Colorado Employment Situation February 2011

(Editor Summary: Colorado Unemployment rate is up from 9.1% to 9.3%. National Rate fell from 9.0% to 8.9% from February 2010 to 2011.). Here are the details:

Employers in Colorado added 3,000 nonfarm payroll jobs from January to February for a total of 2,228,300 jobs, according to the survey of establishments, with private sector payroll jobs increasing by 2,900.

The unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percentage point to 9.3% based on household survey results. The labor force increased 7,100 to 2,677,900 and total employment increased 2,600. The increase in total employment was not enough to offset the increase in labor force participation, causing the number of unemployed to increase 4,500.

The national unemployment rate dropped from 9.0 to 8.9 percent over the same period. Over the year, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased from 33.6 to 33.9 hours and average hourly earnings increased from $23.69 to $24.15.

The largest over the month private sector job gains in February were in professional and business services, trade, transportation and utilities, and leisure and hospitality. The largest declines were in construction and financial activities.

Over the year, nonfarm payroll jobs increased 13,800 with an increase of 16,400 in the private sector and a decline of 2,600 in government. The largest job gains were in education and health services, professional and business services and leisure and hospitality. The largest declines were in construction, financial activities and information.


Over the year, the unemployment rate is up three-tenths of one percentage point from 9.0 percent in February 2010. The number of Coloradans participating in the labor force declined 25,800 to 2,677,900, total employment declined 30,600 to 2,430,100, and the number of unemployed increased 4,800 to 247,800. The national unemployment rate declined from 9.7 to 8.9 percent from February 2010 to 2011.

---- source: Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Out of Work? Out of Luck

EEOC Examines Employers’ Treatment of Unemployed Job Applicants at Hearing

(2-16-2011) WASHINGTON—In a public meeting held today, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) examined the impact of employers considering only those currently employed for job vacancies.

“Throughout its 45 year history, the EEOC has identified and remedied discrimination in hiring and remains committed to ensuring job applicants are treated fairly,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “Today’s meeting gave the Commission an important opportunity to learn about the emerging practice of excluding unemployed persons from applicant pools.”

According to Helen Norton, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, employers and staffing agencies have publicly advertised jobs in fields ranging from electronic engineers to restaurant and grocery managers to mortgage underwriters with the explicit restriction that only currently employed candidates will be considered. “Some employers may use current employment as a signal of quality job performance,” Norton testified. “But such a correlation is decidedly weak. A blanket reliance on current employment serves as a poor proxy for successful job performance.”

“The use of an individual’s current or recent unemployment status as a hiring selection device is a troubling development in the labor market,” said Fatima Goss Graves, Vice President for Education and Employment of the National Women’s Law Center. She noted that this practice “may well act as a negative counterweight” to government efforts to get people back to work. Women, particularly older women and those in non-traditional occupations, are disproportionately affected by this restriction, testified Goss Graves.

Denying jobs to the already-unemployed can also have a disproportionate effect on certain racial and ethnic minority community members, Algernon Austin, Director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy of the Economic Policy Institute, explained. Unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are higher than those of whites. When comparing college-educated workers, the unemployment rate for Asians is also higher. Thus, restricting applications to the currently employed could place a heavier burden on people of color, he concluded.

The use of employment status to screen job applicants could also seriously impact people with disabilities, according to Joyce Bender, an expert in the employment of people with disabilities. “Given my experience, I can say without a doubt that the practice of excluding persons who are currently unemployed from applicant pools is real and can have a negative impact on persons with disabilities,” Bender told the Commission.

Dr. William Spriggs, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy, offered data supporting this testimony. Spriggs presented current national employment statistics showing that African-Americans and Hispanics are overrepresented among the unemployed. He also stated that excluding the unemployed would be more likely to limit opportunities for older applicants as well as persons with disabilities.

“At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise,” said Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project. In addition to presenting statistical evidence, she recounted stories unemployed workers have shared with her organization where they were told directly that they would not be considered for employment due to being unemployed.

James Urban, a partner at the Jones Day law firm, who counsels employers, expressed doubt as to the extent of the problem. Fernan Cepero, representing the Society of Human Resource Professionals, told the Commission that his organization is not aware of this practice being in regular use. But both Mr. Urban and Mr. Cepero noted that the automatic exclusion of unemployed persons from consideration does not constitute “due diligence” in the screening of job applicants.

The EEOC enforces the nation’s laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Materials from this Commission meeting, including statements and biographies of the witnesses, may be found at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/meetings/2-16-11/index.cfm.

Related Video: Employment Issues (Dec 3, 2002) Ms. Dominguez talked about employment policy and the work of the EEOC. She also responded to viewer comments and questions.

Colorado Employment Situation January 2011

"Employers in Colorado added 2,200 nonfarm payroll jobs from December to January for a total of 2,223,400 jobs. Private sector payroll jobs increased by 5,000 and government decreased by 2,800. The Colorado unemployment rate increased from 8.9 to 9.1 percent and the national unemployment rate dropped from 9.4 to 9.0 percent over the same period. Over the year, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased from 33.6 to 34.5 hours and average hourly earnings increased from $23.71 to
$24.25."
"The largest over the month private sector job gains in January were in professional and business services, education and health services, and trade, transportation and utilities. The largest declines were in leisure and hospitality, construction and information."

--- Colorado Department of Labor and Employment

Source:

http://lmigateway.coworkforce.com/lmigateway/admin/gsipub/htmlarea/uploads/currentpr.pdf

The SHHRP OPPORTUNITY FAIR 17-Mar-2011

"At the Opportunity Fair, we expect to bring 50-60 Employers and Educators together with hundreds of job seekers." -- SHHRP
SHHRP Members
Home Depot team members
Denver University
Jim Barnes, volunteer, Jazz 89, Kuvo.org, KUVO/KVJZ

UPCOMING SHHRP OPPORTUNITY FAIR

Wells Fargo Atrium, 1740 Broadway (17th and Broadway)

March 17, 2011 – 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

At Society of Hispanic Human Resources Professionals (SHHRP) we are committed to

serving all of the diverse components of the metro area’s employer and job seeker

populations. We want to help all metro residents find the jobs they want, and to help all

metro employers find the workers they are looking for. There are many Denver-area job

seekers who are still out of work, and yet there are employers out there looking for good

people. Also, many job seekers need to upgrade their skills to qualify for the best jobs

available.

At the Opportunity Fair, we expect to bring 50-60 Employers and Educators together

with hundreds of job seekers. We plan to help Job Seekers find the work they want – or

the educational opportunities that will enable them to get a better job. This event is free

to all job seekers, and all are welcome. We encourage everyone who needs a job or

education to visit. This Opportunity Fair is for everyone!

Employers and educators who want to participate should contact LeRoy Romero

at vivaleroy@comcast.net, or call (720) 840-8117.

For more details : http://www.shhrp.net/

The Charles Schwab Hiring Event: We're ready to invest in your future

Andrew Bercich, Talent Acquisition Recruiter,Charles Schwab

(3/11/2011) - The Charles Schwab Hiring Event featured the theme of " We're ready to invest in your future" and presented a list of open technical professional jobs. These positions are open to candidates for long term employment rather than short-term contract to hire, according to Andrew Bercich, Talent Acquisition Recruiter from Charles Schwab.

According to the email:

Schwab will be recruiting for entry to senior level IT professionals, including developers, software engineers, quality engineers, IT managers and project managers. A variety of skills sets are desired, including mainframe development, JAVA, Microsoft, MS Exchange Server, security, UNIX, Linux, C#, .Net, SQL and Informatica ETL.

A full list of the job names and job numbers was given to attendees. The details can be accessed from www.connectingcolorado.com by job number or the Charles Schwab website by job title.

The Arapahoe/Douglas Works presented the hiring event with an added social networking twist by using a targeted email invitation campaign, an on-line pre- registration process and a return notification which included a free Parking Pass. Hurray! No more walk-in, paper and pen pre-registration process using a clip board. Registration is now electronic for the most part. However, I did see the paper and clip-board used for check-in. Oh well, I guess the process can never go completely paper-less.

Overall, the event was well planned and executed.

It was a complete success on many fronts. At the end of the event a follow-up email was sent asking members to respond to a survey and invited them to join the ADW Connections group for professional networking, job search tips and more!

Visit the www.adworks.org events calendar for more information.

Arapahoe/Douglas Works!

5500 S. Quebec St. Suite 175

Greenwood Village, CO 80111

Steve Felsen, Sr. Application Engineer, Charles Schwab, who would be your ideal candidate? Steve would select someone who is enthusiastic about working at Charles Schwab and not just someone who wants to come to work, do the job and go home. Steve's group supports a data Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process. He is willing to teach the ideal candidate everything about Informatica ETL.
Cecilia Madison, Managing Director, Charles Schwab, who is your ideal candidate? Cecilia is looking for entry level candidates would have recently completed college, know Java, and are willing to learn C# and newer technologies. If they know Java then is it not to much to learn C# and vice versa. Her group supports User Interface development. She is looking for a range of entry level to senior level IT professionals who are willing to learn. Charles Schwab offers excellent training opportunities.
Charles Schwab Job Event at Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce Center

Can you solve the "PC Dead or Alive " Mystery?

Find the differences between two different states of the same PC operating at two different times. Solve the mystery.

Image 1: A PC screen displays a running "YouTube" video on a web browser. When the mouse moves, the cursor tracks the corresponding movement on the screen. A desktop App displays the current time and date. A USB cable is connected to a broadband Internet wireless modem and the desktop. The computer is 5 years old and has been in storage for several months, until today.

Image 2: A PC screen freezes and the cursor will not move. The web browser screen states it is not connected to the internet. A desktop App displays the current time and date always as 12:00 Jan. 1, 2006. The USB cable is not connected to a broadband internet wireless modem. The computer is 5 years old and has been in storage for several months, until today.

=== What happened to the family computer?

How to recreate: Find small children who like to press buttons, especially the power on / off switch as well as random buttons on the keyboard. Leave the computer unsupervised. Leave the room and go to work. Return hours later to find the computer screen frozen. The cursor is blinking and not responsive to mouse movements. The wireless USB cable is missing. It used to be connected to a Internet modem on one end and the desktop USB connection on the other end.

Sometimes, by turning the computer on and off, it will restart after displaying an error message about the system being forced to abort.

You must press either (f2) to review boot settings or (f10) to continue.

Press (f10). Sometimes it will start, other times only a blinking cursor appears on a black screen of death.

BIG QUESTION: Identify the root causes of this problem and how you would fix it.

The answers.

• The wireless Internet was down after the cable was removed. To fix it. Replace the cable and connect it to the desktop and wireless internet modem.
• Shut down the computer. Power down the computer.
• Power up the computer. Look for any error messages on the screen as it attempts to reboot. The system will attempt to restore default information, upon reboot.
• If the system fails to start and the screen displays a blinking cursor on a black screen for too long then there is something wrong. Review the prior error message(s). In this case the system clock displayed the time as "12:00 Jan. 1. 2006". This is an indication of a bad CMOS battery failure. The CMOS battery maintains the system time clock setting when the power is off. Since this 5 year old computer was turned off for several months and stored in the garage, the battery had died. To fix it, try charging it for 24 hours by keeping the computer power on. To reset the system time, in this case, press the (f2) key when attempting to restart the computer. Be careful. You are entering the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) which controls the basic device settings, including the system time.
• Reset the system time. Save the BIOS settings.
• Press (F10) key to continue, in this case. The system will attempt to load the Windows operating system. If it fails again then shut down the computer power for several hours to discharge all of the components.
• Root cause. The CMOS battery needed to be fully charged or replaced. The CMOS program needs the system time to control processing logic. The BOIS settings needed to be reset after it aborted. The Time Clock and Date was set up 12:00 Jan. 1, 2006, the day it was born. That was incorrect. The startup program could not find the proper Windows startup files based on the time and date. At this point, it is unknown what devices or programs failed to load properly.
• Solution: Recharge the CMOS battery for 24 hours. Plug in the wireless internet cable. Reboot.