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The Job Openings Paradox (Help wanted ads on the rise, but little actual hires)
Mandel on Innovation and Growth ^ | 12/15/2010 | Mike Mandel

Posted on 12/15/2010 7:09:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 12/15/2010 7:09:45 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Some of the help wanted ads could be fishing expeditions.

Companies are testing the waters, and looking for discounts.

As openings exceed hires, I guess wages will rise.


2 posted on 12/15/2010 7:31:37 AM PST by Pessimist
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To: SeekAndFind

The “Corps” have to do a little phony advertising before they get the H1-B hired. It’s all for show.


3 posted on 12/15/2010 7:32:22 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
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To: SeekAndFind

IMHO, the businesses are collecting applications and forming a pool of potential hires. Thus, if the tax rate remains favorable, and the marketing forecast supports an increase in payroll - the company can move quickly.

The downside to this, is that people are given the mistaken idea that they will have employment ‘any time’, and that they will start work ‘soon’. I watched this done time and again at Dell Computer - to the point that I told my Director that I would not longer participate in the hiring process. Maybe that’s one reason my group was sent to Mumbai?

Many companies routinely bring people in for an interview, for a job that doesn’t exist. Sometimes this is to threaten a current employee (someone just interviewed for your job), perhaps there is a proposal being floated to increase a team’s size - but it’s common.

And then, people wonder why Unions are becoming popular. Companies no longer consider their employees skilled, trained and ‘their most valuable asset’ - they are to be used and discarded. Loyalty is expected, but should never even be considered in return. You MUST give 2 weeks notice before you quit, but you may be terminated without notice, without warning, and without severance. All most people want, is a job that pays a fair wage, and can give them a sense of security, while remaining to be a tolerable environment.


4 posted on 12/15/2010 7:34:03 AM PST by Hodar (Who needs laws .... when this "feels" so right?)
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To: SeekAndFind
Many are collecting unemployment and refuse to take a job making less than the one they were laid off from, because if they're laid off from the new job, the unemployment amount will be lower.

Also, more than a few are collecting unemployment while simultaneously working for cash, these people are very difficult to hire.

There is no monitoring whatsoever, in my state of Virginia, like there used to be, to make sure recipients are actually looking for work.

5 posted on 12/15/2010 7:34:18 AM PST by wayoverontheright
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To: Pessimist

This is probably because they want to bring in a cheap foreign worker on an H1B or L1 visa, and the job has to be posted for a period of time in the US so they can “prove” that a person with that skill set doesn’t exist in the US.

The business climate is also one of severe uncertainty - no one knows what’s going to happen with taxes or health care next year, so they hold off hiring. If I was a business, I wouldn’t be hiring anyone either until I knew what the ramifications for my 2011 bottom line would be.


6 posted on 12/15/2010 7:34:49 AM PST by LizardQueen (The world is not out to get you, except in the sense that the world is out to get everyone.)
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To: Pessimist

>>>Some of the help wanted ads could be fishing expeditions.

Or show-ponies for the EEO police... they can point and say “see, we recruit all the time...”


7 posted on 12/15/2010 7:35:15 AM PST by Keith in Iowa (FR Class of 1998 | TV News is an oxymoron. | MSNBC = Moonbats Spouting Nothing But Crap.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I say mismatch.

Why? Because if you are applying for a job through an online source, emailing or posting your resume through a computer program...it is being scrutinized through a computer algorithm.

Does this mean the applicants need better computer skills?

Or is it the lack of real human interaction that is causing the mismatch and ongoing empty jobs?


8 posted on 12/15/2010 7:38:50 AM PST by EBH ( Whether you eat your bread or see it vanish into a looter's stomach, is an absolute.)
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To: central_va
I'm fairly certain a good many of the ads simply fill some sort of HR policy requirement for posting a position outside.

The decision was made before the ad hit the public.

Oh well.

9 posted on 12/15/2010 7:42:48 AM PST by skeeter
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To: SeekAndFind
Employers are cherry-picking. They're shopping for bargains. They're looking for really good employees really cheap. It's what I'd do.
10 posted on 12/15/2010 7:46:32 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (DEFCON I ALERT: The federal cancer has metastasized. All personnel report to their battle stations.)
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To: Hodar

I’ve not had that ever, and now hopefully I’ll be temping again.

Until businesses realise that the labour market can and will swing the other way, they won’t understand what loyalty means. I had that exact same deal. I’ve had my chain yanked many times by hiring officers. You come in prepare yourself and they don’t have the courtesy to tell you that the positions been filled.


11 posted on 12/15/2010 8:02:32 AM PST by BenKenobi (Obama's book of the month, Herman Melville's Killin' Whitey)
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To: SeekAndFind

What I am seeing in my odyssey of the past 8 months unemployed is that most of the job postings are bogus. The real ones are part time, contract, no benies for a fraction of what the job paid a few years ago.

The fake ones are either filler for staffing agencies and job boards, fishing to sell email addresses (I get bombarded with spam after some “applications”)or outright scams.


12 posted on 12/15/2010 8:08:04 AM PST by doodad
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To: Hodar; All

Sorry there is no Constitutional right for a “fair wage”.. Companies exist for one thing and that is to provide a service at a reasonable cost and MAKE A PROFIT!!! If they need to x amount of employees to provide a service so be it.


13 posted on 12/15/2010 8:17:17 AM PST by KevinDavis (I have no problem with a black president. But the one we have now is yellow to the core)
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To: SeekAndFind

Or it could be that some folks are more comfortable sitting on their couches collecting unemployment.


14 posted on 12/15/2010 9:02:04 AM PST by CSM (Keeper of the "Dave Ramsey Fan" ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: Hodar
Many companies routinely bring people in for an interview, for a job that doesn’t exist. Sometimes this is to threaten a current employee (someone just interviewed for your job), perhaps there is a proposal being floated to increase a team’s size - but it’s common.

They also use this tactic to check the wage level. Interview them, ask what are you making now? Write it down and yell "Next!". I caught on to that after one interview.

If they were really interested, I'd pad my wage by 5K or so and by changing jobs three times, ran up the wage ladder pretty fast. (They always said, "We can't beat that but we can match it.") Of course that was in the good times - pre-2000.

15 posted on 12/15/2010 9:15:53 AM PST by Oatka ("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." –Bertrand de Jouvenel)
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To: KevinDavis
Sorry there is no Constitutional right for a “fair wage”..

So, don't whine when unions take over. By using your model, Hershey, Ford and many other companies should never have emerged. Amazon, Dell, and every other company that paid top wages, plus stock options emerged on top - because they provided an incentive for people to work hard.

16 posted on 12/15/2010 9:28:38 AM PST by Hodar (Who needs laws .... when this "feels" so right?)
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To: doodad
The same job may be posted on every single major job board, then the other boards copy it from the others, so the same job is listed 8 times on 8 sites - 64 listings for one actual position.

This harvesting multiplies postings without affecting hiring.

17 posted on 12/15/2010 9:44:35 AM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: tbw2

What really made me catch on was the same job posted every day, or showing up one week every month or same job attributed to a different employer each month.


18 posted on 12/15/2010 9:55:00 AM PST by doodad
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To: SeekAndFind

What is going on here? Could it be companies looking for someone with a higher degree and the lay off who has a lower degree?.


19 posted on 12/15/2010 10:20:43 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: doodad

True especially companies like Robert Half, Spherion. They take jobs from a company’s career site and post it. Collecting resumes which they then a) try to present to the company, or b) call the job seeker and try to get them to “tell” them which companies they have interviewed with so they can solicit those companies.

Also HR is not there to understand the applicants’ background, they are there to weed candidates out. Applying on line does the same thing via algorithms or required info matching against the position. Monster and CareerBuilder are horrible sites.

A recommended book that can help better one’s job search, it gives one insight into the games HR and companies play when hiring, is “What does someone have to do to get a job around here? 44 insider secrets that will get you hired” by Cynthia Shapiro. Get it in hard cover or paper back, not e-book, for reference use.

I’d also recommend trying:

indeed.com
simplyhired.com
jobcentral.com/states/asp

They still have some bogus posts, but not as much clutter as Monster/Careerbuilder, plus you can create advanced searches to make it specific.

Try industry oriented web sites like thinkenergy.com, healthcareers.com. Though they specialize incertain professions/industry they still advertise accounting, finance, IT, CSR etc.. jobs.

Two others:

theladders.com
execunet.com

They don’t permit spam, Robert Half or work at home type ads. They are for jobs in the mid/upper management, consulting or specialists type. The drawback they charge for the sites, but one can do a trial run.

I’m not a big fan of Linkedin.com, it has become the Facebook for professionals, but it does have a job search section that lists jobs which may not be posted elsewhere.


20 posted on 12/15/2010 11:29:33 AM PST by CharlesMartelsGhost
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