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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Party City Creates 10,000 Additional Jobs for the Halloween Season

/PRNewswire/ -- The Halloween season is a busy time for Party City as the premier Halloween specialty retailer prepares for an intense seasonal hiring wave in local communities. Party City is creating thousands of temporary jobs throughout America, recruiting 10,000 people to join the Party City team during the Halloween season. The average Party City store will hire up to an additional 15-50 extra employees.

"The creation of new jobs is critically important in today's market as the economy continues to recover," said Lisa Laube, President of Party City. "Our efforts to create jobs serve a dual-purpose: to provide people with opportunities to productively utilize their skills in today's downtrodden job market, and to provide shoppers with exceptional customer service during the busy Halloween season."

The retailer is hiring Halloween Sales Associates who will undertake a variety of positions, including Cashier, Greeter, Roadside Character, Customer Service Associates and Stock Room Associates. All Party City employees are trained to not only find the right costumes and accessories, but also how to find innovative ways to pull off any themed-look. There are also many opportunities for store employees to continue working after Halloween based on specific store staffing needs.

Interested applicants can apply either on-line at partycity.com or in person at their local Party City store.

During Halloween, Party City enables people to completely transform into "something else" from head to toe, whether becoming austere and intelligent Edward Cullen, or pop phenom Lady Gaga. For additional information on this year's Halloween costumes and accessories, visit a local Party City store or visit partycity.com.

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

U.S. Underemployment Steady at 18.4% in July

PRNewswire/ -- Underemployment, as measured by Gallup, was 18.4% in July, essentially unchanged from 18.3% at the end of June and in mid-July. Underemployment peaked at 20.4% in April.

Gallup's underemployment measure includes both Americans who are unemployed and those working part-time but wanting full-time work. It is based on more than 20,000 phone interviews with U.S. adults aged 18 and older in the workforce, collected over a 30-day period and reported daily and weekly. Gallup's results are not seasonally adjusted, and tend to be a precursor of government reports by approximately two weeks.

Changes in Unemployed and Part-Time Employees Wanting Full-Time Work Offset

The unemployment rate component of Gallup's underemployment measure fell to 8.9% at the end of July -- down from 9.2% at the end of June and 9.3% in mid-July. However, this decrease was more than offset by an increase to 9.5% in the percentage of employees working part-time but wanting full-time work.

Substantially Higher Underemployment Persists Among the Young

Americans aged 18 to 29 had easily the highest underemployment rate in July of any age group, at 28.4%, including 11.8% who were unemployed and 16.6% who were employed part-time but wanted full-time work. Among all U.S. adults in the workforce, a higher percentage of women than of men are underemployed.

Less Educated Face High Underemployment

Workers without any college education are more likely than those with more formal education to be underemployed.

Underemployed Are Less Hopeful

The percentage of underemployed Americans who are "hopeful" that they will be able to find a job in the next four weeks fell to 40% in July -- down from the better levels of May (43%) and June (42%).

No Real Improvement in Job Market Conditions

Gallup's modeling suggests that July's U.S. unemployment rate will remain at 9.5% or possibly decline to 9.4% -- below the 9.6% consensus -- when the government reports its figures on Friday. This is consistent with the ADP report of 42,000 private sector jobs being added and the Challenger report that layoffs remain down. Of course, the hiring and firing of census takers, and seasonal adjustments make the jobs picture particularly murky right now.

While any decline in unemployment may be cheered on Wall Street, the real focus should be on the lack of improvement in underemployment. The magnitude of the 28.4% underemployment rate among those 18 to 29 and 23.0% among those without college education creates significant social and economic challenges for the U.S.

On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke noted that, "significant time will be required to restore the nearly 8 1/2 million jobs that were lost over 2008 and 2009." That same day, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner stated that the unemployment rate is likely to increase at some point during the coming months. If this is the case, then the country's leaders need to figure out how the nation deals not only with the long-term unemployed, but also with the long-term underemployment facing younger and less-educated Americans.

Gallup Daily tracking will provide continuous monitoring of the jobs situation in the weeks and months ahead.

Daily: Employment, Economic Confidence and Job Creation, Consumer Spending

Weekly: Employment, Economic Confidence, Job Creation, Consumer Spending


Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking July 2 to July 31, 2010, with a random sample of 17,922 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is +/- 1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each daily sample includes a minimum quota of 150 cell phone respondents and 850 landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents for gender within region. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted by gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, adults in the household, cell-phone-only status, cell-phone-mostly status, and phone lines. Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2009 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older non-institutionalized population living in U.S. telephone households. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting and sample design.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

'Reinvent Your Future' Event Counsels Atlanta Job Seekers on How to Stand Out and Get Hired

/PRNewswire/ -- There's good news for job seekers in the South; one-in-five employers is adding full-time workers in the third quarter, according to CareerBuilder's Q3 Job Forecast. University of Phoenix and CareerBuilder have teamed up on the "Reinvent Your Future" event, August 4, at the Georgia International Convention Center, to offer employment counsel with workshops on topics such as interview preparation, resume writing and personal presentation. More than 30 locally hiring companies, including New York Life Insurance, Peachtree Financial Solutions, Kaiser Permanente, Windstream Communications, FedEx Ground and AT&T will be present to meet with job candidates. At a time when the job market is especially competitive, "Reinvent Your Future" attendees will gain valuable advice on how to better market themselves to potential employers.

Activity on CareerBuilder.com indicates that Atlanta employers are beginning to initiate growth strategies once again, with jobs in marketing, sales, health care, information technology and business development experiencing the most growth.

"Job seekers must quickly adapt to this new economy to both differentiate themselves and to demonstrate relevance to potential employers," said Brewer Garrick, Corporate Education Liaison Director, University of Phoenix's Atlanta campus. "This event bridges career, education and identity development, helping job seekers take their search to the next level. The tools and information available at 'Reinvent Your Future' will help candidates refresh their job-hunting approach and learn how to best market themselves."

Employers are starting to hire again, but as a result of the recession and the 9.9 percent unemployment rate in the Atlanta area, there is also more competition for open positions.

"In a challenging job market, it's important for job seekers to strengthen their personal brand and stand out from the competition," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder. "This career fair not only gives people the chance to get in front of employers who are hiring, but also to learn how to position their personal brand ahead of the competition through a stronger resume, sharpened interview skills and an expanded social network."

In addition to potential job opportunities and career retooling sessions, New York Times best-selling author, educator and businessman Stedman Graham will offer a keynote address on the subject of identity and leadership development. Graham will discuss the important role personal identity plays in a job search and how to find and make the most of unique strengths, talents and skills.

"My hope is that people walk away feeling excited and empowered to incorporate identity in their job search and that this results in a fulfilling career," said Graham.

The Atlanta "Reinvent Your Future" event is Wednesday, August 4, at the Georgia International Convention Center in the International Ballroom at 2000 Convention Center Concourse from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This free event is open to the general public.

The Atlanta "Reinvent Your Future" event is the fifteenth in a series of 16 career retooling events across the country being hosted by University of Phoenix and CareerBuilder, featuring Stedman Graham. The next event will take place in Philadelphia on Friday, August 6. For more information or to register visit www.reinvent2010.com and follow us on Twitter @Reinvent2010.

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