“State adds jobs in March, but not enough to hold down ... - Seattle Times” plus 1 more

State adds jobs in March, but not enough to hold down ... - Seattle Times

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 10:33 PM PDT

As graduation nears, an uncertain economy has come to define the Class of 2010: Many young people in Washington state will soon get a diploma, but what about a job?

A new report on the state job market carries mixed news for soon-to-be graduates such as Melissa Kleppinger, a University of Washington senior who wants to be a social worker or teacher. If she can't find a job, she says, she'll probably take up volunteer work overseas.

"I won't be that picky if I'm offered a job," Kleppinger said.

Employers statewide added about 1,600 jobs last month, suggesting Washington is back on the road to recovery after a tumble in February.

But March's job gain wasn't enough to accommodate an increase in people looking for work, and the unemployment rate edged up a notch to 9.5 percent, the state Employment Security Department reported Tuesday.

Although March marked the state's second monthly gain after relentless payroll cuts from late 2008 to the end of 2009 (and again in February), the report affirmed what many job seekers already know: A full recovery in the job market is still a long way off.

Washington had 67,800 fewer nonfarm jobs last month than a year ago, representing a 2.4 percent decline. Nationally, jobs were down 1.8 percent on a year-over-year basis as unemployment stayed put at 9.7 percent in March.

In the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett market, joblessness dropped to 8.5 percent from 8.7 percent a month earlier.

Economist Dick Conway predicts a full recovery in the local job market won't occur until the end of 2012.

"It's going to be a long time before we get back to anything like the unemployment rate we had in 2007, which was 4 percent," said Conway, co-publisher of The Puget Sound Economic Forecaster, a quarterly newsletter. "The next couple of years are going to be a real struggle for a lot of people, even though the economy will pick up."

Recruiters on rise

At the University of Washington, about 100 employers sent recruiters to a spring job fair last year, down 25 percent from prerecession levels. Wednesday, UW expects to host about 120 employers, making events coordinator Emma O'Neill somewhat optimistic.

"There are many intern and part-time positions, and even a surprising number of full-time positions that employers are looking to fill," she said.

Employers plan to hire about 5 percent more college graduates this spring than last, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That's the first predicted increase in college hiring since fall 2008.

Still, many graduates likely will be competing for jobs with older, more-experienced applicants.

Signs of improvement

Washington saw its labor force grow by nearly 6,000 people in March, possibly explaining why unemployment rose to 9.5 percent from a revised rate of 9.4 percent in February.

State economist Dave Wallace speculated that many new entrants into the labor force had become discouraged, stopped looking for work and now are job-hunting again amid signs that the worst of the recession is over.

The unemployment rate counts only those who are out of a job and actively seeking work, meaning that when people re-enter the labor force faster than employers create jobs, the rate goes up.

Washington's professional and business-services sector posted the largest monthly gain, with 1,500 additional jobs, followed by retail trade and leisure and hospitality, each up 500. The federal government staffed up for the census and gained 600 jobs in Washington, while state government added 200 jobs in education services.

Those gains were partly offset by job losses in construction, local governments, financial activities and private-sector education and health services.

Daniel Pascoe Aguilar, career-services director at Seattle University, tells students not to get discouraged by negative job-market data.

"About 80 percent of jobs are never posted, which is part of the reason that job opportunities seem so limited," Pascoe Aguilar said. "Referrals and connections get jobs, and it's something students can always be working on."

Diane Martin, associate director of UW's Career Center, urges students to take advantage of social-networking Web sites to connect with potential employers, and she also encourages them to consider internships or part-time jobs.

Martin said she sees more students interested in graduate school and service-oriented programs, such as Teach for America, which has received 46,000 applications this year, up from 35,000 last year.

"When the opportunity for a job the graduate really wants arises, they need to show that they know how to work," she said.

Amy Martinez: 206-464-2923 or amartinez@seattletimes.com

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Legislators look to get their part-timers off pension ... - Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted: 13 Apr 2010 11:59 PM PDT

A pension law signed by Gov. Christie last month barred future part-time employees from the state pension system.

Among those remaining in the system, unaffected by the measure, are the lawyers who work part-time for the legislative leadership.

But in recent interviews, Senate officials said that could be changing.

A spokesman for the New Jersey Senate Democrats said Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D., Gloucester) is reviewing the need to keep the majority office's two part-time lawyers on the payroll.

Republicans are going a step further. Glenn Paulsen, the influential former Burlington County GOP chairman, said he has decided to leave the Senate Republicans' payroll by the end of the month and hopes to work out an arrangement in which he would instead bill as an independent contractor. The move would stop him from accruing additional pension credits.

With the system facing a $46 billion shortfall, Christie has criticized part-timers' pension eligibility and has said he wants to take the reforms - approved by the Senate in February and the Assembly in March – a step further by kicking current part-time employees out of the system. The new law only affects future hires: State employees would need to work 35 hours a week to qualify for a pension and local employees, 32.

The system has long been set up for many part-timers to receive retirement benefits on par with, or greater than, those of full-time employees because the state bases pension payments on the average of the three highest-paying years (the new law raises that to the five highest years). Payments are boosted the more years an employee has in the system.

Michael Armstrong, who receives a $25,000 salary as counsel to the Senate Democrats, said he was not told his position was under review. Armstrong, hired in 2002 at the direction of Sweeney rival Sen. Richard Codey (D., Essex), said it would be inappropriate to comment on pension legislation approved by his client.

He joined the pension system in 1999 as a solicitor for the Willingboro Municipal Utilities Authority at a salary of $3,120.

The 48-year-old Burlington Township lawyer held three part-time, pensionable jobs that netted him a salary of about $115,000 between 2005 and 2008. His other positions were solicitor to Willingboro Township and the Willingboro MUA - entities which his law firm also billed as an independent contractor.

A law that went into effect in 2008 barred those billing as professional services contractors from also accruing pension credits for the work, though professionals with agreements dated before 2008 were permitted to accrue credits for the remainder of their contract term.

Armstrong said he had interpreted a 2008 memo from the Division of Pensions and Benefits to mean that his solicitor jobs with Willingboro and the Willingboro MUA should not be counted in the pension system going forward, and asked those clients to remove those positions from it.

Armstrong's job as solicitor in Willingboro, which now pays $90,000 and enabled his firm to bill an additional $80,000 last year, no longer counts in the pension system. He was hired there in 2002.

Armstrong said that he did not take the job because of the pension and that he did not even plan to ask for the Willingboro Township position to be factored into his pension calculation. He noted that other lawyers at his law firm had assisted him in his solicitor's duties.

However, his $4,772-a-year job as WMUA attorney continues to count toward his pension, even as his firm also bills the authority under a professional services contract. The authority additionally provides health benefits for Armstrong, his wife, and their two children - at a cost of $18,420 last year.

When he learned this year that the MUA position was still in the system, he said, he received confirmation from the authority and the state that the arrangement was permitted. Armstrong said he had been in discussions recently with the MUA, however, about being compensated in a way that does not accrue credit in the pension system.

Also working as a part-time lawyer for the Senate Democrats is Douglas Bern, who earns $10,000 a year and is a former Bergen County freeholder and Englewood City Council president.

Bern and Armstrong assist lead counsel Leon Sokol, who bills as an independent contractor.

Derek Roseman, a spokesman for the Senate Majority Office, said Sweeney is reviewing all Senate personnel.

"I think some of that investigation is, do you need these positions?" Roseman said.

On the Republican side, Paulsen has served as counsel since 1992, with the exception of the years 2006 and 2007.

Paulsen left the law firm Capehart Scatchard to work full-time for the state government between 1983 and 1990, serving in high-level posts that included commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles. He left the public sector at a salary of $87,500 and returned to private practice, accepting a job as counsel to the Senate Republicans two years later.

His full-time service was three years short of the decade needed to be vested in the pension system. Paulsen became vested as a result of his Senate position, which now pays $45,000. If he left the pension system in 2010, he would be eligible to receive a retirement check worth about $33,000 a year.

Paulsen said that, while his decision to leave the payroll is not meant to be a statement on what others should do, he feels he should show his support for the reforms Gov. Christie wants.

"Times have changed," said Paulsen, 63, of Riverton. "The system is, by all accounts, nearly bankrupt."

Contact staff writer Maya Rao at 856-779-3220 or mrao@phillynews.com.

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