In Business

With competition for good jobs at an all-time high, job candidates need an edge. One edge that many can acquire is the ability to sell themselves during the interview process.

Many job candidates dutifully attend job fairs, trying to talk to as many hiring managers as possible. It’s a great method to increase the quantity of jobs they apply for.

Equally important is the quality with which they interview with the hiring managers and recruiters at those job fairs. To get to the top of the list, job candidates need to apply these essential sales skills.
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The economy grew a little faster over the summer than the government first thought. That modest pickup wasn’t nearly enough to significantly lower the nation’s high unemployment rate, and the Federal Reserve doesn’t expect the economy to improve much over the next couple of years.

The economy expanded at a 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That was up from the 2 percent pace initially estimated, and better than the 1.7 percent growth rate in the April-June quarter.

Stronger spending by U.S. shoppers and better overseas sales of U.S. goods were the main forces behind an upward revision.
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Employment experts have warned hiring managers and recruiters for years about the impending brain drain as baby boomers, the heart and soul of many companies for the last thirty years, leave corporate America for retirement and encore career options.

But amidst all of the gloom and doom associated with the baby boomers’ exit comes the hope of a new generation of workers. Roughly the same size as the boomers, Generation Y is the foundation for the next three decades of employment and leadership.

Sound scary?
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Economic activity increases by $2 for every dollar spent on unemployment insurance, according to a study the U.S. Department of Labor released Tuesday.

The federal agency said the multiyear study used economic models to analyze the impact of the unemployment insurance program. The Department of Labor said the benefits at the macroeconomic level and individual families outweigh the payroll costs to employers.

In a summary of the report, benefits to unemployed workers were called an “economic stabilizer” and the payments helped boost gross domestic product by $315 billion from the start of the recession through the second quarter of this year.
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Numbers show economic conditions didn’t crumble as bad in Northwest Indiana during the recession as they did about 30 years ago.

But the resulting recovery over the next year will be slow and filled with uncertainty as the region, state and nation cope with stagnant growth in employment and gross domestic product, said speakers from Indiana University and Purdue University on Friday during their annual economic forecast.

Timothy Slaper, director of economic analysis at the Indiana Business Research Center at IU’s Kelley School of Business, said the recession has been “diabolically consistent” in the pain it has dealt. The economic cycle spanning December 2007 to June 2009 and the subsequent recovery have been the worst since the Great Depression, Slaper said.
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Loretta Singleton-Henderson, left, who has been unemployed for two years, Carolyn Trueheart, center, who has been unemployed for one year, and Dennis Spain, right, who has been unemployed for two months, listen to others during a meeting at the Philadelphia Unemployment Project in Philadelphia. Employers added the most jobs in five months in October, with the education and health care sectors leading the way. But the unemployment rate emained stuck at 9.6 percent for the third straight month. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The jobs crisis eased a bit in October as companies stepped up hiring, suggesting further gains ahead.

Hiring remains far too weak to drive down unemployment, now stuck at 9.6 percent. And the newly elected Congress will come under pressure to take steps to accelerate job growth.

Still, the burst of hiring—159,000 net jobs added by private employers—raised hopes that companies are finally emerging from the hiring stall seen during much of the summer.
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Indiana’s nonfatal workplace injury and illness rate dropped in 2009 to its lowest rate on record, according to data the Bureau of Labor Statistics released late last month.

The Indiana Department of Labor said the rate of 4.3 cases per 100 full-time workers represents a 12 percent drop from the 2008 rate of 4.9 occupational illnesses and injuries per 100 workers. The year-over-year decline was the largest on record in a one-year period. The total number of Indiana cases in 2009 was 94,800, down from 112,100 cases reported in 2008.

In 2009, the national average for private employers was 3.6 cases per 100 workers and for public sector employers was 5.8 cases per 100 workers.
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Q: I’ve been out of work since April. I always send a cover letter with my resume and I do follow up, but I’ve had no feedback. I do well in interviews and have been told that I sparkle! Although my education may be limited, my personal experiences and “get-it-done” attitude have been a plus for me, along with my strong work ethic.

A: Every job search needs these basics:

• Direction-a stated objective emblazoned in your brain
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Michael Griffin, center, clerk-treasurer for the town of Highland, speaks October 20 during the quarterly Times Board of Economists luncheon at Innsbrook Country Club in Merrillville. (Photograph by The Times.)

Northwest Indiana business leaders say the most powerful economic stimulus yet may be just around the corner: the end of the 2010 midterm elections.

“No matter what happens with these elections, at least they will be over with and people will settle down and we’ll have more consumer confidence,” said Bill McCabe, broker/owner at Century 21 Executive Realty in Schererville.

McCabe was one of 16 business leaders at the Times Board of Economists quarterly meeting at Innsbrook Country Club on October 20, all of whom cast a vote for getting the elections over with and getting on with the business of America.
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Gov. Mitch Daniels fields questions from students Thursday during his visit to the Valparaiso University School of Law. (Photograph by The Times.)

Gov. Mitch Daniels’ plan for Indiana’s economy has always been to make the state the best “sandbox” for business to play in while increasing the income of everyday Hoosiers.

In the last six years, Daniels has signed into law simplified business sales taxes, easy to understand unemployment and worker compensation insurance programs, and incentives to lure the advanced manufacturing of the future to Indiana today.

It’s beginning to really pay off, Daniels said recently, pointing to more than 25,000 new or retained jobs in Indiana in the past 18 months, even as job growth elsewhere in the United States has stalled.
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