Headline News
Insperity First Quarter EPS Increases 64% to $0.54
Small-Business Hiring Takes Step Back in April
Sluggish Growth Could Signal Hiring Stalled
Official of Defunct Medical Firm Gets Five Years of Probation

ASA Chairman to Speak on Industry Perceptions and Impact
Take Part in a Section Forum at Staffing World^® 2012

Legal Watch
Administration Requests Comments on Employer Requirements Under Health Care Law
South Carolina Legislator to Focus on Jobless Benefits for Substitute Teachers
Workplace: Wage and Hour Legal Actions Increasing
Showing Up for Work: Do Courts See It as ‘Optional’?
Why Were You Absent? Inquiring Minds Want to Know
National Guard Members’ Next Battle: The Job Hunt

Trends and Research
Large Layoffs Loom on Wall Street
Rising Gas Prices Haven’t Stopped Hiring Demand for Truck Drivers

Headline News

Insperity First Quarter EPS Increases 64% to $0.54
Insperity Inc. News Release (04/30/12)

Insperity Inc. today reported first-quarter net income of $13.9 million, a 58% increase over the $8.8 million earned in the 2011 period. Diluted earnings per share increased 63.6% to $0.54 from $0.33 in the 2011 period. Revenues in the first quarter of 2012 increased 11% over the 2011 period.

Small-Business Hiring Takes Step Back in April
Reuters (04/29/12)

Small-business hiring slowed considerably in April and employees saw a reduction in their hours, according to a survey by the payroll processing firm Intuit. Businesses added 40,000 new jobs, a step back from the 75,000 positions created in March, and the average workweek for small-business employees dipped 0.14%. The survey showed wages for small-business employees edged up 0.1% or $3 to $2,680. However, that is equivalent to an annual salary of $33,200, meaning that many of the small-business employees are working part-time.

Sluggish Growth Could Signal Hiring Stalled
Politico (04/27/12) Josh Boak

The current economic growth rate of 2.2% is a steep decline from the 3% growth rate seen at the end of last year and is an indication that the current pace of hiring likely won’t be sustained through the fall. As a result, the current 8.2% unemployment rate is unlikely to fall much further. The economy is “expanding at a rate that is too slow to put reliable, significant downward pressure on joblessness,” says Economic Policy Institute economist Josh Bivens. However, White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger notes that residential construction and automobile production are surging.

Official of Defunct Medical Firm Gets Five Years of Probation
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (04/27/12) Rich Lord

The former controller of the defunct medical staffing firm World Health Alternatives Inc., Deanna Seruga, was sentenced to five years probation for failing to report known instances of fraud. Meanwhile, the Wilkins, PA-based firm’s co-founder, Richard McDonald, will be sentenced in August on charges related to manipulating the company’s books and understating expenses and liabilities.

ASA for You

The Wisconsin Association of Staffing Services and Illinois Search and Staffing Association, ASA-affiliated chapters, will jointly present the Midwest Staffing Conference May 3. Join ASA chairman Aaron Green, CSP, as he discusses opportunities to improve service to staffing company candidates and clients.

For details and to register, visit issaworks.com. This meeting qualifies for continuing education hours toward ASA certification renewal.
ASA is looking for staffing industry professionals to share their experience and expertise on sector-specific content at this year’s Section Forums at Staffing World, Oct. 9–11 in Las Vegas. The deadline to volunteer and submit a proposal is May 18.

The rapid-fire learning format each Section Forum provides allows presenters and participants to maximize the number of topics they can tackle together. There will be six Section Forums, one to represent each of the ASA membership sections. Presenters will speak for 10 minutes on a topic of their choice, followed by five minutes of discussion.

Visit americanstaffing.net for submission guidelines and timelines. E-mail all submission materials to sections@americanstaffing.net. To learn more about membership sections, visit americanstaffing.net/sections. It’s free for ASA members to enroll in one or more sections.

Legal Watch

Administration Requests Comments on Employer Requirements Under Health Care Law
American Staffing Association (04/30/12) Ed Lenz

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have issued formal requests for comment on certain employer requirements under the Affordable Care Act. In this round of requests, the government is asking for input on several issues, including the process for verifying an individual’s eligibility for tax credits to purchase insurance coverage through state-based health insurance exchanges, and employers’ obligation to provide an annual report to the IRS on the employees covered under their health plans and the details of such coverage—including the number of full-time employees, the length of any waiting periods, and whether the employer’s plan provides “minimum value.” Comments are due June 11. ASA and its business allies in the Employers for Flexibility in Health Care coalition will be submitting comments in response to the requests.

South Carolina Legislator to Focus on Jobless Benefits for Substitute Teachers
Greenville News (South Carolina) (04/30/12)

South Carolina lawmakers are moving to prevent substitute teachers from collecting unemployment benefits for being out during school breaks, such as summer recess. Though South Carolina teachers, including substitutes, are already forbidden by law from collecting unemployment when they are not working during holiday, spring, or summer breaks, the law refers to teachers employed by school systems, and some staffing companies are now employing hundreds of substitute teachers, making the teachers exempt from the unemployment law.

Jim McIntire, a vice president for Kelly Services Inc., which provides 250-300 substitutes each day in several South Carolina school districts, says the issue of whether such teachers can collect unemployment has surfaced in other states where the company employs the teachers. “That is why we are supporting this legislation in South Carolina,” McIntire says. “We are trying to take steps so it doesn’t become a big problem. There are some states where it is a significant problem for us.” Kelly Services coordinates the use of substitutes with school districts that use its services, significantly increasing the percentage of teaching posts that are filled each day to about 98%.

Workplace: Wage and Hour Legal Actions Increasing
Riverside Press-Enterprise (California) (04/28/12) Jack Katzanek

The number of overtime lawsuits brought in federal court last year was 32% higher than in 2008. According to research by the law firm Seyfarth Shaw, 7,006 lawsuits, including many class actions, were filed in 2011, almost four times as many as were filed in 2000. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor recovered $225 million from employers in back wages in fiscal 2011, up 28% from the previous year.

Worker advocates and other analysts say that these claims are being filed because companies are striving to get the same volume of work done despite having laid off 9 million workers due to the recession. “When there are increased pressures on employers to keep down labor costs in a down economy, and fewer employment options for employees, it isn’t surprising that legal and ethical problems with regard to compensation have increased,” says Jeffery Smith, a professor of ethics at the University of Redlands School of Business. Smith says that workers are frequently misclassified and listed as not legally entitled to overtime.

Matthew Bartosiak, senior consultant for the human resources consulting firm Employers Group, says “many employers unfortunately still wrongly classify workers because they don’t understand the laws. Most think exemption is a choice, and they think employees want to be exempt because they see it as a status symbol.”

Showing Up for Work: Do Courts See It as ‘Optional’?
Business Management Daily (04/26/12) Mindy Chapman

When disabled workers take leave under the Americans With Disabilities Act, their ability to call in absent is not open-ended. If regular attendance is an essential component of the job, then calling in absent is not a “reasonable” accommodation, the Ninth Circuit Court found in Samper v. Providence St. Vincent Med. Ctr. To protect your company from ADA lawsuits, determine whether physically showing up is essential, then make this clear in the job description.

Why Were You Absent? Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Lexology (04/19/12) Joseph Wood III

In EEOC v. Dillard’s, a federal district court in California ruled that a policy requiring employees to disclose the reasons for health-related absences violates the Americans With Disabilities Act. The court affirmed the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s determination that such policies lead to intrusive questions that could uncover information about actual or perceived disabilities and ruled that employers need not know about the nature of the medical condition in order to verify legitimate medical absences. Employers should alter such policies so that doctor’s notes only require the dates the employee was absent for health issues, and employers should not question employees about the reason for the absence even when such questions are asked out of care.

National Guard Members’ Next Battle: The Job Hunt
NPR Online (04/29/12) Tom Dreisbach; Rachel Martin

Service members returning to civilian life may find it difficult to secure a civilian job, especially when they belong to the National Guard and could be called to active duty, but experts say that it can be difficult to prove whether a veteran’s service has cost him or her jobs or promotions. Michael Haynie, executive director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families, says the Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act puts the burden of proving discrimination on the individual, and the burden is high because “very often the discrimination is not necessarily explicit.” Kenan Torrans of the U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service says complaints of discrimination are on the rise as more service members return to civilian life, and he says most disputes stem from a misunderstanding of the law. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has introduced legislation to beef up laws to prevent labor discrimination against veterans.

Trends and Research

Large Layoffs Loom on Wall Street
Fortune (04/30/12) Stephen Gandel

Wall Street firms have added thousands of jobs over the past two years, but now they are preparing to cut more jobs than they added. Wall Street recruiters say banks could soon cut almost 21,000 jobs from their New York securities divisions. According to Boston Consulting Group, banks are likely to cut 12% of their work force in the short term. However, most of the job losses will be at large firms; smaller firms are still hiring.

Rising Gas Prices Haven’t Stopped Hiring Demand for Truck Drivers
Wanted Analytics (04/27/12) Abby Lombardi

Hiring demand for truck drivers has not suffered from the rising gas prices across the U.S. In March, nearly 41,000 jobs were advertised online for this occupation, a 33% increase compared with the same month in 2011. This marks a new four-year high in demand for truck drivers. Recruiters in Chicago placed the highest volume of job ads for drivers during March, increasing more than 30% over the past year in that city. Other locations with the highest number of job ads for truck drivers during March included Dallas, New York, Houston, and Philadelphia.