-
What Work-at-Home Scams Look Like
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2009 Comment (3)It's a nearly perfect recipe for job scams: an 8.5 percent unemployment rate, uncertain economic future, and a growing population of part-time workers who need more money to pay bills.
Some work-at-home job scams are relatively easy to eyeball, but the level of sophistication is growing. Here, the FBI offers some guidance on what they may look like:
- Advance-fee: Starting a home-based business is easy! Just invest a few hundred dollars in inventory, set-up, and training materials, they say. Of course, if and when the materials do come, they are totally worthless…and you’re stuck with the bill.
- Counterfeit check-facilitated "mystery shopper:" You’re sent a hefty check and asked to deposit it into your bank account, then withdraw funds to shop and check out the service of local stores and wire transfer companies. You keep a small amount of the money for your “work,” but then, as instructed, mail or wire the rest to your “employer.” Sound good? One problem: the initial check was phony, and by the time your bank notifies you, your money is long gone and you’re on the hook for the counterfeit check.
- Pyramid schemes: You’re hired as a “distributor” and shell out big bucks for promotional materials and product inventories with little value (like get-rich quick pamphlets). You’re promised money for recruiting more distributors, so you talk friends and family into participating. The scheme grows exponentially but then falls apart—the only ones who make a profit are the criminals who started it.
- Unknowing involvement in criminal activity: Criminals—often located overseas—sometimes use unwitting victims to advance their operations, steal and launder money, and maintain anonymity. For example, they may “hire" you as a U.S.-based agent to receive and re-ship checks, merchandise, and solicitations to other potential victims…without you realizing it’s all a ruse that leaves no trail back to the crooks.
-
Unemployed Japanese Workers Try Farming
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2009 Comment (3)Japan's unemployment rate is at a three-year high of 4.4 percent--still seems delightful compared with the U.S.'s unemployment rate of 8.5 percent--but it's trouble enough for Prime Minister Taro Aso to introduce a stimulus plan meant to preserve and create jobs.
Already, younger workers in need of jobs are being sent to work in the nation's farmland through the Rural Labor Squad program. The NYTimes reports: "In a play on words, the squad’s name in Japanese — Inaka-de-hatarakitai — is also its rallying cry: 'We want to work in the countryside!'"
The recession has provided an opportunity to mitigate the country's agricultural worker shortage for now, but agricultural jobs in Japan seem to face the same issues they do here, however: The pay can be poor and the work seasonal.
-
Texas Rules for Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2009 Comment (4)Check out this map of year-over-year job gains/losses by county and you'll notice one thing as you head into 2009--the nation's face is splotchy with red job cuts, but Texas counties stay suprisingly blue. (There's a little twist on political shades for you).
The Slate map shows, for example, Hidalgo County gained more than 7,900 jobs between February 2008 and February 2009. Midland, Starr, Webb, and Maverick counties are up, along with plenty of others.
Forbes' research for the best cities for jobs (or "least worst" in this economy) bore out one thing: Texas rules. The state tops the rankings of cities both big and small, filling 8 of the top 20 spots. From Forbes:
Further, the top five large metropolitan areas for job growth--Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Dallas--are all in Texas' "urban triangle."
The reasons for the state's relative success are varied. A healthy energy industry is certainly one cause. Many Texas high-fliers, including Odessa, Longview, Dallas and Houston, are home to energy companies that employ hordes of people--and usually at fairly high salaries for both blue- and white-collar workers. In some places, these spurts represent a huge reversal from the late 1990s. Take Odessa's remarkable 5.5% job growth in 2008, which followed a period of growth well under 1% from 1998 to 2002.
-
Domino's Workers Must Not Read the News
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2009 Comment (9)The big marketing story of the day involves the Domino's workers who made a video of their behind-the-scenes antics--such as sticking a shred of mozzerella cheese up a nostril before using it to make a dish, and rubbing a dish sponge on a rear end.
The video became a viral, er, "success," ripping its way around the web and whipping into the kind of frenzy that looked tough for the pizza chain to quell. It was ripe to damage the brand, and Domino's knew it. So they responded with their own video apology to consumers. They traced the damaging video back to the restaurant--which they closed and sanitized--and fired the workers involved. (Authorities have also charged the workers with distributing prohibited foods.)
But, really, what about these now-unemployed employees? They're not teenagers. They're in their early 30s. Don't these people read the news? They face charges (although they have said that the food they defaced was not actually served to customers) --but they also face the worst job market in decades. About 5.1 million jobs wiped from the nation's payrolls since the start of this recession. A recent poll found nearly half of Americans were concerned about losing their jobs in this continuing recession, and it's pretty clear that these workers were in the other half.
-
Employee Seeks Pay for Lunch Hour on Day of Shooting
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2009 Comment (4)It's hard to speculate as to what prompted one Broome County employee to reportedly make a formal complaint to the county's personnel department requesting pay for a lost lunch hour on April 3--the day of the Binghamton, N.Y., shootings.
The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reports the employee, who was among those confined to their offices during the shootings, made the complaint last week. The worker would not comment on the situation other than to say it was, essentially, private.
The complaint was turned down. The confinement did not violate his contract or state labor laws, according to the director of the personnel department.
-
An America Bereft of Job Security
Tweet Share on Facebook April 14, 2009 Comment (3)Despite recent signs that the nation's economy may be beginning a turnaround, employed Americans are working scared. In a new poll by Harris Interactive and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 47 percent of respondents who were fortunate enough to have jobs said they are concerned about losing their jobs. That's quite a figure. Close to half of employed Americans are worried about being laid off.
Eleven percent of respondents said their top financial concern was losing their job--compared with 4 percent who cited the same in last year's survey.
While more respondents were worried about retirement, that's been the case for the past two years, the AICPA reports. Any workplace expert will tell you that some level of anxiety among workers is actually a good thing. These concerns reflect the reality of a deteriorated job market and uncertain timeline for recovery. Too much anxiety is paralyzing, but a realistic attitude should help workers be better prepared. The problem is--that perfect balance is incredibly tough to strike, and many employers are lousy at helping workers keep up productivity and creativity while they face the possibility of layoffs.
-
5 Healthy Industries For Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook April 9, 2009 Comment (6)It's hard to imagine any industry turning a healthy profit over the past year, but research and analysis firm Sageworks has compiled a list of five surprisingly profitable business sectors, which job seekers may want to focus on in their searches.
Each of these industries has had profit growth of more than 17 percent and sales growth of more than 4.5 percent in the last 12 months, Sageworks reports.
1. Accounting & Tax Service Firms
2. Specialized Freight Trucking Companies
3. Offices of Other Health Practitioners
4. Offices of Dentists
5. Beer, Wine, and Liquor Wholesalers
-
Jim Schwantz: Former Chicago Bear Has New Job as Mayor
Tweet Share on Facebook April 8, 2009 Comment (2)Former Chicago Bears linebacker Jim Schwantz will be tackling a new role as mayor of Palatine, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. Schwantz unseated longtime mayor Rita Mullins in last night's election and said his victory was "extremely humbling," reports the Chicago Sun Times.
The former pro athlete didn't jump directly into politics--he has been working as an executive at a moving company. During the election, Schwantz told a local paper that his name was helping him getting in the door, "but then it’s up to me and the platform I stand behind."
If Schwantz is looking for other NFL-to-politics role models, he's got former Republican VP candidate and nine-term congressman from New York Jack Kemp, as well as former Oklahoma congressman Steve Largent.
-
Bet You Aren't Going to Quit Your Job
Tweet Share on Facebook April 7, 2009 Comment (1)I'll bet you jumped all over the Labor Department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover report this morning. Read it cover to cover. Memorized the figures. So let's talk about the quits rate, and how American workers suddenly aren't going anywhere.
The quits rate is the number of people who have quit jobs as a percentage of total employment. The number of monthly quits has been dropping since December 2006 and the rate is now at 1.5 percent--its lowest point since the data series began eight years ago.
Workers know this isn't the time to voluntarily become unemployed--and there are certainly fewer being hired away than before the recession began. Still, the February rates stayed pretty much on par with the previous month.
-
After a Layoff, Michael Lamar Finds Work as Obama Look-Alike
Tweet Share on Facebook April 6, 2009 Comment (1)Michael Lamar, a software analyst laid off by JP Morgan Chase in January, has found a new career as a President Obama look-alike. (It's just like Dave!)
Lamar has an agent who specializes in look-alikes and he has already done ads for a Turkish bank and a liquor chain in the Netherlands, CNN reports.
While he might be the most successful internationally, Lamar is certainly not the only Obama mimic out there. Iman Crosson, for one, is a musical favorite. Crosson also puts his stellar vocal impression to work in Newsweek's "The District" satire.
