Your Job

In this column last week, hirers told what bugs them most about job applicants.

Yep. I got feedback. Job hunters asked for fair time to say what they don’t like about the way prospective employers are treating them.

Two points stood out:

 Job hunters think it’s callous and unrealistic for applicant screeners to say they don’t like it when a job hunter applies for more than one job at the organization.

Real average earnings slipped slightly again in October.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that the seasonally adjusted figure fell 0.1 percent over the month.

A 0.3 percent increase in inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, offset a 0.3 percent increase in average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory workers.

From October 2008 to October 2009, real average hourly earnings grew 2.8 percent. But that was offset by a 1.5 percent decline in average weekly hours worked.

Annual wage gains for private sector workers likely will remain at or near historic lows in the coming months, according to the preliminary fourth quarter BNA Wage Trend Indicator™ released this morning.

The outlook, published as a proprietary index, dropped to 97.49 from 98.00 in the third quarter, its seventh consecutive quarterly decline.

“The employment market is still weak, and employers remain fairly skittish about adding workers or giving big wage increases until they see how strong the recovery is going to be,” said Kathryn Kobe, a BNA economic consultant.

Job hunters: Here’s insight into what employers hate about your applications.

Ann Mann, who advises persons in job-transition programs at Lee Hecht Harrison in Overland Park, collected pet peeves from a “recruiters’ roundtable” group.

The hirers’ biggest gripes:

 Applicants who apply to several positions at the same company at the same time.

“It’s an employers’ market. They can be very particular about finding the best fit for each job,” Mann explains. “If you apply to several different jobs at once, you look desperate and not discriminating.”

The Labor Department this morning reported a 12,000 decrease in initial jobless claims for the week that ended Nov. 7 compared with the previous week.

The overall figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 502,000.

The 4-week moving average was 519,750, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 524,250, the Labor Department said.

Last week, the government reported the nation's jobless rate stood at 10.2 percent, the time the rate had been above 10 percent since 1982.

On the last business day in September, U.S. employers had 2.5 million job openings, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

That compares to 15.1 million unemployed persons previously reported for that month.

The job separations rate continued to outpace the job hires rate in the month, the bureau said.

The separations rate -- the total number of job terminations divided by the employment total and multiplied by 100 -- was 3.3 percent.

U.S. employers initiated 1,776 extended mass layoff actions in the third quarter this year, the highest third-quarter total since the Labor Department began its mass-layoff data series in 1995.

The mass layoff actions separated 277,924 workers from their jobs.

(Extended mass layoffs are defined as actions that lay off at least 50 employees from a single work place for at least 30 days.)

One-third of the employers that reported mass layoffs in the quarter said they expected to recall at least some employees in the future.

Only 4 percent of Americans who have health insurance are covered by "consumer-driven" health plans, the health insurance model that's expected to be the next generation of employment-based coverage.

These health reimbursement or health savings accounts (HRAs and HSAs) are supposed to make employees more aware of the true costs of employer-sponsored health care -- and thus more frugal stewards of their health care dollars.

Between the 1990 and the 2000 Census, the number of people working at home grew by one third, and it’s expected to be a lot higher in the next population count.

While some tout the joys of toiling in one’s pajamas, there are problems with home-based work environments that are a bit too casual.

Put noisy kids and pets at the top of the list. If you’re trying to establish a professional reputation, it can’t sound like you’re doing business in a day care center or a pet store.

Low profile. Low budget. That's the outlook for holiday parties at many workplaces this year.

Hard on the heels of Halloween, party planners are looking ahead to the post-Thanksgiving/pre-New Year's period, the traditional time for holiday fetes.

According to an outlook by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 62 percent of companies will hold office parties this year, down from 77 percent last year. Two years ago, 90 percent had parties.