Career Development

"Hiring has yet to hit a rapid clip, but it's not for lack of job openings. Since December, the economy has added about 130,000 jobs a month, barely more than what is needed to keep up with population growth, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Meanwhile, the number of job openings advertised online has grown by more than 400,000, to 4.2 million, according to the Conference Board, a research organization. That increase continued a trend that began in the spring of 2009."

"Taking time off work when your kid gets the flu or chicken pox is usually a routine matter. But how do you explain your time-off needs if your teen - or spouse or partner -becomes too depressed to get out of bed, or your child becomes too anxious to go to school? Helping out a troubled loved one in such cases poses a dilemma, because the stigma placed on mental illness forces most people to keep it a secret. Yet a new survey shows people are taking off a surprisingly large amount of work time for this purpose. Some 41% of working adults took from four to nine days off work in the past year to deal with a mental-health issue of their own, or of a friend, family member or co-worker, says a recent survey of 669 working adults by Workplace Options."

"While M.B.A. students' quantitative skills are prized by employers, their writing and presentation skills have been a perennial complaint. Employers and writing coaches say business-school graduates tend to ramble, use pretentious vocabulary or pen too-casual emails."

"Giving kids' allowances raises lots of questions for parents: How much to pay? Should the money be tied to chores - and if so, which ones? Can the kids spend the money freely, or must they save part of it?"

"Interruptions at work, from email and phone calls to co-workers dropping by your office to talk, can complicate the juggle, extending your workday and draining personal time. But how far would you go to eliminate them? Would you book a conference room? Turn off your e-mail? Put up police tape outside your cubicle, to keep your co-workers away?"

"WASHINGTON-The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has begun a probe of whether employers and recruitment firms are unlawfully barring the unemployed from applying for certain jobs, the agency's chairman said. EEOC Chairman Jacqueline Berrien said at a hearing Wednesday that the agency began hearing anecdotal reports of the practice last summer, including from news reports and from worker-advocacy groups gathering examples of help-wanted advertisements that said only individuals who currently had jobs should apply. "We'll take a close look at what we heard and consider if there's anything we might need to do to clarify standards," she said."

"Years ago I had a very demanding, harsh boss. Sometimes, I would get so demoralized or overwhelmed that I would duck into the bathroom and cry, though I made sure to never burst into tears in front of my boss or colleagues."

" In 2004, I left a technology company and jumped right into the insurance business. Now I really want to return to tech, but I am having a tough time overcoming and explaining this change. I believe I received very good insight and will do a better job now. How can I convey this to a new potential employer?"

"Community colleges, long regarded as the most accessible realm of higher education, are becoming more difficult to access thanks to record enrollments combined with belt-tightening by state legislatures."

"For Valentine's Day on Monday, Amy McMahon will be celebrating twice. She's preparing a romantic candlelight dinner for her longtime boyfriend and giving him a gift card from his favorite fitness website. That same day, Ms. McMahon will be giving her "work husband" some small heart-shaped cakes and a sentimental card."

"When the number of employees Matt Kaplan managed at a lab at the University of Arizona in Tucson mushroomed from six to 30, the school called in a management coach to make sure he was prepared. What he learned surprised him-his employees thought he was distant and didn't trust their work. "The biggest challenge for me was realizing I couldn't do everything myself," he says. "I had to learn to trust my team, which was a gradual process." Experts say many bosses are similarly clueless about their appearance to employees. Here are five signals you may be one of them."

"There are nearly 14 million people looking for a job, but few have the skills to fill the four computer engineering openings at Gowalla Inc."

"Binkley writes how this year, brightly-colored or patterned stockings - think purple, lace, punk-shredded or leopard patterned - are all the rage among fashionistas. But is this haute hosiery appropriate for the office?"

"Starting salaries of new physicians reveal a growing gender gap. Newly-trained women doctors are being paid significantly lower salaries -about $17,000 less - than their male counterparts, found a new study published in the February issue of Health Affairs."

"The number of online listings containing the keywords "HTML5," "Mobile app," and "Android," have skyrocketed over the past year, making them the fastest growing keywords in jobs posted online, according to data tracked by jobs search engine Indeed.com."

"In my experience, few factors have a bigger impact on the juggle than the emotional climate where you work. At a previous employer years ago, the prevailing employee attitude was ceaseless, simmering resentment and cynicism over ever-rising workloads and a lack of recognition to us for shouldering the burden. I tried to keep an optimistic attitude there, but a fierce desire to get out drove me to work weekends and holidays to land a better job at a better place to work. When I did, my energy for family and personal life soared."

"When should a small-business owner promote an employee?"

"Daniel Nicholson firmly believes in the value of company loyalty. At 46, the vice president of global quality has worked at General Motors in Detroit for 29 years, though he admits that his longevity isn't the norm."

"Facebook gaffes that can cause trouble in the workplace aren't unique to drunken college students anymore. As more companies and their workers tap into the world of blogs, Twitter and Facebook, employers are tripping over legal potholes in social media."

"As Adecco Group North America CEO Tig Gilliam is closely watching the job market. Mr. Gilliam's company, which is part of Switzerland-based Adecco S.A., provides outsourcing services, temp workers and consulting to more than 100,000 clients worldwide. In North America; it has about 900 offices with more than 100,000 staff on assignment and about 4,850 full-time employees. "