“Job Front: Finding work is a grind in capital” plus 3 more

Job Front: Finding work is a grind in capital
MASB assists Wayland board with superintendent job search
Search For Missing Boater To Resume
VISTA: Job seekers drawn to city's career center

Job Front: Finding work is a grind in capital

Posted: 04 Jul 2010 09:22 PM PDT

Sacramento-area job seekers continue to have a tough slog compared with those in other U.S. metropolitan areas, according to employment website Juju.com's monthly Job Search Difficulty Index.

Nearly seven Sacramento-area job seekers are unemployed per job opening, ranking 44th out of 50 metro areas. Washington, D.C., ranked the least difficult with 1.28 positions open for every person seeking one.

San Jose, New York, Baltimore and Hartford, Conn., rounded out the top five.

Though the Sacramento metro area has been stuck near the bottom of the index for months – its best ranking was 40th in March – the ratio of job seekers to open postings has steadily decreased since December.

Last December, nearly 11 people were unemployed for every job opening posted, according to the index.

In only six cities was the job search found to be more difficult than Sacramento: Los Angeles, Riverside, Las Vegas, Miami, Detroit and St. Louis, where 12 people are unemployed per open job posting.

San Francisco had the steepest decline, dropping eight spots to 25th.

The website calculates the figures by dividing the number of unemployed workers in each metro area by Juju.com's index of U.S. online job postings, officials said.

Hirers using social media

Job seekers, update your LinkedIn and Facebook pages.

More than eight in 10 employers are using or plan to use social media to recruit new hires, according to Bay Area website Jobvite.

The site's 2010 Social Recruiting Survey released last week showed that nearly half of employers planned to spend more on social media recruiting in 2010 than in 2009, while more than a third said they would spend less on job boards, third-party recruiters and search firms.

The sites of choice: LinkedIn at 78 percent of those surveyed, Facebook at 55 percent and Twitter at 45 percent.

The networks have enjoyed growth over the past year, the Jobvite survey reported. Twitter use grew by a third and Facebook use grew 15 percent.

Curt Cetraro, chief executive officer of Sacramento employment search firm ConnectPoint Search Group, said more of his employer clients are using social media to attract job candidates.

His firm establishes a social media presence for employers across Sacramento.

One of the benefits is that employers' job postings and other employment information pop up on users' Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages, reducing the need to post positions on job boards.

"It's a very powerful way to establish a brand, not only to fill current positions, but to attract people" to their firms, Cetraro said.

Veterans job workshops

Free workshops for job-seeking military veterans are held 9 to 11 a.m. Thursdays at the Greater Sacramento Urban League, 3725 Marysville Blvd.

Veterans can learn to search for jobs through the state's CalJOBS website; complete the Master Employment Application; and hone their interviewing skills.

For more information on the workshops, call the Urban League's Alexis Mathews at (916) 286-8628.

We want to hear from you

Do you have career or job-hunting questions?

Ask Terri Carpenter, one of our "Ask the Experts" writers who can answer your questions online.

As a veteran career counselor at the Sacramento Employment Training Agency, Carpenter has plenty of expertise in résumé writing, job skills training and career counseling.

To post your question or see her advice to others, go to www.sacbee.com/ask.

Call The Bee's Darrell Smith, (916) 321-1040.

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MASB assists Wayland board with superintendent job search

Posted: 05 Jul 2010 06:06 AM PDT

Published: Monday, July 05, 2010, 9:00 AM

The search is on to find a replacement for retiring Wayland Union Schools Superintendent Eivor Swan and the Michigan Association of School Boards is helping the Board of Education find her replacement.

Swan, who served the district for about six years, said that she is retiring to take advantage of a recently adopted Senate bill that encourages school employees to retire in 2010.

At last Monday's Board of Education meeting, Michigan Association of School Boards (MASB) consultant Gunard Johnson presented a suggested timeline for the superintendent search.

Johnson suggested a "pretty aggressive timeline," to replace Swan in early September, but added that the timeline could be flexible.

The job opening was posted on the MASB website at www.masb.org on June 17 and will remain online until noon of July 23. Swan's replacement will be offered a multi-year contract. The school board anticipates offering a regionally competitive compensation package based on background, qualifications and experience."It's been a busy new year," Johnson said.

There are around 60 current superintendents who will stay on the job for one more year before retiring, Johnson said,Johnson said that he could almost guarantee that every administrator in the state of Michigan is logging onto the website to view job openings, even if they are not currently applying. Many administrators are thinking of leaving their positions, looking for future opportunities.

A special committee and school board members will help to screen candidates for the position. The committee and board will decide the minimum required qualifications, start date, length of contract, and minimum salary, Johnson said.

"I expect 20 to 25 candidates to apply," Johnson said.

The committee will consider the applications in mid-July and will screen candidates and recommend the top six applicants in early August. Johnson suggested that interviews be held Aug. 10, 11, and 12 with the second round of interviews on Aug. 17 and 18, with a final decision by Aug. 23. The new superintendent could be on the job by Sept. 3, Johnson said.

Board President Paul Schloop asked Johnson what would happen if a good candidate is not found to replace Swan. In that case, an interim superintendent could be appointed, the job posting could be extended, and another job search conducted, Johnson said.After Johnson's presentation, the board approved the proposed timeline for the superintendent's job search.

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Search For Missing Boater To Resume

Posted: 05 Jul 2010 05:04 AM PDT

Hotdog: Ex-Champ Crashes NYC Eating Contest

Joey "Jaws" Chestnut ate his way to victory at the Coney Island Fourth of July hot dog contest Sunday. But he was suddenly upstaged by his biggest rival, Takeru Kobayashi, who did not compete, but crashed the stage and wrestled with police. (July 4)

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VISTA: Job seekers drawn to city's career center

Posted: 04 Jul 2010 07:30 PM PDT

A One-Stop Career Center in Vista is helping unemployed residents revamp their resumes and search for job openings.

The center, which opened last year, is part of a county-wide work-force program and has proven popular among residents drawn to its computer classes, employment seminars and contacts with local businesses.

Vista's economic development director Kevin Ham said the poor economy has made it difficult for many people to find work, but improving their skills at the center can put them in a good position when the market turns around.

Vista's unemployment rate was 11.5 percent in April, 12.2 percent in March and 11.8 percent in February. Ham said six to eight people visit the center daily to use its job placement resources, search job postings or have staff help them with resumes.

"The economic climate has been a bit of a challenge, and the business community is in need of a skilled and competent work force when they start hiring again," Ham said. "Citizens deserve the opportunity to work in our hometown."

Ham said 15.1 percent of Vista residents work in the city.

The career center ---- in the Townsite Community Center at 642 Vista Village Drive ---- is a partnership between the city, Vista Townsite Community Partnership and the San Diego Workforce Partnership, a nonprofit that funds regional job training programs.

The San Diego Workforce Partnership provides two full-time employees at the center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Ham said the Townsite partnership provides the space and computers and the city chips in up to $25,000 a year to help maintain the equipment, phone lines and support services.

He said the city also holds monthly work-force roundtables, where employers and job placement professionals brainstorm resources for current employees.

"We develop a plan to train and place residents in Vista jobs," Ham said.

Lupe Gonzales, a manager with national work-force development organization Arbor E&T, oversees Vista's center, as well as another one in Oceanside. There's also a One-Stop Career Center in Escondido.

"With the way the labor market looks, people are not getting a job after they come and visit once," Gonzales said. "It's just a sign of the times."

Instead, she said, job seekers are returning to the center several times to work on job skills and continue to search online job databases.

Gonzales said she used to estimated that for every $10,000 a person hopes to earn, it would take about 1.5 months to find a new job.

"Now that's probably double," she said.

The career center tries to offer services that will help ensure residents are the most qualified candidates when a job does open.

"We help with interviewing skills, we hold workshops for job search skills, help get referrals. We can refer people to transportation services," she said. "We do a variety of different things to help people get to the next job."

But Ham said the center isn't just for the unemployed.

"We want to assist our residents with finding jobs or better jobs," Ham said. "This resource is available not just for individuals who are unemployed but those who want to improve their quality of life" with a better job.

Call staff writer Cigi Ross at 760-901-4067.

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Job Search

Monday, July 5, 2010