Remember that song from the 80s, “99 Luftballons”, also called “99 Red Balloons”?

I thought about the song after I heard about a desperate job seeker from North Carolina who sent up helium-filled balloons with her resume inside in hopes one would land near a hiring manager who had a position open. Seriously. I’m not kidding.

Sherell Elangway, 36, has sent out hundreds of resumes with little response, so she figured why not try something crazy. Balloons up in the air? Her chances were just as good as sending out resumes into the abyss. (more…)

President Obama gave an impassioned speech last night, laying out a plan to create jobs. He called it an “urgent time for our country,” adding that, “millions of our neighbors are jobless.”

14 million as of last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The experts I contacted were mixed on what his plan will mean for U.S. workers. I include there comments below.

Obama outlined a jobs plan that included everything from infrastructure investments to tax cuts.

Here’s an overview of the initiatives he wants Congress to pass “right away”:

* First, it provides a tax cut for small businesses, not big corporations, to help them hire and expand now, and provides an additional tax cut to any business that hires or increases wages.
* Second, it puts more people back to work, including up to 280,000 teachers laid off by state-budget cuts, first responders and veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and construction workers repairing crumbling bridges, roads and more than 35,000 public schools, with projects chosen by need and impact, not earmarks and politics. And, it expands job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults through a new Pathways Back to Work Fund that supports summer and year round jobs for youth; innovative new job training programs to connect low-income workers to jobs quickly; and successful programs to encourage employers to bring on disadvantaged workers.
* Third, it helps out-of-work Americans by extending unemployment benefits to help them support their families while looking for work and reforming the system with training programs that build real skills, connect to real jobs and help the long-term unemployed. It bans employers from discriminating against the unemployed when hiring, and provides a new tax credit to employers hiring workers who have been out of a job for over 6 months.
* Fourth, it puts more money in the pockets of working and middle class Americans by cutting in half the payroll tax that comes out of every worker’s paycheck, saving families an average of $1,500 a year’ and taking executive action to remove the barriers that exist in the current federal refinancing program (HARP) to help more Americans refinance their mortgages at historically low rates, save money and stay in their homes.
* Last, the plan won’t add a dime to the deficit and is fully paid for through a balanced deficit reduction plan that includes closing corporate tax loopholes and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.

I reached out to business and economic experts, including some from pro labor and pro business camps, to find out whether his plan will actually help boost jobs. (more…)

I’m all about supporting hard-working job seekers who’ve been pounding the pavement but getting no where. Yes, the economy stinks right now and with the unemployment rate still hovering at 9 percent it’s hard to find a job. But some of you are sabotaging yourselves.

Are you all just sick and tired and ready to give up? That’s what it seems like when I talk to hiring managers who go on endlessly about job candidates who just don’t put in the effort.

One hiring manager got so frustrated with the job applicants she’s been seeing that she wrote an essay about it. Thankfully, she decided to share it with me and agreed to let me publish it here.

“I didn’t have anyone particular in mind when I wrote it,” said Lynne Sarikas is director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University and recently she had a job opening for an administrative assistant that required a college degree. “I was frustrated by what I seeing and realized how many people were hurting themselves in their job searches.”

Here’s her first-hand account of trying to fill this position and others: (more…)

The news today about the economy creating no new net jobs last month, and the unemployment rate sticking at 9.1 percent, is bad news for everyone out there looking for work. But yesterday, there was some good news coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The government agency reported U.S. productivity made its biggest drop since 2008. So basically that means workers aren’t able to churn out products and services as fast as they once were. This may be good news. For many months during the recession, employees were working like dogs, putting in longer hours, doing the job of two or three people, and employers were reaping the benefits in the form of hefty profits. Essentially you guys were doing more but it translated into less labor costs for companies.

Now it seems employers have pushed employees as far as they can, so it may be time to hire. But that means you people lucky enough to have jobs have to resist picking up the slack, or working for free on your own time, etc. (more…)

I know there are a lot of desperate job seekers out there, but is it ever a good idea to throw out the standard job-hunting playbook and do something crazy? Possibly.

This morning when I turned on my computer, I was greeted with an interesting tweet from @iJmeeks, or James Meeks in the real world.

hey @careerdiva i’m trying to get my career in order. take a look at my website i created to get hired hiremeaccenture.com

He calls himself “a sales and marketing guru” and wants Accenture, the consulting giant, to hire him. To that end, he put together a HireMeAccenture.com website and it’s pretty much his pitch to the company.

I think his strategy is anything but meek, which I love. But can it get Meeks the gig he seeks? (more…)

It’s about 300 BC and a gladiator named Spartacus, or Sparty for short, is looking for a new gig because the arena in his town faced a fall off in attendance and had to cut back on staffing. Another gladiator known as Geta-man who lives in a nearby town still has his job but is looking for a new coliseum that offers better pay and benefits.

They both apply for a position at an arena in Rome and the hiring manager Tootus has a difficult decision to make. Both men have the same qualifications and kill-to-loss ratio, and they both passed the anti-personality tests with flying colors. In the end, Tootus decides to go with Geta-man because Sparty is unemployed. Even though he knows Sparty had no control over his employment circumstances, he just feels better with the guy who still has a job.

Since the beginning of time, people have been inclined to wonder, “why are you jobless?” I offer this example because the New York Times did a story this week about how employers are actively weeding out unemployed candidates and tons of media outlets picked up the story like is was something new. I did a column on this in February and a blog post over a year ago, and even then it wasn’t new.

It’s just one of the harsh realities of the job market, and I know most of you already knew this. One piece of career advice that almost everyone has heard before is “don’t quit your job until you have a job.” Why? It’s just easier to find a position when your employed.

I know, if you get laid off you can’t help it, but don’t expect to get equal treatment with the employed. There are states trying to fight this, including New Jersey, which recently passed a provision against the practice. But Jamie D. Prenkert, attorney and associate professor of business law at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, said with the exception of a few states that have added employment status to the list of protected classifications, employment laws do not make a preference for the currently employed or recently employed unlawful – unless that preference disproportionately affects one of the protected classifications, like age or race, which can become difficult to prove.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” he said. “It’s nearly impossible to prove disparate impact discrimination without access to applicant flow data or similar statistics and it’s difficult to gather such information when the long-term unemployed are not applying because these ads specifically exclude them.”

In the end, it’s a sword all you unemployed gladiators will have to bear.

So, I’m digging back into my advice bin and offering you this one key strategy: Don’t look so jobless. (more…)

The jobs news this week has been pretty bad and I know it’s gotten many of you down.

A key gauge of future economic strength grew at an anemic rate, according to The Conference Board; and mass layoffs are in vogue again.

This from MSNBC.com yesterday:

Layoffs are rising as companies dig in amid a slew of worries: stalled debt ceiling talks in Washington; a looming financial crisis in Europe; and signs the recovery is going nowhere. The Labor Department said Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 418,000. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, dipped to 421,250. It was the third straight week that applications have risen.

It’s understandable if you’re feeling a bit gloomy, especially if you’re out of work. But it might be time to tune out the bad headlines and snap out of it, or else job gloom will end up leading to career doom. (more…)

Once upon a time, I thought most jobs would never be automated, but today I wouldn’t be surprised if any gig ended up on the robot trash heap.

Case in point. Last night I was watching Reno 911 and Lieutenant Dangle was doing a roll call briefing and informed his deputies that the suicide hotline would now be automated.

“And, uh, we’re automating our suicide hotline, by the way. We’re going to an automated system,” Dangle said.

And the deputies’ responses:

“Working that line was a real bummer.”

“So depressing.”

I laughed for a second, then thought, “hey, it could happen.”

Dire predictions are being made about a host of different jobs, and it’s not good news for the stubbornly high unemployment rate that many of us are still waiting to decline. (more…)

It’s bad enough that states across the country are cutting the duration of unemployment benefits at a time when the jobless rate is still hovering at 9 percent and 13.7 million people are out of work. Now employers want to use your off-duty behavior to justify denial of your unemployment check.

Florida passed a law, HB 7005, that expands the reasons you can be denied benefits to include what you do on your own time.

Here’s the section of the law: Revising the term “misconduct” to include conduct outside of the workplace and additional lapses in behavior.

“This is a Trojan horse nightmare,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Worktights Institute. “Willful misconduct is already applied too broadly. This law will make the problem even worse.”

Indeed, it will serve to widen the reasons-you-can’t-get-unemployment net and create major privacy issues. (more…)

Why does everyone blame their professional life for marriage breakups lately?

The latest blame game comes from — what I always thought was the oddest couple on Earth — Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This was their statement to the world about their breakup after 25 years of marriage:

“This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us,” the statement read. “After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion and prayer, we came to this decision together. At this time, we are living apart while we work on the future of our relationship.”

Yes, career transitions, especially job loss, can do a number on couple’s. But doesn’t love conquer all? (more…)