Senior Leadership Positions Available to Women Veterans at Walmart

Business & Professional Women Foundation has partnered with Walmart to recruit 15-20 women veterans for senior management positions (no retail experience is necessary). This hiring initiative targets women veterans who possess leadership skills and qualities making them excellent candidates.

If you are interested or know a woman veterans who would be please share this message. Selected candidates will be required to complete an additional screening process. Finalists will be notified no later than Sept. 30.

Submit resumes to wjf@bpwfoundation.org by Aug. 31st

Business & Professional Women/USA, a membership organization, recently merged with the BPW Foundation, located in Washington, DC. The former organization had developed a program called Women Joining Forces around 2006 as a means of assisting women transitioning from military service to the civilian workforce.

A positive investment for America

Maj. Elizabeth Gagot, from the Army Reserve's Employer Partnership Initiative, talks to Pooja Chauhan, a Talent Acquisition for Abbott, about how the Army Reserve can help her company with recruitment issues.

By 1st Lt. Olivia Cobiskey
EPI Director of Marketing - Media

NEW ORLEANS - Job security continues to weigh on the minds of workers in the United States.

The number of employees who believe their job is "not at risk" dropped slightly to 47 percent compared with 51 percent roughly six months ago, while those who think their job is "significantly at risk" held steady at six percent.

The findings are detailed in a poll, "The Continued Economic Downturn: Employee Perspective," released Sunday by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) at its 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans.

Even as 50 percent of employees fret over pink slips, the importance of job satisfaction continued to rise for the third year -from 79 percent in 2007 to 86 percent in 2009, said Steve Williams, director of research at SHRM.

"Although employees say the weak economy has no negative impact on overall job satisfaction, the recession is the reason why job security is the top ranked factor to workplace satisfaction among HR professionals and employees in 2009," said SHRM President and CEO Laurence G. O'Neil. "Job security is the number one aspect for job satisfaction this year, topping benefits, compensation and feeling safe at work."

According to the 2009 Job Satisfaction Survey, employees at organizations "somewhat affected" by the recession are more likely to be satisfied than employees at organization that have been "greatly impacted" by the economy.

Employers have said the economy has directly affected employee benefits, according to the SHRM 2009 Employee Benefits Survey Report. Companies are scaling back on health care and welfare, housing and relocation, and business travel benefits.

"The recession plus rising health care costs are causing companies to evaluate all operating costs closely, even employee benefits, where a reduction in some benefits is required to survive the economic crisis," O'Neil added.

Mental health coverage was the only benefit in this category to be offered by more organizations in 2009 than 2008. More companies also started offering money management courses and retirement funds employees could contribute to.

Soldiers from the Army Reserve's Employer Partnership Initiative were on hand at the annual conference to help HR managers tackle some of those issues.

The EPI program is a new initiative with three interrelated training and credentialing, as well a potential health care sharing.
Employers who hire Army Reserve Soldiers will see a drop in employee costs for recruiting, training and health care benefits.

Army Reserve Soldiers are pre-screened, and can apply their credentials in the workplace almost immediately, said Lt. Col. Kris Carle, an Outreach STRATCOM Officer with Army Reserve Communication, in her booth at the Convention Center Sunday.

"The Army Reserve is a positive investment for America," Carle said.

Job market has a silver lining

Use Today’s interactive map to research 14 industry groups state-by-state.

Who's hiring?

Two industries will see growth in 2009 – education and health services, and government, according to an article in USA Today.

Education and health services which includes office, medical labs, ambulatory, nursing and residential care are expected to see a growth of more than 2 percent in six states; Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana and the District of Columbia; 14 states will see more than a 1 percent growth while another 13 are expected to see at least a 1 percent growth, according to Moody’s Economy.com, an economic consulting firm.

Government jobs also are expected to see an increase in jobs – 33 states and the District of Columbia should see at least 1 percent to more than 2 percent of growth in 2009.

An article on Who's hiring on Yahoo!News agreed.

— The government: The U.S. Customs Department needs to fill 11,000 jobs, said Joseph A. Arata, assistant director National Recruitment Division of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Arata said 8,000 of those jobs are frontline uniform officers of which 4,000 will help patrol the U.S. border the other 3,000 are mission operation support positions.

EPI's first federal partner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will have a signing ceremony April 14 to coincide with the Initiative's first anniversary.

Arata said it's a partnership that makes sense.

"We are a unique employee partner – we share the Army Reserve's mission – to protect the country," Arata said.

— Census Bureau: The national "once-a-decade" head count coming in 2010, the Census Bureau is hiring thousands of temporary part-time workers.

— Unemployment offices: Nope, that’s not a typo —the place where you pick up a check for being unemployed needs people to hand out those checks. Unemployment offices across the nation are being overwhelmed by the waves of layoffs. Pennsylvania, Washington and Rhode Island are hiring hundreds of temporary and full-time workers statewide to help with the crush. Check your state office to see if its office is hiring.

The job crisis has become a bipartisan issue.

A Pew Research Center poll showed 76 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans now rate jobs as a national priority.

However, a great deal of the predicted growth hinges on the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. President Obama's administration economists estimate the stimulus bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs.

The White House economic team concluded the spending from the stimulus package would directly create nearly 1.5 million jobs by the end of the fourth quarter of 2010. It also determined the indirect effects — the pass-along benefits of newly employed workers spending more — would create more than 2.2 million jobs. Included are 305,000 in direct energy jobs and 166,000 in direct health care jobs. Those jobs would, in turn, indirectly produce another 230,000 jobs, according to the analysis.

Find out how the stimulus bill will help your state.

Of course that's after more layoffs are announced predicted Moody's Economy.com, Monday.

In its forecast Moody's Economy.com anticipates a gloomy 2009 with more than 95 percent of U.S. cities ending the year with fewer jobs. Nationwide, employers are expected to cut 2.7 million jobs this year after eliminating more than 2 million positions in 2008.

Companies started cutting jobs early this year.

Employers cut 598,000 jobs in January, the most since 1974, the Labor Department reported Feb. 6. The unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent, the highest since December 1974. More than 11.6 million people were unemployed last month, up 54 percent from a year earlier and the most since December 1982.

This is why it’s more important than ever for the Army Reserve to help Soldiers navigate the ever shrinking job market.

The Employer Partnership Initiative helps Soldiers identify available positions with military-friendly employers. The program saves the companies between $100 and $1,000 in recruiting costs and it saves the Soldier money by offering free resume guidance, personal counseling, and access to a national job search engine.

The rebound is expected to continue into 2011.

Another consulting firm, HIS Global Insight predicts the modest recovery in 2010 will be followed by "a more robust recovery in 2011."

Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at HIS Globel Insight, cited four positive factors: falling food and fuel prices; swift and coordinated responses from governments to the crisis and any aftershocks; and massive amounts of liquidity pumped into the system already by central banks – with more to come and further fiscal stimulus.

"Yes, the recession will be deep, but the recovery is also likely to be strong," Behravesh said.

Nevada, New Mexico and Texas are expected to have the strongest job growth from the end of 2008 until the end of 2012, when President Obama will be up for re-election.

Overall, U.S. employers are expected to boost jobs by an average of 1.3 percent each year during that time, according to Moody's Economy.com.