American Staffing Association (05/04/12) Alexandra Karaer

Employment data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that search and placement sector employment in March was up 1.7% from February, totaling 277,100 for the month. In a year-to-year comparison, March employment was up 7.5% from the same month in 2011.

BLS employment estimates for search and placement firms are available on a nonseasonal basis only, and reports lag by one month.

Fox Business (05/07/12)

A recent study from the MetLife Mature Market Institute indicates that most retirement-age Baby Boomers are leaving the work force on time. While other surveys have reported that many workers are planning to delay retirement due to financial concerns, the MetLife report found that most Boomers who have hit age 65 are either partially or fully retired. Of those not yet retired, most say they still plan to retire at the same age they had planned a year ago. Overall, 59% of those surveyed were either partially or fully retired by age 65.

The study’s results are contrary to surveys published earlier this year that found that many workers feel their retirement will be delayed or even never achieved. PricewaterhouseCoopers 2012 Financial Wellness Survey found 53% of workers expect to delay retirement, and a February CareerBuilder survey indicated that 11% of mature workers expect to never retire.

Washington Post (05/04/12) Brad Plumer

Although job creation is weak, with just 115,000 jobs added to the economy in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate continues to decline, mainly because the labor force participation rate has decreased. The number of working-age Americans holding a job or looking for one dipped by 342,000 in March, and the unemployment rate followed suit because it looks only at workers actively seeking employment. But if the same percentage of adults were in the work force today as when president Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be over 11%.

Wall Street Journal (05/07/12) Lauren Weber; Melissa Korn

Despite a 10.2% year-over-year increase in hiring by on-campus recruiters, most new college graduates this year will not have a job offer before they leave school. The job search for many new graduates will likely be a long one. In a new study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, only 49% of graduates from the classes 2009 to 2011 had found a permanent job within a year of graduation, compared with 73% for those who graduated in the three years prior.

SHRMOnline (05/03/12) Steve Bates

The U.S. manufacturing and services sectors will continue to add jobs to the economy this month, though not as many as were added last year, according to the most recent Society for Human Resource Management Leading Indicators of National Employment survey report. A net of approximately 30% of service businesses are hiring, compared with a net of approximately 40% of manufacturers.

Meanwhile, recruiting difficulty seems to be slowing. Still, skills shortages continue to hamper recruiting for some jobs. Ironically, as the job outlook improves, more unemployed people may decide to re-enter the job market, which could move the official unemployment rate higher.