A View of 2010 Employment Trends

Frozen iguanas are falling from trees in Ft. Lauderdale, the Tide rolled over Texas in Pasadena and, yes Kevin, there is smog in LA but convertible tops are down on the 405 Freeway!

Darin and Lisa spent time with Roger on Tuesday in the Orange County and the Inland Empire, continuing to integrate Internet strategy with operations. The uber techies were so impressed by June Jasmin's savvy, and her toys, that they couldn't even wait to get home to San Clemente before buying their very own NetBook.

Kristin is busy measuring and ordering furniture the new corporate office space, and by the way, it needs to be here before next month! We will be moving from Burbank to Glendale, leaving the old and questionable location in Burbank for a gorgeous and modern space in Glendale with more parking and no increase in rent!

Conversational media, web development and Internet search placement efforts are blowing it through the roof and Google Analytics proves it as each day we receive more hits than the last. Heidi works endlessly with the branches on this and results are visible!

In December, employment in temporary help services increased by 46,500 while the country as a whole lost 85,000 jobs.

Roger wisely cautions us to manage expectations despite all of the media regarding the uptick in the temp staffing industry and reminds us to be smart and nimble in the first quarter approach to make sure the economy and labor market has legs beneath it before we get too excited. It is too late for me as I am already too excited.

Jennifer's region continues to work on diversification, redefining and finalizing Q1 target lists, a lot of new orders for call centers, banking and benefit administration, a few new orders in title and escrow in San Diego and a Las Vegas contract in negotiation. We have been selected as a new vendor for a financial firm and will be filling those orders by end of the quarter.

In Kevin's region, the Florida Supreme Court adopted a program in which all foreclosure cases in the state courts that involve residential property will be referred to mediation. This and changes in short sale laws will have an effect on our clients.

Stephanie in Ft. Lauderdale is seeing continued growth in our mobile closing business and David's phone has been ringing off the hook with buzz from his latest hot sheet!

Bob May's group, VMS national staffing, is already off to a fantastic start of the year. Bob has been working with clients to address State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) increases and dialog has been open and receptive. We have great coverage on all of our requirements this week. Phones had slowed in December and now there seems to be a "New Years Resolution to get back to work." We are especially busy with telecommunications and light industrial. 78 reqs since Monday!

Linda, in Orlando had a great 2009 and is not quite ready to give up last year although it has been a good week so far with new credit union business on the horizon. Unfortunately there have been some client lay offs but also some orders, a new contract and lots of room to grow as "no one has even heard of Workway!"

Orlando and Dallas are working together for a national client and modeling our vision of Chaotic Communication in which any employee can talk to any client and collaborate with any other employee in order to solve someone's problem!

Donna, in Dallas, had the "most phenomenal payroll week ever" and online timecards are helping her branch to focus. The Dallas/Richardson, TX office is filling another 10 customer service positions today, we have candidates interviewing for an in-house recruiter position and have sealed a deal to staff a new security client with 20 possible incoming reqs! We are also networking and resourcing to fill direct hire placements in that region.

Susan, in Arizona, was all fired up to make calls until losing her voice to a nasty bug. Susan, please obey doctor's orders, spend the weekend in silence and restore your vocals. The doctor even offered to write her a note! Phoenix had a good year overall in 2009 and the branch is looking forward to 2010.

Shawn's region, Orange County title, escrow and mortgage enjoyed a stellar year despite the poor economy with the Irvine branch reaching $8 million in sales! There is activity in title, including orders for searchers, commercial examiners, a title and an escrow officer. The Inland Empire has established a relationship with a new client and has some new title starts lined up for Monday.

We have two new Twitter accounts: Hot Sheets, promoting available candidates http://twitter.com/WorkwayTalent and Featured Jobs http://twitter.com/WorkwayJobs. While the posting strategy is still being streamlined and not nearly all of our jobs or candidates are posted yet, they are live and running.

Thank you, watch for frigid lizards or work on your tan depending where you live and have a wonderful weekend!

Diane Prince Johnston
Executive Vice President, Workway