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Blue Shield’s call center of California will soon create 900 or more new jobs in Lodi. The company’s 148,900-square foot building recently greeted its first wave of new hires. It expects to have almost 1,000 employees by the Thanksgiving holiday and hopes to grow to add hundred more, according to Blue Shield executives.

The two-story call center will have the ability to house as many as 1,050 employees when fully finished, but has left room for growth. If the company ends up seeing the need for a second phase of construction, then there could be as many as 500 additional new jobs. Currently Blue Shield is the largest employer in Lodi, California.

The health insurance provider has budgeted approximately $50 million for the project, which is considered to be highly beneficial to both Lodi and San Joaquin County during a time when many areas are suffering economically. During the month of September, San Joaquin County had one of the highest unemployment rates in California, meaning that these new jobs stand to make a significant difference.

“We feel very strongly about bringing jobs to Lodi,” said the city’s vice mayor Larry Hansen. “It’s happening, and it’s very exciting.”

Since Blue Shield is part of the healthcare industry, it has the ability to create many new jobs while other sectors are having trouble maintaining their current levels of employment. According to a forecast put out by the U.S. Department of Labor, health care services will ad 4 million new jobs between 2006 and 2016.

Since 2005, Blue Shield’s operating income has increased by 27 percent. This means that in the last few years its profits have jumped from $249 million to $318 million, according to the insurance provider’s 2007 annual report. The company’s total revenues exceeded $8.3 billion during last year.

“We are financially strong, and we prepare for times of economic turmoil,” said Blue Shield spokesperson Erica Perng.

Although construction continues at the company’s Lodi facility, Blue Shield already has around 70 employees working there.

Related
Blue Shield to Start Occupying Lodi Site
Blue Shield opens new Central Valley campus
First group of workers moves into new Blue Shield building
Employment Booster

According to a recent Ipos poll conducted for Snagajob.com, employers are planning to offer fewer seasonal jobs in Florida and elsewhere in the nation this holiday.

Edward Peachy, who is the executive director of WorkNet Pinellas in Florida, agrees.

“The unemployment rate is up much higher than it was last year at this time, and with retail sales being down considerably from where they have been, it will probably hold true that there will be fewer seasonal employees hired this year than in past years,” said Peachy.

During the last year, 115,500 jobs in Florida have been cut as employers try to maintain their profit margins and deal with a struggling economy, as show by September’s data from the Bureau of Labor Statistic. This means that the state is ranked second in the nation for increased job losses since September of 2007. Unemployment rose 2.4 percentage points last month to 6.6 percent.

SnagAJobs’s poll asked 1,000 hiring mangers throughout the nation about the seasonal jobs they will be offering, said the website’s senior vice president of marketing Cathy McCarthy.

“The picture is somewhat bleak,” said McCarthy. “It looks like hiring will be about 20 percent down overall for those individuals who are hiring. And then there is a fairly significant number of hiring managers who are not planning on hiring this year.”

According to her, hiring mangers said that they hired between five and six seasonal workers during the holidays last year. This year the average participant reported that they only intend to hire 3.7 workers.

Despite a large loss in jobs in Florida over the last year, seasonal employment in the area may not suffer as badly as it will throughout most of the nation. McCarthy said that southern states are hiring more workers for the holidays, with the average employer reporting that they intended to hire 4.5 workers for the shopping season. Still, six out of 10 participants, or 57 percent, said that they did not plan on hiring any new temporary workers.

“They were asked what their reasons were for that, and the highest reason was that 50 percent of those individuals had the expectation that their current staff would take on the additional hours or roles to cover the work,” McCarthy said. “And then 29 percent said, ‘Hey, I don’t have the budget to hire seasonal workers this year.’ And then 21 percent said business is going to be slower this year, so hiring additional employees really wasn’t necessary. And I think all three of those reasons connect to the economy.”
Those who hope to find seasonal jobs in Florida should start looking now. Because there will be less new temporary employment opportunities and more competition for existing jobs, it may take longer to find work. By starting to look early, a job seeker has a greater chance of finding work.

Begin by looking into larger retailers, such as Wal-Mart and Target, because they have higher budgets. Since these employers are even more popular with money conscious consumers, they will likely need more holiday staff than smaller businesses.

Finding jobs in Boston, Massachusetts may be easier that securing employment elsewhere in the state, but unemployment in the area is still on the rise. Recent data shows that 4.8 percent of residents were without work for the month of September, according to the state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. During the same month last year only 4 percent of Bostonians were without jobs. Massachusetts unemployment rate is currently 5.3 percent.

Although the Boston job market is still fairing better than most of the nation, this may soon change. Until recently many experts believed that Massachusetts would withstand failing into a recession like many areas of the nation already have; now economist believe that the state is already in or on the verge of being in the danger zone. According to the University of Massachusetts, if the area isn’t already suffering to this degree than it will be within the next six months.

The final straw seems to have been the bevy of woes at Wall Street. So far, the results of these problems have yet to have register in unemployment statistics, but experts believe that jobs in Boston and elsewhere are already feeling the effects.

“The effects of the financial crisis are coming home to Boston,” said Arthur Jones, who is a senior economist at Torto Wheaton Research in Boston. “The expansionary period where we outperformed the US is probably coming to an end.”

Nationally, many industries are suffering such as the financial sector, manufacturing and construction. Healthcare continues to be one shinning spot in an otherwise bleak economy, which means that those looking for jobs in Boston may want to look into this area of employment. Jobs exists for those who aren’t trained to assist patients in a medical sense. Even administrative positions in this industry are more secure than those in other sectors.

Despite all the economic problems, some remain positive about the outcome for the Boston job market.

“It may take a couple of years to come back up, but it’s going to come back,” said Representative William Galvin. “Things will get better.”

Despite the fact that unemployment rose throughout Illinois, employers continued to add jobs in Peoria during the month of September. The most recent statistics from the Illinois Department of Employment Security show that the city added more jobs last month than any other metropolitan area.

Although the manufacturing sector is suffering throughout many parts of the country, jobs gains in Peoria were mainly attributed this this industry. Overall, the city has added 2,00 new positions since September of last year. This is 1.1 percent increase in employment. Other sectors that significantly increased the number of jobs provided in the area included professional and business services, leisure and hospitality and government.

The increase in Peoria jobs did not, however, stave off rising unemployment. According to the state’s DES, joblessness in the city is up in comparison to September of last year. Despite this, unemployment is slightly lower than it was in August in the area.

“The start of the school year was the major reason for the over-the-month improvement,” said economist Norman Kelewitz, who compiles and translates data for the department. “There are some good things, such as the increase in the number of manufacturing jobs in the Peoria area since last year. But there are also a number of not-so-good things that caused overall unemployment rates to go up.”

Kelewitz said that some of these less-than-positive elements included certain job sectors not doing as well as expected and the fact that the economy, as a whole, is suffering.

Illinois unemployment rate for September was 6.9 percent, which is 0.8 percent higher than the national jobless percentage.

Indiana leads the nation in attracting new jobs through foreign investment for the second consecutive year, according to the latest annual Global Location Trends report released by IBM Global Business Services.

Released during an annual meeting of the International Economic Development Council in Atlanta, the report lists the state as number one per capita for job attraction from international investment and number two overall for the attraction of production jobs from international companies.

“Governor Daniels’s early decision to revamp our state’s economic development efforts continues to pay dividends for Hoosiers,” said Nathan Feltman, secretary of commerce and chief executive of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. “The Governor’s efforts to in-source jobs from around the world to Indiana compliment our efforts to retain and grow home-grown Indiana companies around our state.”

Since 2005, international companies have invested more than $8 billion into their Indiana operations, creating more than 15,800 new jobs.

The news of Indiana’s award-winning efforts to attract investment comes as the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is poised for a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking commitments for new jobs and investment. Since January, 130 businesses have committed to create 16,120 new jobs and invest more than $3.9 billion in their Indiana operations.

Following the governor’s creation of the agency in 2005, the state has logged three years of record-level attraction of new job-creating investment. Cumulatively since its inception, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation has worked with more than 600 companies that have committed to create more than 75,000 new jobs and invest more than $18 billion in their Indiana operations. Nearly two-thirds of all projects completed involve expansions of existing Indiana businesses.

Although a large portion of the country is experiencing economic strife, finding jobs in Rhode Island is more difficult than looking for employment in many areas. According to the most recent data released by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state had the highest unemployment rate in the nation during the month of September. For various reason, the state has often ranked near the top in the country as far as joblessness goes, but this is the first time that Rhode Island has been Number one in unemployment since the Bureau began tracking this data 32 years ago.

In August, Michigan had the had the highest unemployment rate in the country, with 8.7 percent of its residents without work. Last month, the same portion of the population was unable to find jobs. The national unemployment rate was also 6.1 percent for the yet another month.

“Michigan is the poster child for recessionary conditions in the job market,” said Jared Bernstein, who is a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. “It’s amazing and disheartening that Rhode Island just took its place.” As of last month, 50,200 individuals were claiming unemployment benefits in the state, which is a record high. September also saw the loss of 1,300 jobs in Rhode Island.

Little to no job growth means that there is a greater amount of competition for employment. Many individuals are now expecting lower pay than they usually would. Statistics for the state’s jobless rate do not take into account those that are considered underemployed. According to Bernstein, throughout the nation there are approximately three of these underemployed individuals for every available job.

Over the last nine months, 12,600 jobs in Rhode Island have been lost. The state’s unemployment rate has jumped from 5.7 percent to the current 8.8 percent. Still, the situation has not yet reached the worst that Rhode Island has seen. During the recession that occurred between 1989 to 1991, the state’s jobless rate reached 9 percent. Altogether, 48,200 jobs were lost before the area recovered.

Following Rhode Island and Michigan, the state’s with the highest unemployment rates are Mississippi, where 7.8 percent of residents are without work and California, which has a jobless rate of 7.7 percent.

Toyota has officially opened a brand new $187 million technical center in York Township that will provide 400 more Michigan jobs to the struggling state while giving the Japanese automaker additional manpower to develop more new vehicles for North America.

The York Township facility will compliment the 700-person Toyota research and development center in Ann Arbor that has been operational since 1997. The Ann Arbor facility has performed R&D duties for various vehicle including the Avalon, Tundra, Sienna and upcoming Venza. The added jobs at the new facility only represents a small portion of the thousands of jobs Michigan residents have lost over the past decade, but having an automotive force like Toyota investing in your state is a very good start, indeed.

Toyota Technical Center (TTC) celebrated its new engineering and safety testing facilities with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Congressman John Dingell, as well as several hundred government officials, community leaders, suppliers and Toyota team members.
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While many American car companies are having trouble, Ford Motor Company is planning to cut 792 Chicago jobs at its Southeast Side assembly plant.

The cuts are a result of the company dropping to only one working shift by November 3. Ford had previously said 600 jobs would be cut when it dropped to one shift, according to an article by Southtown Star. The plant in Chicago is Ford’s oldest, and has 2,174 hourly and 137 salaried employees.

The company has been cutting back production at assembly plants throughout the country as it adjusts to a slowing demand for its cars and trucks. Last week, Ford said September new-vehicle sales were down 34.6 percent compared to the same month last year. The plant builds the Ford Taurus, the Ford Taurus X, the Mercury Sable and the Lincoln MKS.
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