Showing posts with label Jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jobs. Show all posts

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Human Capital Institute Education

Advancing Careers. Transforming Organizations.
HCI Courses & Certficates

HCI is the only independent, industry association that provides a comprehensive education program for Human Capital Management and Talent Leadership. Designed for individuals & organizations, executives & practitioners, HCI education delivers innovative coursework with practical application and measurable results. Catalog & Schedule »

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Treasurys surge on service sector downturn

Bellwether report from the Institute for Supply Management shows nonmanufacturing activity fell well below analyst expectations.

Treasury prices rallied on recession fears Tuesday after a survey showed the services sector shrank for the first time in five years last month.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of nonmanufacturing activity declined to 44.6 in January from a revised reading of 54.4 for December. The result was well below analysts expectations. All readings below 50 indicate contraction.

The news was unsettling because for years the services sector has been one of the engines of the economy and has helped to offset the fact that U.S. manufacturing is in a lengthy decline.
The data sparked heavy early losses in the stock market and sent Treasury prices sailing higher. Investors often sell stocks and opt for Treasurys, which carry a government guarantee, when they are worried about the economy.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 17/32 to 105 14/32 with a yield of 3.58%, down from 3.64% in late trade Monday, according to BGCantor Market Data. Prices and yields move in opposite directions.
The 30-year long bond rose 24/32 to 110 29/32 with a 4.33% yield, down from 4.37% late Monday.
The 2-year note gained 8/32 to 100 11/32 with a yield of 1.93%, down from 2.07% late Monday.
The 2-year note yield is now within striking distance of the historic low of 1.83% that it reached last month during heavy rallies. The yield is highly sensitive to interest rate policy. Traders often push it lower to signal they expect the Federal Reserve to lower the Fed funds rate to stimulate a faltering economy.

New recession alarms sends futures lower
The service sector is vital to the economy because it accounts for 84% of the 138 million jobs in the U.S., according to Tony Crescenzi, fixed-income analyst at Miller Tabak. The sector is often defined as the "soft" part of the economy - including insurance, government, tourism, banking, retail, education and social services - in contrast to heavy industry.

Some economists will use the new ISM figure to argue that the U.S. has entered a recession. It follows news late last week that the economy lost 17,000 jobs last month. However, a recession consists of two quarters in a row of economic contraction as measured by the gross domestic product and can only be declared in hindsight.

Paul Kasriel, chief economist at Northern Trust said he is in the camp that believes a recession is under way.
"The recession in housing is migrating to the rest of the economy," Kasriel said. "The housing boom created a lot of jobs and the bust extinguished them. When housing prices fall, homeowners have less equity that they can extract from their house, so they have less money to spend. There is a chain reaction that affects everything."

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Recession 2008: How bad it can get?

The sputtering U.S. economy has gotten everyone from the financial markets to the Federal Reserve to Congress in a panic.

But here's a disheartening message for those already worried about economic growth -- it could get much worse. Most economists who believe a recession is already here or at least near are looking for a relatively short and mild downturn, perhaps lasting only two or three quarters.

But many of those same economists say they also can...

more...http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/23/news/economy/how_bad/index.htm?postversion=2008012405

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Outlook 2008: Will the US Economy become Decoupled?

Despite a still-slumping housing market, an escalating credit crunch and spiraling inflationary pressures, the U.S. economy should still manage to advance at a 1% to 2% clip in 2008.
While investors might view that as bad news, there’s actually a positive twist, since it means that U.S. economy will likely dodge the recession that some observers have feared.
Even so, the U.S. economy won’t be in the investment spotlight in 2008, and investors will see the first signs of the "decoupling" of the U.S. market from those overseas. While the United States is narrowly dodging recession, other global economies will be advancing by as much as 10%. The emergence of a growing middle class in such key markets as China, India and Eastern Europe will make global dependence on the U.S. economy a thing of the past. With tens of millions of newly minted consumers ready to spend in China, that country could easily weather a U.S. downturn.
Even with decoupling, U.S. investors still can profit from markets abroad - regardless of what’s going on here at home…

Monday, January 21, 2008

Human Capital Management within the USDA

Human Capital Management: A strategic approach to maximize the capabilities and commitment of Federal employees; aligning human resources to achieve the most effective and efficient accomplishment of the USDA mission.

The Human Capital Leadership group works with top USDA officials on all personnel management concerns. In addition to the full range of policy support in the area of human capital management, which includes workforce planning, employment and recruitment, pay and performance, training, organizational development, employee and labor relations, awards, leave, workplace programs, employee grievances and appeals.

http://www.usda.gov/da/employ/hc_mgmt.htm

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Venture capital at 6-year high

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Venture capital investments in U.S. startups climbed to a six-year high of $29.4 billion in 2007, raising hope that ample money will still be available to back promising new ideas even if the staggering economy falls into a recession.

read more here...http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/19/news/economy/bc.ventureinvestments.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008011908

Here come the hot IPOs of 2008
Combined, these sectors attracted nearly $16 billion in venture capital investments last year, accounting more than half of the total activity.
While focusing on specialties less susceptible to economic downturns, venture capitalists have been increasing their investments more gradually in recent years. During the dot.com boom, high-tech financiers had routinely entrusted millions of dollars with young Internet entrepreneurs who had never before run profitable businesses.


read more here...http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/19/news/economy/bc.ventureinvestments.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008011908

Friday, January 18, 2008

Labor Management Team Creates World Class Golf Course

It wasn’t that long ago that Yale’s Golf Course was in trouble. After years of hard use, many parts of the course were becoming difficult to play, equipment had become outdated, and those who worked there often felt powerless to make a change. The worst moment probably came in September 2003, when Golfweek called the golf course “a national landmark gone askew.”

read more here...http://www.yale.edu/bestpractices/success/golf.html

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Win the reheating war for talent

Shifting workforce demographics. The aging of skilled professionals in key positions, especially baby boomers who are retiring, and a shortage of younger, “ready-now” replacements, are forcing employers to think hard about ways to source, attract, develop and retain talent creatively.

Wendy Carr and Marc Detampel, Managing Directors in BearingPoint’s Human Capital Practice, discuss how private and public sector organizations can develop the talent needed to execute against business strategies by using a holistic approach to realize the full value of their people.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ensemble Chimes Bankruptcy...Who can help your company?

Rapid Deployment Options for Ensemble Chimes Global Customers ...

With the current Chimes bankruptcy crisis at hand, experience really matters. And, not everyone has had to transition thousands of contingent workers like Allegis Group Services has.
Experience is the utmost critical factor for Ensemble Chimes Global customers to consider. Allegis Group Services has more transition experience than any other company in the industry. As a result, we have methodologies and processes that have been developed and successfully used to transition and rapidly deploy programs. Our processes haven’t been reactively developed due to the recent Chimes bankruptcy crisis at hand, they’re solid strategies and methods that have been used several times over, thus, enabling us to speed up the implementation and transition process for customers like yourself who have been affected by this unfortunate occurrence.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Axium Ensemble Chimes Claims Bankruptcy

Axium bankruptcy strands hundreds of La. film workers without pay
Posted by
Milena Merrill January 10, 2008 12:39PM
Categories:
Breaking News
One of Hollywood's largest entertainment payroll companies -- Axium International Inc. -- abruptly ceased operation and will not make be able to make this week's payroll to hundreds of Louisiana film workers. Many IATSE movie mechanics, Teamsters and others returning to the set of
Sony Picture's Jack Black-starrer Year One set to shoot in Shreveport, were told today that their paychecks are delayed due to the liquidation and bankruptcy of the production company's payroll service. Axium, the third largest entertainment payroll company simultaneously shutdown of offices in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Burbank, London and Vancouver. According to the Chapter 7 petition filed Tuesday in Los Angeles, the company claims it does not have the liquidity to continue operating. The company did return calls placed by Nola.com to their Los Angeles or Burbank offices.
According to an article in the
Los Angeles Times, many Axium clients who were required to deposit a percentage of payroll amounts to be processed by the Los Angeles company may not see return of their money anytime soon. The article says that court-appointment bankruptcy trusteed, Howard Ehrenberg does not anticipate refund of any monies to production companies "in the immediate future."
Ehrenberg told the Los Angeles Times that Axium's largest creditor, Golden Tree Asset Management, a New York investment firm, seized $22 million from company accounts that had secured a $140-million loan on which Axium defaulted.
"The timing couldn't have been worse as most of us have just spent the two week imposed hiatus celebrating the holidays at home with our families. The production company didn't pay us for the two-week break. They were supposed to pay us for drive time and per diem before we left for the holidays, but that didn't happen. None of this pay was reflected in the paycheck for the last week before the break -- and now everyone is on edge waiting for payroll to come through," a carpenter on Year One told Nola.com.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

University of Delaware, Newark

This study introduces the concept of partnership for fair labor management, which has been identified as critical for further improvement in labor management in the apparel and footwear industry. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of a firm's strategic emphases on its partnership behavior for fair labor management. An exploratory scale of partnership was developed based on what has been found in practice and the buyer-seller relationship literature. A self-administered survey through mail was conducted to gather data from 209 sourcing managers from U.S. firms. Six types of strategic emphases (i.e., supply control, image differentiation, focus, quality differentiation, product development, and low price) were identified. Firms with supply control, image differentiation, and product development strategic emphases were more engaged in partnership, whereas ones with a low-price emphasis were less engaged in partnership relationships. The role of strategic emphases as well as control variables, including size and the extent of foreign sourcing, are discussed in relation to partnership behavior for fair labor management.