"Lowball" job offers -- from WSJ

Responding to lowball offers
Job seekers are finding salary offers are getting smaller as the economic crisis continues, and many are being offered less than they currently are earning. "We are on the cusp of a trend," says Mark Royal, a senior consultant at Hay Group. If you still want the job, experts suggest carefully crafting a counteroffer asking for a faster pay review or inexpensive perks instead. The Wall Street Journal (free content) (12/2)

from US Chamber of Commerce

Poll results: Does your organization use social-networking sites to vet job candidates?
From last week's poll:

• 10% said yes -- we look everyone up on the major sites, as a matter of policy.
• 48% said yes -- it's something many hiring managers do, although it's not official policy.
• 38% said no -- we're just not interested in what people put on those sites.
• 4% said no -- company policy bans workers from accessing such sites while on the job -- including hiring managers.

Private Sector cuts 250,000 Jobs

Reuters reports that jobless claims are at a 16 year high, and the economy isn't expected to start recovering until later next year.

Watch an AP Video summarize the situation. Read Paul Krugman's assessment of the "depression economy."

Photo by cliff1066.

Students and Families Finding College Unaffordable

The annual report, Measuring Up 2008, from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that while family income has risen 147% since 1982, the cost of college has far outpaced those gains by increasing 467%. Student borrowing has doubled, and we are at a point where older Americans are more educated than younger Americans. The US ranks 10th in the world now in terms of population with post-secondary education.

What may be even more illustrative is the percent of family income that goes to college education compared to ten years ago, and the statistics that lower income families actually receive less aid that upper income families. The New York Times has an excellent summary if you want to start with an overview.

Nonprofit Hiring Freezes

Our own Robert passed this information along. From The NonProfit Times:

Almost one in five nonprofits that responded plan a hiring freeze while 13 percent plan a reduction in their marketing budget, 8 percent a reduction in staff, and 6.5 percent a reduction in programming. More than 21 percent
responded with “other” changes, which included among other things, a four-day work week, 5-percent cuts in all budget areas, not hiring a major gifts officer, a one-year wage freeze, reducing health insurance benefits, and postponing the announcement of or at least reviewing plans for a capital campaign.

And of course Joan passed along the sad news about the Everett Public Service Internship Program closing down.

Photo by Stewart Heath.

Malcom Gladwell's 'Outliers'

Malcom Gladwell’s new book, Outliers, was released last week. I read it over the weekend, on the theory that I had roughly 60 days — 90 at the outside — before I’d heard it referenced at so many conferences that mere mention of the central anecdotes would cause me to reach for a hotel pen and stab myself in the eye as a distraction from the pain. I believe the medical term for this is “Thomas Friedman Syndrome.”

From Chronice of Higher Ed
Kevin Carey is the research and policy manager for Education Sector.