In a culture that is filled with cubicle jobs that we’re quick to label boring, we can easily forget that some jobs are dangerous. Commuting through rush-hour traffic in a big city can feel like a life-or-death adventure every morning, but for many workers that risk disappears once they exit the six-land highway and pull into a parking lot.

For other workers, however, physical risks are part of the job. Whether you’re a police officer on patrol or a construction worker building a skyscraper, danger is a daily concern.

The new workplace injury statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are a mix of good and bad news. The good news: Fatal workplace injuries were down 28 percent in 2009 compared to 2008. The bad news: 4,340 workers still died as a result of on-the-job injuries. So we’re happy to see a reduction in fatal injuries, but don’t we want that number down to zero?

Which sectors had the biggest improvements?
If you look only at the raw numbers, here are the occupations with the most to the fewest fatal occupational injuries last year:

• Transportation and material moving (1,376)
• Construction and extraction (988)
• Management (514)
• Installation, maintenance and repair (317)
• Sales and related (269)
• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (248)
• Protective service (243)
• Farming, fishing and forestry (229)

The change in percentage of fatal workplace injuries by industry reorders the list a bit:

• Transportation and material moving (28 percent decrease)
• Protective service (21 percent decrease)
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (18 percent decrease)
• Construction and extraction (16 percent decrease)
• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (6 percent increase)
• Resident military personnel (21 percent increase)

What does this tell us?
Although drawing conclusions from preliminary numbers is a tricky process, you can make some general observations.

As the BLS notes, the construction industry has experienced significant setbacks since the recession began in 2007. Therefore a reduction in fatalities could be linked to the reduction in construction jobs. Again, a mix of good and bad news.

Fewer deaths for law enforcement officers and fire fighters helped with the decrease in fatal injuries for protective services. And while many cities have struggled with budget issues to compensate and retain law enforcement officers, they have not laid off workers on the same scale that construction has. Therefore the decrease in fatalities seems to be a completely positive change that doesn’t correlate to fewer employed police officers and firefighters.

And

To read the full report from the BLS, visit their site here.

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

They say bad news comes in threes, but what about good news?

While the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 percent, there are a few things that cause us to take a “glass half full” perspective on U.S. employment this month. 

Yes, nonfarm payroll employment declined by -54,000 in August, BUT it was better than economist predictions that job loss could be up to -105,000

Secondly, June’s job loss was originally reported to be -221,000; it was revised to -175,000. And July’s number was revised from a loss of -131,000 to a decline of -54,000. (The Pollyanna in me is thinking about what August’s revision will be next month.)

Finally, while Government employment fell by -121,000, reflecting the departure of 114,000 temporary Census 2010 workers from federal government payrolls, private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly by adding 67,000 jobs.

Dean Maki of Barclays Capital told Forbes: “On balance, the upward revisions make the report a bit stronger than we expected. It does not change the recent trend of moderate growth in private payrolls and is inconsistent with fears that a sharp slowdown in the economy is underway.”

Here’s a look at how some of the major sectors fared in August:

• Health care increased by 28,000, with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory health care services (+17,000) and hospitals (+9,000).
• Manufacturing employment dropped by -27,000. A decline in motor vehicles and parts (-22,000) offset a gain of similar magnitude in July as the industry geared up for its annual retooling.
• Temporary help services, which have added 392,000 jobs since a recent employment low in September 2009, added 17,000 jobs.
• Construction employment was up by 19,000, partially reflected by the return of the payrolls of 10,000 workers who were on strike in July.
• Retail trade was relatively unchanged. A job gain among motor vehicle and parts dealers (+8,000) was essentially offset by losses in building materials and garden supply stores (-6,000).

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

In a culture that is filled with cubicle jobs that we’re quick to label boring, we can easily forget that some jobs are dangerous. Commuting through rush-hour traffic in a big city can feel like a life-or-death adventure every morning, but for many workers that risk disappears once they exit the six-land highway and pull into a parking lot. For other workers, however, physical risks are part of the job. Whether you’re a police officer on patrol or a construction worker building a skyscraper, danger is a daily concern.

The new workplace injury statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are a mix of good and bad news. The good news: Fatal workplace injuries were down 28 percent in 2009 compared to 2008. The bad news: 4,340 workers still died as a result of on-the-job injuries. So we’re happy to see a reduction in fatal injuries, but don’t we want that number down to zero?

Which sectors had the biggest improvements?
If you look only at the raw numbers, here are the occupations with the most to the fewest fatal occupational injuries last year:

• Transportation and material moving (1,376)
• Construction and extraction (988)
• Management (514)
• Installation, maintenance and repair (317)
• Sales and related (269)
• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (248)
• Protective service (243)
• Farming, fishing and forestry (229)

The change in percentage of fatal workplace injuries by industry reorders the list a bit:

• Transportation and material moving (28 percent decrease)
• Protective service (21 percent decrease)
• Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (18 percent decrease)
• Construction and extraction (16 percent decrease)
• Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (6 percent increase)
• Resident military personnel (21 percent increase)

What does this tell us?
Although drawing conclusions from preliminary numbers is a tricky process, you can make some general observations.

As the BLS notes, the construction industry has experienced significant setbacks since the recession began in 2007. Therefore a reduction in fatalities could be linked to the reduction in construction jobs. Again, a mix of good and bad news.

Fewer deaths for law enforcement officers and fire fighters helped with the decrease in fatal injuries for protective services. And while many cities have struggled with budget issues to compensate and retain law enforcement officers, they have not laid off workers on the same scale that construction has. Therefore the decrease in fatalities seems to be a completely positive change that doesn’t correlate to fewer employed police officers and firefighters.

And

To read the full report from the BLS, visit their site here.

Related posts:

1. Workplace Fatalities Reach Record Low Another silver lining in the unemployment cloud: Workplace fatalities have…
2. U.S. loses 263,000 jobs in September We were waiting for two big announcements this morning at CareerBuilder….
3. Summer job season not too hot Whenever I think of summer jobs, the first thing that…

Courtesy: The Work Buzz

On my childhood birthdays I’d look at the pile of presents at my Chuck E. Cheese party with a mix of excitement and anxiety. The excitement was always directed at the big boxes (which held cool things like EZ Bake Ovens) while the anxiety was caused by the small envelopes, which usually just held money.

Why my youthful disdain toward money? Because I had a savings account, that’s why. All the money I got for birthdays/Christmas/grade school graduation went straight to the bank, and my parents expected me to be happy when I exchanged a would-be shopping spree at Toys-R-Us for a deposit receipt and a lollipop. I was eight, and I was not happy.

Reflecting on those times now, I realize I’d be thrilled with a savings account as well-endowed as the one I had in fifth grade — its present-day counterpart is paltry, to put it optimistically. Though I know the importance of saving money, there are certain times when it seems almost impossible to save — a feeling that is shared by an increasing number of workers these days.

According to a new CareerBuilder survey: “Saving money is not an option for some workers, as one-third (33 percent) state that they do not participate in any programs such as 401(k), IRAs or retirement plans. One-in-three (30 percent) report that they don’t put any money aside into their savings each month, while 28 percent set aside $100 or less per month for savings and 14 percent save less than $50.”

The survey also reports that the number of workers living paycheck to paycheck has risen in the last year: 77 percent of workers report living paycheck to paycheck in 2010, compared with 61 percent who reported doing so in 2009.

Unfortunately, since we’re in the middle of a recession, it’s likely that many of us will be living with tight purse strings  for the foreseeable future.

Yet according to Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, that may not be such a bad thing, since living on a budget  may ultimately make us more financially responsible. “The last 18 months have required some workers to tighten their day-to-day spending and make some adjustments to their financial futures,” says Haefner. “Our survey found that six-in-ten workers say that the recession has made them more fiscally responsible. Maintaining a budget is not only important now, but will better position workers – both personally and professionally – for the long run.”

When it comes to  budgeting, workers reported using the following tactics to help make ends meet:

•             Cut back on leisure activities – 54 percent

•             Used coupons or shopped at discount stores – 48 percent

•             Drove less to save on gas – 37 percent

•             Cancelled cable and other subscriptions – 12 percent

•             Used public transportation – 5 percent

Cut back on cable, carpooling to work and still stretching your paycheck thin? Haefner offers the following tips for getting the most out of your money and creating a livable budget:

Cut back where you can – That daily dose of Dunkin Donuts coffee can add up. Create a spreadsheet or keep a small notebook to track your expenses. At the end of the month, analyze where your money goes, and cut back where you’re spending unnecessarily.

Be saving savvy – While you may not be able to stash away a few hundred dollars each month, it’s still important to save what you can, even if it’s a small amount. If you tend to spend whatever is in your checking account, try setting up an automatic deposit into a savings account. 

Maximize your benefits– Talk to your HR department to see if there are any benefits you’re not taking advantage of.  Many companies offer perks like free museum admission, discounts at certain stores, etc. Also, if necessary, re-evaluate your benefits plan to make sure you’ve selected the right one for your budget.

For more on the recession and its effect on workers, check out:

Is Going Back to School the Right Move?

Workplace Fatalities Reach Record Low

Surprising Growth Industries

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

Last week we brought you a list of 10 companies hiring…and, because we love you,  today we do it again. We try to cover a variety of industries with these lists. If you feel we’re leaving your industry of interest out, drop us a note in the comments!

The following are 10 companies throughout the US hiring right this very minute. So click on their names and see what they have to offer.

Charter College
Industry: Education
Sample job titles: Student finance systems coordinator, financial aid officer

LexisNexis
Industry: Data and research
Sample job titles: Research specialist, business analyst

DuPont
Industry: Manufacturing
Sample job titles: Manufacturing technology engineer, maintenance first line supervisor

Averitt Express
Industry: Transportation
Sample job titles: Local truck driver, CDL-A

Epsilon
Industry: Business strategy
Sample job titles: Senior database developer

Talascend
Industry: Design (staffing)
Sample job titles: Designer

MMPI
Industry: Construction and engineering
Sample job titles: Project manager, director of marketing (antiques)

US Bank
Industry: Finance
Sample job titles: Application security consultant, commercial lender

Randstad
Industry: Biotechnology and pharmacy (staffing)
Sample job titles: Chemistry Informatics Scientist, research associate in cell panel group

Ethan Allen Global
Industry: Retail
Sample job titles: Design consultant, softgoods specialist

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Does the thought of making small talk make you cringe? Does schmoozing make you feel like a schmuck? Devora Zack, author of “Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected,” is just like you and has written today’s guest post on this very topic.

Zack, who’s the president of Only Connect Consulting and an expert in personality and the workplace, travels the nation, rubbing elbows with and making presentations to executives in private industry, the public sector and federal agencies; she’s also an introvert … so who better to write about introvert networking than a person who shatters the stereotype?

Introverts Can Sizzle on Networking Job Search

By Devora Zack author of “Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed and the Underconnected.”

To network or not to network?  That is the question.

What’s at stake?  Whatever you most want to accomplish; no biggie.

What if you don’t like networking and have no interest?  It drains you.  It never works.  You don’t have time.  You don’t need to.  It’s phony, self-serving, fake, inauthentic, superficial, conniving, manipulative and useless.

Hold it right there.

In my experience, people who claim to hate networking also believe they are not good at it.  The reverse is true.  People who hate networking fail at traditional networking by following advice never intended for them in the first place.  You have the raw materials to be a stellar networker.  You are just following the wrong rules.  Standard networking advice fails you, so you assume you fail at networking. Plus you hate it.  What is networking?

» Read more: Networking Made Easy for Introverts

If the Emmy Awards are any indicator, high school staff, police investigators and business owners/executives lead the most interesting lives — or at the least the lives that make for good TV. Out of the 24 actors nominated for an Emmy award for lead actor or actress in a television series: Four of their characters work in public high schools, four work as investigators for a police department and four are business owners or executives.

But that’s not where the similarities stop.  

Three of the characters who garnered Emmy noms for their respective actors work in health care, two are comedy writers, two are mid-level managers and two are lawyers — for a grand total of 20 out of 24 characters that share an occupation with at least one other Emmy-nominated character.

With all the different careers paths out there (the Bureau of Labor Statistics  lists 280 different occupations in its Occupation Outlook Handbook), that’s got to say something about our entertainment — or occupational — preferences. 

Below, a list of Emmy-nominated characters that are also professional peers.

The high school staff:

• “Glee”’s Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester, Spanish teacher and glee club director, William McKinley High School
• “Breaking Bad”’s Bryan Cranston as Walter White, high school chemistry teacher
• “Friday Night Lights”’ Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor, coach, Dillon High School football team
• “Friday Night Lights”’ Connie Britton as Tami Taylor, guidance counselor, East Dillon High School

The investigators:

• “Monk”’s Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, police homicide consultant, San Francisco Police Department
• “Dexter”’s Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan, blood spatter analyst, homicide unit, Miami metro police department
• “The Closer”’s Kyra Sedgwick as Brenda Johnson, deputy chief, Major Crimes Division, LAPD
• “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”’s Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, detective, Manhattan Special Victims Unit

The business execs:

• “30 Rock”’s Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy, vice president of East Coast television and microwave programming, GE
• “Mad Men”’s Jon Hamm as Don Draper, partner, advertising firm of Sterling Cooper Draper Price
• “The New Adventures Of Old Christine”’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine Campbell, owner, women’s health club
• “Damages”’ Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, partner, Hewes and Associates LLP

The health-care workers:

• “House”’s Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House, doctor and chief of diagnostic medicine, Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital
• “Lost”’s Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard, doctor
• “Nurse Jackie”’s Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton, nurse, All Saints’ Hospital

The comedy writers:

• “Curb Your Enthusiasm”’s Larry David as himself (a comedy writer)
• “30 Rock”’s Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, head writer, sketch comedy show 

The mid-level managers:

• “The Office”’s Steve Carell as Michael Scott, regional manager, Dunder Mifflin Paper Company Inc. (A division of Sabre)
• “Parks And Recreation”’s Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, director of the Pawnee (Ind.) Department of Parks and Recreation

The lawyers:

• “Damages”’ Glenn Close as Patty Hewes, lawyer(also partner), Hewes and Associates LLP
• “The Good Wife”’s Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, lawyer

The others:

• “The Big Bang Theory”’s Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper, theoretical physicist
• “Glee”’s Lea Michele as Rachel Berry, student
• “United States Of Tara’’s Toni Collette as Tara Gregson, mural painter
• “Mad Men”’s January Jones as Betty Draper, housewife

Who will take home Sunday’s awards? Let us know your favorites in the comments section!

For more on work and the entertainment industry, check out:

When Celebrities Decide to Un-retire

The 10 Worst Movie Jobs

Back to Work at Sterling Cooper

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

Education has become something of a go-to during the Great Recession. Millions of workers have lost their jobs since the end of 2007, and suddenly the job market was filled with education, experienced workers who were usually sought after. Skilled professionals with a decade or more of experience found themselves competing against younger, less experienced professionals who had a better grasp of new and emerging technology and trends. Heading back to the classroom quickly became an attractive – and in some cases necessary – step toward finding a job.

In a recent New York Times article, Steven Greenhouse takes a look at professionals returning to school and their reasons. As you might expect, many workers want to refresh their skills and catch up on the changes that occurred since they graduated. For the unemployed, closing a gap in skill levels is their best chance to get their résumés on the top of the stack. For employed workers, it’s a way to advance in the company and stay ahead of job seekers applying for jobs.

Greenhouse explains:

“Some people have worked at a prosperous company for five years and are eager to move up, or are unemployed and eager to reinvent themselves. Still others are in an industry where successive waves of downsizing have made job security seem shaky. And more of them are concluding that if there is an answer to their problems, it’s more education.”

Returning to school is not as simple as deciding to get any degree or take a few courses and see the job offers and higher salaries pour in. Continuing education students can earn a degree, earn a certification or take only the classes that interest them. The important thing, as Greenhouse notes, is to know what you want and to find and program that gives you the proper guidance. Not every industry is the same, much less every employer. A second master’s degree won’t give every person a boost, and in the end you could end up losing plenty of time and money.

“Any good continuing education program, [dean of the University of Minnesota’s college of continuing education Mary Nichols] said, takes an individualized approach to its students. ‘We’re not in the business of steering people toward things,” she said. “We’re in the business of helping people capitalize on their strengths and put together ways to build on their interests and passions.’

“Cathy A. Sandeen, dean of continuing education at U.C.L.A., suggested, ‘Look at trends in your field. Look at your current skills and what do you need to augment your skills to make you more relevant and more attractive in your field.’”

Greenhouse, Nichols and Sandeen make a good point that many job seekers forget. Education is a serious commitment, and unless you have plenty of time and money at your disposal, returning to school comes with tradeoffs. The time you’ll spending going to class (online or on site), studying and researching means less time with your significant other, family or DVR.

And you’ll need to pay for this schooling, which might be a difficult feat if you’re unemployed. If you are employed, perhaps your employer has a continuing education benefit that covers some or all of the cost. Either way, crunch the numbers, consult the financial aid department and look for grants and scholarships. Education is an investment, yes, but you want to be certain you’ll recover the cost of that investment.

For one of the interviewees in Greenhouse’s article, the cost was less damaging than not returning to school.

“Mr. Torres, who had been laid off from his job as a senior database marketing analyst at Scholastic, said that before taking the course, he had been getting many job interviews.

“’They kept asking me whether I had any Web analysis experience, any experience in search engine marketing, search engine optimization or mobile marketing,’ he said. ‘I had to say no, and that hurt my chances.’”

Fortunately, the time and effort paid off with a new job.

Judging from your responses to a recent post asking what reasons you’ve heard for not getting a job, education is a common response. Have you returned to school, taken online courses, earned a certification or mulled over any other education options recently? Let us know what you’ve done and what worked (and didn’t work) for you.

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

We wanted to let you know that we have modified the comments section so that you can now reply to a specific comment. You will then see a particular conversation in a threaded format. Hopefully this makes it easier for everyone to read and discuss posts.

Here is an example of what a threaded conversation looks like, care of the WordPress blog:

In the previous format, all comments were posted one after the other, with no indent, so that you weren’t always sure what a reader was replying to. Now, to reply to a specific comment, you  just hit the reply button next to it and enter your message. It will appear nested beneath the original comment.

If you want to leave a general comment not directed at a specific commenter, then you can simply enter your text in the reply box at the bottom of the page as always.

So now that commenting on posts (whether you love them or hate them) is easier, get to it! Use that Reply button. We love to hear from you.

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For the past several months we’ve been highlighting available positions in different regions of the country every Tuesday. Although we mostly write about job and workplace advice, we realize many of you are also looking for jobs for a variety of reasons.

We also read all of the feedback you give us. You liked seeing a list of companies hiring but some people didn’t like waiting a few weeks until it was their location’s turn again. We adapt and are willing to try new things all the time. So we’re trying something a little different today. These are 10 companies hiring right now, and they have a significant amount of available positions–many across the country. With this method we hope to make finding a job easier for everyone, so that someone on the West coast doesn’t have to wait until next week because we’re only featuring Southern jobs this week.

Here are 10 companies that are looking to hire right now. Click on the company names to see a full list of their available positions across the country.

Brown Mackie College
Industry: Education
Sample job titles: IT instructor, student accounting advisor

The Nielsen Company
Industry: Data and research
Sample job titles: Business analyst, senior software developer

General Mills
Industry: Manufacturing
Sample job titles: Manager of social media, reliability engineer

Pitney Bowes
Industry: Business communications
Sample job titles: Competitive sales specialist, customer service associate

JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Industry: Finance
Sample job titles: Financial advisor associate, information risk analyst

URS Corporation
Industry: Construction and engineering
Sample job titles: Maintenance test pilot, contracts administrator

Furniture Row Companies
Industry: Furniture retail
Sample job titles: Sales manager trainee, warehouse team member

Averitt Express
Industry: Transportation
Sample job titles: CDL-A dedicated truck driver, part-time dock associates

Covance
Industry: Biotechnology/ pharmacy
Sample job titles: Principal investigator, paramedic, associate director of clinical data management

Saks Fifth Avenue
Industry: Retail
Sample job titles: Sales consultant, manager of database marketing, marketing director

We’ll be tweaking these companies hiring lists over time, so your feedback is always welcome.

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