“Retailers lose more than $30 billion a year because of employee theft.”

He states screening the backgrounds of employees “is critical to protect the safety of Connecticut residents in their homes and offices, in their cars and in all other places they travel.”

“At this point we don’t have any research to show any statistical correlation between what is in somebody’s credit report and their job performance or their likelihood to commit fraud.”

Ah, I see. So this is just capitalism at it’s finest? Another great way to market credit reports. Sad

It’s official, LinkedIn (NYSE ticker: LNKD) is the first of the major social media players to jump into the stock market with their Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Thursday, 5/19. Initially priced in its first SEC filings at $32-$35 per share, the stock opened at $80, went as high as $122, and ended up closing at $94.25. Impressive. But let’s pull back the curtains and chew on some reality-based numbers and we see a different story when it comes to valuation:

Peter Cohan over at Forbes blog: ”On a very thin basis of earnings, investors propelled its value from a mere 206 times its 2010 earnings of $.17 a share to 584 by the end of the day. That’s only 37 times the market average P/E of 16. If financial statements had anything to do with the price of that stock, LinkedIn would have gone out at a P/E of about 20 – valuing its shares at $3.40 a piece – 96% below the $94.25 at which it closed Thursday.”

The author goes on to note that P/E (Price to Earnings ratio) may be too high given that LinkedIn is expected to LOSE money this year. As an investor, how do you square that 96% value gap? Welcome to the stock market, in this case speculation practically makes-out with an army of investors just dying to buy anything social media. And good old fashioned supply and demand powered the surge. There are 94.6 million shares issued and the company only sold less than 10% of them to the public. Those who wanted to buy could not get a fill fueling the dramatic price surge. LinkedIn just happens to be the first in the social media world to feed the unsatiable appetite of social media hungry investors. And rumor has it, Facebook and Groupon are not far behind.

Back to valuation and the fear of a bubble effect. This Wall St. Journal post citing a Twitter user @lessien points out just how absurd the LinkedIn valuation really is. 

“At LinkedIn’s current valuation of roughly $10 billion, LinkedIn is trading at roughly 41 times in 2010 net revenue. If Apple were trading at the same multiple, it would have a market value of $2.7 trillion. If Domino’s Pizza were trading on a comparable stock valuation, the pizza slingers would have a market value of $64 billion. At 641 times the 2010 net income of Exxon, Exxon would have a market value of $19.8 trillion. That’s more than the gross domestic product of the United States.”

In order for LinkedIn to earn it’s way to a valuation 584 times earnings, they are going to have to demonstrate a seriously sustainable business model that generates waaay more than current revenues of $243 million. LinkedIn derives half of it’s revenue from selling recruitment services to businesses looking to hire new employees, a third comes from online advertising and the rest comes from premium access users. Recruiters: look for increased advertising offerings and boosting user engagement as LinkedIn only generated $51.37 million in 2010 compared to Facebooks $1.86 billion. Investors: look to hold your money until this IPO comes back down to earth. And for Bubbles sake, I hope it does. Mike Tedesco, our VP, after reading some of the same articles & opinions on the LinkedIn IPO put it best – “It’s like deja vu all over again.”

An Indiana University – Bloomington research paper “Twitter mood predicts the stock market” authored by Johan Bollen and Huina Mao answer a resounding yes, and Derwent Capital Markets, a London based hedge fund has raised capital to the tune of $40 million to obtain exclusive rights to their findings and plan to create a trading model based on those findings. That’s right. An entire hedge fund dedicated to capturing moods in the Twitterverse.

Bollen and Mao investigated “whether measurements of collective mood states derived from large-scale Twitter feeds are correlated to the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over time” by analyzing the text content of daily Twitter feeds by mood tracking tools like Opinion Finder and Google-Profile of Mood States. Using the behavioral economics premise that “tells us emotions profoundly affect individual behavior and decision- making”, what they found when looking at mood data extracted from millions of tweets is nothing less than stunning – their algorithm not only paralleled market changes but predicted them with an unheard of 87.6% accuracy. Enter the hedge fund and their 25 million pound investment in the hopes that this research can accurately predict the stock market in a real time setting.

Can social media content predict real world outcomes? I’ve read somewhere before that Twitter was used in forecasting box office revenues but if this is successful, the forecasting power of social media will be solidified…cash money style. This model flies right smack in the face of the economic community consensus I’ve come to know – that markets are efficient, that information is reflected asap into the share price. This model suggests there is information that exists that is not being reflected.

I don’t buy it a) cause I can’t afford it as most hedge funds usually have a million dollar buy in and b) if this is real, I think the market will arbitrage this (the simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from the difference in price), then self-correct bringing the 86% accuracy down to 50% and prove, once again, the market is more emotional than cerebral.

Good luck.

Rising demand! Expanding profit margins! Increased expectations for economic growth! Brighter employment outlook! Increased capital spending! Is this really happening? And the survey says….Yes! Well, at least according to the National Association for Business Economics January 2011 Industry Survey which is packed with such high hopes. 

Among the surveys findings:

• Industry demand in all four major industry sectors increased for a sixth consecutive quarter during the final 3 months of 2010.
• Profit margins expanded for a sixth quarter in a row.
• Employment market improvement: The hiring outlook for the next 6 months finds 42% of respondents indicating their firms will increase employment.
• Expectations for future capital spending are higher with 62% of respondents reporting higher planned expenditures

Interestingly, these findings are not connected to new tax policies. Firms “anticipate no increase or decrease in investment spending or employment in response to new tax policies” which suggests business decisions are being driven by the fundamentals of an improving economy. Boo-yah!

 ”The number of firms expressing positive hiring planned is at a level not seen in over a decade – a sign of improving labor-market dynamics”

 The stock market has recovered nicely from 2009 lows and corporate profits are on the rise. Employment is the last key ingredient to what will be the end of a slooooow recovery. I’m not looking for 5% unemployment by years end, but some slow, steady decline to 8% this year would be a real victory and a sign of better years ahead.

Many people have seen and heard about the flurry of violent flash mobs of unruly teenagers congregating in large groups in very public areas then terrorizing innocent people and retail establishments for no good reason. In February 2010, the area around Macy’s at 13th & Chestnut here in Philadelphia fell victim to a flash mob that robbed and damaged the store as well as inflicted physical harm to patrons outside. It was not a good day for Philly pride.  

On October 30th, 2010, the same Macy’s fell willing victim to another kind of flash mob of the operatic kind and I couldn’t be more proud of the participants in this one-of-a-kind flash mob bringing us all a “random act of culture”. Unbeknownst to shoppers, at noon on October 30th, 650 singers from the Philadelphia Opera Company and regional choirs busted out a beautiful rendition of Handel’s “Messiah”. A must watch to kick off the holidays. #PhillyPride.

I’ve been hearing and reading a lot lately about jobless discrimination, a disturbing new trend in recruiting where employers are reluctant to hire unemployed workers thinking the best candidates are the ones already working. I have heard a few unconfirmable stories about employers thinking the unemployed are more likely to steal even including a credit check of an applicant as part of the screening process. The idea being “If you’re in debt, we don’t want a desperate employee”. To what extent this practice goes on I do not know, but this article highlights some crazy examples of actual job ads/solicitations specifically requiring candidates to be currently employed in order to qualify for the opening. The author cites some examples of this practice by surfing for jobs that use the “must be currently employed” language and found several on Monster.com and Craigslist:

A staffing agency representing a “world leader in the medical industry” is advertising for a San José-based product salesman on Monster.com, but the person “must be currently employed.”

A “Big Box” retail giant in New York City posted a Craigslist ad for an overnight freight flow manager who “must be currently employed for consideration,”

..a manufacturing company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina specified on Monster.com that it will not consider any unemployed applicants for a Senior Pricing Analyst position.

And a CPA firm in New Jersey said “DO NOT APPLY IF YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY EMPLOYED IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING” in its ad on Craigslist.

Is this even legal? The short answer is yes. We have laws in this country to prevent hiring discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, pregnancy and age. But joblessness? Uh, completely legal.

It’s sad to think many of the nation’s 15 million unemployed are facing this kind of challenge in seeking employment. The economy drops out with plenty of blame to go around but the average wannabe American worker may be getting the real short end of the stick.

Gene Epstein, a Newtown, PA area philanthropist and former small business owner, wants to give the economy a boost and has come up with a simple plan to increase local hiring and contribute to the coffers of local charities & non-profit organizations. Every time a small business in the Philadelphia region hires an unemployed person, Gene Epstein will donate $1,000 to charity. Tired of the partisan bickering and feeble policy solutions being cooked up in Washington, DC, Gene is putting his money where his mouth is and his idea is making employers take notice. I first saw this story on our local ABC affiliate, Channel 6′s Action News.

I also came across a follow up on the national online magazine Huffington Post  with stories of real business owners who took notice, then took action. Gretchen Bearoff and her husband, who own a local real estate company, were recently considering hiring a new employee. Seeing Epstein’s story on Action News, they went for it.

“My husband and I had been putting feelers out but hadn’t made a final decision and this helped to push us over the edge. We’re ready, our business is doing better, so let’s do it.”

A $1,000 donation will be going to the Pennsylvania SPCA.

Christian Roach at TruMark Financial Credit Union was considering hiring a social media specialist. While not planning on hiring an unemployed person, Epstein’s idea moved him.

“I was on the fence with the social media position, but it kinda made me go you know what, maybe it;s time…He moved me off the dime.”

Here’s to small, simple ideas that make a big impact, one employer at a time.

I wish the title of this post was really my band name and 1st album title but alas it’s not. Debt, debt, and more debt. We are in a serious amount of debt globally, nationally, and as individuals. All of whom I can expand on in upcoming posts but for now I reserve my dismay at the situation in Europe or, more precisely, the PIIGS – a nasty acronym relating to sovereign debt markets used by financial types likes bond analysts, the international press and academics alike when referring to the economies of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain.

There has been much written and said in the past year about the PIIGS but just how bad is it? This article from the Economist (from May2010) sums it up nicely replete with charts and interactive graphics showing just how messed up troubled the euro-zone PIIGS are.

Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain share the currency (the euro) and an ugly acronym (the PIIGS). Each lost competitiveness after 1999, seeing prices and wages rise more quickly than the euro-area average. As members of the euro, the PIIGS cannot devalue their currencies, making the struggle out of recession harder. Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain share the currency (the euro) and an ugly acronym (the PIIGS). Each lost competitiveness after 1999, seeing prices and wages rise more quickly than the euro-area average. As members of the euro, the PIIGS cannot devalue their currencies, making the struggle out of recession harder.

Add high wage costs, poor productivity, love of cheap imports, and running of huge deficits, the perfect storm many have predicted, is finally here. The economic havoc she reeks worldwide is evident and more remains to be seen but the fiscal health of the PIIGS will remain in question as concerns about the health of banks in Europe have escalated and the tenuous fiscal and financial conditions continue to weigh on the Euro. On the sorta bright side, the dollar has gained in recent months in large part to Europe’s woes and the resilience of our own economy.

The debt crisis is very, very real. And while the battle rages on in DC on whether to practice austerity or stimulate the economy with more state aid, unemployment benefits, small business loans, etc, the regular folks are left to pick up the pieces of a battered economy. But at least the problems are no longer being hidden or shuffled, all this bad news has been out there plain as day. OK world, accountability is the order of the decade. Time to move on…and up from here.

Aye Caramba! When Denny’s Restaurants exhausted the Cheyenne, WY market in a search for Cooks via internet postings and local print ads, we needed to think outside the box and pursue some non-traditional means of media to get out their recruitment message particularly to a Hispanic market that posseses the right skill set. Unfortunately, there is no dedicated print or online media to cater to this small, highly targeted market. There was however a small Hispanic radio station in nearby Laramie that could provide the reach to the market Denny’s was looking for. Several years ago in a much more robust job market, non-traditional media outlets for recruitment including radio, cinema, billboards, and bus wraps were used with surprising frequency – employers had to use new and ambitious ways to get the attention of the right candidates. Are those days are coming back? 

The economy is in pretty bad shape still, duh. And recruiting budgets are typically the last to be restored as we crawl back, inch by inch, from the recent recession. It is no surprise that many companies, our valued clients included, have cut back, cut corners, just plum cut anywhere they can – a do-it-yourself in-house approach in order to save precious recruiting dollars. So when Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company needed to update their in-house flyers advertising their job openings (which change on a weekly basis) to hand out at job fairs, they needed a solution that combined developing a professional, branded image unique to Philadelphia AND the ability to change the content as their recruiting needs dictated without incurring the time and money it would take for a vendor to update and produce small run flyers that would be useless after a week.

The solution? The Alstin design team created a “bottle image” that incorporates iconic Philadelphia photos and the coke bottle design executed in both print ads and the folder shown. Inside we took the traditional “step card” which is difficult to print on a traditional office color printer and turned it into “step flyers” allowing Philly Coke recruiters to update and print in-house the “Job Opportunities” and “About Philly Coke” flyers that are inserted in the folder.

There are many ways we can help your organization develop an eye-catching, memorable brand that can be used in collateral materials, direct mail pieces, e-mail blasts, microsites, print, online, and more without breaking the bank. Also see my blog Multi-tasking, brochure style for another example how Alstin can work with your budget to create brochures you can get some mileage out of.

Good creative is worth it folks! Step away from the clip art.

Here at Alstin, we know when May is coming with all it’s beautiful flowers simply by the high volume of  requests by healthcare clients to design eye-catching, inspirational messages of gratitude and thanks to their nurses for a job well done. A small token of appreciation but one, I am told by nurses, that does make a difference – it’s nice to be appreciated and read all about it. National Nurses Week starts each year on May 6th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday, and ends May12th.

 Which brings me to this wonderful article I came across in our own Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper about a 105 year woman, Ada Mutch, who is preparing to be honored by her Alma Mater, the Baldwin School (Class of 1922!), a venerable Philadelphia college preparatory school for women that has been in existence since 1888. An incredible life Ada has led – from Baldwin alum to staff employee then finding her life’s passion in nursing after having her appendix removed, to enlisting in the Army Nurse Corp during WWII and leaving a lieutenant colonel, to coming home to be a Nursing Director at Lankenau Hospital then spending her last 30 years volunteering for ElderNet – and one that has left her looking back with no regrets. While Ada says none of her feats in life were ever planned, she credits confidence and curiousity as her catalysts for seizing opportunity.

“I feel sorry for people who can’t think of what they want to do”

In August 2009, I wrote briefly about the corny sounding “mancession” and the role of women in fixing the economy. I revisit this topic based on two recent articles from the Atlantic Monthly and The Economist.

When The Economist asserts that the “economic empowerment of women across the rich world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years” they aren’t kidding. This article highlights the social aspect of this dramatic change: “…millions of people who were once dependent on men have taken control of their economic fates” and cites the remarkable nature of this change that has produced little friction “change that affects the most intimate aspects of people’s identities has been widely welcomed by men as well as women.”

Reasons for the change include politics via feminism and governments passing equal rights acts, the decrease in the “rich nation’s” demand for physically demanding labor (much has been outsourced to emerging economies), decline in manufacturing jobs traditionally held by men, and the expansion of higher education for women (women earn nearly 60% of university degrees in America and Europe) just to name a few.

Unfortunately, both articles touch on the pay gap inequality. “The average full time female worker in Britain or the U.S. earns 80 percent as much as her male equivalents.” Great articles if you have the time to read but make no mistake, women are changing the workforce of the future. Now, Tedesco, go get me a coffee!

Not sure what is more pathetic here – the fact that the 16 year old employee was fired for losing a “tenner” she was given to run a biscuit fetching errand OR the pathetic language used by her manager to fire her via Facebook no less. 

‘hiya Chelsea its Elaine from work. Sorry to send u a message like this but bin tryin to ring u but gettin no joy. I had to tell the owner bout u losin that tenner cos obviously the till was down at the end of day. she wasn’t very pleased at all and despite me trying to persuade her otherwise she said I have to let u go. I’m really sorry.’

By the looks of this blog, you might think we over here at Alstin eat, breathe and sleep all that is recruitment and retention. Every so often we’ll stray from the HR talk and bring you more on some of our favorite things, places and activities that also populate our daily lives.

For me, the only thing funnier than Graffiti artists beefin’ with each other is when the venerable Wall Street Journal covers it. Enter Robbo -  a pioneer of the 80′s London Graffiti scene, Banksy – Graffiti artist turned world-famous street artist, and a stretch of wall, under a bridge, along the Regent Canal otherwise known as London’s “Little Venice”.

The bite sized chunk version: 1985 Robbo classically tags the wall “ROBBO INC”, Robbo becomes legendary “Graffiti artist” by tagging the hell outta London with his traditional (time consuming), freehand, spray-painted work through the 80′s & early 90′s, slides into obscurity to be a dad and gives up Graffiti altogether. Banksy enters the “street artist” scene in the mid/late 90′s, becomes a master at the stencil & postering stealth style (quick & easy according to Graffiti artists), exhibits & sells his street art to worldwide acclaim (2007 work “Keep it Spotless” sells for 1.87 milli at Sotheby’s), publishes books, and exhibits in reputable galleries around the globe AND THEN in December 2009 visits the Regent Canal and defaces “ROBBO INC”. Team Robbo and Team Banksy war ensues. The article must be read to be believed. And I thought I was gonna read about the DOW tanking again. Thanks Wall Street Journal for a great piece. 

Since we are on the subject of Graffiti, I have to admit I am a big fan when it becomes sanctioned street art/Graffiti. Jane Golden, founder of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, is a local and probably national hero at this point in her career with what she has done with the program, an organization whose mission is to “unite artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooted in the traditions of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives”.

Recently the husband and I went on a Mural Arts Tour around Valentine’s Day affectionately titled “Love Letters”, a public art project consisting of 50 rooftop murals from 45th to 63rd Sts. easily viewable from the Market-Frankford El line. Stephen Powers, the mural artist, was born & raised in Philly and became a renegade (illegal) graffitti artist.

Jane, who legitimized the medium IMO, famously gets renegade graffiti artists like Powers to pledge not to do traditional tag & run graffiti but rather develops their skills and artistry into city-sanctioned beautiful works of art that often reflect the spirit of the community in which they are displayed. Powers did not want to sign the pledge but went on to become a famous NYC based artist. “Love Letters” is not only a personal exchange between him and a woman, but between him and the city he grew up in as well. 

You can visit the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program website to find out how you can take the “Love Letters” tour, or grab a $2 SEPTA token and take a self guided tour. Be sure to jump out at a few stops along the way and view from the stillness of the El platform- 52nd and 63rd Sts. are good stops where you can see a number of “Love Letter” murals.

Also be sure to check out this New York Times story featuring this and other Philly based art: Art to Make You Laugh (And Cry).

GDP – Fourth Quarter 2009 (Second Estimate) 

“Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter) according to the “second” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis”

Wow, awesome, super, start hiring people, recovery is here! Errrrt! Not so fast. While this should be taken as positive economic news on it’s face, I am afraid to be a Debbie Downer,  but reality checks are my speciality. Inside the numbers, the revised estimate from 5.7% to 5.9% comes from gross private domestic investment which indicates that businesses are leading the recovery and the change in private inventories which showed the biggest upward revision to make up for 3.9% of the 5.9% GDP growth. Nerdy economists (the original Debbie Downers) however are not impressed with this revision as a sign of economic health rather a belief that recovery is sure to come…but not here yet. So, I guess that is the good news. The bummer of the 4Q GDP is that personal consumption is weak which, given the high unemployment and underemployment rate, is understandable as people are just unable to spend money – both paper and plastic.

Consumer spending accounts for a large part of GDP – almost 70% – so we need that to rise or else growth in the next couple quarters will go down. However, we cannot go into additional debt for consumption sake. Cases in point: Consumer debt: $13.5 trilly, Non-financial business sector debt: $11 trilly, Financial sector business debt : $16 trilly, State & gov’t local debt: $2.3 trilly, federal debt – not including future entitlements: $7.5 trilly (“Trilly” is my cute word for “trillion” as in trillions of dollars, eases the pain. ) Net exports increased from 1.9% to 2.3% – Hooray! But imports were revised up from 1.4% to 2% – Boooo! While I am happy to see the GDP revised upward we have a long way to go. Baby steps people.

Just two short years ago Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg sat down with TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington to talk about FB’s privacy policies and controls – controls Zuckerberg describes as integral to the core of Facebook. “That’s the vector around which Facebook operates.” Information was only intended to be visible to your Facebook friends. That was then.

Is he now singing a much different tune? This is Zuckerberg now: The Age of Privacy is Over.

 Zuckerberg is quoted as saying: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

Has it really? Openly sharing personal information is the new social norm? Sigh.

My reluctance to personally jump into the wonderful world of social networking has been well documented here and around Alstin’s office. I feel lots of pressure to follow the herd, break down and get me a Facebook page so I too can brand myself through status updates. Maybe I could start doing all this under a fake name? Resurrect Lisa Licketto from Runnemede, NJ – my first fake ID. If it weren’t for that darn privacy thing…

Personal information is sacred to many of us. And I for one really hope the age of privacy isn’t over.

After a miserable, gut wrenching, stress-filled year courtesy of the 2009 economy and job market, nothing warms the cockles of my heart more than a positive story coming out of the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Ahhh, manufacturing. Where real people make real things that consumers and businesses will buy in this country and abroad. I’m not against outsourcing labor but preservation of this sector in some relevant form must be present in order to create the jobs that will allow this country to rev its economic engine again and then purr peacefully like a classic car down the highway of opportunity. Cheesy statement – oh yeah. But I am genuinely happy for the prospects in places like burgeoning data corridor resident Catawba County, NC with their new Target Distribution Center, Google server farm, and soon to be home to Apple Incs East Coast Data Center and Elkhart County, IN where after severe layoffs last year in the RV industry, one employer recalled or hired 200 laid off workers over the summer to meet an unexpected sales boom that overwhelmed inventories and left producers unable to meet demand. Baby steps people.

I came across an interesting post while on The Urethane Blog (what can I say, I like to keep up on the Urethane industry) to an analysis done by 24/7 Wall St. Blog of the 25 most valuable blogs in terms of operating profits and revenue. Value is measured by a variety of data including public sources such as Alexa, Quantcast, Compete, and comScore, estimated CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), and multiples of revenue and operating income.

A more detailed valuation explanation can be found in the link above but what I found most interesting is the sheer variety of the Top 25. From the gossip mongering of Perez Hilton to mega-gamer blog Destructoid to the battlefield of online partisan political leanings of Drudge Report & Huffington Post to the financial content aggregation site Seeking Alpha, there is something for everyone on this list. And who knew they could make so much money?!

The advent of e-mail drastically changed how business was done just a little over a decade ago. The rules of the game changed – the phones stopped ringing, the faxes stopped littering the floor below, and the inbox started piling up. While phones still do ring and faxes do come in, let’s face it – it’s just about all sales calls. And while just about every employed person I know is working less hours yet maintaining a heavier workload due to the economic slowdown and its buddies layoff, attrition, and furlough to name a few, no one has much extra time in the day to field sales calls. And e-mail, while we all still use it to connect, has seen it’s heyday. Logging in and checking your inbox in spurts has given way to the era of instant information. Sometimes your question is answered via status update before you even have the chance to make your inquiry. Enter Facebook, Twitter, and the newest latest – Google Wave - all will reign as the new kings of communication.

What does this mean to your organization? Is your company on the Facebook Fan Page bandwagon and “tweeting” new job opportunities via Twitter? Are you reaching potential job seekers before they even start looking for a job? A Twitter account or Facebook Fan Page may not produce instant results and applicant flow, building your network now will reap benefits years down the road. 

This Wall Street Journal article “Why E-mail No Longer Rules” is a great read on where we are going in the world of communications and why you and your employer should already be on the wagon.

Here at Alstin we are always looking for great places and delicious things to eat. If we were based in St. Louis, rest assured this would be the water cooler topic of the week. Wondering why healthcare premiums continue to skyrocket? Enter the bacon cheeseburger served between two Krispy Kreme glazed donuts. This, my friends, is a sign of the Apocalypse. I just don’t know what to say here. Yum?

Facebook recently purchased FriendFeed -  a little known (but not for long) social media platform that can aggregate all of your social media activities -  for $47.5 million. And with that cost, Facebook could just about own everything you do online – from Flickr photos and Twitter Tweets to articles you “Digg” and more.  This seems to be very big brother a very big deal, but for some of us will this provide a reason to ignore the Great Social Media Experiment of the new millenium?

When Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) wanted to develop brochures to attract technical and trade school students into entering their Internship & Apprenticeship Programs as well as the Skilled Trades in general, a series of brochures seemed like a great idea. The cost to design and print three distinct brochures, eh, not so much.

The solution? Design and printing of one tri-fold brochure with a center pocket panel and three distinct inserts touting each program. The brochure focused on SEPTA as an employer of choice for skilled trades, career pathing and benefits. The inserts explained each program in detail thereby giving SEPTA recruiters the flexibility to include one or all three programs depending on the event or school they were attending. Simple tri-fold brochures with inserts, the opportunities are endless…and easy on the budget.

There is no doubt this recession has adversely affected men more than women. 80% of job losses in the last two years were among men. With the loss in manufacturing jobs (7 out of 10 workers are men) and residential construction (9 out of 10 workers are men) and no sign of reversal in sight, we’re in a “Mancession” baby.

In recent a WaPo op-ed, Katty Kay and Claire Shipman call on women to fix this mess. Citing recent studies by reputable firms such as Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Co., Goldman Sachs and stalwart academic institutions Columbia & Pepperdine University, women will play an integral role in getting the American economy out of the recession. Among the findings in the studies, companies with women in senior management roles make more money. They also claim that if more women had been in senior management Wall Street might have averted the downturn (something about hormones and management styles), and that more women in your company equals better performance. It’s a good read and supports why the Mancession might not be getting better anytime soon.

One of the best aspects of my job is getting there. When there is no rain or snow, I walk or ride my mother’s sweet 1974 Schwinn suburban. I always pack a camera and take shots along the way, to and from work. It’s a nice 24 block haul and there is always some great art along the way whether it be public & commissioned; renegade, free & illegal; or a moment in time I capture myself.

I came across this article the other day in the NY Times titled “On a Furlough, but Never Leaving the Cubicle” that lays out a lot of the frustration many workers feel right now about having to take time off with no pay. It appears many people are not getting the pay as promised but also not being able to take the time off due to being short staffed. Out of loyalty to their employer, fear of losing their job, and feeling guilty about strapping their co-workers with extra workload, many employees are just working whether they are getting paid or not. In this economic climate, the ‘consider yourself lucky to have a job right now’ attitude is starting to wear thin.

What am I missing? Am I an old codger-in-training? I’m not Facebooking, Twittering or Linking In. It’s not that I’m against them as a statement of non-conformity, I just don’t care to spend the time. It’s precious, really it is. I’ve got to spend it on the people I love…I’m just able to love them more in person. Professionally, I still prefer picking up the phone and calling or meeting face-to-face. What’s wrong with me? The way I see it, nothing at all.

LinkedIn. Wow, there are 40 million active users. Facebook – over 200 million. Twitter – 40 million and each are growing at an incredible clip. I get invitations all the time to “join my professional network” on LinkedIn. Why don’t I want to network? I could reconnect with former clients. It could land me a great job offer. It could be the network I need if I were to ever put myself on the market.

The answer: while there is a big part of me that thinks this is all a giant social ponzi scheme, I’m just not interested right now. I always question, what would I really get out of it? How better am I knowing that ‘Joe hates rainy days’ or ‘Belle is going to market’.

In the social networking age, I see the formula as: Possible Reward = Less Privacy + Unwanted Acquaintances – My Free Time or PR = LP + UA – MFT.

I admit that I’m sounding a little cynical, but believe me – I am very social. I love people. I love going out and meeting up with friends and colleagues old and new. But I usually call them, make plans to meet, and then have a great time in person. It works for me that way.

At my workplace however, I’m feeling particular pressure to get “LinkedIn” – helping my clients navigate this site to make the most of it for their branding and recruiting initiatives is after all part of what I do. I am just not ready to log on. But if you’re looking for an honest answer to the question of ‘to social network or not to social network’ you can give me a ring at 215-568-3200. We can talk about it.

The job market is tough, no need to remind a job seeker of that fact. Check out some of these unique, non-traditional ways the unemployed are getting themselves noticed and getting their resumes circulating. From singing in “Careereoki” to standing on a street corner handing out resumes to dressing up in a gorilla suit to drop off a resume, here are some links to stories that are sure to make you laugh at some of the ways people are trying to get their foot in the door.

Singing for a career makeover: CAREEREOKI!
“Nicole Nagy had gone back to school, hoping that a new career would lead to a better job. When she was turned down for financial aid, Nagy was told that she could, as a song goes, “sing for the money.” She was directed to a contest called Careereoki. Anyone brave enough to videotape themselves singing — and sometimes dancing — about their dream career karaoke-style was qualified to enter the competition.”

The Street Corner Resume:
“Joshua Persky, 48, stood on Park Avenue, handing out résumés to passers-by and wearing a sandwich board that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire.” The sign included his name and contact information.”

Tampa Woman Uses Streets Smarts in Job Hunt:
“At the break of dawn, she stood at the corner of Humphrey Street and North Dale Mabry Highway and handed out 100 resumes. Her face-to-face style may have paid off. About an hour after she started, she had gotten three bites.”

Some Gimmicks do Backfire!
A couple of highlights:
…A junior marketing professional tried sending his resume to a company hiring manager via homing pigeon, says Cynthia Shapiro, a job-search coach in Chatsworth, Calif. But as far as the job hunter knows, the recruiter wasn’t interested, because the animal never returned….
…Ms. Shapiro says a job hunter in a gorilla suit once dropped off his resume at her office at a construction company. Then, she recalls, he burst into a song describing why he would make a strong candidate. “The receptionist said he couldn’t come in, but he kept running around with balloons and calling my name,” she says. “Everyone thought it was my birthday. The CEO came out. It wasn’t cool.”

How will the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 affect the job market now and in the future? Billions in appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy and science, extended unemployment insurance, monies for state and local governments have been allocated. But will it work and where is the money going?

I found a fun place to keep track! While you can go to the fluffy government website recovery.gov and not find much of anything with detail, see what’s proposed for stimulus money in your community and the estimated number of jobs each project will create at stimuluswatch.org instead.

This watchdog group was built “to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend.” Visitors to the site are encouraged to search for and view the proposed projects, vote on whether you think they are critical or not and post comments about each project. (Note: These projects are not actually in the stimulus bill, but are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.)

This is a great outlet for adding your two cents, that is, if you have two cents to spare and see what this money could be used for in your area.