South Korea:
Still searching for gender balance
Celebrating International Women's Day on March 8, I would like to give a second thought to gender equality in Korean society. Gender equality here has made great progress in terms of policy ―we have passed or revised the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, the Special Law on Sexual Violence, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, the Maternity Protection Act, the Sex Trade and Trafficking Prevention Act and the Child Care Act, while the patriarchal family registry system has been abolished. Nevertheless, the habitual practices of gender discrimination remain in the workplace and at home. The social concepts and patriarchal ideologies that have taken root in daily life cannot be changed easily. Frustratingly, the formality of the legal system is not very helpful in correcting actual discrimination. (JoongAngDaily)

UK:
JobPositive:
Want to dip your toe in the water of Internet recruitment? Or maybe you're looking for an affordable web solution to back up a specific press advertising campaign? Or perhaps you simply want an entry-level website that will enable you to assess the potential of Candidate Relationship Management (CRM). Then a JobPositive™ MicroSite is the answer. (JobPositive)

Britain cracks down on immigration
Britain has unveiled a tougher immigration system that has been modelled on the points-based Australian scheme. The UK's new system will make it easier for highly skilled, younger workers to enter Britain. Latest statistics show more than 200,000 people migrated to the UK in 2004, a 50 per cent increase on the previous year. The new system will make it more difficult for low-skilled workers who are not part of the European Union to enter Britain. (ABCAustralia)

Clarke Unveils Immigration ''Points System''
Thousands of low-skilled foreign workers from outside the European Union will no longer be allowed to work in Britain under a new points-based immigration system unveiled today, Tuesday's online edition of the Guardian informs. The new system, announced by the home secretary Charles Clarke, will favor foreigners who have skills that the British workforce lacks. (MediaFax)


US:
Automotive Help wanted!
A survey in January by Automotive Retailing Today, an auto-dealer trade association, found 37,329 service jobs open in the United States, 8,461 of them in the Southeast.
And that's just at auto dealerships, said Denise Patton-Pace, the association's director. Many more jobs are open at independent auto-repair shops and with companies operating fleets of cars and trucks.  "If you open the paper, you will see mechanic jobs advertised in probably half the dealerships," said Carter Myers of Charlottesville, the association's incoming national chairman. (TimesDispatch)

Amid Shortage, Nurse Recruitment Goes Global
The joke circulating among doctors in the Philippines goes something like this: What's the new prerequisite for getting into nursing school? An M.D.That's because Filipino doctors are indeed heading back to school in great numbers to become nurses. But the punch line speaks more deeply to an unexpected twist in labor shortages a half a world away: Many of them are heading with their new degrees to the United States, where the scarcity of nurses and other health care professionals could reach critical levels. The demand is expected to become more acute as the nation's 78 million baby boomers get older. A shortage of more than 1 million nurses — amid a work force of 3 million — is expected by 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates. (ABCNews)

US illegal migrants up almost 500,000 a year
The number of illegal immigrants in the US has continued to grow by nearly half a million each year in spite of US efforts to increase security at the country's borders, according to a survey released on Tuesday. The study, by the Pew Hispanic Center, said that the population of unauthorised migrants reached between 11.5m and 12m last year, accounting for nearly a third of the foreign-born population in the US. That number is up from roughly 8.4m in 2000. The continued rise was driven primarily by the strong demand for low-skilled work in the US. "What we're seeing is a labour migration that is tied to employment opportunities," said Jeffrey Passel, the study's author. (Financial Times)





Survey Sez:
Monthly Measure of Worker Confidence Climbs 5.6 Points in February
The Hudson Employment IndexSM climbed to 108.2 in February, up 5.6 points from January's 102.6 reading. The rise is attributed to a significant increase in the percentage of workers and managers who expect their employers to hire, as well as improved expectations regarding personal finances. The latest Index is among the strongest readings on record, and considerably higher than the 102 recorded in February 2005.

Workforce Foresees Hiring Bump
Workers overall were more likely to anticipate hiring in February than at the very start of the year. One-third (33 percent) of the workforce indicated their firms had plans to hire, the most optimistic they have been in this respect since October 2004. This figure had held steady near 30 percent for the last four months. Notably, 45 percent of managers in the private sector projected an increase in head-count, up from 38 percent in January. There was also a four-point jump to 34 percent in the number of all managers forecasting hiring within their organization.

"On the heels of a conservative start to the year, managers are feeling more comfortable putting their 2006 hiring plans in gear," said Steve Wolfe, executive vice president, Hudson, North America. "This news along with a strong GDP, lower unemployment rates and the growing demand for skilled labor in certain sectors such as healthcare, financial services and IT are strong indications that the economy is growing steadily."

Confidence in Personal Finances Supports Worker Optimism
Worker sentiment regarding their financial situations also improved in February. The number who rated their finances favorably (good or excellent) was at its highest level on record at 46 percent. At the same time, there was a one-point increase among employees who said their finances were improving to 43 percent, a level that has not been topped since last February.

	All Workers February 2006	All Managers February 2006	Private Sector Managers February 2006	All Workers February 2005
Hudson Employment Index	108.2	119.4	126.7	102.0
Expected hiring	33%	34%	45%	31%
Expect lay offs	17%	16%	14%	18%
Personal finances improving	43%	50%	54%	44%

Hudson, one of the world's leading professional staffing, outsourcing and human capital solutions providers, publishes the Hudson Employment Index, a monthly measure of U.S. worker confidence in the employment market.  Results are not seasonally adjusted.  Next month's Hudson Employment Index will be released on April 5.

The Hudson Employment Index
The Hudson Employment Index (Hudson-Index.com) is based on monthly telephone surveys with approximately 9,000 U.S. workers.  The Index tracks aggregate employment trends regarding career opportunities, hiring intentions, job satisfaction and retention. The data is compiled each month by Rasmussen Reports, LLC, an independent research firm (www.RasmussenReports.com). 

Survey results are segmented by 11 cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.  The Index surveys five occupational sectors: accounting and finance, health care, information technology, manufacturing and legal. The Hudson Employment Index also measures employee confidence by age, gender, race and compensation.

Data reported in this release is based on a national telephone survey of 9,536 working Americans during the month of February.   The margin of sampling error for a survey based on this number of interviews is approximately +/-1 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence. The data is not seasonally adjusted.  It will be reviewed at year-end to determine if seasonal adjustments are appropriate.  The Hudson Employment Index is a service mark owned by Hudson Highland Group, Inc.





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