Professional Outlook, Inc. Recruiting Specialists

Several recent studies have reinforced our belief—that employee loyalty is declining—around the world. The most recent evidence comes from the well-respected consultancy Mercer in their 2011 “What’s Working”survey—released just last week.

This statistically valid research, conducted with nearly 30,000 employees shows that the percentage of workers seriously considering leaving their organizations has risen significantly, since the last time the survey was conducted. Mercer conducted the previous surveys between 2003 and 2006, prior to the economic downturn.

In many of the 17 geographic markets, the increase in workers considering leaving is 10 percentage points or more. In the United States, the increase was 9 points, from 23 percent in 2005 to 32 percent in 2010. (Not all markets were polled in each survey.)

According to Mindy Fox, a senior partner at Mercer, “. . .lackluster engagement is no longer just a US phenomenon.” In the face of companies looking to drive productivity and efficiencies, this kind of widespread apathy and high turnover can be seriously detrimental to an organization’s business performance, especially given the current economic environment. (more…)

In its recently released Energy Industry Update, ScottMadden, Inc., one of North America’s leading energy consulting firms, highlights the continuing challenges faced by the energy and utilities industries as world economic growth remains slow coming out of the “Great Recession.”

This semi-annual publication features our view of recent significant events and emerging trends in the energy industry. In this issue, ScottMadden observes that aging plants, shifting demand patterns, continued growth of renewable resources, and costly environmental regulations are driving substantial investment needs.

“Our utility clients are seeing some developments that can help moderate rate increases, such as relatively inexpensive natural gas,” said Brad Kitchens, president and CEO of ScottMadden. “But the energy sector still faces a new round of investment requirements and will need to find ways to fund this build-out.” (more…)

If you’re a grimacing grinch or a holiday humbug you’re not alone. Some 35 million Americans actually dread having to be nice during the holidays, according to a recent poll by Consumer Reports.

The survey of holiday jeers, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center asked a nationally representative sample of Americans what, if anything they dread from a list of holiday activities.  Apparently it’s not all peppermint and presents at this joyous time of year— a whopping 90 percent noted at least one thing they dreaded about the winter holidays.

“For all the chatter about nostalgia, family fun and gift giving this time of year, many people don’t like too much of a good thing,” said Tod Marks, senior editor at Consumer Reports.

Among the list of (additional) jeers that frosted folks the most: waiting in lines and crowds (68 percent), putting on weight (37 percent), getting into debt (37 percent), and holiday shopping (28 Percent).

To read the rest of this story or for more information on the latest holiday jeers poll data from Consumer Reports visit www.ConsumerReports.org or click on this link:

http://news.consumerreports.org/money/2011/11/americans-top-holiday-dreads-being-nice-makes-the-list.html

Reportlinker.com recently announced that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

US Oilfield Chemicals Market

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0151108/US-Oilfield-Chemicals-Market.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Petrochemical

US demand to exceed $13 billion in 2015

Demand for oilfield chemicals in the US is expected to surpass $13 billion in 2015. The oilfield chemical market suffered a downturn in 2009 due to the precipitous decline in oil and gas prices. However, oil prices have rebounded and shale gas development has proceeded at a rapid rate. Both of these factors have served to boost oilfield chemical demand despite a substantial slowdown in offshore activity since mid-2010 and low natural gas prices.

Challenges abound for domestic producers

The era of easy oil production in the US has been gone for decades. Since 1970, domestic crude oil output has generally fallen due to depleting reservoirs, environmental restrictions and a lack of investment. The natural gas situation is somewhat more complex. Limited ability to import natural gas has prompted greater reliance on maintaining domestic production levels. Conventional production has begun to suffer from an increasingly mature resource base. Improved technologies have boosted initial well flows, but they have also substantially accelerated depletion rates, forcing producers to drill more wells just to keep natural gas output at existing levels. However, sharp gains in unconventional gas production — especially in shale plays such as the Haynesville and Marcellus Shales — are expected to allow for growth in overall natural gas production. (more…)

Paper Towels, Dishwashing Liquid Top Weapons to Combat Kitchen Mess

With the holiday season nearing, it’s almost time to deck the halls – and scrub them too. Thanksgiving and Christmas may provide extra time to spend with friends and family, but they also trigger more time spent house cleaning.

At-home Thanksgiving and Christmas get-togethers can nearly triple the weekly cleaning time spent by women, according to a national survey conducted by StrategyOne and commissioned by Georgia-Pacific, the maker of Brawny® paper towels. Already, women spend almost two hours (116 minutes) cleaning their homes each week. Holiday gatherings can add almost four hours to that, including time spent before and after at-home parties.

Whether messes are caused by an overflow of sweet potato casserole or puddles of spilled gravy, the survey found Thanksgiving and Christmas to be the messiest holidays of all. Getting clean for the holidays means spending nearly two hours (115 minutes) tidying up before get-togethers and another hour and a half (85 minutes) sopping up after at-home parties end.

Christmas is considered the messiest holiday by majority of women (57.3 percent) followed by Thanksgiving (32.5 percent), New Year’s (3.4 percent) and Halloween (2.5 percent). (more…)

Retailers can breathe a sigh of relief. The holiday shopping season started strong, with bigger crowds spending more dollars than ever before.

According to ShopperTrak — the world’s largest provider of retail and mall foot-traffic counting services — Black Friday sales increased 6.6 percent over the same day last year. This represents $11.40 billion in retail purchases and the biggest dollar amount ever spent during the day. Retail foot-traffic rose accordingly, increasing by 5.1 percent over Black Friday 2010. (more…)

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in October, improved in November. The Index now stands at 56.0 (1985=100), up from 40.9 in October. The Present Situation Index increased to 38.3 from 27.1. The Expectations Index rose to 67.8 from 50.0. The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey®, based on a probability-design random sample, is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was November 15th.

Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “Confidence has bounced back to levels last seen during the summer (July 2011, 59.2). Consumers’ assessment of current conditions finally improved, after six months of steady declines. Consumers’ apprehension regarding the short-term outlook for business conditions, jobs and income prospects eased considerably. Consumers appear to be entering the holiday season in better spirits, though overall readings remain historically weak.” (more…)

Regional and state unemployment rates were generally little changed or slightly lower in October. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment rate decreases, five states posted rate increases, and nine states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported earlier this week. Forty states registered unemployment rate decreases from a year earlier, eight states and the District of Columbia had increases, and two states experienced no change. The national jobless rate was little changed at 9.0 percent, but was 0.7 percentage point lower than a year earlier.

In the world today, we have millions of people who are perfectly trained and very competent to handle jobs that no longer exist! Finally, governments around the world and in the United States are wising up; they are becoming aware of the desperate need for workforce development—and we are not exaggerating.

In fact, there was confirmation from Hilda Solis, the US Secretary of Labor, who, in a conference call with reporters, said, “Today, we’re making a strategic investment in our work force. Right now, there are high-growth industries in this country that can’t find skilled labor to fill open positions. We need to train our workers to fill them. Community colleges understand the needs of local employers.”

In the US, community colleges will receive about USD $500-million in federal grants in late September, the first of four payments in a USD $2-billion plan announced last year that is intended to improve career development programs and train a currently unemployable workforce. (more…)

Starting salaries for white-collar workers are expected to rise by 3.4 percent on average in 2012, according to staffing firm Robert Half International.

That’s a bigger boost than in the past couple years, according to Robert Half. The company estimates that salaries for white collar workers rose 2.8 percent in 2011 and actually declined by 0.4 percent in 2010. (The 2010 figure excluded advertising and marketing positions.)

In 2009, salaries also rose by 3.4 percent.

The company’s estimates for annual starting salary boosts are based on the thousands of job negotiations it handles each year, combined with other research. The company only looks at starting salaries for its salary guide because other factors such as seniority and job performance can affect pay down the line.