter in "Working Scared (Or Not At All): The Lost Decade, Great Recession, and Restoring the Shattered American Dream."
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
After a couple of rough years, things are looking up for college graduates, says John Challenger, who heads the Chicago outplacement firm of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
To take advantage of the growing job market, seniors should take a broader look at career possibilities.
"Graduates should not confine their searches to a specific industry or occupation," he wrote in a statement. "The job market is not robust enough to provide the ideal job situation for every individual. It seldom is. So, someone may come out of college with the plan to find a marketing position with a consumer products company. There’s nothing wrong with having a specific goal like that, but don’t make the mistake of adhering to it so closely that you overlook opportunities in marketing for a chemical company or health care provider, for example.”
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Mykal Derry, the U.S. Attorney said, ran an efficient business operation, dealing heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs -- as much as a million dollars worth -- in Atlantic City.
As a crime story, it's impressive -- 25 arrested Tuesday, 34 charged -- with the main points laid out at a Camden press conference hosted by New Jersey's U.S. Attorney, Paul Fishman. But as a business writer, I was also impressed by the complexity of the organization. It rivaled much of what I've seen in two decades of reporting on companies and their business practices. You can read an account of the criminal side of the story written by my colleague Joseph Gambardello.
Derry, 32, set up a complex organization that included distributors, suppliers and couriers.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Feeling sexually harassed at work? Experiencing racial, age, gender or disability-based harassment? The first step, advises employment lawyer Patricia Barasch, is a common-sense one. Tell the person doing the harassment to stop.
Barasch is a partner in Schall & Barasch in Moorestown and the president of the National Employment Lawyers Association, an organization specializing in representing individuals at the workplace.
Barasch said the message needs to be clear. Once you have decided you want the behavior to stop, you can't pretend it's OK or a joke. "You have to be unambiguous and clear that you want the behavior to stop. You have to tell him to stop," she said.
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
Doing your job and doing it well is the best way to stay out of trouble at work, advises Patricia Barasch, a Moorestown attorney who heads the National Employment Lawyers Association, a group of lawyers specializing in representing individuals in workplace cases. Here's the next tip: Watch what you sign
When you get a job, be careful about the paperwork you sign, especially in the honeymoon glow of initial employment. Barasch said her organization has seen a national trend toward companies requiring employees to sign documents that give various rights.
There are two common documents that can pose problems later:
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
When Christe McGowan first started as the director of dining services at Medford Leas nine years ago, she had to build a constant pipeline of high-school-aged dining room servers, coffee shops attendants and sanitation attendant (that's the dishwasher!) to replace seniors going off to college.
She still has to do that, but there is a way that today's tough economy is making her job a little easier.
It's easy enough to quote economists and college professors about the big-picture macro effects of the economy, but I really love it when I meet someone like McGowan who can illustrate one of the myriad of little ways that the recent brutal recession has changed our work world. McGowan was talking to a steady stream of teenagers Tuesday at the summer job fair held at Lenape High School for the Lenape High School Regional District. She was one of 40 employers looking for summer help and she was aiming to recruit about 50 teenagers for anticipated job openings in July and August. (You can read my story about it by clicking here, along with two related blog posts, here and here.)
