Oddly I know a few people looking to switch jobs right now. This seems a little nutty to me. My advice – um, don’t. The unemployment situation is not only not improving but it’s steadily getting worse.

If you’ve got a job it’s likely smart to hang onto it while you can. Not to be a downer, but according to a report this week at CNN Money, the unemployment rate charged upwards for the ninth straight month in June, climbing to 9.5% from 9.4%, and hitting another 26-year high.
Additionally this report notes that it’s predicted that unemployment rates will hit 9.6% …read more

Yesterday we looked at Tips for Surviving Unemployment – Part 1. Not only are there tips in the post, but readers came up with some great tips in the comments too, so be sure to check it out. Today some more tips. The following tips are mainly related to what to do when you need cash asap because it may take a while to find a new job.
Don’t ignore debt: It’s much better to call your lenders for car payments, phone bills, or credit, then to ignore the pile. Explain the situation. Everyone knows that times are tough and most …read more

Surviving unemployment can be tough, but with the current unemployment rate at 8.9% surviving, or trying to, is exactly what many are having to do. Following are some tips that can help you out if you find yourself with a pink slip; FYI we’ll be looking at more tips later.

Stay calm: Not easy I know, but if you’re out of work you’re going to be searching and searching on top of being frazzled is going to make the situation worse.
Get organized: Get your job search organized well. For example…

Look up old contacts (or current) who may have job leads. Send …read more

Job Search
Wow, are you shocked by this news? It’s not a huge surprise is it?
According to comScore:

The job search category has seen the number of visitors grow 51 percent to 18.8 million visitors in 2008.
The final months of the year, which tend to experience low job searching behavior, were instead some of the most heavily trafficked months of 2008.

Stats:
“CareerBuilder.com Job Search led the category with 9.1 million visitors, up 78 percent versus year ago, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs Job Search with 5.6 million visitors (up 146 percent) and Indeed.com Job Search with 5.1 million visitors (up 88 percent). SimplyHired, …read more

Not to sound all sexist with that title, but men make more than women. They always have, and lamely, they continue to. Current statistics show that the average man will make up to $2 million more than the average woman over his entire career. Egad.

What can you do…

There’s no hard and fast way to know if you can get a raise at work. Your contract may be set in stone, or you may have a lame boss, or company issues to deal with. However, if you get a meeting and a chance to negotiate you could try the following…
Before hand: Visit Salary.com, check out similar pay for other same-type positions in your area, and look at the Department of Labor website. All of these can give you fair wage info about your particular position, which means you’re ready to present those figures and negotiate smartly.
Be a decent …read more