In early 2008, there were 27 recession-proof areas on our list of 350+ metropolitan areas. At the end of 2008, this had dropped to 16. Now, with data thru January 2009, Laredo Texas is the only recession-proof city on the list.

Here's why in a nutshell: Laredo is on the main trade route between the United States and Mexico according to the Laredo Development Foundation. About 40% of all the goods that pass between the US and Mexico (both ways) go through Laredo.

BLS data released on March 19, 2009 shows that half of the new jobs in Laredo in the 12 months ending January 2009 were in Government, and about one-fourth of all the employees in Laredo are in the Government sector. We're told that most Goverment employees in Laredo are in Homeland Security and Customs.

Every month JobBait publishes a list of the recession-proof cities (metropolitan areas) that did not lose jobs in the recession of 1990/01, 2001/02, the last 12 months and the last 3 months. The purpose of this list is to help job-seekers find greener pastures. To see the current list and how your area is doing, click here.

Article by, Mark Hovind and courtesy of CareerHub.com. The Career Hub blog connects job seekers with experts in career counseling, resume writing, personal branding and recruiting.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 31, 2009 at 6:04 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

In response to recent reports that job seekers are struggling to find jobs, CollegeRecruiter compiled lists of the five best and worst states for finding internships and entry level jobs. The data was gathered through a state-by-state search on the site; the lists will be updated every month to help students and entry level job candidates know how many opportunities are available to them and in which states.

The states with the largest number of internship and entry-level job listings on CollegeRecruiter.com are:

Internships

1. California - 2,152
2. New York - 1,487
3. Texas - 1,038
4. Florida - 911
5. Illinois - 700

Entry Level Jobs

1. California - 11,327
2. Texas - 8,723
3. Florida - 6,272
4. New York - 5,828
5. Pennsylvania - 4,857

Sparsely populated states like North and South Dakota, Idaho, Vermont and Montana have the smallest number of internship and entry-level job listings on the site. They rank as follows:

Internships

1. Montana - 14
2. Wyoming - 14
3. South Dakota - 21
4. North Dakota - 31
5. Idaho - 35

Entry Level Jobs

1. Montana - 200
2. Wyoming - 209
3. North Dakota - 215
4. South Dakota - 258
5. Vermont - 251

Some other states that have a lot of entry level jobs and internships, but don't appear on the lists, are

• Washington - 1,199
• Ohio - 3,602
• North Carolina - 2,621
• Colorado 1,192

The Washington, D.C. area, including Maryland and Virginia, also has over seven thousand combined listings:

• Washington, D.C. - 680 internships and 2,914 entry level jobs
• Maryland - 1,476 entry level jobs
• Virginia - 530 internships and 3,454 entry level jobs

In addition to job and internship postings, CollegeRecruiter.com also has several blogs where job seekers and students can find useful hints and tips for how to manage their careers or job searches, how to write winning resumes and cover letters, or how to prepare and pay for college.

Note: These lists will be updated at the beginning of each month, so please keep checking back here.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 11, 2009 at 8:21 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

The 2009 Career Futures Initiatives Job Expo and Career Fest will be held on Saturday, April 4, 2009, (8:30 am - 2 pm) at the Bill J. Priest Institute, 1402 Corinth St, in Dallas, TX. State Representative Barbara Mallory Caraway and Dallas Independent School Board Trustee (DISD) Lew Blackburn will host the event. The festival offers paid summer internships for high school students in profit and not-for-profit businesses in the area.

The "Career Futures Initiative" was designed to provide real world experience to juniors and seniors prior to graduating from high school. The program was developed because State Representative Barbara Mallory Caraway found that high schools in her State House District were underperforming in the area because of challenges students were facing in math, science, and reading. This program wants to raise the success rates of ISD students by providing them with an opportunity to increase their skills and improve their chances of getting hired or being accepted into graduate school after graduation. Continue reading ...

Article by, Penny Loretto, a career counselor at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, has her own private career counseling practice, Career Choice, and is About.com's Guide to Internships.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 11, 2009 at 7:03 AM | Leave a Comment (0)

Every now and then we like to spotlight collegiate therapy programs in the U.S. that help their students take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to the outside world. The last program highlighted was the University of Wisconsin-Madison where PT students and faculty traveled to Belize to help develop community education programs on disability.

Today, we would like to shine the spotlight on the Occupational Therapy Program at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. This May, five OT graduate students, along with their professor, will spend 2 weeks in Ghana, Africa as part of one of their courses. Below is a section of the course syllabus, found on one of the students' blogs.

"The focus of the course will be on understanding child development from the Ghanaian perspective and the challenges faced by children in developing countries. A special focus will be placed on children with disabilities and children who are disadvantaged by their family situation (e.g. orphans, street children). Participants will visit and volunteer at several orphanages and schools in the Central region of Ghana as well as work with street children currently being served by the host organization, Sovereign Global Mission. While in the country, students will meet with and interview local leaders to gain a better understanding of the disability culture in this part of West Africa."

Students will spend the semester leading up to their trip learning about child development and disability, among other things. As an added plus, the students and professor have each created blogs to reflect on what they learn before, during and after the trip! I have included links to each blog below. Take a moment to check in on them from time to time. Continue reading ...

Article courtesy of RehabCare Student blog. RehabCare provides college recruiting for Physical Therapists, Physical Therapy Assistants, Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants and Speech Language Pathologists.

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 5, 2009 at 2:45 PM | Leave a Comment (0)

Over the last several years, many employers have become fearful of providing a negative job reference or employment verification. They think that doing so would give rise to costly litigation. It has caused many of them to simply divulge basic information about their past employees such as employment dates and job titles when contacted by prospective employers for employment background checks.

Those in the state of Ohio can rest a little easier though, according to Jon Hyman, labor and employment attorney from Kohrman, Jackson and Krantz. See excerpt from his recent blog posting below:

There are more people looking for work than at any time in the last 25 years. If you happen to be one of the companies hiring at the moment, you will likely have more applicants than you will know what to do with. How do you sift the good candidates from the bad, those who were laid off through no fault of their own from those who were terminated for poor performance? References are one tool, yet many employers seldom provide them out of a mistaken fear that they can be sued for giving a poor one.

Do you know? Ohio has a specific law, R.C. 4113.71, that protects employers that give negative job references. One employer can give another employer information about an employee's job performance without fear of liability, unless:

1. the former employer knows the information is false, or makes the disclosure with the intent to mislead, in bad faith, or with a malicious purpose, or

2. the information is provided in violation of the employment discrimination laws (for example, an employer gives good references to white employees and bad references to black employees).

Read more

In addition to this Ohio law, employers should also be cognizant of the fact that you can be held liable for not divulging information when providing an employment reference. We chronicled this very issue in the article, Employment Verifications: Less May No Longer Be More!

Article by, Nick Fishman and courtesy of EmployeescreenIQ

Posted by Candice Arnold on March 3, 2009 at 2:11 PM | Leave a Comment (0)