The Careers Builder will build your career to explore Your Future. Latest Careers/Job's Advice from the Job Pros, Job Hiring/Postings, Who is Hiring this Week & Month, Who is Hiring Now and a lot more ... Getting started today!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Hiring News: The Latest Job Openings

Given the challenges of finding a job in the current market, we thought we'd track down the latest hiring information and let you know which businesses and organizations currently have a significant number of openings.

As difficult as it is searching for a job these days, news keeps coming in about companies with hundreds if not thousands of job openings. While a thousand new jobs might not seem like much with millions of Americans unemployed, such hiring news does represent a step in the right direction.

As new information on companies hiring continues to come in, we'll try to point out which areas of the country will benefit the most from these job opportunities to help you find positions relevant to your current job search.

Most Recent

10,000 Walmart Jobs in the Chicago Area
Walmart has big plans for job creation in Illinois. The massive retailer just announced two new Chicago-area stores that will boost the company to the projected creation of 10,000 jobs in the area by 2015.
Walmart is planning the newly announced small and mid-size stores in the West Englewood community, which is reported to be the heart of a "food desert" and one of Chicago's most under-served communities by large grocery stores.


IKEA Now Hiring
Now that Americans are feeling safer about their jobs, many have returned to furnishing and decorating their homes. That could be one of the reasons why Scandinavian furniture store IKEA is expanding and taking on more employees.
Whatever the cause, they're opening a big new store in Centennial, near Denver, Colo., and hiring more than 450 employees for that location. But there are also hundreds of openings in other parts of the country -- and in other parts of the world, for that matter.


YouTube is Hiring
All that time you spend on YouTube watching videos might not be in vain after all! YouTube is looking to expand its staff by more than 30 percent, adding at least an additional 200 jobs. The video company expects 2011 to be its biggest hiring year ever.


100,000 Jobs for Vets
Eleven major U.S. firms have joined together in a pledge to hire 100,000 veterans and military personnel after they've finished serving the country over the next several years. Huge corporations such as JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, Verizon and Cisco are among those participating.



Hewlett-Packard Looking for Thousands
Further proving that if you're a good software engineer, you can write your own ticket, Palo Alto, California-based tech firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) was advertising 2,383 openings at last count, with openings for software developers, testers, designers, business operations specialists, strategic development managers and engineers, among other positions.


Featured

Ford Focus Ford Focus Suppliers Add 5,500 New Jobs
One of the important things to remember about the recovery of the American auto industry is that when one model is a hit, it's not just good news for the specific manufacturer that puts it out it means more profits and more jobs for all the companies that provide parts.
Such is the case with Ford's new Focus, a global car which is expected to add at least 5,500 new jobs to the economy. Companies such as Robert Bosch LLC will be making parts for the new Focus.


-------------------------
By AOL Jobs Contributor

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hourly Wage: 10 Jobs that Pay $50 per Hour

Want to a job that earns $50 per hour? Prepare to break open the books, attend classes and gain some serious know-how. That is the way to earn big bucks. The following is a list of 10 jobs in IT, health care, engineering, law and other fields that will get you earning six figures.


01. Clinical Psychologist

Hourly pay: $50.29 - $102.00
If you find human behavior fascinating, and you'd like to earn a hefty income, consider a career as a clinical psychologist. You can work in a variety of settings, from a private practice in your home to a being part of a medical team at a hospital. Clinical psychologists help their patients deal with both mental disorders, like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, as well as shorter-term needs like processing the death of a loved one or a divorce. This job requires earning a Ph.D. and the competition to get into a doctoral program in psychology is fierce. The market is expected to grow for this job in the coming years, especially for psychologists with subspecialties in certain disorders or age groups.
 

02. Attorney / Lawyer

Hourly pay: $51.33 - $102.00
Love 'em or hate 'em, they'll always have a job. From building a new office building to sorting out a will, lawyers are essential to all kinds of negotiations and business processes. As a lawyer, you can specialize in the area that most suits your strengths and interests, like justice for children or patent law for new technologies. To get working as a lawyer, you need to complete an undergraduate degree, three years of law school and pass a state bar exam.
 

03. Senior Electrical Engineer

Hourly pay: $42.01 - $69.53
Who makes a DVD player show movies, a robot talk or your computer save those family photos? Electrical engineers do. They design, test and improve electronics of all kinds. Electrical engineers need to be good with the numbers, as well as creative, curious, and detail-oriented. As a senior engineer, years of experience and managerial skill are essential since you will be leading a team. To get into this line of work, you need to complete an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, and can expect to take continuing education courses throughout your career. Demand for these engineers is expected to grow as our dependence on electronic devices does.
 
04. Optometrist
Hourly pay: $50.12 - $62.83
If you have your eyes on a healthy salary in a growing field, consider optometry. As the baby boomers age, this is yet another area of health care that is expected to grow. Optometrist test for eye sight problems and eye diseases and can prescribe certain medicines or refer patients to other doctors. This work requires completion of a four year degree at an accredited school of optometry. And, even if you're up for four years of school, acceptance into optometry school is highly competitive and may be a barrier. Earning and keeping up a license is also required.


05. Consultant, Business Process / Management

Hourly pay: $43.99 - $73.20
Here's a "behind the scenes" gig that makes a big difference in how decisions are made at a company, government department, university, hospital or any other organization. You provide a knowledge base that an organization doesn't already have and use it to help them solve a problem, like reworking their marketing strategy or streamlining their manufacturing process. And, you get paid well for your help. This work can often be project-oriented, short-term and highly demanding. The use of consultants is up in recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as businesses hustle to compete with as small of a payroll as possible.
 

06. Project Manager, Information Technology (IT)

Hourly pay: $44.85 - $73.77
In a world where technology can put a company on the fast track to success, workers who understand both technology and how to lead a team have a lot of work opportunities. Most IT project managers have an undergraduate degree in some area of computer science or math and employers often prefer that they have an MBA, as well. Project managers are often in line to become chief technology officers.
 

07. Software Quality Assurance (SQA) Lead

Hourly pay: $44.1 - $57.02
Do you tend to find and notice everything wrong with how your computer, a website or some other electronic device works? You might be able to put that knack to work. In fact, you might not even need an undergraduate degree to get hired if you're a natural. You need a logical mind and great attention to detail to get started in quality assurance. You can then lead a team of people whose job is to find errors in software or other systems before they are made available to the public. This line of work is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years as the demand for electronics grows.
 

08. Consultant, Education/Training

Hourly pay: $39.15 - $78.63
Education and training consultant was named one of CNNMoney's "Best Jobs in America." Imagine flying to some major city, meeting with a company's top employees to train them on the latest technology or team building technique. For the right person, this could be a really fun job. Education consultants typically work for themselves so it's important to market yourself in order to find work. Job opportunities are expected to grow in the coming years.
 

09. Psychiatric Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner (ARNP)

Hourly pay: $42.02 - $61.33
Nurses are in-demand and well-paid these days. But, which ones earn the most? Registered nurse practitioners with a specialty in psychiatric care can earn more per hour than most. They treat people with personality and mood disorders. These nurses have not only completed a bachelor's degree and nursing school, they have gone on to complete either a master's or Ph.D. and can work independently of a physician, prescribing therapies, certain medications and creating treatment plans.
 

10. Senior Mechanical Engineer
Hourly pay: $35.00 - $51.52
Mechanical engineering is a field with very broad work opportunities. You could lead a team of engineers who design refrigerators, gas turbines, elevators, escalators, robots and much, much more. This job requires at least an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering or a related field, with continued professional exams to keep up with changing technology. And, to become a senior engineer requires having many years of experience in a particular field and being able to effectively lead a team so that they are on task and productive.
-------------------
By Bridget Quigg

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Interesting Industry Booming: Provides 1.7 Million Jobs


It may not be the first industry that comes to mind when you think of a recovering U.S. economy, but it's certainly one of the more diverse. The U.S. convention, conference and meeting industry is thriving, directly supporting 1.7 million jobs and contributing $106 billion to the GDP, $60 billion in labor revenue, $14.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $11.3 billion in state and local tax revenue.

That's according to a new study released by the Convention Industry Council. It took into consideration the economic contributions made by the 1.8 million meetings, trade shows, conventions, congresses, incentive events and other gatherings that take place across the country.

"As the nation grapples with effective ways to work its way out of a recession, the meetings industry plays a critical role in supporting jobs in communities across America," said Karen Kotowski, executive director of the Convention Industry Council. "Two years ago, the value of meetings, one of America's top economic and social engines, was misunderstood by governments and the public." This new research shows that meetings and conferences are not just excuses to party, play and waste money, as some government officials suggested.

There's actually quite a bit of opportunity in this industry -- even more than in others that have higher profiles. For example, the 1.7 million jobs generated by the meetings industry is more than broadcasting and communications (1.3 million), truck and rail transportation (1.5 million) and computer and electronic product manufacturing (1.1 million). The industry also helps support another 4.6 million U.S. workers, such as people who are employed by convention venues, as well as food and transportation companies that are essential to meetings and conferences.

After all, someone has to accommodate the 205 million delegates, exhibitors and organizers who attend the 1.8 million meetings held in the United States annually. Of those meetings, 1.3 million are classified as corporate or business meetings, 270,000 are conventions, conferences or congresses, 11,000 are trade shows and 66,000 are incentive meetings. The vast majority of meetings (85 percent) were conducted at venues with lodging. Meetings generate 250 million overnight stays by 117 million Americans and 5 million international attendees.

And that's not even taking into consideration the amount of learning, innovation, commerce and networking that goes on at those meetings. The benefits of those are incalculable.

So looking into jobs that are connected to the meeting industry might not be a bad idea these days. While some of the more traditional industries are still flagging, and with the booming industries such as high tech and health being extremely specialized and requiring advanced degrees, the meetings, conferences and convention industry just might be a good gateway to your next job.
----------------------------

Monday, March 21, 2011

Top 10 Best-Paying Jobs You Can Get Right Out of High School


With increasing costs to higher education, pursuing a college degree can be tough for some. But here's the good news: Even if you don't continue school for another four years (or put it off until later in your career), there are still a surprising number of career opportunities for those with a high school diploma. With many career paths providing on-the-job training these days, it's often possible to move up into higher-paying positions without an additional degree.

Here's a look at jobs you can get right after high school, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook:

Loan officer
Average annual salary: $61,928
Anyone who's ever taken out loans to pay for a house, a car or even to start a small business has had to turn to a loan officer to help complete the transaction. Loan officers not only facilitate the lending process but are also involved with determining how clients will repay the loans.



Medical appliance technician
Average annual salary: $57,484
Working with medical devices that are prescribed by podiatrists or prosthetists, medical appliance technicians are in charge of helping patients use the prescribed devices correctly. The technicians work with anything from replacement limbs to hearing aids and are responsible for gaining full understanding of each device.



Stationary engineer or boiler operator
Average annual salary: $55,373
Working in malls, warehouses, hotels or large office buildings, stationary engineers manage the complicated ventilation, and heating and air-conditioning systems in these buildings. Stationary engineers oversee heat, electricity and cooling equipment in order to maintain optimal conditions in the work environment.



Postal service mail carrier
Average annual salary: $49,499
Delivering mail to local businesses and residences, Postal Service mail carriers travel on established routes and also help with sorting of mail. Mail carriers value the stability of their job and the ability to build long-term relationships with those they deliver mail to.



Line installer and repairer
Average annual salary: $47,759
Working to keep your cable and electricity lines running, line installer and repairers understand the complicated web of networks that connect people with the outside world. As these networks expand and need to be updated, those who understand how to maintain them are in constant demand.



Desktop publisher
Average annual salary: $46,524
Using computer publishing software, desktop publishers produce printed materials like brochures, books and magazines.



Quality control inspector
Average annual salary: $46,378
Maintaining the quality of products in any industry, inspectors work hard to make sure customers are getting exactly what they paid for. Testing vehicles, clothing, food and even electronic components means there is plenty of work variety to adjust to different interests.



Floral designer
Average annual salary: $45,234
A dream job for aspiring creative types, floral designers come up with unique ways to present flowers. Using live or faux flowers, greenery, embellishments and vases, floral designers sell their work for occasions like weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties and funerals.



Hazardous materials removal workers
Average annual salary: $45,220
As the spotlight on hazardous materials increases, removal workers have the important job of identifying and safely removing materials like asbestos, nuclear waste, mercury and others. Many respond to emergency situations to help protect people from accidental exposure to health-harming materials and carcinogens.



Firefighter
Average annual salary: $45,145
Working to save people and property from fire emergencies means risking your life to protect the public. In addition to putting out fires, firefighters work directly with ambulances and the police department to respond to other emergencies.

----------------------------
By Alina Dizik, Special to CareerBuilder

Thursday, March 17, 2011

U.S. Employers Planning Largest Pay Raises Since 2008


Large and medium-sized employers are taking off hiring and wage freezes, and planning to grant workers the largest merit increases since the start of the financial crisis, concludes a survey by human resources consultants Towers Watson.

The merit increases are forecast at 3.0 percent for 2011, which may not buy you that new sailboat, but it exceeds last year’s 2.7 percent raises, and is moving in the right direction toward the typical merit gains of 3.5 to 4.0 percent before the financial crisis. (The increases are coming not a moment too soon: for all U.S. workers, real average hourly earnings for all employees fell 0.1 percent from December 2010 to January 2011, seasonally adjusted, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Importantly, fewer employers feel compelled to freeze wages for 2011 — 13 percent still will hold the line on executive pay, and 12 percent will freeze hourly wages. But in a similar survey last spring, 61 percent of employers said they would freeze wages for the year, so that’s a big improvement.

Firm are not just rewarding their current workers — about 40 percent of the 381 companies in the survey said they planned to add new technical and professional positions, and a quarter expects to add sales pros and hourly workers.

Not that’s not a significant shift from the 66 percent that had hiring freezes a year ago, but notwithstanding loyal reader tsigili’s pithy comment below, it still offers a prospect of job growth. And the Labor Department reported another decrease in initial unemployment claims. Per Bloomberg:
Applications for jobless benefits decreased by 22,000 to 391,000 in the week ended Feb. 19, Labor Department figures showed today. Economists forecast claims would drop to 405,000, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. Claims have fallen in three of the past four weeks…

The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, fell to 402,000 from 418,500 last week, the lowest since 398,750 in July 2008.

Companies may begin to ratchet up hiring after reducing firings, which will bring unemployment down further.

----------------------
By John Keefe

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Top 50 Companies for Executive Women Jobs 2011


Women are slowly but surely breaking through the glass ceiling, and there are certain companies that definitely stand out from the rest when it comes to helping female execs climb the corporate ladder.

The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), annually recognizes organizations whose policies and practices encourage the advancement of women's careers with their Top 50 Companies for Executive Women list. This year, they report a milestone: "At our winning companies, women are running 23 percent of the operations that bring in more than $1 billion in revenue."

At the companies that made the top 50 list, women hold 23 percent of board seats (versus 16 percent at Fortune 500 companies) and represent 14 percent of CEOs (versus 2 percent of all companies nationwide). According to NAFE, "the winning companies are advancing women whose personal brands combine acute business acumen with collaboration, listening and people development."

Some of those assets, characteristic of female leaders, are considered 'soft-skills,' but that doesn't make them any less valuable. "The 'soft' skills were once considered women's tools-those warm-and-fuzzy people skills that were nice to have but unnecessary in the hard-charging, results-driven business world," says Peggy Klaus, author of The Hard Truth About Soft Skills. "Not so anymore. Soft skills are as important, if not more so, as the hard ones, and they will make or break you as a leader."

Those who made the list obviously understand this. Here is a glance at some of the companies honored and what they did to make the list. The full list of 50 companies follows.

Abbott
Abbott's Women Leaders in Action (WLA) is a dedicated program that focuses on the development of women leaders.

Accenture
Accenture created the course "Developing Client-centric Women" to help female senior managers qualify for senior executive positions.

American Express
American Express offers a program called Pathways to Sponsorship, which helps pair women with sponsors who serve as advocates for their work.

DuPont
DuPont has a P&L initiative committed to sponsoring and advancing 36 women within two years.

Fleishman-Hillard
At public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, women run half the half the U.S. office and serve as four of the seven regional presidents.

IBM
IBM launched the "Building Relationships and Influencing" initiative (BRI) to target key "nuggets" that hold women back to help them progress in their careers.

KPMG
KPMG created a Diversity and Inclusion Scorecard, which helps identify women stalled in the progression of their career.

Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods offers the course "Efficacy for Women," which helps women improve skills they often lack, such as influencing, risk-taking and building networks.

Marriott International
Last year, Marriott International selected women to fill five of their 12 newly created VP positions.

Procter & Gamble
P&G pairs female senior executives with woman at the CEO-level for mentoring.

At Walmart, the President's Global Council of Women Leaders focuses on developing female leaders and championing their opportunities internationally.

WellPoint
WellPoint has improved gender fairness by offering a job-positing tool that makes succession planning transparent.

Top 50 Companies for Executive Women 2011
  1. Abbott
  2. Accenture
  3. Aetna
  4. Allstate Insurance Company
  5. American Electric Power
  6. American Express Company
  7. AOL Inc
  8. AstraZeneca
  9. AT&T
  10. Bank of America
  11. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutical USA
  12. Bristol-Myers Squibb
  13. Cisco
  14. Citi
  15. Colgate-Palmolive Company
  16. DuPont
  17. Eli Lilly and Company
  18. Fleishman-Hillard Inc.
  19. General Mills
  20. HCA Virginia Health System - Richmond Market
  21. HSBC North America
  22. IBM Corporation
  23. Intel Corporation
  24. Johnson & Johnson
  25. KPMG LLP
  26. Kraft Foods, Inc.
  27. Macy's Inc.
  28. Marriott International, Inc.
  29. McDonald's Corporation
  30. McKinsey & Company
  31. Merck
  32. MetLife, Inc.
  33. New York Life Insurance Company
  34. Northern Trust
  35. Office Depot
  36. Pfizer Inc
  37. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
  38. Prudential Financial, Inc.
  39. Sodexo
  40. State Farm Insurance
  41. Texas Instruments Incorporated
  42. The New York Times Company
  43. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
  44. The Principal Financial Group
  45. The Procter & Gamble Company
  46. Verizon Communications Inc
  47. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
  48. WellPoint, Inc
  49. Wyndham Worldwide
  50. Xerox Corporation

2011 NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women Non-Profits
  1. Bon Secours Richmond Health System
  2. March of Dimes Foundation
  3. Mercy Health System
  4. MidMichigan Health
  5. Moffitt Cancer Center
  6. Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
  7. TriHealth
  8. VCU Health System
  9. WellStar Health System
  10. Yale-New Haven Hospital

-------------------------
By Lisa Johnson Mandell

Monday, March 14, 2011

Cell Phone Radiation Study: 9 Ways To Be Safer


You’re on on an endless conference call, using your cell phone. Should you worry about what the phone’s radiation is doing to your brain?

According to the latest research, you should be concerned and modify the way you use your cell phone.

First the background: Though the study is preliminary and raises more questions than answers, it was one of the first of its kind to find that low level radiation, the kind emitted from cell phones, altered brain activity.

The study, conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, compared brain activity via a PET scan in subjects who had cell phones turned on for 50 minutes or turned off. The subjects did not know whether or not the phone was in use because the sound was muted. The researchers found a 7 percent increase in brain activity in the area closest to the phone, specifically an increase in the metabolism of glucose.

It is well accepted that the low frequency emissions of cell phones are too weak to damage DNA, and would not cause cancer through that mechanism. But this research points to another possible mode.   The New York Times speculated that the increased glucose metabolism could lead to the creation of free radicals, volatile molecules that can damage healthy cells, and that the radiation could cause a low level inflammatory response.

Researchers have been debating the cell phone-brain cancer link for years and even the largest study to date had confusing results.  The Interphone study, an international decade-long study released last year, found increases in three types of brain tumors in longtime frequent cell phone users, but it also found that average users had a lower risk of the three cancers, a confounding result that put the whole study into question.

“But a second group of researchers from Sweden also found long term increased risk of glioma brain tumors and acoustic neuromas,” said Louis Slesin, editor of the Microwave News. “Yes, the research is inconclusive but it’s becoming highly suggestive of a risk.”  Some doctors have urged people to err on the side of caution and limit their brain’s exposure to cell phones.

Slesin provided these 9 ways to lower your exposure.
  1. Use a land line whenever you can, like in the office or at home.
  2. Use a hands free set. A headset or earbud keeps the radiation away from your brain.
  3. Use speaker phone. It also keeps radiation away from your brain.
  4. Avoid the phone when reception is weak. When cell phones are far from towers (and show fewer bars), they emit more radiation to communicate with the tower. Wait till you get outside, rather than making a call in the elevator, in a basement, or in the subway.
  5. Keep conversations short.  Try to use a land line when you need to sit in on a conference call or any other conversation you know will take some time.
  6. Use blue tooth cautiously. A blue tooth uses much less power than a cell phone, but there is no distance between your head and the device (your ear actually creates some distance for a hand held cell phone). Plus, a blue tooth is always on you and it’s not clear whether you’re constantly getting exposed even when you’re not using the phone. You may be better off using a headset.
  7. Try texting instead of talking. No exposure to your brain.
  8. Don’t talk on the train or in a car. Try not to use phone in fast moving vehicles, even as a passenger, because as you travel, your phone moves from one cell tower to the next, and each time it tries to connect, your phone uses maximum power to make contact.
  9. Wait a few seconds after dialing before putting phone to ear. During the time the call is connecting, the phone uses maximum power. It will power down once the connection is made. Keep it on speaker phone until someone picks up.
Have you been taking any measures to limit your exposure to cell phone radiation? What would you add to this list?

 By Laurie Tarkan

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Best Companies For Job Offers

Looking for a job? Try to find one with a fast-growing employer. We have a list of them: 16 companies with a history of steadily rising payrolls and the prospect of strong top-line growth over the next four years.

The winning companies on this list range from giants like discounter Costco Wholesale and pleasure boat operator Royal Caribbean down to unfamiliar outfits like medevac specialist Air Methods and contract manufacturer Labarge. What they all have is a career opportunity where promotions are more likely than pink slips.

Imagine that you were an engineer 20 years ago contemplating job offers from Cisco Systems and General Motors. With one, your destiny might have been advancement and stock option riches. With the other, in all likelihood, something bad.

Moral: When you are shopping for a job, don't just look at the salary and the benefits. Do some financial digging, the way a stock analyst would. Increase the odds that you will wind up with a Cisco instead of a GM.

To create a list of winning employers I worked with Scott DeCarlo of our Statistics Department to screen publicly traded companies for these attributes:

Company Employment Future Integrity
  recent growth % growth % rating
Under Armour 3,000 39 20 85
VSE Corp. 2,809 31 5 76
Leap Wireless Int'l 4,202 25 11 81
NII Holdings 13,673 23 11 77
CBeyond 1,944 23 7 97
BJ's Restaurants 11,000 22 21 93
TNS 1,163 19 10 80
NetApp 8,333 17 14 87
CommVault Systems 1,240 16 11 82
Tractor Supply 7,600 13 13 84
Air Methods Corp. 2,718 11 11 94
United Natural Foods 6,500 10 10 80
Royal Caribbean Cruises 59,500 9 11 87
American Eagle Outfitters 6,400 7 5 88
Labarge 1,536 5 11 95
Costco Wholesale Corp. 82,000 5 8 82

• a 5% or better annual growth rate in the employee count over the past five years, with no year-to-year dips bigger than 10%. We considered only companies with at least 1,000 employees.

• a consensus Wall Street forecast for 5% or better top-line growth over the next three to five years.

• a top-quartile rating from Audit Integrity, which scorecards companies on such measures as transparency, corporate governance and absence of insider trading. The point here: You should avoid companies that are pushing the envelope with their accounting, attracting shareholder lawsuits or engaging in a flurry of acquisitions and divestitures. These are risky places to work.

The resulting tabulation is a far cry from the Best Companies to Work For lists you will see elsewhere. Those rankings put a premium on the warm and fuzzy things in a workplace. My thinking: In a booming economy you can fuss over on-site day care and free pizza on Fridays, but in a tough job market you should think about survival.

These days companies with shrinking revenue don't hesitate to engage in mass layoffs. Forget the pizza. Calculate the probability of getting axed. It's lower in a fast-growing company.

Did you think manufacturing is dead? It's very alive at Labarge, a St. Louis, Mo. company that does contract electronics assembly for defense suppliers and for other manufacturers. It supplies machinery to Owens-Illinois bottle factories, for example.

If you have a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and some experience in radio frequency testing, check out the opening at a Labarge site in Tulsa, Okla. The company has another 30 opportunities in sales, engineering and purchasing.

Do you have a facility with numbers and an interest in energy conservation? VSE, an Alexandria, Va. firm that does contract work for the federal government, is looking for an analyst with a physical sciences degree to handle an energy-related database. It has another 80 jobs posted.

Jobs are disappearing in some parts of the computer business. But they are growing in data management. Take a look at the mess of files you have on your home laptop and think about what goes on in corporate info departments. Now you know why CommVault is growing. This Oceanport, N.J. company creates software for archiving and backing up corporate data.

CommVault vice president William Beattie Jr. says the company will end its current fiscal year with 130 hires, a lot for a firm that now numbers 1,240. He wants to hear from you if you are a Unix or Windows developer with C or C++ experience. There are also openings for programmers good at Java-based user interfaces.

Employment growth is a compound annual rate over the last five years. Future growth is an IBES forecast of annual revenue growth over 3-5 years. On the AI integrity percentile scale, 100 is best; for this measure we average the two most recent AI ratings. Costco's employment count excludes 65,000 part-timers.

Best Companies For Job Offers

forbbestcomp1.jpg
Under Armour
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank turned the mundane business of athletic apparel into a hot growth company. Openings at the Baltimore, Md., headquarters include some in e-commerce and footwear design.


forbbestcomp7.jpg
Royal Caribbean
Cruise operator Royal Caribbean has rebounded briskly from the recession. Apply if you know something about hotel management -- and don't get seasick.

forbbestcomp8.jpg
American Eagle Outfitters
American Eagle Outfitters has some glamorous openings, such as in fashion design, but most of the hiring is in store and warehouse operation.

forbbestcomp10.jpg
Costco
Costco Wholesale's needs cover a wide range: Aviation, graphic design and property management are among the less obvious fields cited in its list of career opportunities.


forbbestcomp11.jpg
BJ's Restaurants
BJ's Restaurants is hiring cooks, bartenders, servers and dishwashers.

forbbestcomp2.jpg
VSE
Military contractor VSE has openings for geeks like aircraft mechanics and ship electronics technicians.

forbbestcomp3.jpg
Leap Wireless
Leap Wireless, which provides flat-rate wireless services in 35 states, began life as a spinoff of cellular engineering firm Qualcomm. Most of the openings are in retail sales.

forbbestcomp6.jpg
United Natural Foods
United Natural Foods is a wholesaler. There are jobs for accountants, drivers, purchasers and warehouse operators, among many others.

------------------------

By

Latest Hirings | Job Postings | Articles