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Some might consider it an ugly truth that attractive people are often more successful than those less blessed with looks. But now our appearance is emerging in legal disputes as a new kind of discrimination. ‘Lookism’, it is claimed, is the new racism, and should be banished from civilised societies. It is currently the subject of several court actions in America, and some experts say similar cases should be considered here too. Economist Daniel Hamermesh argues that ugliness is no different from race or a disability, and suggests unattractive people deserve legal protection. ‘My research shows being good-looking helps you...

According to every outlet of the establishment media, it was a near-earthshaking scandal when the Bush Justice Department rejected some applicants for “career” (officially non-political) jobs because the applicants were too liberal. “The entire Justice Department and all Americans were harmed” screamed the Washington Post. The New York Times, in high dudgeon, wrote that “the strength of American democracy depends on our ability to be shocked by abuses like these — and to punish them appropriately.”The Post and the Times were crying crocodile tears. It wasn’t hiring bias to which they objected; it was merely conservative hiring bias that bothered...

Bankrupt Country Club Hills police chief part of failed ventures By Lauren FitzPatrick and Casey Toner Jul 16, 2011 The police chief of Country Club Hills, who with her husband earns more than $200,000 courtesy of city taxpayers, apparently is broke. Thanks to a series of failed businesses, including theaters they ran on Chicago’s South Side and in Dolton, Regina Evans and her husband, Ronald Evans, the inspector general of the city of 16,000, have declared personal bankruptcy. When Regina Evans, a retired Chicago police lieutenant, was hired in 2009 by Mayor Dwight Welch, she already was deeply in debt....

WASHINGTON—The U.S. labor market could stay sluggish for a while, with small-business executives reluctant to hire amid the murky economic outlook. Almost two-thirds—64%—of small-business executives surveyed said they weren't expecting to add to their payrolls in the next year and another 12% planned to cut jobs, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report to be released Monday. Just 19% said they would expand their work forces. This comes after a Labor Department report Friday showed employers added few jobs in June, and unemployment rose to 9.2%. The bleak figures joined other data showing the recovery losing momentum in recent...

This is a companion piece to Kathy Fettke's piece today titled: "Where the Jobs Are" This is the second part of a two-part interactive map series on jobs. For part one, please see Interactive Map: Employment History Since 2001 by Job Type (Healthcare, Education, Mining, Construction, Finance, Real Estate, etc) Part two has a focus on job creation and losses during the economic recovery. Please consider the following interactive map, using Tableau Software, with data courtesy of Economic Modeling Specialists. In a previous article I noted that when it comes to jobs, this is the weakest recovery ever except for...

If you’re still not using any of the privacy settings on Facebook, here’s the most compelling reason why you need to change that as soon as possible. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given the thumbs up to Social Intelligence Corp, which keeps files of Facebook users’ posts as part of a background-checking service for screening job applicants. The FTC decided Social Intelligence complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the same set of rules that keeps your bill-payment records on file with the consumer bureaus for seven years, according to Forbes. That’s how long your social media postings remain...

DURHAM, N.C. - Optimism among chief financial officers in the U.S. has fallen, but spending plans indicate continued moderate growth over the next year. Hiring will be minimal - less than 1 percent over the next year - though many companies plan to reinstitute some employee benefits. "CFOs are telling us we are stuck at 9 percent unemployment for the next year," said Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke's Fuqua School of Business and founding director of the survey. "One leg of the economy is shackled by extraordinarily high unemployment and the other by the housing market still...

Last week, I noted that various forms of the word “unexpected” almost inevitably appeared in news stories about unfavorable economic developments. You can find them again in stories about Friday’s shocking news, that only 54,000 net new jobs were created in the month of May and that unemployment rose to 9.1 percent. But with news that bad, maybe bad economic numbers will no longer be “unexpected.” You can only expect a robust economic recovery for so long before you figure out, as Herbert Hoover eventually did, that it is not around the corner. Exogenous factors explain some part of the...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Job growth decelerated sharply in May, the Labor Department said Friday. Total nonfarm payrolls increased by 54,000, much lower than the 125,000 gain expected by Wall Street economists. This is the smallest increase in nonfarm payroll since September. The unemployment rate ticked higher 9.1% in May from 9.0% in the previous month.

Wall Street economists I speak to feel pretty confi dent that -- for all the news about housing prices falling, gas prices rising and the stock market zig-zagging and a possible downgrade of US -- the chances of a "double dip" recession are pretty remote. After all, companies are still profitable two years after the financial collapse, and judging by the job listings even at banking basket-case Citigroup, people are finding work on Wall Street. But that doesn't mean the broader economy, defined by how many people are working, is getting noticeably better anytime soon. In fact, don't expect any...

When Sony Ericsson needed new workers after it relocated its U.S. headquarters to Atlanta last year, its recruiters told one particular group of applicants not to bother. "No unemployed candidates will be considered at all," one online job listing said. The cell-phone giant later said the listing, which produced a media uproar, had been a mistake. But other companies continue to refuse to even consider the unemployed for jobs — a harsh catch-22 at a time when long-term joblessness is at its highest level in decades. Refusing to hire people on the basis of race, religion, age or disability —...

The Supreme Court on Thursday gave Arizona and other states more authority to take action against illegal immigrants and the companies that hire them, ruling that employers who knowingly hire illegal workers can lose their license to do business. The 5-3 decision upholds the Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 and its so-called business death penalty for employers who are caught repeatedly hiring illegal immigrants. The state law also requires employers to check the federal E-Verify system before hiring new workers, a provision that was also upheld Thursday. The court's decision did not deal with the more controversial Arizona law...

This year's college graduates have better career prospects than their peers did a year ago—as long as they're looking in the private sector. Employers plan to hire 19% more new graduates this year than in 2010, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That means students were more likely to have offers as they head toward graduation. Among college seniors who applied for positions, the survey said, 41% had an offer this year, up from 38% last year. (snip) ...some degrees are far more valuable than others. Computer science, accounting, economics and engineering majors were...

"Employers added more than 200,000 jobs in April for the third straight month, the biggest hiring spree in five years," reports the official news oganization for the Obama Adminstration, the Associated Press. "But the unemployment rate ticked up to 9 percent." "The Labor Department reported Friday that the economy added 244,000 jobs last month. Private employers shrugged off high gas prices and created 268,000 jobs- the most since February 2006." Here's the problem with these numbers: The BLS estimates birth and death of private companies and consequent jobs created by them. These numbers have no basis in fact. They are just numbers...

PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup's Job Creation Index in March showed the jobs picture within the federal government turning sharply negative to -9, with 25% of federal employees reporting that their employer was hiring and 34% saying their employer was letting people go. This marks a rapid deterioration from the +1 of February and +18 in April 2010. Job conditions are now negative across all three levels of government. More state government employees report that their organizations are letting people go (32%) than hiring (19%), for an index score of -13. The same is true among local governments, with 20%...

Just as Congress is trying to end federal funding to Planned Parenthood across the nation comes revelations that the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Central Washington has apparently been hiring unlicensed nurses. This is the same Planned Parenthood which we exposed for having tried to force a teenager into an abortion, and then trying to stop a police officer from rescuing her by citing fictional laws. In the course of reviewing other police reports involving this organization, we found one case where a large supply of fentanyl, a regulated pain narcotics used to reduce the physical pain during a first-trimester abortion,...

Ahead of the Labor Department’s March jobs report due out Friday, a private sector report shows employers added 201,000 jobs in March. The ADP National Employment Report, which is seen as a precursor to the monthly payroll report Friday, said half of the jobs were added at small businesses. Analysts had forecast the ADP report, which sent stocks higher Wednesday, would show roughly 210,000 jobs created overall. Investors were encouraged by a strong gain in small business hiring, said Ryan Detrick, a strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. While not a huge surprise, the report “helped the realization that things are...

The software company definitely seemed interested in hiring Tom Fleming. It set up breakfast and lunch meetings, then flew the Concord salesman to its headquarters in Virginia for interviews with a half-dozen executives, including the founder and chief executive. But after promising to get back to him in a week, the company never contacted him again.

Even with unemployment still near 9 percent, prospects are looking up for American firms. S&P 500 companies are reporting cash supplies that are nearly 50 percent higher than three years ago. A recent survey of chief financial officers by the Zicklin School of Business found 64 percent of respondents plan to add employees in the next six months, up from 56 percent last quarter. As the economy slowly starts to recover from the recession and companies sitting on cash decide to invest, often they turn to their greatest asset: personnel. Human resources managers are now in a position to re-hire...

Does anyone here think that running a business from home is going to be the new way that businesses are run and how do you think this will affect hiring policies?