Futurity.org » employment

Undocumented grads face tough road

William Harms-Chicago — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 17:52:08 +0000

U. CHICAGO (US) — Undocumented young adults raised and college-educated in the U.S. are often unable to rise above the menial labor of their parents with no prospects of working in their chosen professions.

“This is a population of young people who, because of their legal integration through the school system, learned to work hard and pursue the American dream,” says Roberto G. Gonzales, assistant professor of social service administration at the University of Chicago.

“Many of them grew up believing that being able to speak English and having an education should be able to get them more than their parents.”

For income gap, (city) size matters

Susan Hagen-Rochester — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:15:28 +0000

U. ROCHESTER (US) — The unique economies of larger cities in the U.S. are partially responsible for the gap between rich and poor, according to a new study.

“Our results show that overall up to one-third of the growth in the wage gap between the rich and the poor is driven by city size independent of workers’ skills,” says Ronni Pavan, assistant professor of economics at the University of Rochester.

Reference letters cost women jobs?

Jessica Stark-Rice — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:32:04 +0000

RICE (US) — Qualities mentioned in recommendation letters for women differ sharply from those for men, and those differences may hurt a woman’s chance of being hired or promoted.

Researchers reviewed 624 letters of recommendation for 194 applicants for eight junior faculty positions at a U.S. university. They found that letter writers conformed to traditional gender schemas when describing candidates.

Few options for job seekers with disabilities

Brendan Lynch-KU — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 21:10:57 +0000

U. KANSAS (US)—Two major federal programs to assist the unemployed have inadequacies in aiding people with physical or mental health impairments, new research shows.

The study—published recently in the Career Development Quarterly—focused on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, which requires recipients to find employment within two years, and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which led to the establishment of “One-Stop” centers to cluster services for the unemployed.

Hourly workers hit hard by recession

William Harms-Chicago — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:16:37 +0000

U. CHICAGO (US)—A record number of U.S. workers are involuntarily working part-time due to reduced hours or the inability to find a full-time job.

Hourly workers—the majority of the wage and salary workforce—are especially susceptible to reduced, irregular, and fluctuating hours—and the myriad of challenges associated with them—according to a new report.

Smart job seekers skip Mad Men martinis

Bernie DeGroat-Michigan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 19:41:11 +0000

U. MICHIGAN/U. PENNSYLVANIA (US)—Drinking alcohol during a lunch or dinner job interview—even when the boss does—could lower the likelihood of getting hired, according to a new study.

“Alcohol consumption plays a prominent role in many professional interactions, including job interviews, negotiations, and informal meetings,” says Scott Rick, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan.

Why modest guys might not get the job

Steve Manas-Rutgers — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:55:21 +0000

RUTGERS (US)—A new study finds a backlash against men who act modestly in a job interview.

According to Corinne Moss-Racusin, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Rutgers, applicants in staged interviews were judged equally competent, but the “modest” males were less liked—a sign of social backlash.

GM crop grows jobs for women in India

Peter Dunn-Warwick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:43:20 +0000

U. WARWICK (UK)—The use of a particular genetically modified (GM) crop in India produced massive benefits in the earnings and employment opportunities for rural Indian women, a new study shows.

Researchers in the U.K and Germany found that the crop—GM insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis toxin (Bt) cotton—generated not only higher income for rural workers but also more employment, especially for hired female labor. Results were reported recently in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Living well down on the farm

Debra Levey Larson-Illinois — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:00:11 +0000

Do communities keep their kids in school? Are their unemployment and poverty rates low? Are housing conditions good and the folks healthy? “When we started our research, people wondered whether we would find any prosperous rural communities at all using those criteria. But more than 300 of the nation’s rural counties did better than the nation,” says Andrew Isserman. (Enlarge map.)

U. ILLINOIS (US)—“Rural” is often synonymous with low incomes, limited economic opportunity, and poor schools, but much of rural America is actually prosperous, particularly in the Midwest and Plains, a new study finds.

“Growth and income are the conventional measures of community success,” says Andrew Isserman, professor of agriculture and consumer economics at the University of Illinois.

BEST OF 2009: Bad bosses sabotage to boost ego

Robert Sanders-UC Berkeley — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:33:49 +0000

“Incompetence alone doesn’t lead to aggression,” says Serena Chen, coauthor of the study. “It’s the combination of having a high-power role and fearing that one is not up to the task that causes power holders to lash out.”

UC BERKELEY (US)—Bosses who are in over their heads are more likely to bully subordinates. That’s because feelings of inadequacy trigger them to lash out at those around them.

In a new twist on the adage “power corrupts,” researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California have found a direct link among supervisors and upper management between self-perceived incompetence and aggression.