Wall Street Journal (01/18/12) Murrray, Sara; McWhirter, Cameron

While the job market is improving, long-term unemployment continues to be particularly pronounced, and there is little indication that it is falling quickly. The government reported in December that 3.9 million nationwide had been out of work for at least a year and were still looking.

Some will eventually find jobs, though long spells of unemployment are likely to scar them for years. Workers who were jobless for six months or more in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Connecticut and eventually found work earned 60% less than those who were unemployed for three months or less, according to economists Kenneth Couch of the University of Connecticut and Dana Placzek of the state labor department. Workers who had been unemployed for less than five weeks in 2010 had a 34% chance of finding a job the following month, according to U.S. Department of Labor data, while those out more than six months had only a 10% chance.

The article examines the impact of these developments on the town of Roswell, GA. Applications and placements at staffing firm Hire Dynamics LLC, which has six Georgia locations including one near Roswell, were up 40% last year, says chief executive Dan Campbell.

Wall Street Journal (01/18/12) Hagerty, James

The National Science Board warns that the U.S. is rapidly losing high-technology jobs as U.S.-based companies such as 3M Co., Caterpillar Inc., and General Electric Co. expand their overseas research-and-development (R&D) labs. And while U.S.-based labs continue to innovate, developing such hit products as the iPad tablet, those products are made in Asia, increasing fears that more R&D will flow to Asia. Researchers often prefer to work near factories, where ideas can be tested quickly.

In the six years through 2009, approximately 85% of the growth in R&D workers employed by U.S.-based multinational companies has been overseas, according to the National Science Board, a policy-making arm of the federal government’s National Science Foundation. Overall U.S. employment in high-technology manufacturing has declined 28% since 2000 to about 1.8 million jobs, the report said.

Middletown Journal (Ohio) (01/17/12) Staff Report

PHS Staffing—an $18 million medical staffing firm servicing health care facilities in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah—has been acquired by the national health care staffing firm Advantage RN. “PHS Staffing’s focus on per diem staffing, along with their extensive experience in government and Allied contracting, is a valuable addition to Advantage’s service offerings,” says Advantage president and chief executive Matt Price. “Their strong presence in the Western states will further expand our Advantage On Call per diem staffing efforts while strengthening our ability to meet the changing staffing needs of medical facilities and job seekers across the country.” Advantage serves more than 400 health care facilities nationwide.

Financial Times (01/17/12) Crooks, Ed

The U.S. has added more net manufacturing jobs since the start of 2010 than the rest of the Group of Seven developed countries put together. Employment in U.S. manufacturing stands at approximately 11.79 million, still about two million below its prerecession level. However, productivity gains and slow wage growth have prompted increasing hopes that the U.S. is entering a sustained manufacturing revival.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, says: “I think we are at an inflection point for manufacturing in the U.S. Employment in the industry has been in decline for decades, but it is now at a point where it is going from quite strong to stronger.” However, Brad Jensen, of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, argues that “manufacturing is not really where the U.S. comparative advantage lies,” adding that the nation should be looking to business services—including finance, the media, and professional services—as sources of jobs and export income.

Indianapolis Star (01/17/12)

Indianapolis businesses are temporarily increasing their staffs in preparation for the Feb. 5 Super Bowl and the resulting throngs of football fans coming to the city. Glen Greenawalt, executive vice president at LGC Hospitality Staffing, says his company is looking to hire 1,000 temporary employees for the weeks leading up to the event, mainly for the convention center and major downtown hotels. “We afford the opportunity for these (organizations) to take on more business than they normally could,” Greenawalt says. “They can double their production for a few days or a few weeks.”

The Super Bowl will add $213 million in direct wages and 5,000 jobs, including many temporary jobs. Putting new work experience on the résumés of long out-of-work residents could help them land full-time jobs later, says Michael Hicks, associate professor of economics at Ball State University, who notes that some hiring managers have opted to ignore applicants unemployed for a year or more. A temporary job could serve as a “gateway” to permanent employment, he says.

MarketWatch (01/17/12)

The latest monthly index of information technology (IT) jobs from TechServe Alliance concludes that the economy added those jobs at a robust pace in December, contributing to an already strong year for IT employment. The number of IT jobs increased by more than 0.4%, rising to 4,082,100 jobs in December, according to TechServe, a collaboration of IT services firms, clients, consultants, and suppliers. On an annual basis, IT jobs were up 3.3% in 2011 over 2010.

“As we begin 2012, I am heartened to see accelerating growth in IT employment,” says Mark Roberts, chief executive of TechServe Alliance. “Based upon both the data and anecdotal reports of my member companies, one of our greatest challenges going forward will be a shortage of IT talent in key skill sets.”