In Q1 of 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an increase in the unemployment rate from 8.1 to 8.5 percent between January 1 and March 31, meaning more people vying for a limited number of positions. Here at Simply Hired, we wanted to investigate job trends by geography, industry and demand among job seekers to see what job seekers were looking for and where.

The Q1 job trends report found:

• Job searches are up in Chicago (job seekers up 15 percent), San Francisco and the Bay Area (job seekers up 15 percent), Boston (job seekers up 17 percent), Milwaukee and Washington D.C.
• The most competitive job listings are for positions related to project management, graphic design, financial analysis, staff accounting and business analysis.
• The least competitive jobs are for sales associates, sales representatives and dental assistants.

In addition, the top active job listings included keywords such as "part-time," "sales," "accounting" or "finance." Available jobs in Washington D.C. were up by 14 percent, with a smaller, yet still positive five percent upswing of available jobs in Boston and San Diego.

You can read more about the Simply Hired trends report in the press release.

Happy Earth Day everyone! People have been talking lately about ways they can “green” up their lives and make every day their own personal Earth Day. If you haven’t already checked it out, Simply Hired worked with Care2 to bring you the Eco-friendly job search filter that returns jobs from green employers such as Whole Foods Market, HP, and Johnson Controls.

You can find the Eco-friendly search filter at http://www.simplyhired.com/eco, on the special searches page and in the special searches filter on the left side of every search results page.

So get out there and make some green working at green companies!

Don’t like spam? Neither do we. That’s why Simply Hired is rolling out a new feature that will clean out those pesky job listings that are either faulty or fraudulent. The new “Flag this job” feature lets job seekers flag jobs that need to be removed from the results, for one of the following reasons:

1. scam/spam job
2. expired job
3. broken link
4. duplicate job listing

Here’s how it works. Below each job listing on the search results page, you will notice a “Flag” link next to a little flag icon.

By clicking the flag link, you will be able to specify the problem you found with the job.

After clicking the specific problem, the job listing will be collapsed in the results and will be labeled as “Job flagged.” Your feedback will be sent to the Simply Hired data quality team and we will investigate repeatedly flagged jobs for removal from our site.

Fore more ways to avoid spam job listings, check out the Simply Hired Job Scam Tip Sheet.

This week marked the first (and very possibly the only) Simply Hired Nugget Bowl! What is a Nugget Bowl, you ask? Just over 25 years ago, small pieces of chicken that were breaded and fried were introduced to the McDonald’s menu and called Chicken McNuggets. But today, Chicken McNuggets have become one of the world’s best foods for an eating contest because of their fun size and deliciousness (now with real white meat!). And that’s where it all begins.

Nine very competitive and hungry Simply Hired employees marched over to the nearest McDonald’s on their lunch break to stock up on however many nuggets and dipping sauces they thought they could consume. Some of the competitors had the goal to eat a certain number of nuggets while others just wanted to eat more than everyone else. The group brought back over 250 Chicken McNuggets.

Back at the office, they laid their many boxes in front of them on a long table. Each competitor faced at least 20 pieces of Chicken McNuggets. Before the contest began, they drew in one last breath. And with the ring of a cowbell, they were off.

It was interesting to note the different eating styles. Some ate as quickly as possible to stuff themselves before realizing they were full. Others used the “turtle and the hare” strategy and ate at a more relaxed pace. Some alternated dipping the McNuggets in different flavors to keep their taste buds guessing and a few went without sauce all together.

There seemed to be four phases of the eating challenge:  

1. Yum stage (nuggets 1-5): “I love Chicken McNuggets!”
2. Oh, No stage (nuggets 6-10): “This is a lot of nuggets. I don’t know if I’ll be able to finish all 20, or 30… or even 40.”
3. Mindless, Tasteless Eating stage (nuggets 11-?): Chomp… chomp… chomp…
4. Second Wind stage (last 3 nuggets or so): “Woo! Bring it on! Where are the fries?”

Slow and steady won the race in this competition. Our winner ate 40 chicken nuggets in our contest, all while he leafed through the day’s newspaper. Congratulations to our new Nugget Master!

[UPDATE 04/21/2009] View the Simply Hired Job Scam Tip Sheet

During your job search, you’ve probably come across job listings that ask you to wire money or promise high amounts of pay for little work. Seem too good to be true? They probably are. Unfortunately, there are people online who leech off unsuspecting job seekers, trying to take advantage of them for money or other personal information.

Because Simply Hired aggregates job listings from a variety of sources, job scams can sometimes end up in the search results. That said, out of the 3 million job postings in the Simply Hired network, less than 1 tenth of 1 percent turn out to be fake postings. However, we have no tolerance for scam or spam jobs, and permanently remove them when we become aware of their presence. Simply Hired is continually working on tools and procedures to protect users from online job scams and will soon be rolling out a new feature to address this problem.

Simply Hired recommends that job seekers be diligent in vetting potential employment opportunities, at the same time it also encourages employers and other job resources to be vigilant in protecting the integrity of their job listings and corporate brand.

To keep yourself safe during your job search, watch out for these red flags in job postings:

• Ask for your SSN too early in the process 
• Ask for your bank account number or to wire funds to an employer
• Include misspellings and grammatical errors in job title/description
• Request to scan your ID

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has published a fact sheet with more information about avoiding job scams online.

Please notify us on the contact us page if you notice a job posting that looks scam-like or fraudulent in nature. We will investigate the listing and remove it.

In addition, you can block job sources that are scam-ridden using the block feature.

Today Simply Hired is celebrating Limerick Day, in honor of Edward Lear who popularized the humorous poems in English during the 19th century. In honor of the day, here are a few work-related limericks:

There once was a man named Bob
Who wanted to find a new job
But the work he could find
He thought unrefined
And Bob realized he was a job snob!

The man I sat next to at work
Always would drive me berserk
One day the fellow
Put my stapler in Jell-O
And looked at me with a sly smirk
(from Dwight’s perspective on NBC’s The Office)

Do you have a job-related limerick? Send them in!

Today Simply Hired is celebrating Limerick Day, in honor of Edward Lear who popularized the humorous poems in English during the 19th century. In honor of the day, here are a few work-related limericks:

There once was a man named Bob
Who wanted to find a new job
But the work he could find
He thought unrefined
And Bob realized he was a job snob!

The man I sat next to at work
Always would drive me berserk
One day the fellow
Put my stapler in Jell-O
And looked at me with a sly smirk
(from Dwight’s perspective on NBC’s The Office)

Do you have a job-related limerick? Send them in!

Today Simply Hired is celebrating Limerick Day, in honor of Edward Lear who popularized the humorous poems in English during the 19th century. In honor of the day, here are a few work-related limericks:

There once was a man named Bob
Who wanted to find a new job
But the work he could find
He thought unrefined
And Bob realized he was a job snob!

The man I sat next to at work
Always would drive me berserk
One day the fellow
Put my stapler in Jell-O
And looked at me with a sly smirk
(from Dwight’s perspective on NBC’s The Office)

Do you have a job-related limerick? Send them in!