It's been a busy old week on the employment front. After the doom and gloom caused by last week's unexpectedly high jobless claims number, this week's was unexpectedly low. Does that mean we're in for a week of knee-jerk news reports about how the economy's looking great now?
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry As far as concrete reports of hiring and firing go, the U.S. has been a pretty quiet marketplace this week, with most of the major stories happening overseas. Of the 3,050 layoffs noted so far on Business and Career Tips employment tracker this week, more than 2,600 are in the U.K.--with the Royal Bank of Scotland laying off 2,000 alone as it restructures its insurance division.
It's a similar story on the hiring side. Of the 1,500 positions announced by companies on the tracker in the past seven days, 1,250 are outside the U.S. There's some compensation in the U.K. for that RBS news as well: the biggest hiring announcement of the week is for 700 IT services staff with HP in Scotland.
The one area that has been booming this week is the "unusual jobs" category. There were two notable entries in the field, with each requiring a highly specific skill set. The first position—with nine openings—is at the DEA. Special skill required: fluency in Ebonics. As for the second position, the skill-set is entirely different: in addition to requiring some computer and customer service abilities, a one-month experiment by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry requires the lucky job-hunter to live in the museum. It's a pretty well-paid month however: the experiment pays $10,000.
Stay tuned to Business and Career Tips employment tracker throughout the week for all the latest employment-related news. And, as always, drop us a line at psfpk@hotmail.com or via Twitter if you know of something we've missed.
Chicago Museum of Science and Industry As far as concrete reports of hiring and firing go, the U.S. has been a pretty quiet marketplace this week, with most of the major stories happening overseas. Of the 3,050 layoffs noted so far on Business and Career Tips employment tracker this week, more than 2,600 are in the U.K.--with the Royal Bank of Scotland laying off 2,000 alone as it restructures its insurance division.
It's a similar story on the hiring side. Of the 1,500 positions announced by companies on the tracker in the past seven days, 1,250 are outside the U.S. There's some compensation in the U.K. for that RBS news as well: the biggest hiring announcement of the week is for 700 IT services staff with HP in Scotland.
The one area that has been booming this week is the "unusual jobs" category. There were two notable entries in the field, with each requiring a highly specific skill set. The first position—with nine openings—is at the DEA. Special skill required: fluency in Ebonics. As for the second position, the skill-set is entirely different: in addition to requiring some computer and customer service abilities, a one-month experiment by the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry requires the lucky job-hunter to live in the museum. It's a pretty well-paid month however: the experiment pays $10,000.
Stay tuned to Business and Career Tips employment tracker throughout the week for all the latest employment-related news. And, as always, drop us a line at psfpk@hotmail.com or via Twitter if you know of something we've missed.
