Author Dawn Handschuh Archive

Manpower’s quarterly Employment Outlook Survey indicates that employers are forecasting largely flat job growth through the second quarter of 2009.

Manpower surveyed 31,800 employers, 15% of whom plan to expand their staffing levels between April and June, while a nearly equal amount, 14%, anticipate cutting their payrolls. However, the majority of those surveyed, 67%, said they expect no changes in staffing levels through early summer, according to the Manpower report.  (Roughly 4% of those queried remain undecided about hiring plans.)

The numbers, said Manpower CEO Jeffrey A. Joerres, illustrate employers’ delicate balancing act in seeking to churn out a profit without dismantling their workforce infrastructure.

Not surprisingly, the national survey also revealed that employers in nearly all industry sectors say they’ll be reducing their payrolls compared to the previous quarter. These sectors include mining, durable and nondurable goods manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, information, financial activities, professional and business services, education and health services, other services and government. 

Employers in transportation and utilities, on the other hand, plan to keep hiring levels relatively stable for the second quarter. And while Americans may be scaling back their vacation plans, they still intend to travel somewhere, and as a result, leisure and hospitality employers anticipate more hiring activity. Employers in the battered construction sector are still projecting a negative outlook for this quarter, although it should be less painful than the previous quarter.

By geographic region, hiring in the Northeast is expected to be the most robust while employers in the Midwest and West are feeling less positive. Employers in the South, a heavily concentrated manufacturing region, project the weakest hiring pace during this period.  

Does Manpower’s employer survey hold any surprises for you? How is your employer’s business doing these days?

Amish church leaders in northern Indiana have relented in shunning one modern amenity — unemployment checks — to help unemployed members of their community survive.

It’s no longer possible for many Amish to earn a living through farming, due to rising land prices. Up to half of Amish men in Indiana now work in factories, according to a Los Angeles Times story.

Amish religious beliefs normally frown on such things as electricity, insurance and automobiles (the local Wal-Mart in northern Indiana has a hitching post for horse and buggies), but repeated rounds of factory layoffs have forced elders to relax the rules. The unemployment rate in Elkhart and LaGrange counties, where Amish populations are centered, has reached about 19%, the Times reported.

Although furniture-making has always been a mainstay occupation for the Amish, local shops aren’t able to hire all of the available workers because the demand for furniture like Amish-made tables, which retail for between $750 and $2,200, is off, too.

It’s been said that this recession is unique in that it’s cut a wide swath through every segment of the population, hurting those at every income level, in every occupation and of every age.

How vulnerable is the industry that you work in?

Private student loan lenders are preparing to fight for their survival as the Obama administration seeks to end $94 billion in loan subsidies to private lenders that officials say could be put to better use by giving the money directly to needy students.

Revamping the student loan program could change how millions of college students finance their college education.

The government plan would change the way the student loan business has operated for the past 16 years. Currently, while some students do get loans directly from the Education Department, many others get their loans through the Federal Family Education Loan Program, through which private companies receive subsidies from the federal government. Students are directed toward one or the other, depending on school administrators’ preferences. President Obama would like all student loans to come directly from the government so that the enormous savings realized from the increased efficiencies of doing so could be redirected to low-income students in the form of Pell grants.

According to a recent Washington Post story, student loan companies claim the move would put thousands of industry employees out of work, increase the national debt and lower the quality of service to borrowers. Lenders insist that their marketing, customer relations, billing, and delinquent loan collection are important services, the New York Times reports. Supporters of the proposal say the move is long overdue, a no-brainer, in fact, and point out that the loan companies have collected lucrative fees with virtually no risk, since the government guarantees loan repayment up to 97%.

Detractors of the proposal include some lawmakers, several of whom represent the states where private student loan companies are based, who say the move would give too much control to government. The fact is, the government already had to step in to rescue the industry last year with the injection of additional funding to keep student loan financing alive. So why exactly do we need private student loan lenders?

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of taxpayer money propping up private industry and I think private student loan lenders are dispensable. What’s your take?

Contrary to popular opinion, a recent MarketWatch story reports that so-called “sin” industries like tobacco companies, casinos and distillers haven’t been faring well in this recession. A few stock funds that espouse Catholic values, on the other hand, have done better.

It’s often been said that during tough economic times, liquor sales and gambling continue to thrive because consumers turn to them for cheap entertainment or escape from their problems. Read more »

Protests against big-government spending and the use of higher taxes to fund ballooning state and federal budgets are scheduled to take place today in cities nationwide.

The Tax Day Tea Party website lets visitors view what tea party activities are going on in their state. A quick check of what was in the works for my home state of Connecticut revealed that four “tea party tax revolts” were scheduled in scattered cities. A random sampling of a half-dozen other states indicated multiple tax revolts in every state I checked, to be held on street corners, parks, federal buildings, courthouses, town greens and libraries. Read more »

With a chronic shortage of affordable housing in many cities and an abundance of foreclosed properties, advocacy groups for the homeless in some cities have been quietly moving homeless people into vacant, foreclosed homes, often the ones they previously lived in. Some groups operate as a kind of modern-day underground railroad, according to one advocate quoted in a New York Times story, while other groups do their work openly, sometimes with the support of neighbors in low income neighborhoods who are tired of seeing vacant homes become derelict, vandalized and increasingly unkempt. Read more »

A story in the Wednesday issue of Tennessean reported that the bad economy is sending more people to the therapist’s couch. Anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and other emotional problems are on the upswing as worries about job stability and bills take their toll.

According to a 2008 survey by The American Psychological Association, 80% of Americans say the economy is stressing them out. And that applies even to workers who still have jobs. Read more »

Many taxpayers who owe the IRS money tend to wait until the very last minute to file their taxes.  (San Franciscans, Houstonites and New Yorkers are the three worst procrastinators, according to TurboTax.)

I can’t say I blame them, but for those of you who fall in this category, remember there’s still about five days to dig out your receipts for charitable donations, which can lower your tax bill.

The IRS says you can deduct the “fair market value” of donated clothing and household goods, based on how much your donations would sell for in today’s market. Read more »

Federal regulators want to crack down on “free lunch” investment seminars, where high-pressure sales tactics often cause retirees to make unwise investment decisions.

According to the AARP, three out of five investors over age 60 received six or more invitations to a free investment seminar in the past three years. A free meal (and, often, door prizes) are used to boost attendance, but those who do attend are often subjected to inflated claims by seminar presenters, who suggest they’ll reveal the secret to eliminating taxes, investing without risk or tripling earnings. Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring their spouses. Read more »

Government websites aren’t usually known for their user-friendly design and sometimes come off as too stuffy, difficult to navigate and businesslike for the average person to get past.

That’s why it’s refreshing to check out the new Money Matters site launched by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It doesn’t look or read like a government site but instead offers commonsense, easily understood advice that focuses largely on basic money management practices and avoiding a wide variety of consumer scams and rip-offs. Read more »