Google describes the role of the Doodler on its site:

First impressions matter. Every day, hundreds of millions of online users visit the Google homepage. Yes, to search. But also, to be delighted, informed, and surprised (And maybe even to laugh a little). The Google Doodle makes this possible — it’s the change that is constant on Google.com. As a Product Graphic Designer/Illustrator, more commonly known as a “Doodler,” you have the world’s best platform to showcase your stylistic skills — as well as your sense of humor, love of all things historical and imaginative artistry. From Jules Verne to Pac-Man, you have the reins to our brand and iconic logo and can run free with your innovative ideas. Go forth and doodle!

Google wasn’t kidding in saying that it offers the world’s best platform in showcasing a Doodler’s artistic skills, and it would be interesting to get a count on the number of applicants for this gig. Those applying need a bachelor’s of fine arts, 4 years relevant experience, and I assume a complete knowledge of all forms of traditional and digital artistry, as the competition will likely get tough. It can be assumed that Google will settle for a Doodler with that rare blend of technical mastery and raw talent.

Supposedly, these are pre-recession levels. I thought we were in recession long before that, but regardless, we are experiencing a jump in hiring. In fact, 30% of employers plan on adding new full time members. So many of us can once again get comfortable spending hours on the computer filling out tedious resumes.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder comments on the growing hiring trend:

“We have moved from an anemic job market to one that is stable and growing,”

“While still cautious, employers are feeling better about the state of the U.S. economy and the debt situation in Europe. Forty-one percent of companies reported their sales have increased over the last six months, which is helping to fuel greater confidence in hiring. The amount of job listings we’re seeing for key categories on CareerBuilder.com are similar to that of 2007. All indicators point to steady improvement in the job market in the second quarter and beyond.”

Also good new for experienced professional seeking employment, more candidates are turning job offers down and forcing employers to compete for talent. I like it! there’s a lot of highly-skilled people out there, and it’s good to see them in demand.

Also, a lot of candidates are accepting positions with companies that act faster to hire them. 22% said they chose one job over another due to long wait times hearing back from employers after interviews. I like this even more! I realize organization have to do a good job screening candidates, but come on? Start closing the gap on those hiring windows. Some people rely on a paycheck to earn a living. Many employees have loyalty to those who hire them and aren’t willing to jump ship just because a better offer comes along two weeks later.

Still, a small percentage plan to downsize their workforce this coming quarter, about 6%. Well over half the companies have no plans for growth whatsoever, but this could be a reality in any economy. Growth is not always an indicator of a healthy organization or economy. Overall, businesses of all shapes and sizes have plans for hiring in the coming months.

Here are some stats from Career Builder’s survey, the numbers are taken from 2300 hiring manager’s responses across a variety of fields:

* 50 or fewer employees – 20 percent plan to add full-time, permanent staff in Q2, up from 17 percent last year; those reducing headcount increased slightly to 5 percent in 2012 from 4 percent last year.

* More than 500 employees – 38 percent plan to add full-time, permanent staff in Q2, up from 35 percent last year; those reducing headcount remained at 7 percent.

Something else worth mentioning about talent and the unemployment numbers is the struggle for employers to find qualified people. Believe it or not, many talent scouts are failing to find qualified candidates to fill vital positions. Almost one third of employers have jobs like this which aren’t being filled in a satisfactory manner. Can you say opportunity?

Ferguson comments on the phenomenon:

“One of the major challenges the U.S. faces is being able to align the skill sets of the labor force with positions that are in high demand,”

“There is a growing gap between high-skill job openings and available talent that has a larger impact on overall employment. Fifteen percent of employers reported that, because they can’t fill high-skill positions within their organizations, they’re not able to create lower-skilled positions that are tied to these roles.”

In any event, this should be some good news for many people. I like to see when qualified candidates gain some leverage in their respective fields and are presented with a number of options for employment. Many of us have invested a great deal in our education and experience, and that hasn’t been paying off very well in the last couple of years. Hopefully there’s change on the horizon.

The open-source initiative, Code Sprint, which was conceived by the White House and the Department of Labor, is aimed at building an app capable of providing low-income and disconnected youths aged 16 to 24 years old with access to information regarding summer jobs, internships, and the sort. The program through which the app will be developed, Summer Jobs+, is an open call for employers from multiple industries to provide the aforementioned demographic with a way to foster good work ethics and maybe even make some money in the process, as well.

By providing developers with the Summer Jobs+ API, and thereby with a database of thousands of summer internships, training and mentorships opportunities, Code Sprint is being regarding as a challenge to the developer community to construct job search apps that will realize the goal of the White House and the Department of Labor.

The unemployment drag certainly hasn’t left the 16- to 24-year-old demographic unaffected as less than half, 48.8%, were employed last July, a time in which youth employment typically sees a boost. Comparatively, 59.2% of that demographic was employed in the month of July only five years ago. More troubling, the percentages of minority youths who were employed last July was less than the national average.

In the blog post that announced the Code Sprint, Brian Forde, Advisor to the Chief Technology Officer, listed only the barest of requirements and essentially handed over all creative license to the developers. “Some ideas we’d love to see include an easy way to receive job opportunities through SMS, localized job search apps for the city you live in, map based interfaces or easy way to create summer training playlists that help youth plan a summer of job skills development,” he said. “These are just a few of our ideas but we’re confident that you have even better ones.”

The White House seems to be spearheading the whole mobile technology/development/search aspect when it comes to fixing some of the country’s ills. Last month, a competition was announced for developers to build apps that could be used by case workers and caregivers of homeless veterans that would expedite the process of locating nearby services for the homeless.

The deadline to develop and submit the apps is April 9, 8AM, after which some of the best ones will be featured on the White House’s website. More information about the Summer Jobs+ API can be found on the Department of Labor’s website.

[Via Mashable.]

You probably suspected as much, but here are some numbers from a recent survey by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. (My professors taught me to always back claims up with data. And not to split infinitives.) According to the survey, 16 percent of employers believe that college graduates are very prepared for the workplace, while 54 percent say finding skilled and knowledgeable employees is difficult. They’re not talking theoretical knowledge here. They’re talking hands-on, know-what-you’re-doing, don’t-need-your-hand-held training. Almost half of the employers surveyed prefer that college students receive an education that specifically prepares them for the workplace.

Employers are also asking for more accountability from higher education institutions in providing students a practical learning curriculum that can lead to workplace success. Nineteenth-century Russian literature is all well and good, but knowing Pushkin’s not gonna land you that IT job.

According to Rick Cali, associate dean of Benedictine University’s College of Business, students hoping to meet employer expectations must become engaged in the classroom, participate in service learning (working with outside organizations on professional projects), earn internships and participate in employment outreach programs. “Participation in University clubs for leadership development and taking advantage of study abroad opportunities also are experiences that bring value to the student experience,” Cali said.

The economy may be improving faster than expected, but the numbers on economists’ charts often feel slow to translate to real-life job availability. Educated young people have traditionally been ideal candidates for HR departments, as they tend to be tech-savvy, motivated, aware of new trends, and willing to work for less. But for the moment at least, older, more experienced workers are still delaying or coming out of retirement, often in direct competition with fresh-faced workers for entry-level jobs. Against these applicants’ sometimes 20+ years related experience, your euphemistic good communication skills, strong critical thinking ability, ability to work in a team, and proficiency in Microsoft Office applications won’t get your résumé to the top of the stack. Following advice like Cali’s above might help tip the odds in your favor.

Some college-educated job-seekers are turning toward jobs in the skilled trades, while still others jump into the market through government- and NGO-sponsored service organizations–AmeriCorps, Teach for America, e.g.–often sacrificing comfortable paychecks for a modest benefits package, hands-on job training, and the flexibility of a short-term contract. Participation in such programs, or in traditional internships, can also help new job seekers discover wider opportunities in their prospective career field.

Main photo credit: Foxnews.com

Let me give you some stats on the high demand areas. In other words, where is the demand? Minnesota is up an unbelievable 108% since the beginning of 2010. Ohio is up 92% and Wisconsin is up 86%. Also of particular gain is Indiana, up 79%. It’s not a solution to unemployment, but it could be a ray of sunshine for a few.

June Shelp, Vice President at The Conference Board commented on the surprising upward trend:

“In a positive sign the Supply/Demand rate dipped below the 3.0 level for the first time since November 2008,”

“This reflects both significant gains in labor demand as well as drops in unemployment levels since the end of the recession. Labor demand is up 227,000 over the past three months, continuing to narrow the gap between the unemployed and available jobs. With the monthly level of job demand around 4.4 million, labor demand is back in line with the pre-recession series high in 2007.”

The various corners of the country have shockingly different trends in online openings so I’ll give you a brief break-down of what’s going on. I think it’s pretty interesting:

The Northeast:

The northeast added 26,700 jobs including an astounding 12,100 in Pennsylvania. Some lost jobs some gained but overall a strong showing.

The South:

Online labor demand rose 23,800 in the south. This number was hurt by Georgia who actually lost over 2500 jobs.

The West:

The west panned-out pretty well and added over 21,000 jobs. California by itself approached the 60,000 jobs mark. Things are looking pretty good for them!

The Midwest:

The midwest did the worst and actually lost about 2,700 jobs since January including illinois, who lost over 3000 jobs.

Overall, the online segment of the economy seems to be on the right track and this should come as no surprise given what the hot selling products and services are right now. Technology is the future of America and we all need to be bringing our business models more inline with these trends.

Perhaps some segments of the economy will never recover in America and the truth is, we have priced ourselves out of many market. However If you look at the general trends, individuals and organizations are still investing heavily in technology despite making major cuts in other areas.

Here’s the facts right from their website:

“A study by Analysis Group found that Apple has directly or indirectly created 304,000 U.S. jobs.* These jobs — spread across all 50 states — include thousands of jobs in numerous industries, from the people who create components for our products to the people who build the planes and trucks that carry them to our customers. For example, this figure also includes workers in Texas who manufacture processors for iOS products, Corning employees in Kentucky and New York who create the majority of the glass for iPhone, and FedEx and UPS employees. Together with the 210,000 iOS jobs generated by the app economy, these 304,000 jobs make a total of 514,000 U.S. jobs created or supported by Apple.”

In the next section I’ll give you the highlights of the break down by sector or what Apple call, “The numbers at a glance”:

U.S. Jobs Supported by Apple

304,000 current U.S. jobs supported by Apple:
* 47,000 jobs at Apple
* 257,000 jobs at other companies, in fields that include:
-the development and manufacturing of components, materials, and equipment
-professional, scientific, and technical services
-consumer sales
-transportation
-business sales
-healthcare

The App Economy:

* 210,000 iOS app economy jobs in the U.S.
* 248,000 registered iOS developers in the U.S.
* 5000+ iOS developer jobs available now on job search aggregator Indeed.com
* $4 billion paid to Apple developers from App Store sales

Jobs at Apple:

* 70,000 employees worldwide
* 47,000 in the U.S., two-thirds of worldwide headcount
* 7800 U.S. jobs created in 2011
* 19,500 U.S. jobs added since 2008
* 7000 construction jobs projected to build Apple’s new Cupertino campus
* 50 states with full-time Apple employees

Apple Retail Stores:

* 27,350 U.S. retail employees
* 246 U.S. stores in 44 states
* 100+ locally hired employees per store on average
* 4000 retail employees in the Greater New York area
* 3500 U.S. retail employees who have worked at Apple stores for more than five years
* 20,000 construction-related jobs created to build Apple stores in the U.S. since 2001

U.S.-Based Customer Support:

* 7700 U.S.-based AppleCare Advisors
* 21 U.S. call centers in 15 states
* 2000 home-based AppleCare Advisors
* 600 advisors working for Apple while earning their college degrees

So there it is, Apple supports 514,000 jobs in the USA. You’ll also be happy to know that there is a link you can click on to find currently available jobs at Apple. Get ready to work! Will it be retail or corporate?

I started my corporate career in the midst of an economic downturn for my industry. I was working for a Fortune 100 company and to get through this difficult time, the company brought in an outside consulting group to conduct a little exercise called “Overhead Value Analysis.” Simply put, every person from the adminstrative assistant to a vice president had to stand up in front of a group of strangers and justify their existence by explaining how they were contributing to shareholder value.

This was a very stressful exercise, especially for a young man who was still finding his way to the water cooler. But thankfully I was always a numbers geek and could pull out a chart (probably drawn by hand in those days) to show what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how what I was accomplishing was tied to the company objectives. This was an important lesson in my young career and one that has always served me well through many downturns along the way.

So when I hear another round of gurus pontificating last week about the unnecessary annoyance of measuring social media activities I want to shake somebody. I am so very sick of people who have never had to work in a corporate bureaucracy or manage through a budget crisis explain that measuring social media is like measuring your mother, or your pants. Here’s another one that drives me nuts: “The ROI of social media is that your company exists in five years” … again implying that you need to do social media, just because you need to do social media. Bullshit.

Don’t you believe it. You MUST keep measuring, assessing, adjusting, improving. Never get caught with your stats down.

At some point in the life of every company, there will be a financial imperative to slash overhead costs. The bubble always bursts, at least in a free economy. When that happens, everything will be evaluated under the icy glare of number-crunchers — do we cut or not cut? This is the day of reckoning that defines the ”implied economic value” of any effort. Even something as seemingly mundane as social media. You better be able to articulate a business case, and it better be something better than page views and Klout scores, Bub.

Why? Social media is NOT FREE. Every economic activity in a corporation directly or indirectly has to contribute to shareholder value.

Let’s look at how “un-free” social media really is. Let’s assume you have one person working full-time on social media marketing. We’ll assign that person a salary of $60,000. In a typical company, standard health, 401(k) and other benefit costs equal another 50% of the base salary, or in this case, $30,000.

We’ll assign another 20% of base salary for overhead such as office space, shared services support and technology. That’s $12,000. We won’t even address travel, training, or bonuses.

So, our minimal full-up cost for one social media professional is $102,000. As a business owner, are you willing to spend more than $100,000 per year without requiring any accountability for a return? What kind of a company are you running?

I’m a practical guy. I know it may be cost-prohibitive or even impossible to determine the specific ROI of your efforts. Sometimes you need to look at qualitative tools for social media measurement. But there is no excuse for not tracking key measures that contribute to your company’s goals. To support your credibility, your long-term viability, and your personal career in social media marketing, YOU MUST MEASURE.

This is an emotional topic for some, but it shouldn’t be. This is basic business common sense. Are you with me on this one?

Originally published at BusinessesGrow.com

The study found broadband Internet users are at east 50 percent less likely to give up on job searches because of discouragement than those who do not use the Internet. Dial-up Internet users are about one – third less likely to drop out of the labor force.

"By connecting Americans to jobs and information about job opportunities, Internet usage feeds hope and encourages frustrated workers to keep on looking even when job prospects are dim," according to Phoenix Center President Lawrence J. Spiwak. "These findings suggest that broadband connectivity can contribute to economic recovery."

"Our study also shows the enormous potential benefit of community broadband centers for those who are not connected at home," Spiwak adds. "While broadband use at home delivers significant benefits, shared facilities can be a valuable solution to connectivity gaps in unserved and underserved communities."

The Phoenix Center says the new study provides insights to policymakers at a time when unemployment is  high, with government estimates suggesting the unemployment rate, when broadly defined, now exceeds 17%. In fact, large numbers of Americans have given up looking for jobs because they think none are available.

The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is responsible for the government’s monthly data on employment and unemployment, estimates that adding "discouraged workers," as defined by the Bureau, who had quit looking for work as of December 2009, would boost the current U.S. jobless rate above the frequently reported 10 percent level.

Related Articles:

> Open Internet Heavily Promoted at CES

> Internet’s Possible Future in the US Gets Ready to Be Decided

> FCC’s Net Neutrality Site Gets a Blog

"The tech industry has suffered the full force of the global economic recession in the first half of this year, yet we believe it has weathered the storm better than most," said TechAmerica Foundation President Christopher W. Hansen.

"Given that technology is an important economic driver, long-term investments and globally competitive tax policies are critical for encouraging technology companies to form and flourish in the United States and add new American jobs."

From June 2008 through June 2009, tech lost 224,100 jobs, a 3.7 percent workforce decline. Over the same period the U.S. private sector cut jobs at a higher rate of 5.1 percent.

For the six months between January and June, the sector hit the hardest was high-tech manufacturing. Technology manufacturers cut 69,500 net jobs in the first half of 2009, a 5.6 percent loss, leaving a total of 1.2 million tech manufacturing jobs in June. This accounted for 11.6 percent of total U.S. manufacturing jobs lost over that time period.

Technology service providers slashed 45,500 jobs, engineering and tech services cut 21,500, communications services lost 13,600 and software services cut 10,400.
 

GlassDoor breaks it down into two categories – companies that have reported upcoming layoffs, and companies that have not:

Employees who work for companies that have reported layoffs versus those that haven’t are more likely to:		Total   n=1,331		Employees from companies that have communicated layoffs within the past 6 months n=327		Employees from companies who have not communicated layoffs within the past six months n=1004
Have concerns about being laid off in next six months		21%		45%		12%
Have concerns coworkers will be laid off in next six months		42%		87%		26%
Be working harder to avoid a lay off given the current state of the economy		52%		69%		46%
Not expect a pay raise in next 12 months		40%		49%		36%
Not expect a bonus		25%		32%		22%
To take on more projects and responsibilities to avoid a lay off		74%		84%		70%

 “This data reinforces the need for employers to be more open and transparent with their plans for the company and people. It is human nature to always think that something bad will happen to someone else but never to me. Employees often think them personally — or their company — will be insulated from layoffs and that someone else will lose their job, not them, often causing shock and denial when notified their job has been eliminated,” says Rusty Rueff, co-author of Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business and former HR executive at Electronic Arts and Pepsico, who is also a member of Glassdoor’s board of directors.

“Fourth quarter layoffs may just be a prelude of what’s to come and both employers and talent should take time now to communicate and plan short-term options and contingencies. In today’s environment there’s no reason to continue to have people surprised and not prepared for the worst,” adds Rueff.

Employees Expect Raises and Bonuses

Some other interesting stats revealed by the survey include:

– Even amid widespread company cost-cutting, 40% of employees say they expect a pay raise or cost of living increase in the next 12 months while 40% do not expect a raise and 20% say they are unsure.

– Of those eligible for an annual bonus, 57% expect a bonus and 40% do not.

Of those who expect a bonus:

– 41% expect it to be about the same as last bonus

– 28% expect it to be less than last bonus

– 15% expect it to be more than last bonus

– 16% are unsure of the amount

“Salary and total compensation are very important to employees so we aren’t surprised more than half of employees are unwilling to take pay cuts to avoid a lay off. We are surprised, however, that so many employees say they are not personally concerned about layoffs, particularly given the frequency we’re seeing people discuss layoffs in their Glassdoor reviews over the past few months,” said Robert Hohman, co-founder and CEO of Glassdoor.com, a career and workplace community bringing greater transparency to salaries and workplaces.

So if employees are so confident, what are they willing to sacrifice in order to keep their jobs?

– 74% would take on more projects or responsibility

– 60% would increase the amount of hours worked

– 46% would give up perks like commuter subsidies, on-site cafeteria, child care, dry cleaner, gym access

– 32% would accept a reduction in health and dental benefits coverage

– 30% would accept a cut in salary or wages

– 24% would forfeit paid time off or vacation

– 24% would take an unpaid leave or sabbatical

The good news here is that employees are willing to work harder and stay motivated so that they can keep their jobs. This should theoretically lead to more productivity, which should make business owners happy – a silver lining in the dark cloud of the economy.