Real Earnings in January 2008
Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.5 percent from December 2007 to January 2008 after seasonal adjustment, according to preliminary data. A 0.3-percent decrease in average weekly hours and a 0.4-percent increase in the CPI-W were partially offset by a 0.2 percent increase in average hourly earnings. Average weekly earnings rose by 3.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from January 2007 to January 2008. After deflation by the CPI-W, average weekly earnings decreased by 1.4 percent. Before adjustment for seasonal change and inflation, average weekly earnings were $592.74 in January 2008, compared with $573.14 a year earlier.

Reveille & Hyperbole
Corporate recruiters have long surfed the Web to vet potential hires, but now they're also surfing blogs to unearth job candidates, expanding their talent pool, and gaining insights they say they can't get from resumes and interviews. How Blogs Are Changing The Recruiting Landscape, a Wall Street Journal report.

Some of the most pervasive beliefs about the workforce have recently been challenged by findings from the Towers Perrin 2007 Global Workforce Study, among them, that workers are highly stressed, that they resent the demands of new technologies and that they dislike their bosses.

JobApp Network, Inc., a national provider of a leading subscription-based, automated phone and web solution for hourly and field-level hiring, launches its Spanish language, phone-based system. JobApp Network provides integrated and automated web and phone-based hiring solutions, built specifically for field hiring at the store, restaurant, facility, or factory level.

Momentum, a Volt Information Sciences Company specializing in recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services, partners with job-posting distribution company eQuest. Through this alliance, Momentum has integrated eQuest's job posting platform into its applicant tracking technology.

CreativeHub.com, an online freelance marketplace for creative talent. Its connections are optimized by the user's merit-based rating, which is based on unique algorithms developed by award-winning Wharton Business School statistics professors. Since launching in February 2008, the site has attracted 500 members and counts Unilever's AXE grooming products brand as one of its first clients.

Variety, in association with Jobster, launch a social networking website for the entertainment business. The Biz serves as on online community for media professionals who can search for jobs, pitch projects, and exchange ideas. It also will serve as a venue for job recruiters to find candidates based on specific interests, skills, and experience.

Indepth
The National Law Journal (February 18, 2008): Employment tests may fail legal exam. A growing number of employers are using employment exams - including aptitude tests - to weed out potentially bad hires, a practice that has triggered an increase in complaints and legal actions.

The recent boom in online job applications yielding huge numbers of applicants has contributed heavily to the practice, lawyers note, along with post-Sept. 11 fears about workplace security and the high costs of hiring mistakes.

Meanwhile, the popularity of employment tests has caught the attention of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has seen a dramatic increase in the number of discrimination complaints it has received arising from job screening tests: from 26 in 2003, to 141 in 2006.

"This is an enforcement priority for the EEOC right now," said Michael Rosen, a management-side attorney at Boston's Foley Hoag. "That in and of itself is something that employers should be paying attention to."

Two Big Settlements
Adding to employers' fears are recent hefty settlements involving testing procedures, including a class action against Ford Motor Co. in which Ford paid $1.6 million in 2007 to settle claims that black applicants were unfairly rejected for an apprenticeship program after taking a written test that measured verbal, numerical and spatial reasoning.

Plaintiffs alleged that the test had a disparate impact on black applicants, and accused Ford of not adopting an alternative test that was less discriminatory. EEOC v. Ford Motor Co. and United Automobile Workers of America, No. 1:07-CV-00703 (S.D. Ohio).

Also last year, shipping giant FedEx Corp. settled a discrimination lawsuit for $54.9 million to resolve, among other things, claims that its "Basic Skills Test," which was a prerequisite to earning a promotion, had an adverse impact on minorities. Satchell v. FedEx Express, No. 3-03659 (N.D. Calif.).

EEOC officials stressed that they're not trying to scare employers away from using employment tests - just urging them to be careful or face possible litigation.

Reed Russell, legal counsel to the EEOC, said that employment screening tests run the risk of violating federal discrimination laws, particularly if they have a disparate impact on a protected group, such as minorities or the elderly. Certain personality or integrity tests could also violate the Americans With Disabilities Act by asking questions that could reveal a mental illness or disability.

"We recognize that tests can be a very effective management tool. We don't want to discourage employees from using well-developed and -designed tests that help their businesses," Russell said. "What we are saying is, 'Please be aware of the legal requirements and please develop these tests not haphazardly.' "

Keith Pyburn, an attorney in Atlanta-based Fisher & Phillips' New Orleans office, has had dozens of clients who use employment tests. He believes that pre-employment screening tests "are getting a bad name." "[T]here are some charlatans out there selling crap. But tests that are well developed and carefully used get a bad name," said Pyburn. He believes that properly crafted mental and mechanical ability tests can predict future job performance.

Vanessa Griffith, a management-side attorney in the Dallas office of Houston-based Vinson & Elkins, said that there is a "growing dissatisfaction with the old interview/résumé evaluation. Employers cannot get information about how employees have done on prior jobs. "I think employers are constantly struggling with 'How do we improve the selection process?' They're not trying to discriminate [using tests] They're struggling with 'How do we do it?' "

Employee-rights attorneys, meanwhile, welcome tighter federal scrutiny of employment testing procedures.

"I'm always concerned about testing being a pretext to enable employers to discriminate. And I think that unless they are strictly related to specific job functions, they should be discouraged," said employee-rights attorney John West of Allred, Maroko & Goldberg in Los Angeles.

West is concerned that employers are using tests "to indiscreetly find out if they should anticipate disability claims." He also views exams such as math and literacy tests as "a guarantee for discrimination" that can have a disproportionate impact on minorities and possibly on people with learning disabilities.