Accounting

More companies hiring recent graduates in 2012

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SurePayroll Inc., a leader in online payroll management, announced the March 2012 results for its monthly SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard. The survey showed small business optimism at 70 percent, despite a slight drop in hiring and wages being flat earlier this year. This is the first time optimism has reached the 70s since May 2011.

The Scorecard also noted that 31 percent of businesses plan to hire during the remainder of the year, and 67 percent plan to maintain their current employment level.

With organizations nationwide feeling confident about their financial stability, many companies have begun to reach out to recent graduates for employment opportunities.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, approximately 160 companies nationwide indicated their hiring in the coming year would come from graduates within four majors – engineering, business, accounting and computer sciences.

Employers projected hiring 10.2 percent more graduates than in 2011, which constitutes another sign of gradual economic improvement.

The survey reported the Western and Southeastern United States would have the most bullish hiring market in 2012, with growth expected to reach 33 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Midwestern companies estimated an increase of 7.7 percent, and an uptick of 6.6 percent in the Northeast.

Businesses are hiring more workers in 2012, and recent college graduates may have it easier than students from years past. 

Life Sciences

Biotech struggles to garner funding in 2012

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Small, innovative biotech companies are in hard times. A few years back, these organizations were able to secure millions of dollars from venture capitalists, but recently financing for biotech has been in great decline, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Biotech companies received a total of $3.92 billion in 2011 from venture capitalists, well below the $6.17 billion seen in 2007, according to VentureSource. In addition, public shares from 2011 averaged 29 percent less than their projected midpoint price, reports investment bank Needham & Company.

However, the city of Auburn, Alabama, may benefit from the biotech industry, as medical supplier SiO2 Medical Products is investing $90 million in the construction of its plant at Auburn Technology Park West, Opelika-Auburn News reports.

SiO2 Medical Products supplies the medical industry with products for the biomedical sector, and the company will look to hire professionals after the facility is completed.

"An essential part of creating new jobs is encouraging our existing companies to further their investments in [Alabama]," Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said. "SiO2 Medical Products is creating new opportunities in the form of additional well-paying jobs, and we appreciate their continued commitment to Alabama."

Professionals in biotech may struggle to find work in some areas of the United States, but job seekers near Auburn can take advantage of SiO2 Medical Product's commitment to the community and find work in the sector during 2012. 

Manufacturing

Engineering jobs show rising signs

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A Central Kansas city is seeing a bright start to the year with the expansion of a local plant, according to a published report.

The $16 million investment in the Hospira facility in McPherson will see the hiring of more than 100 employees broken down in the industries of manufacturing, engineering and work in laboratories, The McPherson Sentinel reports. The company manufactures and provides injectable drugs and is planning to augment the size of its facility by 28,000 square feet.

“Hospira has already started hiring for this and other projects and expects to increase employment by at least 100 employees,” human resources director Charlotte Pinkall with the McPherson facility told the news source.

Engineering jobs also are projected to grow in San Francisco where Yammer intends to double the size of its firm from 300 to 600 this year, FINS reports. The social networking site for the business sector started with 100 employees in 2011, since when it has tripled in size.

Most of the engineers who are hired will be tasked to the San Francisco office. The company also has facilities in London, Australia and New York.

Manufacturing

Trade school students find favorable job market

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Many graduates of manufacturing trade schools do not spend their
new-found free time job hunting once they complete their studies,
according to CNN.

That’s because they already have landed the job prior to
graduating.

Wilbur Wright-Humboldt Park vocational college in Chicago
conducted a job fair about two weeks ago and five of the school’s
students were hired within a 24-hour period, the lead instructor
told the news service.

“Employers right now need workers with these high-precision
skills. But the mismatch is that most of America’s unemployed
workforce doesn’t possess these skills,” associate dean of
instruction Marc Smierciak told the news service, noting the
school’s computerized numerical control program last year scored
100 percent job placement. “It’s a wonderful accomplishment for
us.”

Shifting southeast, trade jobs also are widely available in
Orlando, WKMG TV reports. But the problem is the talent pool is
thin and does not have enough qualified candidates.

Tom Muller, president of the Central Florida Manufacturers
Association said about three of 10 candidates are unable to pass
reading, writing and math, which he labels “soft skills.”

Monthly BLS Report

Employment Situation Report, February 2012

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According to the Labor Department, the U.S. economy added
227,000 jobs in February, the third month in a row of job gains in
excess of 200,000 positions. Unemployment remained at 8.3 percent,
its lowest point since early 2009. Revisions to previous months
showed that January added 41,000 more jobs than previously reported
and December added 20,000 more.

Growth was concentrated in the services sector, however, there
was meaningful growth in important segments of manufacturing –
including machinery, fabricated metals, and transportation
equipment – all three harbingers of a manufacturing economy
spinning up. In the services sector, the only significant loss was
of 35,000 positions from general merchandise stores, though it was
likely a continuation of the ramp down from holiday hiring, rather
than a sign of changing tides for retail.

Professional and business services were responsible for more
than a third of all job growth in February, with growth in
accounting and bookkeeping services (7,300), architectural and
engineering services (4,300), computer system design services
(10,200), and managing and consulting services (7,400). Healthcare
services accounted for more than a quarter (61,100) of jobs
produced during the month. Lastly, food services and drinking
places added more than 40,000 positions as workers with a bit more
disposable income and more confidence in the stability of that
income have begun to go out to eat and drink a bit more.

On an education level-basis, new positions created were
exclusively being filled by those with 4-year degrees and up. The
total number of employees holding a 4-year degree or higher rose by
more than 380,000 during the month. The professional and managerial
unemployment rate fell from 4.9 to 4.2 percent year-over-year.

Unfortunately for trend spotters, February, March, and April of
2011 also saw 200,000+ job growth before decelerating during the
summer months. The reasons blamed for job growth falling – such as
rising gas prices, a European debt crisis, and Middle East
instabilities – all remain on the horizon. Yet, this round of job
reports adding in excess of 200,000 at a time started two months
earlier than last time around, and is being met more strongly with
rising consumer confidence.

While the trend may seem similar to the one that fizzled a year
earlier, it may also be just positive enough to have reached an
“escape velocity,” as Patrick O’Keefe, the director of economic
research at consulting firm J. H. Cohn, characterized it to
The New York Times. Enough jobs are being created
to add enough consumers to the market to necessitate more employees
be hired

Manufacturing

Mixed bag for engineering jobs around the country

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A Denver-area family-owned engineering firm is looking to bring some new blood to its ranks, according to a published report.

SEAKR Engineering of Centennial is aiming to shoot its workforce past 400, the company president told 9 News, an NBC affiliate. Aiming to bring on additional engineers, accountants and program managers, the firm designs, manufacturers and tests satellite electronic equipment.

"We are about 380 people total today, and 150 of that has been added since January of 2011, so we've had significant growth. We have openings right now for about 30 to 40 people more," said Eric Anderson, president of SEAKR.

But, across the Rocky Mountains, the globe's top maker of personal computers said late last month it will slash its workforce by 275 when it reduces the amount of engineers and other professionals, according to Bloomberg. The reduction is part of a plan to convert the operating system into an open-source software.

In early December of last year, the company stated it plans to permit an open-source license to aid with the release of WebOS. That would ease outside developers' ability to finesse the code and employ it with what it manufactures.