News About Jobs News, Facebook Tips, Happy Birthday Roanoke

Some thoughts and tips for editors, with short urls included to make sharing easier.

Jobless Rate

New unemployment numbers come out on Friday, Dec. 2. Early in the week, economists polled by Reuters said they expect employers to have added 122,000 new jobs, up from the 80,000 jobs added in October. To keep pace with population growth, about 150,000 net new jobs are needed each month.

A positive number on Friday could continue to help push stock prices higher. A worse-than-expected showing can dampen the post-Thanksgiving rally.

Retailers are adding about 600,000 jobs around the country: 9 Companies Hiring for the Holidays - TheStreet http://bit.ly/tHcKVU

Is it too late to land one of those jobs? Roanoke.com published one set of tips in October: BBB Serving Western Virginia advises job seekers to start the search now for holiday employment | SWoCo - roanoke.com http://bit.ly/vYfgwb

You may spark a conversation by asking readers if they have applied for a seasonal job and if they know of any openings.

In January, The New Haven Register caught up with a job-training program and talked to young people hoping to join the workforce. At the end of the year, it makes sense to catch up with some of those same people to find out how they did in 2011. From the archives: New Haven Job Corps Center holds first Career Week (video) -  http://bit.ly/rutk6h

Other possible prompts for this week for your Facebook page, Twitter feed and for your site:

Nationally

*Ask for predictions about the unemployment rate at the start of 2012 (Friday, Jan. 6 will be the first jobless report of the new year).
Will it be lower, higher or the same as the current 9.0% unemployment rate? 
*What do readers expect a year from now?
Your area
*Ask readers if they know of any company that is hiring, any friend or neighbor who recently started a job, anyone recently let go.
*Ask readers if they know of anyone who started a business in recent months.
*Ask about support groups: is there a person or group who helped you in a recent job search? Do you have a tip for someone looking for a job?

Layoffs

*With December layoffs common at companies balancing the year-end books, ask if readers have holiday layoff stories to share.

* * * 

Two Facebook lessons from Roanoke:

Facebook as Tip Line

Good example from the Roanoke Times page on Facebook of a reader passing along a news tip: http://on.fb.me/t0VL5P

Note that the newsroom responded and included the name of a journalist in the response. 

Happy Birthday Roanoke Times!

Facebook is for birthdays, and The Roanoke Times has a message about its own 125th birthday on its page: Good morning! Today... http://on.fb.me/syfcM4

Do you know your newspaper's birthday? Celebrate once a year on Facebook.

If you have a circulation department with a sense of humor, show them the comment thread from the Roanoke birthday message. It provided me a morning smile.