Tell It To Al

Big U.S. companies are creating plenty of jobs – it’s just that most of them are overseas.

Click here to read this great analysis by Wall Street Journal reporter Scott Thurm. It quotes experts saying this trend isn’t necessarily at the expense of jobs in the U.S.  These companies are doing the hiring abroad because they’re expanding into global markets and need people there instead of here.

Maybe some of those other countries can start giving these big  businesses some more corporate welfare.

The idea that the people should support large corporations because large corporations create jobs is slowly being turned on its head as the globalization game plays itself out.

Who says the taxman doesn’t create jobs?

Jackson Hewett Tax Service Inc. plans to hire 25,000 tax preparers in at its first-ever “National Tax Preparer Recruiting Week,” Sept. 12-17.

The U.S. economy is  still sluggish. It created zero jobs in August. And the unemployment rate has been stuck over 9% for two years. But  68 million taxpayers turn to a paid tax preparer each year and Jackson Hewitt could use some help.

“To meet this demand, Jackson Hewitt hires, trains and deploys a tax preparer workforce comprised of both year round and seasonal employees,” the company said in a press release.

Isn’t it great that even in an unemployment crisis taxes still remain one of the two sure things?

I’ll have to check and see how the mortuary business is doing.

Christmas is bringing a twinkle of light to a dark job market with a spate of recent holiday hiring announcements.

Seasonal hiring levels are up 26% over last year, according to SnagAJob.com.

“Holiday hiring indicators … make us cautiously optimistic that things are turning in the right direction,” said Shawn Boyer, SnagAjob.com’s CEO, in a news release.

Toys R Us says it will hire 45,000 temporary workers, doubling its U.S. work force for the season.

Thanks to all the retail vacancies across the nation, the toy seller has been able to temporarily locate smaller stores in malls across America. It calls these “pop-up” stores, Toys R Us Express.

Book retailer, Borders, has said it plans on opening 25 pop-up stores.

Macy’s, meanwhile, has said it will hire 65,000 seasonal workers, up slightly from last year.

In its annual survey of hourly hiring managers, the jobs website SnagAJob.com reports that hiring managers, on average, expect to hire 3.9 seasonal workers each, a 26% increase over last year’s 3.1 workers, and better than 3.7 in 2008.

In 2007, though, managers reported hiring 5.6, so seasonal hiring is hardly back to boom year levels.

“Even with relatively more positions available, you still can expect fierce competition, Boyer said. “If you have intentions of finding a holiday job, you cannot wait to apply.”

Now I realize why I should have pursued a degree in library science instead of journalism, or maybe just gone to a lot more concerts.

Check out this job posting that my old college classmate, who is now a librarian in Fargo, N.D., sent me: Grateful Dead Archive Project Manager. Salary: $5,000 to $9,000 a month. Plus the full benefits that come from working at a major university.

Click here to apply, and if you get this job, dude, call me. It’s been a while, but I  have been to Terrapin.

This reminds me of a T-shirt I once saw someone wearing up in Boulder, Colo. It read: “Jerry’s Dead, Phish Sucks, Get a Job!”

Here’s the job description from the University of California, Santa Cruz website:

“Reporting to the University Librarian, the incumbent provides management of the entire Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant funded project, Virtual Terrapin Station: Blending Traditional and Socially Created Archives for Research, Teaching, and Cultural Enrichment. The Project Manager will be a member of the Grateful Dead Archive team and will be directly responsible for the planning, coordination, design, and execution of the archive exhibition website and community web publishing platform. The Project Manager will oversee communication with the IMLS (the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a grant-making federal agency) including interim and final reports. The Grateful Dead Archive is a multimillion dollar collection that has sparked international interest. This position is responsible for overseeing the creation and implementation of the “Virtual Terrapin Station” that will incorporate digitized content from the archive plus materials contributed from the Deadhead community. Specific responsibilities include the development of a detailed project plan to design the website, digitize material for it, build a rights tracking function, and oversee the development of software to enable the exchange of information between library systems. The Project Manager has responsibility for the timely and successful distribution of over $1.4 million dollars comprised of the original IMLS grant and matching Library funds according to strict rules and deadlines per the general terms and conditions of the grant.”