At Top Echelon Network, we encourage our Preferred Member recruiters to send us articles of interest to share with the rest of the Membership, articles that affect what recruiters do on a daily basis.

Bruce Widnes of The Recruiting Group, Inc. sent us just such an article recently.  That article is “Americans Cling to Jobs as U.S. Workforce Dynamism Fades” by Rich Miller.

Click here to read the article in its entirety on the Bloomberg website.  Below are passages taken from the article that are especially relevant for recruiters and their dealings with candidates.

Passage #1:

Spooked by the severity of the recession and stuck with underwater home mortgages, Americans are less inclined to leave their jobs and less willing to strike out on their own to build businesses, government data show.  Even with swelling profits, companies are holding back on hiring, complaining that they can’t find skilled workers for positions they do have open.

As a result, the labor market is losing some of the dynamism for which it’s long been known.  And the trend predates the recession: an aging population and the growth of two-income households have reduced Americans’ mobility to about half of what it once was, while technological gains and globalization have led to a loss of middle-income jobs.  The economic slump only exacerbated the loss of vigor.

Passage #2:

In the past, such geographic disparities would have been ironed out as Americans flocked to where the jobs were.  Labor mobility has long been a major source of strength for the U.S. jobs market when compared with Europe.

That is less the case today.  About one in 10 Americans currently move each year, according to James Manyika, director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the research unit of consultants McKinsey & Co.  That’s well below the roughly one in five average that prevailed from 1945 through about 1990, he said.

The percentage of Americans who changed residences between 2010 and 2011 fell to a record low of 11.6 percent, from 12.5 percent the previous year, according to Census Bureau figures.  That compares with 17 percent in the recession of 1990-’91.

The rise of the dual-income family is one reason, he said: when both partners are working, it’s harder to coordinate a move.  More recently, the collapse in housing prices has played a role in damping mobility, he added, although [Steven Davis, professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business], said that research suggests the impact of that is small.  More than 11 million households owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth in the fourth quarter of last year, according to data provider CoreLogic, and would face losses if they opted to sell to move elsewhere for work.

While Americans are more willing to leave their jobs for other opportunities than they were at the depth of the recession, they still have a way to go before they regain the confidence they exhibited prior to the downturn.

The so-called quit ratio—which measures the number of people voluntarily leaving their jobs as a proportion of total employment—stood at 1.6 percent in March. That’s up from a low of 1.2 percent almost three years ago, yet still well below the 2.3 percent peak seen in late 2006.

“We just haven’t had people changing jobs enough,” said Betsey Stevenson, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in Philadelphia and a former chief economist at the Labor Department.  “We need to see people have the confidence to quit their job and find a better one and create an opening for someone else.”

The jobs recovery hasn’t been strong enough to convince many Americans to re-enter the labor force and start looking for work again.  The labor participation rate—the share of working-age people holding a job or seeking one—stood at 63.8 percent in May, just above a three-decade low of 63.6 percent the previous month.

What are YOUR thoughts about this article?  Does it accurately reflect what you’re currently seeing on your desk?  If not, why not?

Do you have an article of interest that you believe would be beneficial for the rest of the Network Membership?  Send it to marketing@topechelon.com, and we’ll include it in a future issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.

This is the week for great announcements in Top Echelon Network’s Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.  (That’s what you’re reading . . . in case you were wondering.)

Not only are we pleased to announce that Preferred Member recruiter Denise Milano Sprung of JA Pharma, Inc. recently earned her Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) designation from the National Association of Personnel Sercvies (NAPS), but we’re also happy to announce a promotion at a Preferred Member firm.

That firm is Corporate Resources, Inc., in Overland Park, Kansas and the promotion involves firm member Brandon Wofford.

Below is an email sent to the Top Echelon Network offices by Corporate Resources firm owner Tom Windsor containing details regarding the promotion:

“Effective June 1, 2012, Brandon was promoted and is now CRI’s Talent Acquisition Specialist.  He will continue to have some additional responsibilities, but his primary focus will be relative to developing source strategies, the e-marketing initiatives, conducting preliminary candidate interviews, and developing candidates (both new and revived from our database) predominantly in support of our internal searches, as well as those of our Trading Partners that we feel we can support.”

For more information about Corporate Resources, Inc., including the industries and specialties in which it works, check out the Preferred Member firm’s profile page in “Splitsville.”

If you have an announcement that you’d like to see published in The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog, send your information to marketing@topechelon.com.

There are a lot of great things about split placements.

One of them is this: it doesn’t matter if you’ve made your fifth split placement with another recruiter or your first, it’s still just as sweet.

It’s just as sweet working together during the process.  It’s just as sweet making the placement.  It’s just as sweet receiving your portion of the placement check.  And of course, it’s just as sweet spending your portion of the placement check.

In this installment of “‘Comments’ and Compliments,” we highlight two pairs of recruiters.  One pair just made their fifth split placement together, while the other pair just made their first.

And the recruiters who made their first split placement?  They’ve been in Top Echelon Network for a total of 34 years and they’ve made a combined total of 145 Network placements, proving that it’s never too late to form new Trading Partner relationships.

The proof?  It’s in the placement.

If you’d like to thank another one of the Network’s job placement recruiters for their efforts in a split placement situation, send your information to marketing@topechelon.com.  Your comments might be included in an upcoming issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog!

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“Teamwork paid off, as always.  Great interacton and collaboration with Stephanie from start to finish.”

Submitted by Steve Kane of Bio-Partners Search Group, LLC regarding his split placement with Stephanie McGinty of Ives & Associates, Inc.

Position Title—ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, MARKET RESEARCH
Fee Percentage—Flat

(Editor’s note: this is the fifth split placement that Kane and McGinty have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

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“Very fast turnaround by Bob on this search, who provided a terrific candidate.”

Submitted by Tom Thrailkill of Independent Personnel regarding his split placement with Bob Ferris of Ferris & Associates, LLC

Position Title—SALES ENGINEER
Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: this is the first split placement that Thrailkill and Ferris have made together in Top Echelon Network.)

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330.455.1433, x125
mdeutsch@topechelon.com
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Top Echelon has long been a proponent of continuous training and education.  That’s why we’re pleased to announce that Preferred Member recruiter Denise Milano Sprung of JA Pharma, Inc. recently earned her Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) designation!

The National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) awards the designation to recruiters who pass the CPC exam.  Below is information from the NAPS website that describes the various designations that are available to recruiters who wish to pursue them:

“Since 1961, NAPS has awarded more than 10,000 professional credentials to recruiting and staffing professionals.  Today, NAPS awards five different professional credentials.

Credentialing began with the Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) in 1961.  The Certified Temporary-Staffing Specialist (CTS) was added in 1989.  We now have over 300 professionals who are dually certified as CPC and CTS.

The NAPS commitment to credentialing continues with its two most recent credentialing programs, Certified Employee Retention Specialist (CERS) introduced in 2006, and our first credentialing program specifically designed for staffing and recruiting companies.

The NAPS Accredited Firm credential (NAF) was introduced in 2007.  NAPS also offers the first staffing specialty certification designation, the Physician Recruiting Consultant (PRC).”

For more information about NAPS and its certification program, visit the NAPS website.

Everybody at Top Echelon would like to congratulate Denise on earning her CPC designation and for continuing to pursue a high standard of excellence in the recruiting profession.

If you’ve earned a certification—either from NAPS or another organization—we want to know about it!  Send your information to marketing@topechelon.com, and we’ll publish it in a future issue of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog!

(Editor’s Note: This is the next in a series of guest blog posts about contract staffing, courtesy of Top Echelon Contracting, the recruiter’s back-office solution.  Similar posts will appear in future issues of The Pinnacle Newsletter Blog.)

According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, companies are planning to increase their use of interns by 8.5% this summer.

The majority of these companies are planning to pay their interns, but if you have clients who are considering unpaid internships, this is a good time to remind them of the strict rules and risks of doing so.

In most cases, interns must be paid.  In order for internships to be legally unpaid, they must meet the following six criteria, as outlined in the Department of Labor’s (DOL) fact sheet on Internships Under the Fair Labor Standards Act:

1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;

2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;

3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;

4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;

5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and

6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.

Over the past couple of years, the DOL has been cracking down on illegal unpaid internships, so it is important that your clients handle their internships properly. You may want to suggest that they hire interns on a contract basis and outsource the employment of those interns to a contracting back-office.

That way, they can avoid the risk of not paying their interns without taking on the additional costs (benefits, employer taxes, etc.) and administrative burdens that comes with making them direct-hires.

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888.627.3678
DFledderjohann@TopEchelonContracting.com
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