Your Wall Street "HA HA SIKE! LULZ" Gold-Plated Bullshit Story of the Day

[CountDeMoney]

CEOs pledge not to discriminate against long-term unemployed
The promise is part of a White House effort to draw attention to the plight of the unemployed as President Obama continues to push Congress to extend jobless benefits

By Kathleen Hennessey
latimes.com
January 31, 2014, 5:48 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Chief executives from 21 companies gathered at the White House on Friday, bringing with them a pledge not to unfairly weed out the long-term unemployed in their hiring process.

About 300 businesses — including Apple Inc., EBay Inc., Gap Inc., Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., 21st Century Fox Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Magic Johnson Enterprises — signed the document, which promises not to discriminate against job applicants solely because they have been out of work for extended stretches.

The companies also agreed to ensure that their hiring practices don't "intentionally or inadvertently disadvantage individuals from being considered for a job based solely on their unemployment status," according to the pledge.

The promise was part of a White House effort to draw attention to the plight of the jobless as President Obama continues to push Congress to extend jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

Obama addressed the executives at the event, saying that these job seekers need a "fair shot."

"They just need that chance, somebody who will look past that stretch of unemployment," Obama said. "They just need employers to realize it doesn't reflect at all on their abilities or their values; it just means they've been dealing with the aftermath of this really tough job market, and all they need is a fair shot."

Long-term unemployment has become a persistent legacy of the economic crisis.

As the private sector added 2.2 million jobs over the last year, the short-term unemployment rate fell to its pre-recession average. But the long-term unemployment rate remains more than double the average before the financial crisis, according to a White House report released Friday.

As of December, nearly 4 million Americans had been unemployed for 27 weeks or more, and 2.6 million of them had been searching for jobs for a year or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Since long-term unemployment benefits expired in December, the president and his Democratic allies in Congress have tried to pass an extension. The White House said 1.6 million Americans have lost benefits since then and an additional 4.9 million could see their payments run out this year.

The White House did not have an estimate on how many more people might find work under the new initiative to change hiring practices. Officials cited surveys that found the interview "callback rate" was significantly lower for job applicants who have been out of work for several months — even if their resumes are similar to those of other applicants.

The president has been looking for ways to demonstrate that he will not be hemmed in by congressional deadlock.

In his State of the Union address this week, Obama declared that he would expand his use of executive power. And in a just-completed two-day, four-state tour, the president touted new actions he has taken to overhaul job training, bolster retirement savings and improve public education.

The corporate pledge was part of that effort.

The pledge was drafted over several months with input from companies, White House economic advisor Gene Sperling said. He and other top aides reached out personally to chief executives seeking their cooperation.

The White House took a "positive approach" to the problem, Sperling said, and noted that signing the document was not an admission that companies have discriminated against people out of work for an extended time.

Obama said he would order the federal government to follow the practices in the pledge. He also announced a $150-million grant program for nonprofit organizations that work to help the long-term unemployed polish their job-hunting skills and find openings.

300 companies pledge to help long-term unemployed

By Juliet Eilperin, Updated: January 31 at 6:00 am
washingtonpost.com

More than 300 companies—including 20 of the nation's 50 largest, such as Apple, Wal-Mart and General Motors—have agreed to reassess their hiring practices at President Obama's request to make sure they are not biased against Americans who have been out of work for more than six months.

Obama is gathering some of those business leaders at the White House Friday who have pledged to make a concerted effort to hire the long-term unemployed, part of his ongoing campaign to mobilize action outside of Washington to achieve his policy goals.

Gene Sperling, who directs the White House National Economic Council, told reporters in a conference call Thursday that the administration started reaching out to corporate leaders in May and secured specific pledges from companies over the past three to four months.

"This was an area where we should be able to move the needle by talking to companies directly and getting them to examine their business practices," he said. "The response has been inspiring."

"What we have done is to gather together 300 companies, just to start with, including, some of the top 50 companies in the country, companies like WalMart and Apple, Ford and others, to say, Let's establish best practices,' " Obama said in an interview with CNN on Thursday. "Because they've been unemployed . . . so long, folks are looking at that gap in the résumé and they're weeding them out before these folks even get a chance for an interview."

Several academic studies suggest that the very fact of being unemployed for an extended period of time can reduce one's chances of getting hired. One recent study showed those who had been unemployed for eight months had a 45 percent lower interview callback rate than those out of work for one month. A separate survey reported those unemployed for seven months need to send an average of 35 resumes to online job postings to receive just one interview, compared to just 10 resumes per interview for those unemployed for only one month.

"We are trying to address the heart of that negative cycle," Sperling said.

In all other respects, he added, "the long-term unemployed tend to look like the rest of us." Seventy percent of them are under 50, he noted, and they are "slightly more educated" than the average person who is seeking a job.

Top Obama aides, including Sperling and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, made a personalized pitch to CEOs at gatherings inside and outside the White House. At one point Sperling e-mailed media titan Rupert Murdoch to ask if he would consider taking the pledge; Sperling said Murdoch e-mailed him back and agreed to scrutinize his companies' hiring practices. Both News Corp. and 20th Century Fox eventually signed onto the effort.

"We still consider this not a destination, but a launch," Sperling said. ""I have no question that after tomorrow, there will be more companies that will come to sign up."

Obama will also announce Friday a $150 million grant competition through the Labor Department to support public-private partnerships geared toward helping prepare and place the long-term unemployed in jobs.

Sperling said he could not estimate how many people the new commitments would affect, but he predicted more people would become employed as a result.

It "will absolutely be a net win for the country. This will not be a zero-sum game," he said.

[derspiess]

Sike?

[CountDeMoney]

It was the Radio Shack commercial that did it.

[Admiral Yi]

Wall Street?

[CountDeMoney]

Wall Street?

It fit better than "Business Community, Den of Liars".

[Tonitrus]

How about something that goes with "shareholder value"...maybe something like "Shareholder Slaves"?

[Admiral Yi]

It fit better than "Business Community, Den of Liars".

What you were looking for was something like "Fortune 500."

[CountDeMoney]

It fit better than "Business Community, Den of Liars".

What you were looking for was something like "Fortune 500."

You're worse than Ed and his frosted strudel.

[Ed Anger]

It fit better than "Business Community, Den of Liars".

What you were looking for was something like "Fortune 500."

You're worse than Ed and his frosted strudel.

The pastry of kings.

[Razgovory]

It was the Radio Shack commercial that did it.

I thought it was "Psych".

[Neil]

It was the Radio Shack commercial that did it.

I thought it was "Psych".

You thought right.

[CountDeMoney]

You thought right.

It's a phonetic derivative.  Syke is also acceptable.

All of it is naught, however, without the fake high-five followed by the hand-to-the-hair motion.

[Ideologue]

How about the long-term temporarily employed?

[CountDeMoney]

How about the long-term temporarily employed?

They're better off than the LTU.  Semantics aside, it's all bullshit anyway;  these companies aren't going to do dick.