PRWeb (12/14/12)

Allegis Group has reached an agreement to acquire GettingHired.com, a company that helps connect job seekers with disabilities to employers across the U.S. GettingHired.com will be a new business unit within the Allegis Group family of companies.

Despite continued high unemployment in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Labor there are 3.8 million unfilled jobs. There are 11.9 million job seekers with disabilities in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Allentown Morning Call (Pennsylvania) (12/15/12) Spencer Soper

Integrity Staffing Solutions is responsible for placing workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, and it also ensures a human resource agent is present at hearings during which temporary workers who have been terminated seek unemployment benefits. The company was involved in over 200 unemployment compensation appeals from January through September, the highest number among all employers in the state, including Walmart.

Wall Street Journal (12/17/12) Ben Casselman; Phil Izzo

The U.S. economy appears to be turning a page, with 2013 the start of a more normal, though hardly robust, period of growth. Although the risk of another recession is diminishing—assuming leaders in Washington can steer clear of the fiscal cliff—so are the prospects for a period of rapid growth that brings down the unemployment rate and helps the economy make up the ground lost in the recession.

Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal put the odds of a recession next year at just 24%, closely aligned with the odds—26%—that the economists put on a standoff that takes the nation over the fiscal cliff. Get past the cliff, and most economists expect reasonably solid growth.

Economists forecast the chances of greater than 3% growth next year are about 24%. In general they anticipate growth of 2.3% in 2013, slightly better than the 1.9% growth they think the U.S. achieved this year, but not enough to be of much help for the nation’s 12 million job seekers. The economists expect the unemployment rate to decline to just 7.5% by the end of 2013, from 7.7% today.

National Association for Business Economics (12/17/12)

Economists with the National Association for Business Economics expect modest growth in the economy in 2013 and forecast some improvement in the labor market. They do not expect significant improvement in annual average growth in real gross domestic product for 2013 relative to 2012, but suggest that stable, moderate growth will continue. They forecast that annual average growth for real GDP will be 2.2% this year and 2.1% next year. The economists further forecast that the annual average civilian unemployment rate will be 7.7% next year, down from their forecast of 8.1% this year.

Wall Street Journal (12/17/12) Janet Hook; Carol Lee; Damian Paletta

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has offered a new proposal that raises tax rates on millionaires, marking a breakthrough in stalled budget negotiations with President Obama and suggesting a potential framework for avoiding the fiscal cliff. The proposal, which the speaker offered privately to Obama on Dec. 14, calls for raising $1 trillion in tax revenues over 10 years, up from the $800 billion Boehner previously proposed, and cutting about $1 trillion from spending. While the White House objected to major parts of the proposal, senior Democrats described it as a potential tipping point that clears the way for both sides to engage in haggling over exactly where the new income threshold might be set and what should comprise the spending cuts.

Boehner’s proposal calls for a two-stage process, providing for enactment of a small-scale deficit-reduction plan by year’s end, coupled with a second phase next year, in which lawmakers would embark on a revamp of the tax code and entitlement programs, using a final agreement as a guide. Boehner offered to include an increase in the U.S. borrowing limit as part of the deal—enough to avoid another fight over the issue for perhaps a year if it is matched by comparable spending cuts.

Monster Worldwide Inc. News Release (12/14/12)

ASA corporate partner Monster Worldwide last week hosted an event for human resource leaders who networked with veterans, senior military and government officials, and nonprofit and private-sector leaders about the most effective practices to prepare, support, and connect veterans to those employers that want to hire them. During the event, acting U.S. commerce secretary Rebecca Blank announced that Monster will participate in Joining Forces, a comprehensive national initiative led by first lady Michelle Obama and second lady Jill Biden.