Employers created 243,000 new jobs in January. Meanwhile, employment gains for the previous two months were revised upward. According to the revised figures, the economy added 203,000 jobs in December and 157,000 in November.

The jobless rate has been on the decline for several months. It was stuck at 9.1 percent from June through August, but it has been falling ever since then.

The labor-force participation rate held at 63.7 percent in January, after accounting for annual adjustments to population controls, according to the Labor Department.

Meanwhile, a separate survey of households showed employment gains of 631,000. The household survey is used to calculate the unemployment rate.

“The unemployment rate came down because more people found work,” President Obama said today during a visit to a Virginia fire station.

The employment growth beat economists’ expectations, and the growth was spread throughout many areas of the economy. The “professional and business services” industry — which includes legal, accounting, advertising, engineering and other types of firms — added 70,000 jobs. Manufacturing employment expanded by 50,000, health care added 31,000 jobs, and construction increased by 21,000. Also, employment grew by 44,000 in the “leisure and hospitality” industry, which includes hotels, restaurants and theme parks.

During the event in Virginia, Obama noted that the private sector has added 3.7 million new jobs over the past 23 months. He also acknowledged that there are still “far too many Americans” who are unemployed or need a better-paying job.

“But the economy is growing stronger, the recovery is speeding up, and we’ve got to do everything in our power to keep it going,” he added.

TruYuu’s motto: “You are more than just a resume.” The matching process is based not only on resumes, but also on job seekers’ values, talents, leadership style, and people skills. As part of this process, TruYuu members take a personality questionnaire, which was developed by talent-assessment company SHL.

Dallas-based TruYuu has partnered with many employers, including Bank of America, JCPenney, Zappos, RAPP, tpn and GetItDonePro.com. The employers are hiring for a wide variety of jobs nationwide, according to Calli Tapler, director at TruYuu. The jobs are in areas such as finance, marketing, human resources, retail, sales and hospitality.

TruYuu membership includes several free services:

• Job matching. TruYuu suggests candidates to employers seeking to fill job openings. The hiring manager sees a list of anonymized candidates drawn from TruYuu’s talent pool. The candidates are ranked from highest fit to lowest fit, using a percentage. The hiring manager then can review the list and invite candidates to connect.
• “TruFits,” which are job listings tailored specifically to the job seeker’s strengths. TruYuu suggests opportunities to pursue based on experience and talents. The company sends out a list of these jobs each week, and job seekers can decide whether to apply.
• An infographic that summarizes talents and values. The results of the personality questionnaire are displayed in a summary infographic known as the TruMee. Members can share this on LinkedIn, Facebook or other websites.

In addition, members have access to in-depth reports, which provide insights into their talents and values. These reports are the detailed version of what is represented in the TruMee. Normally, members can download these reports for $20. However, readers of Revive My Career can download their results for free if they use a special referral code. (This code expires May 31.)

The referral code is: TY1RMC

So as you try to find the career opportunity that best suits your talents and values, be sure to look into all the resources that can help you — including TruYuu.

The jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent in December, compared to 8.6 percent the previous month. Unemployment is now at the lowest level since February 2009.

The government’s monthly survey of employers showed 200,000 new jobs created in December. That’s up from 100,000 new positions in November, according to the government’s revised numbers.

One area of strong growth was the “transportation and warehousing” sector, which added 50,000 jobs in December. Much of the growth in this sector was driven by seasonal hiring.

Last month, employment growth also occurred in several other areas, including retail trade, health care, manufacturing and mining.

However, government employment declined, as the U.S. Postal Service and local governments shed jobs.

A separate survey of households — which the government uses to calculate the unemployment rate — showed employment gains of 176,000.

Meanwhile, 50,000 people left the labor force in December, according to the report from the Labor Department. The decline in the labor force also contributed to the lower unemployment rate.

This week, prominent outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas will hold its 26th annual call-in, which allows job seekers to receive free advice from professional career coaches. To speak with the firm’s career counselors, call (312) 422-5010. Challenger Gray will be taking calls tomorrow and Wednesday from 9 am to 5 pm CST.

According to the firm, a common complaint from job seekers is that they send out countless resumes — and never receive a reply from anyone. The firm emphasizes that simply posting resumes online and answering classified ads isn’t enough. To be effective, you’re also advised to:

• Tell everyone you know that you’re searching for work. Discuss your situation with family, friends, neighbors, former co-workers, and others. Also consider joining new professional associations, volunteer groups, and other organizations. By taking these steps, hopefully you’ll receive emotional support and job leads.
• Contact the hiring manager — not Human Resources. The people in charge of the various departments (such as the head of sales or the head of IT) usually decide when new employees are needed. According to the firm, the HR department typically doesn’t make the final hiring decision, unless the job opening is in HR. So if possible, find the name of the hiring manager and contact that person directly.
• When searching for work, consider a wide variety of industries, companies and cities.

The Labor Department reported today that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November, compared to 9 percent the previous month. This is the lowest level it has reached since March 2009.

According to a survey of employers, the economy added 120,000 new jobs last month. Employment rose in several areas, including retail trade, leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care.

A separate survey of households — from which the jobless rate is derived — showed that employment was up by 278,000.

Meanwhile, the number of people in the labor force declined by 315,000 last month, the Labor Department reported.

In a commentary, IHS Global Insight Chief U.S. Economist Nigel Gault emphasized that the big news emerging from the report was the sharp drop in unemployment.

“About half the drop came from fewer people looking for jobs, as the labor force declined, which is unwelcome, but the other half came from an increase in household employment that was more than double the payroll increase,” he wrote.

“Over the last four months, the household survey has consistently shown far higher employment growth than the payroll survey. That might mean that the household survey is picking up ‘start-up’ employment that the payroll survey is missing. But it is worth noting that over longer periods (like the past twelve months), the two surveys show roughly the same increase in employment.”

Although the economy has improved in the second half of the year, many challenges remain, including slowing growth in the rest of the world and the Eurozone’s financial crisis, according to Gault.

He signed up for a “resume-verification service,” in which a third-party employment screening company verifies the credentials listed on his resume. Next month, Howell plans to finish a master’s program in negotiation and dispute resolution – and he hopes that his certified resume will give him a boost when he looks for jobs in his field.

Howell is one of about 500 people who have signed up for the TalentShield service, which pre-screens a job seeker’s resume or professional profile. It provides certification of work history, education history, and professional licenses.

Touted Benefits

Screenshot of the TalentShield website.

Employers who are wary of resume fraud will be drawn to applicants with pre-verified resumes, says TalentWise, which launched the service in July.

According to the company, TalentShield also makes the hiring process more efficient, because it eliminates the parts of the employment background check that already have been verified. For that reason, HR departments will have fewer steps to do during the hiring process.

“You may be more competitive, because they won’t have to do that part later on,” says Howell, 25, of Dallas.

Through TalentShield, job seekers can clear up discrepancies before a potential employer runs a background check. For instance, say you graduated from college in 1986, but for some reason, the school’s official records state that you graduated in 1987. If any discrepancies arise, TalentWise staff members advise users on how to clear up the confusion. If the issues can’t be resolved, then the resume displays only the information that can be certified.

The idea is that recruiters will focus on applicants with pre-certified resumes, and therefore TalentShield users will have an advantage when it comes to getting a job interview. If you do go on an interview, the certification process also offers peace of mind afterwards, according to the company.

“It becomes a reassuring process for the candidate,” says Bill Glenn, vice president of marketing and alliances at TalentWise. “So they don’t have to worry that if they nailed the interview, the background check will keep them from getting the job.”

‘Employer’s Point of View’

The concept behind TalentShield appeals to Dana Greyson of Everett, Wash., who signed up during the summer.

“It shows some perspective of looking at it from the employer’s point of view, as opposed to just the job seeker’s point of view,” she says.

Greyson sees an analogy to the process of applying for rental property.

Noting that she has been a landlord, she says: “When I had prospective tenants come to me and provide credit reports that they ran on themselves, I appreciated it.”

During her career, Greyson also has worked in marketing for Hewlett-Packard, and she has run her own mediation business. Now, Greyson is trying to figure out how to reinvent her career, and she hopes that the resume service will give her an advantage during the job search.

Greyson, 50, adds that using TalentShield demonstrates one more way that she’s technology savvy, which is that much more important for older job seekers.

Options

TalentWise offers three options for the service: an “entry-level” package, which costs $14.95; “mid-level” service, at $29.95; and a “management-level” package, at $49.95. If customers add more credentials to their resume later, they can pay $14.95 to get those newest credentials certified.

In addition, the company plans to expand TalentShield to include two more features: a criminal background check, and a search of the National Sex Offender database.

Many Ways to Share

When their resume details have been certified, job seekers decide how to share that information with recruiters and employers.

The TalentShield service generates a unique URL that displays job seekers’ certified credentials. They can share the link in many different ways, according to Ziv Gonen, product manager at TalentWise. For instance, they can send the link via e-mail, or they can include the link on their LinkedIn profiles.

Also, job seekers can promote their pre-verified credentials via QR code (which has the link embedded in it). Employers who scan the QR code with a smartphone are directed to the link.

In addition, people can share through the Taleo Talent Exchange, an online recruiting community that connects job seekers with nearly 5,000 employers. Through the exchange, people can create one “universal profile” and use it to apply to many different jobs. Job seekers can link their pre-verified credentials to this universal profile.

Meanwhile, several other job boards are considering integrating TalentShield with their sites. Discussions are under way, Glenn says.

Survey Findings

To learn more about the market opportunity for this type of service, TalentWise commissioned a survey of Americans’ attitudes toward resume fraud. In January, the research firm Harris Interactive surveyed about 2,000 adults ages 18 and older.

When asked if it’s okay to misrepresent something on a resume, nearly one-third replied yes. (Specifically, 31 percent of the general population, and 31 percent of job seekers, said it’s acceptable). Also, younger adults were more likely than older adults to indicate that this type of behavior is okay.

“Given the high unemployment rate, many folks probably believe they may need to do whatever it takes to stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed by potential employers and recruiters,” Glenn says.

According to the survey, 62 percent of Americans would pay for a resume-validating service to give themselves a competitive edge. And younger people showed more interest in this type of service than older people did.

Glenn says that the survey findings confirmed that there was a real market for TalentShield. Now, the company is planning a survey to examine the attitudes of recruiters and employers. Anecdotally, they have indicated that it would provide an edge to applicants, Glenn says.

A few companies offer competing resume-verification services, including CVCertify and Crederity.

Looking Ahead

For TalentShield to be successful, it needs to adopted equally by job seekers and employers, Glenn notes. And he has high expectations.

“We believe that TalentShield will become one of those standard criteria for filtering that recruiters and employers will be looking for over time,” he says.

The jobless rate declined to 9 percent from 9.1 percent in September. However, last month’s job growth fell short of economists’ expectations of 95,000 new jobs.

The new jobs report is a sign that the economy is making some progress, said Alan Krueger, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

“Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but the pace of improvement is not fast enough,” Krueger wrote in a blog post.

Employment rose in several sectors, including professional and businesses services, which was up by 32,000.  In addition, leisure and hospitality added 22,000 jobs, while retail trade expanded by nearly 18,000. Employment in health care was up by 12,000. Meanwhile, government employment dropped by 24,000.

An encouraging development was a decrease in the number of “long-term unemployed” (those who have been jobless for 27 weeks or longer). In October, nearly 5.9 million people were in that category, down from 6.2 million in September.

Also, a broader measure known as the “underemployment rate” declined to 16.2 percent from 16.5 percent. This includes not only part-time workers who would rather be in full-time jobs, but also people who have stopped looking for work.

It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point: networking, sending out resumes, interviews, negotiations and, finally, accepting a job offer. At this point, it’s a good idea to take a deep breath … because there’s a lot more work ahead.

The first 90 days at a new job is a time to learn all you can about your new employer, co-workers and position. And it’s an opportunity to lay a strong foundation on which to build your future at the company. While exciting, it can be an intimidating and stressful time. But preparation and a good game plan can reduce the stress and help you make the most of your first 90 days on the job.

Get Yourself Ready

You researched the company to prepare for your interview … right? Now that you have a start date, it’s time to delve even deeper. Learn all you can about your new employer and the competition. Start thinking of ideas so you can hit the ground running once you start. You want your new boss and co-workers to feel like you belong there, that you deserve to be there, and that you have something to bring to the table. And the more you know about your new company and job, the more confident you will feel.

While preparing to start a new job, don’t forget about yourself. If you’re currently employed, hopefully you’ll give yourself at least a week between leaving the old job and starting the new one. If you’re unemployed or have been on a career break, it’s time to switch from the job search mentality and get ready to go back to work. In addition to your research, you should prepare yourself physically and mentally for the challenges that lie ahead.  Get good sleep. Eat right. Exercise. Take care of chores and other things that you might not be able to get to for a while once the new job starts. Get yourself on a schedule that resembles what your new work schedule will be. And make sure to have a little fun, too.

 Get Up to Speed

And it’s here – your first day on the job. Now the learning really begins. Through your research, you have a pretty good idea about what your new company looks like from the outside. Now is the time to observe what it’s like on the inside. During your initial days and weeks, meet all the people you’ll be working with regularly (but also branch out and meet other people in the company). Ask them about what they do and how you will work together. Find an insider to show you the ropes. Get a grasp on the various workflows, procedures and protocols. Remember: This isn’t a time to try to make drastic changes in the status quo; it’s a time to learn how things currently get done.

Also during this time, become a student of the company’s culture – how do people dress, how do they communicate, is there a strict hierarchy, when do people go to lunch? Do your best to get a feel for all the unofficial polices at your new workplace.

Full Steam Ahead

Do your best to quickly get your bearings, and then start working. Hard. While you will still have a lot to learn, try to start achieving tangible results right off the bat. Arrive to work five or 10 minutes early. And don’t rush out of the office right at 5; hang back for a few minutes to avoid the appearance that you’re just waiting out the clock.

Unless you arranged for it as part of your initial employment agreement, don’t ask for time off. If there is an emergency or illness that forces you to miss work during those first 90 days, make sure you do a good job communicating the reason to your boss and co-workers.

Stay Positive

Starting a new job – even when it’s a good move – can be a stressful undertaking. You will have plenty to learn, and you may not always feel like you’re performing at the level you’d like. It’s crucial to maintain a good attitude during this time. Don’t get discouraged. As the days and weeks pass, you’ll settle into your new job, gain workplace respect, and start to feel like you belong.

CareerBliss is an online career community designed to help everyone find happiness in the workplace. An information hub for everyone who works, employers, job seekers and recruiters, CareerBliss offers the ability to find out what makes them happy and the ability to seek that out in other jobs or improve it.

The high unemployment rate reinforces the need for Congress to approve President Obama’s job-creation plan, according to Katharine Abraham, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

In a blog post, she wrote, “Today’s report underscores the President’s call for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act to put more money in the pockets of working and middle class families; to make it easier for small businesses to hire workers; to keep teachers in the classroom; to put construction crews to work rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure; and other measures that will help the economy grow while not adding to the deficit over ten years.”

Employment jumped by 103,000 in September, boosted partly by the return of 45,000 Verizon workers to the payrolls. The Verizon workers had been on strike for a couple weeks in August. Their departure and return has skewed recent payroll numbers.

Meanwhile, the labor force increased by 423,000 last month.

A broader measure called the “underemployment rate” also paints a bleak picture. In September, it rose to 16.5 percent from 16.2 percent. The underemployment rate includes part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs, as well as people who have stopped looking for work.

Job growth occurred in professional and business services, health care, and construction. But government employment declined again, as the U.S. Postal Service and local governments shed jobs.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department revised payroll numbers for August to show a gain of 57,000 jobs. Originally, the government reported that the economy created no jobs in August.

However, the pace of employment growth has slowed in recent months. During the period from October to April, job growth averaged 161,000 per month. Over the past five months, however, the economy has added only 72,000 jobs on average each month.

The site recently released a list of the Top 10 Happiest Hotels for employees. The top spot went to Hyatt Hotels Corp., followed by Marriott International Inc. and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

To create its list, CareerBliss analyzed employee-generated reviews from 2010-2011. The major factors affecting workers’ happiness included:

• career-advancement programs
• good working relationship between senior managers and their teams
• culture that allows employees to maintain work-life balance

Although Hyatt ranked at the top, the hotel chain has been in the news over a high-profile labor dispute. Earlier this month, Hyatt workers in several U.S. cities launched a weeklong strike, citing abusive working conditions for housekeepers and other grievances.

On its blog, Hyatt defended itself, saying that the union Unite Here has made false allegations and that the chain has an “outstanding safety record.”

If you’re considering a career in the hotel field, be sure to research specific companies and the industry as a whole.

In general, the field offers tremendous opportunities for career advancement, according to Joe McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

“This is an industry where there are a lot of opportunities, and it’s a growing industry,” he says.

The hotel chains operate internationally, which creates many career possibilities. Many of the chains promote from within first, he notes.

“The idea is to get your foot in the door, work hard, and then, as opportunities come up, you will be able to take advantage of them,” McInerney says.

Job seekers can use the findings of the CareerBliss analysis to research hotel chains, says Alia Henson, communications director for CareerBliss. The findings can shed insight on companies’ formal programs, corporate culture, and general reputation.

“They can get an idea of what others are saying about that employer,” Henson says.

Other resources also are available for job seekers. For instance, many of the chains are publicly traded, and therefore have strict requirements for public disclosure. Study the corporate filings to learn more about their financial condition, McInerney advises. One good place to look is the investor relations section of the companies’ websites.

Another resource is the hotel association’s website, where you can visit the “Career Center” and find thousands of job postings.