Hiring on Shine

How does this sound? Tax credits for companies that create new jobs.

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While there are some hopeful signs pointing to a recovering economy, it's little comfort for the 9.8 percent percent of Americans who remain unemployed. Employment is always the last thing to rebound after a recession, so it's hard to be joyful about any forward movement when so many people are still struggling to find work and pay their bills.

That could be why support is building among Republicans and Democrats in Congress for a tax credit for companies that create new jobs.

Do employers care about happy employees?

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A few years ago the phrase "war for talent" was all the rage in discussions of hiring trends. The thinking was that as aging boomers started to move out of the workforce, there would be a fight to capture the young people rushing in to take their places.

Consultants gave advice about how to court younger workers who craved different things than their boomer predecessors, and authors and bloggers wrote volumes about demystifying this new breed of worker. (Here’s a post I wrote about this for the New York Times back in 2007.)

Then the economy fell apart and talk of firing replaced talk of hiring. But it's possible that all that talent war talk is coming back.

Three commands for job-hunting success

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Last week I shared these simple commands (3 Be's) as part of the "Money & Main Street" segment on CNN.com:

Be flexible. You may have to look outside your industry, your town, your salary range in order to find a job today. You may have…

Getting organized for a job search

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By Sarah Welch and Alicia Rockmore

Someone we know described the feeling he had the moment he was told he was being laid-off a few weeks ago.

"My ears started to ring, my chest got tight and everything around me seemed to fade into the background. It was as though my world stopped…

User post: Finding a job (or a summer job) if you are a recent college graduate in a tough job market

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If you are like me, you have a child, a niece, a nephew or friends with children that are students in need of a job.

My daughter and my niece both thought they had jobs lined up -- my daughter for the summer and my niece upon graduation -- only to find that hiring plans had…

Where the jobs are—share your stories

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Since I started looking into where the jobs are and who's hiring now, a few things have become clear:

1. Some of the very same companies firing people are hiring in other departments or for other functions. But companies don't seem committed to retraining their employees, so people will need to invest in keeping their skills current.

2. Many of the people turning to part-time work, consulting, freelancing and side businesses as stopgap measures will likely find that these activities are the new normal rather than a transitional place.

3. Companies and organizations that help people save money, find jobs, or retool their career skills, are hiring and growing.

What's your take on all of this? Do you agree or disagree with my assessments? Have you found untapped or under-the-radar opportunities in this new economy?