Workplace briefs
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Job market thin for professionals
It's an increasingly blue job market for white-collar workers.
Nearly half of Americans who have been out of work for at least six months are from professional ranks — the highest in 20 years, according to an analysis of government employment statistics by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
"This demonstrates that it is those engineers and headquarters people who are really having a very hard time finding their way back into the job market," said John Challenger, chief executive of the Chicago-based firm. "It's not that they're being let go to a much greater degree, but also they're having a much harder time finding their way back in."
Cases alleging age bias rise
The number of age-discrimination complaints filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has risen 23.5 percent in the past two years — the fastest-growing category of discrimination cases.
The number of complaints tends to rise as the number of layoffs increases, said Paul Boymel, an EEOC senior attorney who specializes in age discrimination.
While age-discrimination laws also cover hiring and promotions, the majority of the cases filed have to do with unfair termination practices.
In 1999, there were 14,141 complaints filed. Two years later, the number increased to 17,405 for a fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, only a few weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks kicked an already sputtering economy into a crisis of layoffs.
Employers may increase hiring
Most experts agree that as the economy strengthens, job market progress will be gradual, and significant improvement in hiring isn't likely until 2003. Still, the news isn't all bad. Some companies are moving toward hiring rather than firing. Even better, certain industries have done well in spite of the recession and are ripe with employment opportunities.
A third-quarter Employment Outlook Survey by staffing company Manpower shows U.S. employers will increase their hiring activity, continuing an upward trend that began in the second quarter. The survey measures future hiring intentions of almost 16,000 employers in 477 markets.
Hiring in some industries has remained strong despite the recession.
"A hot area for jobs right now is certainly healthcare," says John Challenger, CEO of Chicago outplacement company Challenger Gray and Christmas.
Riches continue for ousted CEOs
Chief executive Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco Corp. and star analyst Jack Grubman of Salomon Smith Barney may have raised eyebrows with their $30 million severance packages. But such lucrative partings are common for CEOs and other business bigs.
Lee Hecht Harrison, a Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based career services firm, finds in a new survey of publicly available CEO employment agreements that most CEOs who are shown the door can typically expect two years' worth of salary, as well as continued health and dental insurance and even some bonuses.
The group examined 100 companies in the Fortune 500 to see how the average CEO fared if they were dismissed.
Thirty-six percent of the companies offered up to three years of salary to their departing CEOs, while 26 percent would pay two years' worth of salary.
