Business Confidence is up and Health Care

The Staffing View

On business, the workplace and employee relations

_May, 2011

 

Micro Tech’s Featured Job Openings for May

Shipping/Receiving Supervisor, Raleigh, NC     

Salary: $18 - $20 per hour 

Applicants should have five to seven years of managing a shipping and receiving department, as well as the ability to hire and discharge, and lead a team of four to five full-time employees and four to five temporary employees Forklift certification required Inventory control and SAP experience a plus

Product Support Engineer, Boston, MA

Salary: $80,000

This is a customer support position in a manufacturing environment, including management of an RMA process

Senior Linux Administrator, Needham, MA

Salary: Up to $100,000

Employer seeks an experienced Linux administrator The ideal candidate will have worked with either Perl or Bash-Scripting and have a solid understanding of the Linux command line

PHP Developer, Watertown, MA

Salary: Up to $40 per hour

Employer seeks a strong PHP developer who has experience working with WordPress Ongoing contract position

 

Massachusetts’ health care reform: Has it worked?

Should former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney run for, the health insurance reform measure that he signed during his time in the Bay State will be cited with increasing frequency Democrats will say that it has worked and note that it is much like the health care reform measure President Obama championed in 2010, while Romney’s Republican rivals will point to it as his version of the reviled “ObamaCare”

The question for employers and employees alike is, has it worked? A new report from the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released last month basically says yes on providing greater medical coverage, but not yet on restraining costs In a nutshell, the Massachusetts plan required all residents of the state age 17 and older who can obtain affordable health insurance to do so It also required employers with 11 or more full-time equivalent employees in Massachusetts to make a “fair and reasonable contribution” toward coverage for full-time employees, or pay an assessment of up to $295 per full-time employee

As for the problem of the budget-busting cost of health care, Massachusetts reform hasn’t made a dent According to the report, “the cost of health care and the annual rate of increase in health care spending remains a challenge With no intervention, per capita health care spending in Massachusetts is projected to nearly double by 2020”

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield Foundation report, which relies on data provided by state government agencies, came away with a number of findings:

• Massachusetts has the highest rate of insurance in the country with 981 percent of residents insured


• There has been no evidence of subsidized coverage “crowding out” employer-sponsored insurance, and employer offer rates have grown from 70 percent to 76 percent since reform became law


• Public support has remained strong with two out of three adults backing reform


• Most employers believe health reform has been good for Massachusetts and 88 percent of Massachusetts physicians believe reform improved, or did not affect, care or quality of care

Most employers in the state have met the new law’s “fair share” provision More than 95 percent of firms passed the Fair Share test during the first two years that the new reform was in place - 96 percent in fiscal year 2007 and 97 percent in fiscal year 2008  Revenues collected from companies found to be noncompliant also reflect a change in attitude In the first year of implementation 1,020 firms were found not to be making a “fair and reasonable” contribution and were liable for $104 million in fines In the second year that number of firms fell to 758 firms and the fees collected dropped to $71 million

The study also found that though employers in the state have decreased the level of their contributions towards the cost of employee health insurance – primarily as premiums have increased – the percentage of employers who offered some level of insurance grew to 76 percent in 2009, up from 70 percent in 2005 Nationally only 60 percent of employers offered health insurance in 2009

 

Confidence up, April hiring tops expectations

Oil prices may be rising, gas at the pump is above $4 per gallon and inflation among grocery items is climbing up But confidence among chief executives and consumers has been trending higher, another sign that the economic expansion is spreading

The Conference Board Measure of CEO Confidence was up for the second quarter in a row during the first three months of this year, a positive sign for the economy and future hiring According to the survey, 85 percent of the CEO’s queried said current economic conditions are better than they were six months ago, up from only 56 percent who felt that way during the fourth quarter of 2010 Looking ahead, 66 percent said they expect economic conditions to improve during the next six months, up from 56 percent during the final three months of 2010

All of that good feeling means more jobs will be opening up Half of those questioned said they expect an increase in employment levels in their industry this year, compared to only 30 percent who felt that way a year ago Meanwhile the percentage of CEOs who expect a decrease in hiring in their industry dropped to 16 percent from 22 percent last yearThe job gains in April demonstrate that confidence Private employers created 266,000 new jobs last month, the most since February of 2006 For many economists the gains were larger than expected and confirmation that the economy will continue to expand this year

Another CEO survey was equally encouraging The Business Roundtable’s quarterly CEO Economic Outlook index jumped to 113 in the first quarter, the highest point it has reached in the nearly 10 years that the group has conducted the poll Ninety-two percent of the 142 CEOs who participated in the survey said they expect sales to rise during the next six months Fifty-two percent said they planned to add jobs in the US during the next six months Only 11 percent said they would reduce their workforce

The strong quarterly numbers among chief executives comes despite the fact that on a monthly basis, confidence was weakened last month following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of Japan

Meanwhile as more people have found work, consumer confidence has edged up The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment rose to 696 in April, higher than forecast, from March’s 675 When people are working and feeling good about their job security, their consumer spending contributes to the economy’s growth through housing purchases, automobile sales and retail sales That increased business spurs additional hiring by employers, from manufacturers to wholesalers to retailers Economists estimated that consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity

 

Tech Sector Surge

Massachusetts’ economy is growing faster than the US average primarily because of a global surge in technology products, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts While the national economy rose 18 percent during the first quarter, the Bay State was up 42 percent

Alan Clayton-Matthews, an economics professor at Northeastern University who contributed to the report, says that Massachusetts companies “export a lot of science and technology-based goods and services to other countries around the world, especially developing countries like China and India’’

The upswing in business has created a heated competition among local companies for skilled workers, including offering cash rewards for referrals One company offered $12,000 for a referral leading to the hiring of a software engineer As the pool of qualified workers shrinks, employers in the tech sector should take steps to ensure they find the people they need

• Streamline your hiring process


• Make swift decisions


• Sell your company to top candidates


• Use an agency such as Microtech Staffing Group that has established relationships with professionals who are looking for a position, as well as those already employed

Employers should also expect that there will be training required for most new hires because technology is changing so rapidly Employing a temporary professional will provide time to evaluate new workers while training them and before making a full-time commitment