Archive for » June 9th, 2012«

09 Jun 2012

Bulgarian Employment Agencies Go Online

As of September this year, the unemployed Bulgarians will receive a text message from the local employment agency whenever there is an available vacancy matching their education and professional skills.
The service is being developed by the National Employment Agency.
The unemployed will also receive a text message reminding them that they will have to show up at the local employment agency and sign in for their welfare.
 ”The program is aimed at making it easier for the young unemployed Bulgarians to find a job,” said Mrs. Kameliya Lozanova, head of the National Employment Agency.
Meanwhile it has become clear that 105 employment agencies across the country will work online as of September 2012, allowing the registered unemployed citizens to create a profile and search for available vacancies while sitting in front of their computers. Each unemployed will be given an identification code with which they will be able to sign in.


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09 Jun 2012

Job Fair Brings Many People to Wesbanco Arena

 

 


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09 Jun 2012

Can the Conservatives make EI reforms work?

Human Resources Minister Diane Finley never stopped smiling during
her news conference explaining the Conservative government’s Employment
Insurance reforms—even though it’s among the most dangerous files any
federal minister could ever be asked to handle. At every chance, Finley
reassuringly said the changes weren’t about cutting benefits but about
“connecting Canadians with available jobs.” Only once, when a reporter
asked if a laid-off fish-plant worker might have to take a fast-food
job, did she let slip the sort of comment that sets off alarm bells in
high-unemployment regions. “Well, this is going to impact everyone,”
Finley said, “because what we want to do is make sure that the
McDonald’s of the world aren’t having to bring in temporary foreign
workers to do jobs that Canadians who are on EI have the skills to do.”

That is exactly the sort of suggestion that many seasonal EI
claimants, from fishermen to road pavers, tend to resent and fear.
Despite Finley’s stray remark, though, the prospect of many repeat
claimants being pressed to serve fries during their off seasons appears
to be remote. The modest reforms she sketched last week won’t force EI
recipients to take work that pays a great deal less than the last
position they held. As well, the changes won’t typically ask them to
commute more than an hour for a job, let alone move from a region with
few opportunities to one where odds of finding work are much better.
Instead, those drawing EI benefits will be asked to consider openings
where they already live in occupations similar to what they’re used to.
“It’s really hard,” said Colin Busby, a senior policy analyst at the
C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think tank, “to conceptualize
exactly who is going to be affected by these new reforms.”

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In fact, officials in Finley’s department estimated that less than
one per cent of the roughly 500,000 Canadians drawing EI benefits at any
given time will be cut off. Although some opposition politicians and
union leaders protested anyway, their reactions were by and large muted.
In that respect, the pattern of the EI announcement—first anxious
expectation, then a cautious policy move, prompting a subdued
response—followed a familiar course. It’s what happened when the Tories
changed Old Age Security. After setting the stage for something big,
they finally announced that the eligibility age will rise gradually to
67 from 65, starting in 2023, a far-off move expected to trim $10.8
billion from what would otherwise have been a $108.7-billion OAS bill in
2030. A moderate saving from a huge program many years from now: no
wonder there was little outcry. The same cautious approach arguably
characterized Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s entire spring budget,
which avoided controversial austerity at every turn in favour of low-key
measures.

This is not what many expected when Prime Minister Stephen Harper
finally won his majority just over a year ago. Although Harper has
wagered political capital on a few strategic files—notably his push to
fast-track environmental assessments of oil pipelines and other resource
projects—he has tread carefully around social policy. On health care,
for instance, the Conservatives won’t slow the current pace of six per
cent a year increases in transfers to provinces until 2017-18, and even
then promise to keep boosting payments at the rate of economic growth.
On public sector pensions, last year’s budget took the nearly painless
steps of raising the normal age of retirement for employees who start
working for the government after this year from 60 to 65, while slowly
increasing employee contributions to the plan.

Still, Finley’s EI reforms can’t be dismissed as inconsequential.
Under her new regulations, which are expected to be in place by early
next year, EI claimants will be divided into three categories.
Long-tenured workers, who almost never make claims, and occasional
claimants won’t likely face much added pressure. But frequent
claimants—anyone who has filed three or more EI claims for a total of
more than 60 weeks in the past five years—will be expected to take any
suitable work near where they live that pays at least 70 per cent of
what they earned at their previous job. But Finley suggested the new
code won’t be harshly applied. “These changes are not about forcing
people to accept work outside their own area,” she said, “or taking jobs
for which they are not suited.”

Her tone left lobbyists in industries that might have been most
directly hit by a more aggressive reform package breathing easier. “It
doesn’t seem like it’s draconian measures,” said Patrick McGuinness,
president of the Fisheries Council of Canada. “The legislation doesn’t
really change much,” agreed Bill Ferreira, director of government
relations for the Canadian Construction Association.

Industry insiders with long memories contrasted Finley’s moves with
the last truly daring reforms, imposed by the Liberals in 1996 when they
were wrestling the federal deficit of the day into submission. Jean
Chrétien’s government studied the issue for 18 tortuous months, then
brought in a suite of cost-saving measures, including a controversial
“intensity rule,” which reduced the benefits paid to repeat users with
each claim, penalizing seasonal workers. They saved about $2 billion a
year in benefit payouts. By way of payback, though, the Atlantic
provinces punished the Liberals, who lost a raft of seats in the region
in the 1997 election, before Chrétien largely reversed the EI reforms in
2000 and even apologized for them on the campaign trail in that year’s
election.

Although the Conservatives hold few seats in the regions with the
highest unemployment, especially on the East Coast and in Quebec, they
chose not to risk alienating those voters. The C.D. Howe Institute’s
Busby said the best reform would have been to level out the rules that
now make it easier to qualify for EI, and draw benefits for longer, in
areas with more joblessness—a key grievance of the Ontario government.
But was he holding out genuine hope that the Tories would shift to a
common national eligibility standard, encouraging more migration away
from places where year-round jobs are scarce? “No,” Busby said. “Those
elements are very politically controversial.”

While Finley avoided a major backlash, she still faces at least some
regional resentment. Nova Scotia NDP Premier Darrell Dexter complained
that she did no advance consultation on the changes. Dexter also pointed
out that key aspects of what Finley outlined remain vague. He wants a
precise explanation of what alternative jobs federal EI officials will
deem as “suitable” for seasonal workers in rural communities, and he
worries that EI claimants in small towns within an hour’s drive of
Halifax will be required to commute to the city, which currently enjoys a
low unemployment rate. “The implementation is the big issue,” he said. “The risk is stripping out of rural communities that seasonal workforce.”

Dexter fears the EI changes might turn out to be more ambitious than
they seem. Other critics, however, worry the Conservatives are proving
overly cautious. “We have some hugely difficult emerging problems to
solve,” says Queen’s University economist Thomas Courchene, pointing
particularly to the growing income imbalance between the oil-rich
provinces and the rest. Is a government that has looked so risk-averse
on EI and pensions ready to step up on those dawning challenges?


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09 Jun 2012

Obama hits Republicans for lack of action on jobs


President Barack Obama talks about the economy, Friday, June 8, 2012, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington.

(Credit:
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

UPDATED 1:56 p.m. ET

(CBS News) President Obama urged Congress to take steps to boost the economy and called on Republican lawmakers to explain why they are not taking action if they don’t, while rival Mitt Romney pounced on the president’s assessment that the private sector is “doing fine.”

“Right now people in this town should be focused on doing everything we can to keep our recovery going and keeping our country strong,” Mr. Obama said one week after the Labor Department said the unemployment rate rose a tick in May to 8.2 percent. That is the first upward tick since June 2011.

The U.S. unemployment rate has been over 8 percent since February 2009, the longest stretch since government records began in 1948, though it has been on a downward trend since it peaked at 10.0 percent in October 2009.

The U.S. economy is facing additional headwinds from Europe which is facing the prospect of a double-dip recession as the financial crisis continues there.

Mr. Obama said the United States should learn from the experiences of Europe, where many countries are in a downward spiral because they are cutting spending too quickly and interest rates are on the rise as investors see that it will be harder for countries to pay down their debts.

“I think that what we want both for ourselves, but what we’ve advised in Europe as well, is a strategy that says, ‘Let’s do everything we can to grow now even as we lock in a long-term plan to stabilize our debt and our deficits and start bringing them down in a — in a steady, sensible way,’ ” he said.

The president blamed Republicans for blocking his so-called “To Do” list of items that lawmakers can do to boost economic growth in the near term, including proposals to give tax breaks to small businesses that boost hiring and a proposal to make it easier for homeowners who are current on their mortgage to refinance at lower interest rates.

“Now if Congress decides despite all that they aren’t going to do anything about this simply because it is an election year, then they should explain to the American people why,” Mr. Obama told reporters.

The comments continue his strategy of hitting Congress for obstructionism, echoing Harry Truman’s famous 1948 victory after blaming a Republican Congress for doing nothing.

Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, used the press conference to hit the president for being out of touch with most Americans.

Mr Obama “said ‘the private sector is doing fine.’ Is he really that out of touch? I think he’s defining what it means to be detached and out of touch with the American people,” Romney said, returning fire with a frequent attack the Obama campaign makes against him.

“For the president of the United States to stand up and say ‘the private sector is doing fine’ is going to go down in history. It’s extraordinary miscalculation and misunderstanding by a president whose out of touch and we’re going to take back this country and get America working again,” Romney said in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In its May employment report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which measures U.S. job growth, said the economy added 82,000 private sector jobs and lost 13,000 public sector jobs for net job creation of just 69,000 new jobs. Economists say the economy needs to add somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs per month to keep up with population growth. In addition to the lackluster May report, the department revised its estimate for job growth in March and April downward, leaving the average job growth for those three months at just 96,000.

Mr. Obama spoke in overtly political terms.

“The recipes that (Republicans) are promoting are basically the kinds of policies that would add weakness to the economy. Would result in furthers layoffs. Would not provide relief in the housing market. And would result, I think most economists estimate, in lower growth and fewer jobs, not more,” Mr. Obama said.

House Speaker John Boehner also took issue with the president’s assessment that the private sector job growth is fine.

“Well, Mr. President, I used to run a small business. And, Mr. President, take it from me, the private sector is not doing well,” he said.

The president noted that the weakest job growth in the economy is in construction and state and local government hiring.

“And so if Republicans want to be helpful, if they really want to move forward and put people back to work, what they should be thinking about is how do we help state and local governments and how do we help the construction industry,” he said.

Asked about that comment directly, Boehner said he does not think weak public sector hiring is a drag on the economy.

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie also took issue with Mr. Obama’s call for more hiring of government workers.

“The president fundamentally believes that the way to support our economy is to take more in taxes from all of you and spend it on more public workers who then will pay a fraction of that money back in taxes,” Christie said.

“If anybody ran a business like that they would be out of business quickly and Barack Obama’s leadership is driving this business, the United States of America, toward a fiscal cliff. We’d better stand together in the next five months and stop him from doing it,” Christie said.

Asked about the Republican criticism of the president’s comments, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the president has always been clear that more needs to be done to recover from the recession.

“He’s got a plan on the table that would create over a million jobs right now and addresses specific weaknesses in last month’s jobs report,” LaBolt said.

“You saw the weaknesses among public sector workers and construction workers. He’s got a plan on the table that would keep teachers in classrooms, cops on the street, and put construction workers back to work through the infrastructure plan,” he added.

Additional reporting by Jill Jackson, Matt Shelley and Rebecca Kaplan.

Watch the full statement here:


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09 Jun 2012

Public-employee pensions face a rollback in Calif.

By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) – For years, companies have been chipping away at workers’ pensions. Now, two California cities may help pave the way for governments to follow suit.

Voters in San Diego and San Jose, the nation’s eighth- and 10th-largest cities, overwhelmingly approved ballot measures last week to roll back municipal retirement benefits – and not just for future hires but for current employees.

From coast to coast, the pensions of current public employees have long been generally considered untouchable. But now, some politicians are saying those obligations are trumped by the need to provide for the public’s health and safety.

The two California cases could put that argument to the test in a legal battle that could resonate in cash-strapped state capitols and city halls across the country. Lawsuits have already been filed in both cities.

“Other states are going to have to pay attention,” said Amy Monahan, a law professor at University of Minnesota.

The court battles are playing out as lawmakers across the U.S. grapple with ballooning pension obligations that increasingly threaten schools, police, health clinics and other basic services.

State and local governments may have $3 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities, and seven states and six large cities will be unable to cover their obligations beyond 2020, Northwestern University finance professor Joshua Rauh estimated last year.

In San Jose, current employees face salary cuts of up to 16 percent to fund the city’s pension plan. If they choose, they can instead accept a lower benefit and see the current retirement age of 55 raised to 57 for police officers and firefighters, and to 62 for other employees.

The voter-approved measure in San Diego imposes a six-year freeze on the pay levels used to determine pension benefits for current employees, a move that is expected to save nearly $1 billion over 30 years. Public employee unions have sued to block the measure, saying City Hall failed to negotiate the ballot’s wording as required by state law.

Legal experts expect the cities to argue that their obligations to provide basic services such as police protection and garbage removal override promises made to employees.

In San Diego, the city’s payments to its retirement fund soared from $43 million in 1999 to $231.2 million this year, equal to 20 percent of the operating budget. At the same time, the 1.3 million residents saw roads deteriorate and libraries cut hours. For a while, fire stations had to share engines and trucks. The city has cut its workforce 14 percent since 2005.

San Jose’s pension payments jumped from $73 million in 2001 to $245 million this year, or 27 percent of its operating budget. Four libraries and a police station that were built over the past decade have never even opened because the city cannot afford to operate them. The city of 960,000 cut its workforce 27 percent over the past 10 years.

“It’s a problem that threatens our ability to remain a city and provide services to our people,” said Mayor Chuck Reed. “It’s huge dollar amounts and has a huge impact on services.”

Unions representing police officers and firefighters in San Jose claimed in lawsuits filed last week in state court that the measure violates their vested rights.

“What they’ve done in San Jose is patently unlawful under existing court precedent,” said Steve Kreisberg, national collective bargaining director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “We know of no other places where this has survived legal scrutiny. … There is no justification for essentially seizing the property of employees.”

Michael Lotito, a San Francisco labor lawyer who has represented governments, predicted that dire fiscal straits may carry weight with judges.

“It’s a horrible, horrible story for the taxpayer. But worse off the city is, the more they have to lay off, the stronger legal argument they have,” he said.

The cities are also expected to argue that they are not stripping workers of anything they already earned, only changing what they will earn in the future.

“You don’t have a vested right to keep having your salary increased,” said San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

The University of Minnesota’s Monahan said some state courts have recognized that distinction, but not in California, where she said the state courts have held since the 1940s that benefits granted on the first day of employment are protected.

Private companies, whose pensions are governed by federal law, have been whittling away at current employees’ retirement benefits for years. Pensions for state and local government workers are covered by state laws, and those benefits have been left alone for the most part.

Rhode Island has gone further than any other state to cut pensions for current workers under legislation approved last year, and opponents have vowed to challenge it in court, said David Draine, senior researcher at the Pew Center on the States. Other states have fended off legal challenges to the relatively modest step of eliminating pension increases for inflation.

“This is an area that remains legally unsettled,” Draine said.

City Councilman Carl DeMaio, a chief backer of the San Diego measure who is staking his mayoral bid on a pension overhaul, said he has fielded scores of calls from government officials nationwide interested in copycat measures. He predicted the legal challenges in San Diego will fail.

“We’re showing the way,” he said. “We’re offering a model – at least one model.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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09 Jun 2012

Local library to hold job fair in July

GEORGETOWN, SC (WMBF) Are you in need of a career change or know of a family member in need of a job? Get your suits and resumes ready this July at this local library’s job fair.

The Georgetown County Library will be holding a job fair on July 14 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. for local businesses that are hiring. The event is free to the public.

“The more, the merrier,” said Library Director Dwight  McInvaill. “There are census tracts in our community where unemployment now exceeds 33 percent. With this job fair, we hope to give workers and businesses a chance to meet each other, with less pressure than an interview setting.”

The job fair will also offer a “resume doctor,” mini-tutorials on online job searches, and a business clothing fashion show, said McInvaill.

“This will also be a great time to check out our new Small Business Center,” said McInvaill. “It’s a fantastic space that features computers with business software, WiFi access, printer connectivity, and expert advice.”

The new Small Business Center also features workshops and classes in everything from starting your own business to job interview techniques. There are also sessions on Microsoft Office Publisher, Excel, Powerpoint and Word, as well as tutorials on Quicken.

“We want to help combat recession here in Georgetown County,” said McInvaill. “We really hope the job fair and Small Business Center can be a useful tool for businesses and job seekers alike.”

Businesses that would like to attend the Job Fair can call Heather Pelham at 545-3327.

Copyright 2012 WMBF News. All rights reserved.


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09 Jun 2012

Government inspectors focus on temp agencies


Youth shine at BRAVO! Awards


Youth shine at BRAVO! Awards

A youthful enthusiasm kept the spark of energy alight at the Brampton Arts Council’s (BAC) annual BRAVO! Awards, where 17 awards were presented to local talent in performing arts.


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09 Jun 2012

Chris Christie knocks Obama for comments on job growth: ‘It is an outrage’

Chris Christie (Mel Evans/AP)

ROSEMONT, Ill.—New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie unleashed a fiery response to President Barack Obama’s call to increase the amount of government workers to help the economy, calling his remarks “an outrage.”

“It is an outrage to have the president of the United States stand up and say to hardworking governors—Democrats and Republicans in this country—that state and local government hiring is moving in the wrong direction, and we’re to blame,” Christie said during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference regional meeting here Friday.

“He has the audacity to stand up this morning and say it’s the nation’s governors, and the nation’s mayors, who are driving our economy down by not hiring enough people for government work?” Christie went on to say. “If you need to understand with any more clarity the difference between conservative Republican principles and this president, you don’t need to listen to one more word this campaign than what he said behind that podium at the White House today.”

Christie, considered a possible vice presidential contender, was referring to comments Obama gave during a press conference earlier Friday in which he said “the private sector is doing fine” and blamed sluggish job numbers on a reduction in government jobs.

“Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government, oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don’t have the same kind of flexibility of the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in,” Obama said.

“I was standing there at the TV and couldn’t believe he said it,” Christie told the audience at the conference. “The president fundamentally believes that the way to support our economy is to take more taxes from all of you and spend it on more public workers who then will pay a fraction of that money back in taxes. If anybody ran a business like that, they would be out of business quickly, and Barack Obama’s leadership is driving this business, the United States of America, toward a fiscal cliff. We’d better stand together over the next five months and stop him from doing it.”


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09 Jun 2012

Services For OFWs At Malls

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) chief Hans Cacdac has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with SM Supermalls to put up centers that will offer several of the agency’s services to OFWs inside SM malls all over the country.

The signing took place during the celebration of Migrant Workers’ Day last June 7 in Pasay City.

Similar to the “POEA on Wheels,” the centers will offer certain services such as free legal services, job fairs and the processing of overseas exit clearances (OEC) for balik manggagawa. Pre-Employment Orientation Seminars will also be held at the centers.

“Malls can be a good venue to extend out services to our OFWs and it is easily accessible for people, especially in provinces,” Cacdac said. “This will also reduce the number of applicants going to our main office in Mandaluyong City.”

In addition, Cadac also signed a memorandum of agreement with different land-based recruitment agencies strengthening the campaign against illegal recruitment. Recently, the POEA revoked the licenses of 33 recruitment agencies who were found in violation of different provisions as stated in Republic Act 10022 or the Amended Migrant Worker’s Act of 1995.

A consultation-workshop on the revision of the POEA rules and regulations for land-based agencies was held at the agency’s main office last Thursday as part of the celebration of the Migrant Workers’ Day.

Meanwhile, the remains of the three Filipino fatalities of the fire that engulfed a major shopping mall in Doha, Qatar have all been repatriated through the assistance of the Philippine Embassy in Qatar, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) bared yesterday. (With a report from Ellson Quismorio)


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09 Jun 2012

Bruce Gordon Visits Job Fair For Veterans

Another day, another jobs fair. In this tough economy, employment “meet-n-greets”  are held all the time making them easy to ignore. 

Fox 29′s Bruce Gordon found an event in Coatesville, for workers who both need and deserve help, getting back to work. 


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