Job Openings & Labor Turnover: March 2008. On the last business day of March, there were 3.7 million job openings in the United States, and the job openings rate was 2.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. The job openings, hires, and total separations rates were essentially unchanged in March. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the total nonfarm sector by industry and geographic region.

Although the month-to-month changes in job openings, hires, and turnover data are often small, the trends over time are notable. The job openings rate remained essentially flat from August 2006 through September 2007 then began trending downward; the rate in March was at the lowest point since mid-2005. The hires rate has had an overall downward trend since July 2006, and has reached the lowest level since early 2004. The separations rate has had an overall downward trend since November 2006.

Regional and State Employment and Unemployment: April 2008. Regional and State unemployment rates were little changed in April. Overall, 28 States and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate decreases, 14 States registered increases, and 8 States had no change, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported. Over the year, jobless rates were up in 35 States and the District of Columbia, down in 13 States, and unchanged in 2 States. The national unemployment rate, at 5.0 percent, was little changed between March and April, but was up from 4.5 percent a year earlier.

CareerTV, a career and employer video website, has chosen HireVue, as its exclusive video interview partner. This partnership brings together the leading online video recruitment tools - video interviews and employer videos - and highlights the increasing role of Internet video in today's recruiting market. CareerTV and HireVue will offer an integrated video solution to employers seeking to maximize their recruiting efforts.

EmploymentCrossing.com has launched a new job site 100KCrossing.com that researches and consolidates jobs over $100K from other job sites and employer websites and puts jobs that pay over 100K on its site. As a research company, it does not charge employers to post job listings.

Sibson Consulting, providers of strategic human resources solutions, enters into a strategic alliance with Morneau Sobeco, a Canadian-owned pension and benefits consulting and outsourcing firm. The firms will collaborate on offering benefits administration outsourcing services to Sibson clients, and employee benefits and HR consulting services to Morneau Sobeco clients in the U.S.

The RightThing, Inc., specializing in customized recruitment process outsourcing(RPO), announced the opening opens a second recruitment operations center in Costa Mesa, CA. Supporting the direct needs of The RightThing's clients, the facility will solely focus on the recruitment of hard-to-fill, exempt hires.

The World According to Sal
Sal Iunuzzi, CEO of Monster.com, told The Wall Street Journal, "I think the ad business has slowed down because we slowed it down. We took a lot of ads down. I think there is bigger opportunity putting the ads on a wider band of sites. Suppose I create a Military.com (which is a business unit of Monster Worldwide) for France, for the U.K., for the Netherlands, Germany, etc. Not only is it growth in my recruiting businesses, but that's where I can get a lot of growth for my advertising business."