Posted: 01 Oct 2010 06:46 AM PDT

Recent unemployment statistics show hiring trends continue to be weak, while the Conference Board's consumer confidence indicator plummeted at the beginning of the summer after three consecutive months of gains.

Not surprisingly, that private research group's findings point to concerns about jobs as greatly affecting consumer confidence.

American workers are worried about finding jobs, yet I'm concerned about keeping jobs.

As the president of a small business, I have witnessed behavior that is incongruent with keeping a job. I am concerned at the lack of personal responsibility in today's workplace. Too frequently, I encounter an attitude of entitlement, an expectation that everything is owed to the individual with little regard of the consequences to the organization, and a lack of dedication to doing the job right.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

College freshmen starting early on their job searches - News-Leader.com

Posted: 14 Sep 2010 01:15 AM PDT

Philadelphia -- As college freshmen nationwide continue exploring their campuses -- finding dining halls, laundry rooms, bookstores and gyms -- officials at many schools say the newbies are increasingly finding their way to career centers.

Once considered the place for panicked seniors to look for jobs ahead of graduation, college career offices are reporting dramatic hikes in use by first-year students looking for the earliest possible jump on the employment market.

"College is expensive and difficult ... probably the largest single investment that our students will ever make," said John Kniering, career services director at the University of Hartford. "It seems natural that freshman year is not too early to start."

Hartford has seen a 37 percent increase in freshman career counseling appointments since 2006, Kniering said.

Freshmen who are concerned by the nation's 9.6 percent unemployment rate and the prospect of repaying college loans don't want to squander tuition money on irrelevant coursework.

The so-called Millennial cohort is also filled with go-getters, said Nancy Dudak, director of the career center at Villanova University near Philadelphia.

"This generation of college students is used to being busy and having it all," Dudak said. "They had really packed careers in high school. They just look to continue that intensity when they come to college."

Career centers are also making a concerted effort to target first-years to ensure more relevant guidance and increase student retention. Duke University has seen a 33 percent increase over previous years in freshmen attendance at career center programs, due in part to outreach, said spokesman Chris Heltne.

Outreach is "a matter of self-defense" for career counselors, Kniering said.

Knowing students' skills and passions is important in an age where some professions can appear -- think social media consultant -- or disappear -- think of the financial collapse -- in the course of a college career. Encouraging early internships and coursework can help students find the right path without requiring extra classes and tuition money.

"If we see them on the cusp of graduation, often it's too late to make a significant difference," Kniering said.

Five Cities for the Career-Minded Student - Wall Street Journal

Posted: 01 Oct 2010 06:46 AM PDT

By ANNAMARIA ANDRIOTIS

School has only just started, but high school juniors are already planning college visits and seniors are winnowing their lists. To narrow the field, they'll consider important factors like class size, research opportunities, and the relative quality of the dining hall food. They'll think about what's in the surrounding town, too – maybe not in the way they should.

Big city schools might be in proximity to all-night Thai food, but schools in small cities can give students a huge advantage in preparing for a career. Small cities tend to have lower unemployment rates relative to major metropolitan areas. (The top 15 small cities in the American Institute for Economic Research's 2010-11 College Destinations Index had an average unemployment rate of 7.5% in 2009, while those in major metro areas had an average rate of 8.8%.)

What's more, many of the so-called small metros have become tightly concentrated hubs of industry, with the companies in the surrounding area often leaning heavily on the university for talent and labor. Smaller towns don't offer the same opportunities, and in bigger cities, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle.

SmartMoney looked at the top five small metropolitan areas for college students, as ranked by the AIER's index. To see the list and the job opportunities available in these five small cities, click here.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at editors@smsmallbiz.com