Archive for » June 25th, 2012«

25 Jun 2012

Indie workers: Is self-employment the new norm?

Facing a sluggish economy where jobs aren’t as secure, A growing number of US workers are foregoing traditional employment to strike out on their own. Some left the workforce for more flexibility, while others were forced into self-employment by an uncertain job market.

By

Margaret Price, Correspondent /
June 25, 2012

Customer service representatives for CSN Stores help customers over the phones in Boston in this 2010 file photo. Motivated by factors like the unstable job market and a desire for more flexibility, more and more workers are foregoing the traditional job security in offices like these to become self-employed or temporary workers.

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staf/File



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Attorney Laurie Gray quit the prosecutor’s office two years ago and joined the ranks of those leaving secure work behind. Now, the Fort Wayne, Ind., mother of one has more time for her family and professional activities, including writing, teaching, serving as a bilingual interpreter, and running SocraticParenting.com, which she founded to teach parents how to model behaviors their children should adopt.

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More people are trying to create their own work,” she says. “They want to follow their passion and work on their own schedule.”

Even at a time when a sluggish economy is causing many Americans to look for more job security, a large number of workers are striking out on their own. By one estimate, there are 16 million “career independent workers.”

Although experts disagree on the size of the cohort, their numbers do appear to be increasing. The move seems to be a confluence of three trends: workers, especially professionals, seeking more flexibility; technology that makes it easier for them to set up shop; and corporations looking to avoid hiring full-time employees at a time when business cycles are shorter than normal.

RELATED: Can you manage your money? A personal finance quiz.

“Executives want to be able to ratchet [operations] up and down” in step with “real-time changes in the economy,” says Carl Camden, president and chief executive officer of Kelly Services, a large temporary staffing company based in Troy, Mich.

That can require “adjustments to employment, as well as inventory and acquisition of raw materials,” he says.

About 44 percent of workers in the United States are already “free agents” – people working on their own behalf, he estimates. By the end of this decade, he says they’ll represent about 50 percent of the workforce. Mr. Camden predicts that newly minted independent workers will most likely be from areas like IT – information technology.

In turn, more people are seeking greater work-life flexibility. They also want more say in their work and a greater variety of assignments, and through technology and social media, they can access more opportunities.

“Technology has accelerated people’s ability to work independently,” says Gene Zaino, CEO of MBO Partners, a provider of back-office support to independent consultants.

Most of the existing 16 million independent workers are experts or knowledge workers, and include people who work through temporary staffing agencies or those who own a business with fewer than five employees, says MBO Partners, based in Herndon, Va. It projects that the ranks of such workers will hit some 20 million next year and 70 million by 2020 – or about half the private, nongovernment workforce.

Not everyone believes such forecasts.

RELATED: Can you manage your money? A personal finance quiz.


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25 Jun 2012

Nation’s largest veterans job fair headed to Detroit this week

veteranjobfair.jpgMLive file photoSPC Chris Weehoff and SFC Edward O’Brien, both with the U.S. Army, visit a booth at the Grand Valley National Guard Armory in Wyoming for the ‘Hiring Our Heroes’ event in April 2012.

Thousands of veterans from throughout the country are converging in Detroit for a veterans job fair, small business conference and open house.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs expects up to 11,000 veterans to attend its free VA for Vets Hiring Fair from Tuesday through Thursday at the Cobo Center in Detroit.

Nearly 230 federal and private-sector employers will be on hand with more than 24,000 job openings. About 4,000 of the job openings are in the local area, with 3,000 in the private sector and 1,000 in the public sector.

Representatives from large national and international companies will be looking to fill spots throughout Michigan and the country.

Hertz Corp., for example, is hiring business managers and administrators nationwide, while Prudential Financial Inc. is looking for associates and Michigan and Target Corp. has team leader openings in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Related: Why one Michigan company likes to hire veterans, military members

In 2011, nearly one in three veterans ages 18 to 24 were out of a job, according to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.

All post-9/11 veterans faced an unemployment rate of 12.1 percent last year, while the jobless rate for all veterans was 8.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nation’s overall unemployment rate was 8.9 percent in 2011.

“These are individuals who have made tremendous sacrifices for all of us so we all can live the free life that we live today,” said Mike Walcoff, events coordinator for the hiring fair, small business conference and open house.

Veterans have interrupted their lives, traveled thousands of miles and endured dangerous situations, he said.

“When they come back, we owe them a debt, frankly, and part of that debt is making sure that we help them integrate back into civilian society,” he said.

That’s why the VA is hosting its largest-ever hiring fair in conjunction with a Veteran Open House and National Veteran Small Business Conference and Expo.

The four-day conference allows veterans that are small business owners to connect with government agencies and other companies to discuss contract and procurement opportunities. There will also be business training sessions.

The open house offers information on various benefits available to veterans, from medical coverage to home loans and tuition assistance.

The VA chose to host the events in Detroit because of the region’s large veteran population and high unemployment rate. Detroit’s VA medical center serves about 330,000 veterans. More than 704,000 veterans live in Michigan. Organizers estimate the event will have an economic impact of $11 million for the city.

The VA tested out the job fair with an event in Washington, D.C. in January. More than 4,100 veterans attended. There were about 2,600 on-the-spot interviews that resulted in more than 500 tentative job offers.

“When we did this before, we had veterans come from as far away as Alaska, and they walked away with a job,” said Mary Santiago, director of the VA’s Veteran Employment Services Office.

The VA set up Santiago’s office in August 2011 to run the VA for Vets program, which helps vets secure jobs within the VA and the federal government.

The program also provides career counselors and other services, especially targeting younger vets that face higher unemployment rates.

“As they come back from the war zone they’ve been involved in, some of them are struggling trying to transition into the civilian work force,” Santiago said.

It’s difficult for many veterans to convey to potential employers how their military skills translate into civilian jobs. A program on the VA for Vets website helps vets convert their military experience into civilian terms and potential career opportunities.

This week’s events in Detroit provide even more assistance for veterans.

“If you come down to Cobo and give u s a day of your time, we think that you’ll learn things, whether it be at the small business conference, the open house or hopefully through your contacts at the hiring fair, that will benefit you the rest of your life,” Walcoff said.

Related: Gov. Rick Snyder: Michigan veterans’ unemployment rate ‘simply unacceptable’

Email Melissa Anders at manders@mlive.com. Follow her on Twitter: @MelissaDAnders.


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25 Jun 2012

Govt probes Employment Court delays

The Government has ordered the Ministry of Justice to look into lengthy delays in the Employment Court, which took 552 days to hand down a judgment on one case.

Crest Commercial Cleaning was taken to the Employment Court by worker Roger Doran in December 2010 after it took over a Nelson cleaning contract.

The case centres on the interpretation of a controversial provision for vulnerable workers which is currently being reviewed by Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson.

Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act provides ”continuity of employment” for groups of low-paid workers such as cleaners when a contract changes hands.

It was introduced by Labour in 2004 after concern competitive tendering was driving wages and conditions down for some workers, who faced multiple restructures despite doing the same job.

Crest managing director Grant McLauchlan last week called for a ministerial inquiry into the Employment Court after frustration the company was still waiting for a ruling.

Other cases involving Part 6A were backing up behind Crest’s case, he said.

”We found it quite ironical that the day we asked for that, the decision came out.”

Crest lost the case and has to pay Doran for lost wages, McLauchlan said.

Minister for Courts Chester Borrows said there would not be a ministerial inquiry but the ministry was specifically looking at the Employment Court.

”There are some mitigating factors around this case in terms of one judge having to pull out because of a bereavement, the Christchurch earthquakes and the complexity of the law.

”But none of those really mitigate the fact that you shouldn’t have to wait 552 days for a decision.”

The ministry was looking at how it could shorten the time frame for decisions but needed to be ”fairly creative”, Borrows said.

McLauchlan said the Government’s statutory review of Part 6A was now three years late.

”We’ve given up on Kate Wilkinson to be honest.”

A spokesman for Wilkinson said the minister would not put a time frame on when she would make a decision on the provision.

– © Fairfax NZ News

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25 Jun 2012

Reduce government, expand the economy

…………………………………………………………

In the last Debunker, we looked at President Obama’s statements that “The private sector is doing fine,” but that “The economy is not doing fine.” As we concluded:

BUNK.

The president was drawing attention to the fact that, after enormous job losses during the last recession (and “recovery”), the private sector has recently begun hiring again; meanwhile, after a long period of explosive growth, state and local governments have finally begun cutting back.

To see the numbers behind President Obama’s statement, we looked at Household Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, finding that four out of five jobs lost since the beginning of the last recession in December 2007 are private sector jobs; the public sector accounts for only one in five lost jobs.

But the BLS also collects employment data another way: through its Current Employment Statistics. According to the CES Establishment Data, as of May 2012, there were about 133 million total non-farm jobs in the U.S., a decline of nearly 5 million since the recession began.

“Private” and “Government” jobs together now total 132.369 million jobs, a loss of 5.6 million since the recession began. Of these, 5.2 million are in the private sector; the public sector accounts for just 407,000. To put that in perspective, for every government job lost, about 13 private sector jobs have been lost.

In percentage terms, while we have lost 4.5 percent of private-sector jobs, the government has shed just 1.8 percent of jobs. Far from “doing fine,” these numbers indicate that the private sector is doing much worse than the public sector.

The Federal Reserve Board reported this month that, after adjusting for inflation, the median family’s net worth has dropped by nearly 39 percent since 2007 – back to 1992 levels. Rather than further burdening American taxpayers with higher taxes to support the bloated government payrolls of 2007, perhaps Obama should focus on cutting government back to 1992 levels. This would not constitute “austerity” – the Clinton era was anything but austere – but simply living within our diminished means.

In 1992, government at all levels employed 18.164 million people, compared to 21.969 million today. Paring back to 1992 levels means shedding another 3.8 million bureaucrats. Cutting spending and taxes back to 1992 levels means, on the federal level, cutting taxes nearly 30 percent, while cutting spending more than 40 percent. That would reduce the deficit a whopping 65 percent.

These cuts would inject into the private sector $622 billion that would otherwise have been taxed away, and release another $732 billion that the government would otherwise have borrowed, amounting to a “stimulus” of more than $1.3 trillion – enough to hire all 16.5 million (12.7 million currently unemployed plus 3.8 million former bureaucrats) at $82,000 per year — while reducing, rather than increasing, the deficit.


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25 Jun 2012

Media Notice: Towards Employment


CLEVELAND, Jun 25, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Towards Employment, Incorporated, a non-profit corporation based in
Cleveland, Ohio, recently suffered a data security breach. On May 11,
2012, a laptop computer assigned to a Towards Employment employee was
stolen from its offices. The laptop contained a database with
information about Towards Employment’s current and former program
participants. The database included the following personal information:
names, addresses, and social security numbers, but did not include
financial data or information. The laptop was password protected, but it
is possible that someone could still gain access to the personal
information on the laptop. Towards Employment reported the theft of the
laptop to the Cleveland Police Department and is continuing to follow-up
on all available evidence to determine the extent of unauthorized
access, if any, to personal information. To date, Towards Employment has
no evidence that this laptop was stolen with the intent to access
personal information or that the database containing the personal
information that was on the stolen laptop has been accessed or misused.
However, this security breach could increase the potential that personal
information is misused.

Towards Employment has set-up a hotline to verify whether program
participants are affected by the breach and to provide information and
services to any persons affected by the security breach. Anyone that has
provided personal information to Towards Employment is
urged to immediately contact Towards Employment at 1-800-372-1979 or
1-216-297-4470 to learn if he or she may be affected by the
security breach. The hotline will be staffed from June 25, 2012 to July
31, 2012, Monday through Thursday 8:00 AM EST to 4:00 PM EST and Friday
8:00 PM EST to 2:00 PM EST. Messages can be left with the hotline
outside of these hours, and Towards Employment will return the message
at a time convenient for the caller. Beginning August 1, 2012, program
participants can still contact Towards Employment by calling
216-696-5750. Not all Towards Employment program participants are
affected by the security breach. For example, program participants that
first provided personal information to Towards Employment after May 11,
2012, are not affected. However, all those with concerns are encouraged
to call Towards Employment immediately.

For all persons that call the hotline and are affected by the security
data breach, Towards Employment will provide free services to help the
affected persons protect themselves from misuse of personal information,
such as identity theft. Towards Employment has entered into an agreement
with Experian Consumer Direct under which Experian Consumer Direct will
provide the following services to any affected persons:

1. Credit Report — A free copy of the
person’s Experian credit report.

2. Credit Monitoring — Experian will
monitor each person’s Experian credit report daily for a one year period
and alert the person of new or suspicious activity.

3. Insurance — Each person will receive
insurance for a one year period for qualifying losses stemming from this
data security breach.

4. Identity Theft Resolution — A fraud
resolution agent for Experian will help each person address issues
related to identity theft stemming from this breach. This service does
not have an expiration date.

Although, affected individuals must call
Towards Employment by September 14, 2012 in order to be eligible for the
services, any delay in calling can limit protection against identity
theft.

Upon calling Towards Employment, all eligible persons will receive an
activation code used to activate the Experian services. Activation must
be completed at
www.protectmyid.com/alert
or by calling Experian at 877-297-7780. Activation with Experian must be
completed by September 30, 2012.

If you suspect that you are a victim of identity theft, immediately
contact your local police department, state Attorney General, and the
Federal Trade Commission. Towards Employment encourages all current and
former program participants to take the following steps to help protect
against fraud and identity theft:

–
Immediately notify your banking institution of the potential that your
personal information has been compromised, and comply with your
banking institution’s loss-prevention security policies and advice.

–
Review your bank, credit card and debit card account statements regularly
and immediately report any suspicious activity to your bank or
financial institution.

–
Request a 90-day fraud alert on your credit report through one of the
three national credit reporting agencies (listed below). This alert
can be cancelled at any time. These alerts are renewable every 90 days
and should notify you if there are any attempts to open new accounts
using your personal information. You only need to contact one of the
agencies below. That agency will then contact the other two agencies.
If you have evidence of an actual identity theft, you can obtain a
seven-year fraud alert.


        Equifax            Experian             TransUnion
        Fraud Division     Credit Fraud Center  Fraud Victim Assistance
        P.O. Box 105069    P.O. Box 1017        P.O. Box 6790
        Atlanta, GA 30348  Allen, TX 75013      Fullerton, CA 92834
        1-888-766-0008     1-888-397-3742       1-800-680-7289

www.equifax.com

–
Place freezes on your credit report. A credit freeze is designed to
prevent credit, loans, and services from being approved in your name
without your consent by prohibiting a credit reporting agency from
releasing any information in your credit report without your express
authorization or approval. You can freeze your credit report with all
three of the credit reporting agencies listed above by sending a
written request to each agency by certified mail or by a secured
electronic method authorized by the credit reporting agencies. You can
receive more information on freezing your credit report from the
credit reporting agencies. Be aware that there are fees associated
with a credit freeze. In Ohio, a credit reporting agency can charge up
to $5.00 to freeze a credit report or lift the freeze.

–
Obtain your annual free credit report mandated by federal law either
by contacting one of the above credit reporting agencies or from the
following service:

Annual Credit Report Request Service P.O. Box 105283 Atlanta,
GA 30348-5283 1-877-322-8228
www.annualcreditreport.com

–
Obtain information from the Federal Trade Commission about additional
steps you can take to avoid identity theft:

Federal Trade Commission 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington,
DC 20580 1-877-ID-THEFT
www.ftc.gov/idtheft

–
Consult the following informational sources:

“To Buy or Not to Buy: Identity Theft Spawns New Products and Services
to Help Minimize Risk,” available at:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt05.shtm

“How to Deal with a Security Breach, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse,”
available at:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17b-securitybreach.htm

“Take Charge, Fighting Back Against Identity Theft,” available at:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt04.shtm

Towards Employment takes this security breach seriously and will take
the following steps to strengthen its information technology security to
attempt to prevent any future security breaches.

–
Hard drives on Towards Employment laptop computers will be encrypted.

–
All data transmitted within Towards Employment’s computer systems will
be encrypted.

–
Towards Employment will no longer collect social security numbers and
will modify all social security numbers in its current database to
only include the last four digits.

–
All Towards Employment laptops will have tracking software installed
to facilitate locating a missing laptop.

–
All Towards Employment laptops will have physical locks to secure the
laptops both inside and outside the office.

–
All Towards Employment computers will require a second password to
access databases in addition to the log-on password, and each password
will include a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

In addition to these steps, Towards Employment will continue to
evaluate, identify, and mitigate potential vulnerabilities to its
information technology systems.

About Towards Employment: Towards
Employment’s mission is to empower individuals to achieve and maintain
self-sufficiency through employment. Since 1976, Towards Employment has
helped more than 100,000 low-income and disadvantaged adults in Greater
Cleveland prepare for jobs, get jobs, keep jobs and move up the career
ladder. Since 2004, Towards Employment has also taken on the challenge
of placing ex-offenders in full-time, permanent jobs. More information
can be found at
www.towardsemployment.org .

SOURCE: Towards Employment


        Towards Employment
        Jill Rizika, Executive Director, 216-696-5750
        Fax: 216-696-5119

Copyright Business Wire 2012


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25 Jun 2012

A Job to Kill For? Unemployed Spurn Detroit Veteran Hiring Fair

You name the minimum-wage job, I’d worked it before enlisting: busboy, cashier, data enterer, car washer, flower-delivery guy, and on down the line. Working as a valet parker, a guy once slipped in my hand as a tip a coupon for a free milkshake if I bought a burger at some local diner. I don’t recall ever finishing a shift when I didn’t say to myself, “You know what, there has got to be more to life than this.” But I’d done horribly in high school, and even these jobs were hell to land; many I had to pretty much beg for.


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25 Jun 2012

Government defends tax deal with opposition

Tax on employment will be reduced and the top tax bracket will be raised after the government shunned its far-left support partner, Enhedslisten, to forge a cross-aisle tax-reform with the opposition at the last minute.

After the deal with Venstre and Konservative was announced on Friday, the finance minister, Bjarne Croydon (Socialdemokraterne), argued the deal, tailoring the reofrm to benefit those in employment most, would benefit the economy.

“The deal means that it will become more attractive for everyone to work,” Corydon wrote on the finance ministry’s website. “It will mean more growth and a solid foundation underpinning the Danish welfare system.”

Not holding an absolute majority in parliament, the government was forced to compromise in order to pass a tax reform. Typical to Danish politics is the search for broad consensus in order to ensure that policies do not swing dramatically with successive governments.

This presented the government with a conflict, either forge a tax reform with its far-left support party Enhedslisten or with the opposition – the former would produce a reform more in keeping with ‘red’ (left-wing) politics but would be more divisive, while the latter would be more stable though more ‘blue’ (right-wing).

The result is a tax reform that benefits those in work by increasing the earned income credit, while many with middle and upper incomes will benefit from having the top tax bracket increased by 57,900 kroner to 4670,000 kroner by 2022.

The reform will end up costing the government more than it hoped, however, after it allowed the rise in the top tax bracket to also be enjoyed by pensioners, who were initially excluded from the deal.

Further costs were incurred after they also had to give up their attempt to reduce the amount of interest on mortgages that homeowners can deduct from their taxes while also agreeing to freeze property taxes until 2020.

An irate Enhedslisten declared on Friday that it was now “in opposition to the government”, but speaking on television this morning, PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Socialdemokraterne) argued the government made the right decision in signing a deal with Venstre and Konservative.

“We will better be able to afford welfare than we would have done with Enhedslisten,” Thorning-Schmidt said on Go’ Morgen Danmark. “It’s the deal that is closest to what the government proposed from the start. We will better be able to help the worst off with this deal.”

The tax reform will mean that the government is underfinanced by 300 million kroner, which would be needed to fund the 0.8 percent annual increase to public spending. This fact was admitted by the economy minister, Margrethe Vestager (Radikale), on TV2 News.

“There will be less money for public use because we spent some of the money on tax relief,” Vestager said. “The government wanted to find three billion kroner for welfare. We got 2.7 billion and that is very close to the goal.”

The tax reform received praise from Danish businesses.

“It is incredibly difficult to reduce tax on work,” Karsten Dybvad, managing director of Dansk Industry, a business lobby organisation, told the Ritzau news agency. “A higher earned income credit and a higher limit to paying the top tax bracket will mean that many in work will benefit from working extra.”

Political commentators are warning the tax-reform has further alienated core left-wing supporters of Socialdemokraterne and coalition partner Socialistisk Folkeparti, continuing a trend that has seen voters fleeing both parties in droves, partially in response the perceived lack of commitment to ‘red’ policies.

Socialistisk Folkeparti, the government’s most left-wing party, was particularly disappointed at having to accept a reduction in the rate of increase of social welfare adjustments, a move it has said will increase social inequality.

“When five parties join in a deal, there will be elements that do not chime with the party’s politics and have to be accepted as part of the compromise,” the party announced in a press release after an emergency meeting in Copenhagen this weekend.

Factfile | Tax reform

Key elements

Raised threshold to qualify for top tax bracket by 57,900 kroner, to 4670,000 kroner, by 2022.

Earned income credit raised from 5.6 percent to 10.65 percent by 2022 with the maximum annual employment deduction rising from 17,900 kroner to 34,100 kroner by 2022.

Extra earned income credit for single parents, up to an extra 20,000 kroner per year.

The 2009 entrepreneur tax will be rolled back and financed through increased taxation on the finance sector.

Compromises

The proposed decrease in the amount of interest mortgage holders could deduct has been dropped. The parties also agree to keep the property tax and interest deduction at the same level until 2020.

Pensioners get the same adjustment in the threshold before having to pay the top tax bracket as those in employment.

The rate of social welfare spending increases will be adjusted down by 5.1 percent between 2016 and 2023

Financing

The savings will be funded through 2.7 billion cut to defence, a 1 billion kroner rebate on payments to the EU and increased taxation on the finance sector.


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25 Jun 2012

Syria Forms New Government But Keeps Key Posts

Syrian President Bashar Assad issued a decree forming a new government Saturday, but it will be headed by a key loyalist and the foreign, defense and interior ministers kept their jobs.

The move comes as fears mounted that the conflict was aggravating regional tensions. Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Saturday his country would take “necessary” action against Syria after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish military plane.

Syria’s new government is headed by Riad Farid Hijab, a former agriculture minister and a loyalist member of the ruling Baath Party.

A deadly uprising has convulsed Syria for more than a year, and Assad has promised to enact political reforms. He vowed after the May 7 parliamentary elections to make the government more inclusive to politicians from other parties.

But the appointment of Hijab and the decision to keep the key posts unchanged raised questions about the commitment to that pledge.

The opposition boycotted the parliamentary elections, saying they were designed to strengthen Assad’s grip on power.

Parliament is considered little more than a rubber stamp in Syria, where the president and a tight coterie of advisers hold the real power.

Activists estimate that more than 14,000 people have been killed since the start of the uprising against Assad’s regime in March 2011.

In a sign of how the conflict is bleeding outside its borders, Syria said Friday it shot down a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian air space. It was the clearest and most dramatic escalation in tensions between the two countries, which used to be allies before the Syrian revolt began. Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of the Syrian regime’s response to the uprising.

Gul said his country would take action against Syria but suggested that the aircraft may have unintentionally violated the Syrian airspace.

The plane, an unarmed F-4, went down in the Mediterranean Sea about eight miles (13 kilometers) away from the Syrian town of Latakia, Turkey said.

During a news conference Saturday in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the incident showed how explosive the Syrian conflict could be for the region.

“This is a serious escalation,” he said. “It is a security matter for Europe. It is a concern for the region and that is why we called for a calculated, well-drawn, democratic political transition. We do not want to see chaos in the region.”


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25 Jun 2012

Accrediting agency questions culinary school’s job placement rates

California Watch

One of the agencies that accredits San Francisco’s California Culinary Academy is questioning the veracity of the college’s reported job placement rates – ordering the school’s parent company to provide audited placement data by September in order to maintain its accreditation status.

The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges issued the order to Career Education Corp., a Schaumburg, Ill.-based for-profit college company, earlier this month. California Culinary Academy is one of 10 schools included in the directive, according to a recent company filing.

The move marks another round of scrutiny of the claims Career Education makes about job opportunities students have after attending its schools. Career Education agreed in 2010 to pay $40 million to settle a class-action lawsuit in which former students said the California Culinary Academy had misled them with its claim that 97 percent of graduates got jobs in the field.

The suit also claimed that California Culinary Academy deceived students by promising robust career placement services that never materialized.

In 2011, the New York attorney general issued a subpoena requesting information on several aspects of the company’s operations, including its employment outcomes. Also last year, another accrediting agency, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, issued a show cause order demanding that the company provide more accurate job placement data.

As a result of that inquiry and the new data submitted by Career Education, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools determined earlier this year that 85 percent of the Career Education schools it accredits – 60 out of 71 campuses – fell below the agency’s 65 percent placement rate standard.

The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools did not revoke the schools’ accreditation but is implementing additional oversight of the 60 campuses. The agency placed four of these campuses on probation for posting job placement rates of 40 percent or below. Those campuses are Sanford-Brown College in Indianapolis; Sanford-Brown College in Milwaukee; Sanford-Brown Institute in Landover, Md.;and the online campus of the International Academy of Design Technology.

Also as a result of that probe, Career Education plans to post its revised job placement rates on each school’s website in the next couple of weeks, company spokesman Tony Mitchell said. Mitchell said he did not know whether the California Culinary Academy’s rates would be revised.

While the current show cause order could lead the accrediting agency to revoke the colleges’ accreditation, such actions are relatively rare. From May 2011 to May 2012, the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges issued 41 show cause orders and revoked accreditation at seven schools.

Michale S. McComis, executive director of the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, did not comment on the details of the inquiry into Career Education. But he did say prospective students should be aware that in many cases, the company’s reported job placement rates were wrong.

“I think that students should certainly look at and be cognizant of the data that the schools are providing, and that my agency or another agency has been looking into the accuracy of that,” McComis said. “That’s an important part of their decision, in making choices about enrolling at any institution.”

Mitchell, the Career Education Corp. spokesman, said the company is confident it will maintain accreditation.

“I’m not in a position to guarantee the outcome of the ACCSC show cause action, but … we were able to successfully resolve the matter with a prior accreditor, and we have taken a number of steps in addition to just verifying the placement data,” he said. “It leaves us feeling confident about our policies and practices.”

In California, lawmakers are debating AB 2296, which would put in place more stringent criteria for calculating job placement rates. Currently, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education allows colleges to count graduates as “employed in the field” if the skills they got through their education provided a “significant advantage” in obtaining the position.

That has allowed some colleges to overstate the number of graduates who are putting their education to good use, said Elisabeth Voigt, senior staff attorney at Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy group in San Francisco that supports the bill.

SB 2296, by Assemblyman Marty Block, D-Lemon Grove, would push the bureau to tighten the requirements for counting a student as employed in the field. It passed the Senate Education Committee last week.

“Under current law, students can easily get misleading information about two of the most important sources of data,” Voigt said. “The purpose of the bill is to make sure that students are not misled on the state-required form.”

View this story on California Watch


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Illinois job fairs offer something for every professional looking for work

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