According to The Labor Department, initial claims for first-time jobless benefits rose 24,000 to 399,000 on Thursday, the highest in six weeks. The four week average, a better indicator of labor market trends, rose 7,750 to 381,750 from a revised 374,000. However, growth is expected to slow during the first three months of this year and help for the economy may still be necessary despite recent data that suggested the recovery was changing in the right direction...

On the fourth day of business, it’s time to ask if your job candidate has been naughty or nice this year.   Yes, it’s social media time. 

On the third day of business, I want to talk about how image matters for both the employer and the job seeker.

As we return from the holidays and settle back into our routines, it’s time to return to my strategies for better interviews and more effective hiring decisions for both employers and job seekers.

Last week we started with the first day of business, which was having a plan.  On the second day of business, I’m going to talk about resumes...

It’s difficult to find a good employee – someone who will arrive on time, who will be dedicated to the task on hand, who won’t be a negative presence in the office. I wrote on the American Express Open Forum recently about an experience I had with an employee who was difficult, disrespectful and a negative influence on other, more dedicated staff members. In that blog, I highlighted the importance of an interview process that ensures that those types of individuals do not get hired...

The jobs report came out last Friday and folks, the news is not great. Zero new jobs were added in August, a rare occurrence in US history. In fact, this is such a rare occurrence that the last time the government reported that zero jobs were created was February of 1945.

The national unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.1%, but what does zero jobs added actually mean? Economists usually estimate that to keep up with population growth, the country needs to add approximately 150,000 jobs each month. To actually grow, we’d need to add about 300,000 jobs a month or more to recover the 8.8 million jobs lost during the recession.

What’s behind these numbers?

McDonald’s announced in early April that they would be adding 50,000 jobs in a one-day hiring extravaganza. They will also be using this hiring spree to fight the negative connotation of the term “McJob”. The 50,000 new employees will fill job openings from restaurant crew to managers and will increase the company’s workforce by over 7%.

The term “McJob" was added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 2003 and has remained there despite the company's protests. Personally, I hadn’t heard of the term before, and I don’t know if I would have made the leap from “McJob” to low-wage.  I did a little research to see if the “McJob” deserves its bad reputation?  Some say no.  In order to stay competitive with its biggest hiring adversary, Starbucks, McDonald’s offers flexible schedules, competitive wages, free meals and depending on the franchise owner, health insurance, prescription drug coverage, educational assistance and more.  Taking it a step further, in 2005 McDonald's sought to boost the image of its restaurant jobs in ads featuring singer Macy Gray and track-and-field Olympian Carl Lewis, both of whom worked at McDonald's. Was the campaign to change its image successful?  Apparently not if McDonald’s is still working to change the general perspective during this hiring boom...

Over the past few days I’ve come across a few heartening statistics about business and the economy. First, 31% of businesses hired new employees between April and June. Second, layoffs are down by 50% since last year. I believe these are indicators of forward movement, and that our continued effort in contributing to the growth of not only our own businesses but those in our communities, will lead to even more positive change.

The key in changing the course of our current economic condition truly is joining together. Sure, this may sound great, but I encourage you to push beyond semantics.

1. Educate- Be an informed consumer at home and in your business. Know your personal and corporate values. Know who your vendors are, how and with whom they do business, and be sure their values align with your own.