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Manpower says the U.S. hiring outlook for the first part of next year is the most positive since 2008. That’s not saying much, though.

The quarterly Manpower survey of hiring intentions released today shows 14 percent of employers expect to add to their workforce in the first three months of 2012. Nine percent expect a decline; 7 percent don’t know; and, 70 percent predict no change. With Manpower’s seasonal adjustment, the net result is nine percent overall increase in job growth intentions. keep reading…

The unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, the lowest it has been since March 2009, as the U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs.

The job growth announced this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor was at the low end of the various estimates of what economists were expecting, though some predictions were upped following a robust report Wednesday from payroll and HR services firm ADP. The company said 206,000 private sector jobs were added.

The U.S. Labor Department report said private sector, non-farm payrolls increased by 140,000 jobs, but cuts in government jobs decreased the overall number.

The government also revised up the number of new jobs originally reported for September (158,000 to 210,000) and October (80,000 to 100,000).

Wall Street responded to the report by driving up stock prices, not with the same frenzy as it did earlier this week, but still with strength. At mid-morning in New York, the Dow was up almost 100 points. keep reading…

Payroll and HR services firm ADP spread around a little holiday cheer this morning when the company said 206,000 new jobs were added to private payrolls this month.

It came as a surprise to economists who had predicted a more modest increase of about 130,000, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. In addition, ADP revised its October private-sector growth number by 20,000 to 130,000.

The ADP report sparked a stock rally that ignited after it became known that the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks were coordinating efforts to help Europe’s debt crisis. The Dow rose more than 400 points, settling at just under that after lunch in New York. keep reading…

Whether a sign of confidence or desperation, the number of workers quitting without having another job is growing. Last month alone nearly 1.1 million workers left their jobs.

It’s the largest number of  “job-leavers,” as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calls them, in more than a decade. Included in the count are workers who took buyouts, some who quit ahead of a dismissal, and others who may be taking time off before starting a new job. The bulk, however, are those who decided to leave a job without having another lined up.

There’s no way of telling what kind of workers these job-leavers are. However, any number of surveys over the last few years show there’s a gathering wave of intentions about leaving, if not actual departures. keep reading…

With every good intention, American employers are honoring the nation’s military veterans today with promises of jobs and redoubled recruiting efforts.

From Washington, where Michelle Obama announced yesterday that corporate leaders will hire 100,000 vets and military spouses in the next two years, to a Phoenix job fair today where Chase Bank is encouraging veterans to attend its job fair, the focus has been on addressing veteran hiring. Late Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed a veterans jobs bill.

Without a doubt, it is a worthy effort. But it is also one that faces challenges very much like those plaguing the civilian employment situation. The fact of the matter is that unemployed veterans look a whole lot like unemployed civilians: young and undereducated.

A second, smaller, but still substantial problem, is the one facing Reservists and the National Guard: multiple call-ups and the legal obligation to rehire them when they return from duty, makes many employers reluctant to hire them in the first place. keep reading…

The last time I talked to Morningstar’s Bob Johnson, it was 2009 and we wondered if we’d “hit bottom.” Two and a half years later, things still feel a little similar.

The jobs report we wrote about today was more of the so-so stuff, with fears of a recession decreasing but life still tough for job-seekers in many fields. Here’s what Johnson and I talked about today as we thought more about the numbers: keep reading…

The unemployment rate nudged down, but new jobs in October fell short of what economists expected, according to numbers released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Economists were expecting at least 100,000 new jobs to have been created last month. Instead, the numbers show only 80,000 new non-farm jobs, all of them coming from the private sector. Government at every level cut a total of 24,000 positions, continuing a trend that began mid-2008 at the state and local levels.

The New York Times described the increase as “mediocre,” and said the report offers little guidance about the direction of the U.S. employment outlook.

Despite the minor drop in the unemployment rate — from the 9.1 percent where it’s been since July, to 9.0 percent — the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the total number of unemployed barely changed. In October, there were 13.9 million Americans out of work. In October, the number was almost 14 million. keep reading…

More private sector jobs than expected were created in the U.S. last month. However, it was barely enough to ward off the doomsayers predicting a double-dip recession.

Payroll processor and HR services company ADP, and its partner, Macroeconomic Advisers, said 110,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in October. That was more than the 100,000 average expected by economists. The monthly report released this morning also revised to 116,000 the number of new jobs added in September. Originally, ADP reported 91,000 jobs were created.

The report helped move stocks into positive territory today, after two days of global meltdown over the Greek decision to send its bailout plan to a referendum. It also offered more evidence that the U.S. may not be headed into another downturn, even if the recovery is sluggish. keep reading…

LinkedIn’s Talent Connect conference wound down in Las Vegas today after a three-day run that was equal parts training, trends, product, and showbiz. It was the perfect mix for a city that thrives on spectacle.

After a Tuesday night party worthy of a last century Silicon Valley event, a bleary-eyed audience was brought to its feet by former basketball great and now-successful businessman Magic Johnson. Roaming the cavernous convention hall, he mixed photo ops with motivational lessons from his life, which took him from high school standout to Laker star and now to business success as the CEO of multi-million dollar development companies that work largely in inner city neighborhoods.

He offered up such chestnuts as  ”It’s not enough to deliver … you have to overdeliver”; “losers lose and winners win”; and others as he told his life story. It was an entertaining almost 90 minutes that went into overtime as Johnson took questions, hustling over to each person to make sure they could get a picture of themselves with the NBA legend. keep reading…

The U.S. Department of Labor issued one of its better jobs reports this morning, showing job growth in September was better than what  economists expected, and revising upward its zero growth August numbers. The monthly employment report also showed improvement in hourly earnings large enough to offset the loss in August.

American non-farm payrolls grew by 103,000 jobs last month and by 57,000 jobs in August. The Labor Department also revised up its July jobs numbers from 85,000 to 127,000. Economists predicted September’s number would come in closer to 60,000.

Certainly a positive, the numbers weren’t enough to make a dent in the ranks of the unemployed, leaving the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent. It has hovered there since April.

A big part of the September increase in the jobs count was due to the return to work of some 45,000 Verizon employees who were on strike in August. Even so, the jobs report showed the private sector added 92,000 after accounting for the returning strikers.

Job growth was strongest in healthcare, which added 44,000 positions; construction grew by 26,000; and, retailers added 13,600. The professional and technical category increased by 48,000 jobs, fueled largely by increases in IT, management, accounting, and technical services. Staffing and related services added almost 24,000 jobs.

Government was the biggest loser as it has been for months, shedding 34,000 jobs in September, while manufacturing cut 13,000 positions.

The report showed little appetite in the private sector for aggressive hiring. keep reading…

Tomorrow the U.S. Department of Labor is expected to report that fewer than 100,000 — as few, says one estimate, as 60,000 —  new jobs were created in September. While that’s an improvement over August’s no-growth report, it’s not going to change the unemployment rate, which has hovered around 9.1 percent since May.

Wednesday, payroll processor ADP and its partner Macroeconomic Advisers reported that 91,000 private sector jobs were created in September. That was the same number initially reported by ADP for August. (The September report adjusted downward that number to 89,000.)

While the ADP National Employment Report rarely tracks closely with the government’s official numbers, it’s seen by economists as an indicator of what the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics may show. Taken with other reports out this week, there’s a sense that tomorrow’s numbers won’t move the needle.

“You have to characterize labor-market conditions as tepid and disappointing,” Bloomberg quoted Joel Prakken, senior managing director of Macroeconomic Advisers, as saying. “There is an element of structural unemployment that persists.”

This morning, the Institute for Supply Management reported that economic activity in the service sector grew in September for the 22nd consecutive month. It was off slightly from August, but still above the level indicating contraction.

However, the Institute’s Employment Index decreased 2.9 percentage points to 48.7 percent in September. It was the first decline in 12 months and signals a reduction in hiring.

Earlier this week, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said employers in September announced plans to layoff 115,730 workers, more than double the  51,114 announced in August. It was the largest number of layoffs, the firm said, in two years.

The Conference Board, which monthly counts the number of current and new jobs advertised online, said September’s count was 43,500 below August’s. Since March, the number of advertised vacancies has dropped by half-a-million.

There are 10 million more unemployed workers than there are jobs advertised online, the Conference Board said.

The March 16, 1998 issue of Fortune showed a picture of one Roberto Ziche, a software engineer, and his bird, Reika, a little lime-green and red parrot. Demand for tech talent so outpaced the supply then that his employer had agreed to his demand to let Reika hop about Ziche’s office all day, jumping from his keyboard, across the top of his monitor, and stopping for a rest sometimes on Ziche’s head. “She’s a pleasant diversion,” says Ziche. But there are drawbacks. “When I am on the phone she gets jealous and starts screaming and biting and messing up everything on my desk.” And of course, unlike a dog, the bird was not house trained, so messing up on the desk meant more than mixing up the papers.

Nerds in Paradise

Well, if that story seems quaint, your next tech hire may be demanding she bring her pet to work too. Think that’s unlikely? Well think again. keep reading…

The financial markets are abuzz today over a Wall Street Journal survey that says economists now give the U.S. economy a 1-in-3 chance of falling into recession in the next 12 months.

According to the Journal, the odds are the highest since the start of the recovery and rose 4 percentage points since the August survey. In addition, the economists in the survey doubt that anything the Federal Reserve will do during its meeting next week will make a difference.

The Journal‘s survey follows a similar Reuters poll earlier this week in which a consensus of economists put the likelihood of recession at 31 percent. A similar survey in August put the chance at 25 percent. keep reading…

Whatever jobs plan President Obama unveils tonight (7 p.m. ET) when he addresses Congress and the nation, it will face a tough, uphill battle to be successful, and not just because of a skeptical, combative Republican House.

Not since Franklin Roosevelt has a presidential speech to a joint session of the House and Senate on the economy had any effect, regardless of the boldness of the plan or its details.

“It is impossible to trace any recovery to the presidential proposals in almost every case,” says 24/7 Wall St., a financial news and analysis site that conducted a review of presidential speeches to joint sessions since the end of the Great Depression. 24/7 found seven speeches dealing with business and economic issues and concluded “they had virtually no effect on the economy, despite the detailed proposals.”

That alone is bad mojo for a president who needs to hit a homerun. But as hints about what Obama’s plan will contain began to leak, economists were already expressing mixed opinions  about some of the proposals, especially the hiring tax credit. It’s not certain that will be part of the plan; presuming it will be, however, economists were divided about the effect tax credits or exemptions have in spurring hiring. keep reading…

Two days before the President unveils his plan to put Americans back to work, new reports are out with mixed jobs news.

First up is a survey by Hay Group that says that while a majority of  retailers are expecting stronger sales this holiday season, hardly any expect to bring on more seasonal help than they did last year.

The management consultancy, which annually surveys 21 major U.S. retailers, found two-thirds expecting to hire the same number of workers as last year. Another 25 percent plan to reduce the number of hires.

Competition for those seasonal jobs is likely to be even keener than it was last year, the Hay Group predicts. Last year, retailers got about 41 percent more applicants than in 2009. This year, 21 percent report they are already seeing between 5 and 25 percent more applicants. keep reading…

Job growth was a wash in August, with the U.S. economy adding 17,000 private, nonfarm sector jobs, but losing the same number of government jobs. That leaves the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, according to the monthly job numbers released by the U.S. Labor Department this morning.

It was the weakest report since last September, when the nation lost 29,000 jobs. Few economists expected August to show much strength, but all but the most pessimistic expected some growth. keep reading…

If you subscribe to the notion that any growth in jobs is good, then today’s report from ADP will be encouraging. The payroll processor said 91,000 new private sector jobs were created in August.

That’s still less than the 100,000 economists were expecting, and it’s about a third of what the U.S. needs each month to bring down the unemployment rate.  The company, and Macroeconomic Advisers, its partner in the monthly report, also adjusted downward its July estimate to 109,000 from the original 114,000.

In ever-so-cautious language, the report says that the slow job growth in August is “at a pace below what would be consistent with a stable unemployment rate.” That means that should the trend continue, unemployment may rise.

Economists expect that when the official employment numbers are released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, they’ll show the 9.1 percent unemployment rate unchanged. New jobs are expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 (Bloomberg News) to 80,000 (Dow Jones Newswires). keep reading…

Consumers may be pessimistic about jobs, but investors clearly were not today, bidding up the stock of the three publicly held career sites.

So aggressive was the action on Monster in particular that its stock soared 21.45 percent today, leading the gainers on the S&P 500 Index. Monster’s shares closed the day at $9.91.

LinkedIn rose 6 percent today, closing at $87.49. Monday, LinkedIn was up 7.5 percent. Dice Holdings was up 2.16 percent to $10.40.

All three companies had a tough few days last week, with LinkedIn sinking on Thursday to $70.05, its lowest price since going public in May. It closed its first day of trading back then at $94.25, after hitting a high of almost $123 a share.

Monster, which has been drifting in the mid teens for months, started heading south in late July, closing on August 22 at a low of $7.13.  Friday, the stock began inching up, and Monday, despite news the company had replaced its CIO Darko Dejanovic, it continued to rise. Today, after the company reported that three of its senior executives cumulatively bought more than 87,000 shares, the stock took off.  keep reading…

U.S. consumer confidence in August dropped to the lowest point in two years, the result, analysts say, of the protracted debate over the debt issue and the continuing employment situation.

The 14.7 point drop in The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index is the largest since October 2008, at the very beginning of the recession when banks and investment houses were failing. The Index now stands at 44.5, its lowest level since April 2009.

Among the components that make up the Consumer Confidence Index is the jobs picture. There, 49.1 percent of consumers said jobs are “hard to get,” an increase from July’s 44.8 percent. The percent saying jobs are plentiful declined to 4.7 percent from 5.1 percent.

Asked about job growth, consumers were even more pessimistic. Almost a third of consumers (31.5 percent) expect there to be fewer jobs available in the next few months. Just last month, 22.2 percent expected fewer jobs. Employment optimists — those expecting more jobs in the months ahead — declined to 11.4 from 16.9 percent. keep reading…