You have to do a copy/paste of the url.  Part of the url extends to 1 or
2 lines below the "http://" beginning.  I was able to get to the page
with a couple of copy/paste commands.


Here's the article:


With few jobless, employers labor to fill positions
By Jeff Ostrowski

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Marc Mirabella can't wait to fill the empty cubicles in the Jupiter
office of his technology-recruiting firm, but an ever-shrinking jobless
rate isn't helping his cause.

There's plenty of business out there for his company, Oxford
International, he "We need people - bad," said Mirabella, who runs the
50-person Florida office of Massachusetts-based Oxford.

Like many employers in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast,
Mirabella struggles to fill empty desks as jobless figures keep setting
records.

The unemployment rates in Palm Beach and Martin counties fell to 30-year
lows in April, state officials said Friday.

In Palm Beach County, unemployment sank to 2.8 percent from 3 percent in
March, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation. That's
the lowest since 1976, when state officials last overhauled the way they
track the job market.

In Martin County, the jobless rate was 2.6 percent, down from 2.9
percent in March. And in St. Lucie County, the jobless rate remained 3.1
percent, tied for a record low.

For years, the region has been a perennial job growth juggernaut as the
housing market fueled a boom in construction and construction-related
jobs. But now, that demand seems to be feeding on itself - even as the
housing market cools.

Employers of every ilk - from hotels to call centers to high-paying
engineering firms - who had become used to having their pick of a
growing labor force are forced to look at alternatives, including
expanding to where the workers are - outside a state where the jobless
rate fell to 3.0 percent in April, well below the national rate of 4.7
percent.

Recruiting methods expand

Workers, on the other hand, appear to be in the catbird seat. 

In Palm Beach County, only 17,585 people were actively seeking work in
April, while 609,615 workers were employed, state officials said.

That's good news for workers, who are beginning to get raises. The
average weekly wage in Palm Beach County in the third quarter of last
year was $768, up 6.7 percent from a year earlier, according to the
federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But the microscopic jobless rate doesn't make life any easier for
employers like Mirabella, who wants to hire another 50 people. Oxford
International places high-end tech workers with employers.

Landing a sales job at Oxford requires little more than a college degree
and a good attitude, Mirabella said. Workers can make as much as $80,000
to $100,000 a year within a few years.

But the empty desks remain, so Mirabella recently hired a recruiting
director to troll job fairs and college campuses. Oxford offers a $1,500
bonus to workers who refer job applicants who get hired.

At 401kExchange in Greenacres, President Fred Barstein faces similar
difficulties in filling the 35 empty seats at his call center, where
workers make $35,000 to $40,000 a year. Unable to hire employees here,
Barstein is opening a call center in Utah, where wages are lower and, he
hopes, workers more plentiful.

For higher-paid positions, Barstein has little choice but to let workers
telecommute. He has top employees who work from their homes in Tampa,
New Jersey and California.

"I'd rather have everybody here," Barstein said. "There is a lot lost by
not being able to have people walk into your office and talk to you. But
that's what you have to do to attract talent."

Other employers also are dangling incentives to workers who help recruit
employees. At The Breakers in Palm Beach, employees get a $100 gift card
to Publix for referring someone who lands a job at the resort.

And with jobless rates still dropping, The Breakers has begun sweetening
the pot, spokeswoman Ann Margo Peart said. An employee who refers a chef
or restaurant manager, for instance, gets a dinner for two at one of The
Breakers' posh eateries. A worker who helps recruit a housekeeper
receives two Breakers robes.

Employers revise thinking

The tight job market is forcing employers to offer more generous
salaries and benefits, said Dawn Gill of Spherion, a Fort
Lauderdale-based staffing firm.

"Employers are really changing the way they look at the workforce," Gill
said.

Statewide, the professional and business services sector - think
lawyers, accountants and people placed by staffing firms - continued to
drive the job market in April, creating 59,100 jobs over the past year.
The construction industry was next, adding 48,600 jobs.

But some warn that a cooling real estate market could translate to pain
for construction workers, a group that has seen insatiable demand for
its services. Jeff Spear, a home builder who's president of the Gold
Coast Builders Association, predicts layoffs.

"A lot of builders are cutting back because sales are flat," Spear said.

For now, though, the good times are rolling. Every one of Florida's 67
counties had a lower unemployment rate than the national average of 4.7
percent.

The Panhandle's Walton County had the state's lowest jobless rate, 1.8
percent. Hendry County's 4.3 percent was the highest.


-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Brice Yokem
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 6:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Labor market

The WEB page is not accessible.


Ray Shahan

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