The number of job openings in May was 3.0 million, unchanged from April. The number of job openings in May was 862,000 higher than in July 2009 (the series trough) but remains well below the 4.4 million openings when the recession began in December 2007.The following graph shows job openings (yellow line), hires (purple), Layoff, Discharges and other (red column), and Quits (light blue column) from the JOLTS.

Unfortunately this is a new series and only started in December 2000.

Note: The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. This report is for May, the most recent (and even more dismal) employment report was for June.

Notice that hires (purple) and total separations (red and blue columns stacked) are pretty close each month. Read more…

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Production at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Union City abruptly ended Monday — well before the plant was expected to close for good.

The news came as a surprise to workers and officials in this corner of Northwest Tennessee, about 115 miles northeast of Memphis, where Goodyear Tire has been the dominant employer since opening in 1968.

In February, when the Akron, Ohio-based tiremaker announced its intentions, it said the closing would take place by “year end.”

But on Sunday, thepany informed Local 878L of the United Steelworkers that it was over.

Many of the 1,800 workers still employed at the plant learned of the closing as they arrived at work at the beginning of their shift. The first group informed were employees arriving to work third shift at 11 p.m. on Sunday; first-shift workers received word at 7 a.m.

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Sallie Hughes is the owner of Dogs Rule Day Care and School in Midtown. The business recently reopened after closing due to flooding.

The dog days of summer are back after an early spring storm severely damaged a Midtown doggie day care.

The owners of Dogs Rule Day Care and School said it will take more than a tornado warning to keep them from weing furry friends.

“We’ve got the best clientele anyone could ask for,” said Sallie Hughes, co-owner of Dogs Rule, which closed for 10 weeks after a storm damaged the interior of their building at 2265 Central.

“They’ve been loyal and we’re finding that they areing back,” said Hughes.

Dogs Rule reopened Tuesday.

On April 26, one of several severe thunderstorms with high winds broke open a skylight on the building’s roof allowing water to saturate 90 percent of the walls inside.

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ANZ-owned OnePath has launched a program to help financial advisers to prepare for the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

Called FutureReady, the program provides information on the reforms and includes tools to help advisers transition to a fee-for-service model.

ANZ GM Advice and Distribution Paul Barrett told insuranceNEWS.com.au the program is designed for both life insurance and wealth management advisers.

“The needs of a life insurance adviser under FOFA is very much the same as the wealth adviser,” he said.

“Both need help in making decisions on areas such as pricing, segmentation of clients, statements of advice and client relationship management.

“It is a small business tool to help the life insurer run their business.”

The program includes an online knowledge support hub with technical papers, a step-by-step guide and tool kit for transitioning to a fee-for-service model and the support of a sales team trained in this remuneration model.

It has been set up to handle commissions being banned from life insurance sales through superannuation.

“We still don’t think that policy is ideal, but we have to prepare advisers for the changes if they do happen,” Mr Barrett said.

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Other firms are based abroad and your office is in Bulgaria, would you say this is a difficulty or an advantage?

Thats an advantage. In the early days of the transition following the decline of communism it was very conventional for foreign legal corporations, foreign investment firms, project firms, to come, stay 10 days, go back, come stay 10 days the economies of these areas have grown to the point where you cannot do that, youve got to be here twenty-four / 7, so we think being here full time is a practical necessity to be handy.

The situation in Bulgaria is dynamic, it changes each day and if you are back in the US, or London, or some other place, you are behind, I mean it. So the power to stay real time, current with what is going on on the market, is vital.

I suspect we have got to be clear its not as attractive as it used to be three years ago.

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