A group of industry-leading Fortune 500 companies today launched AllianceQ, an organization "created to build a free, exclusive, and perpetually growing pool of job candidates to drive down its members' cost of recruiting." Founding members include Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), Baxter, Best Buy Co., Inc., Entergy Corporation, FPL Group (Florida Power & Light Company, FPL Energy), Starbucks, and Wachovia Corporation. The technology behind AllianceQ continually matches job candidates to employment vacancies across all Alliance member organizations. The result is that participating companies now have a free way to source new job candidates, and can offer those job candidates they cannot hire, opportunities with other AllianceQ members.

List of 2009 Background Screening Trends. employeescreenIQ, an employment screening company, announced its 2009 list of 10 background-screening trends. The list is designed to provide hiring professionals with information about important screening topics in preparation for the upcoming year.

In the midst of the summer job search, CollegeGrad.com releases its listing of the Top 25 Cities for July 2008 for entry-level job openings. For the third year in a row, New York tops the list of cities with the most entry-level job openings. Also the largest city on the list, entry-level openings in New York account for more than 3,600 jobs. Houston ranked number two with 2,500 entry level openings. This is the highest finish Houston has seen in three years, and accounts for six percent of all openings among the Top 25 cities.

eQuest, job posting and Internet recruitment management services firm, has expanded its OFCCP compliance reach through its new partnership with Hire A Hero, an online community for veterans with a variety of backgrounds established to locate and secure meaningful employment. This a non-profit initiative founded by the Armed Forces Support Foundation.

FISHER/UNITECH, an engineering technologies firm serving the Midwest, announced new value-added services for engineering and information technology (IT) staffing. The company aims to become a strategic asset and partner to clients in optimizing their human resource (HR) functions through supplemental staffing to increase productivity and reduce costs. Placement services range from job description to verification including locating candidates, applicant screening, preparing interviews, facilitating negotiations and verifying credentials.

ClearPoint Business Resources, Inc., a provider of innovative workforce management solutions, has entered into a partnership agreement with Net-Temps, Inc. to bring additional supplier resources to ClearPoint's already robust iLabor(TM) Supplier Network.

Survey Says
According to the latest CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 8,700 workers nationwide, the impact of escalating fuel costs has taken its toll on American commuters. Of the 89 percent of workers, who said they drive to work, nearly half (47 percent) reported they had to give up something in order to afford the gas needed for their commute.

    -- 35% ate out less
    -- 31% spent less money on entertainment
    -- 27% bought less expensive groceries
    -- 24% went shopping for clothes less
    -- 21% did not go on vacation
    -- 11% eliminated cable, magazine subscriptions, etc.
    --   9% did not attend a function where they would be expected to bring a gift
    --   4% cut back on their child's extracurricular activities.