Have you seen JobMonkey’s newest section on franchise opportunities? A franchise is a national or regional chain, in which each storefront is owned individually rather than by the national office. A franchise agreement gives the individual owner (the franchisee) the legal right to sell the franchiser’s products or services. If you are interested in starting your own business, but would prefer to minimize some of the risk of having to develop your own business plan, the franchise model is a good option — especially during this recession when financing for unproven business...

I just had coffee with an old friend. We see each other pretty frequently, which is probably why some of the things she said struck a sour note for me. "I think we’re going to have to give up health insurance," she said at one point. Then later, "They won’t give me more hours at my job; I’ll have to quit the only job I’ve ever loved." Ordinarily those kinds of comments would be cause for sympathy, empathy, pity, charity – almost anything except exasperation, which I have to admit is what I felt when I heard them. I do remember feeling the softe...

Every day I write about cool jobs in the United States and abroad. Sometimes we focus in on seasonal jobs, internships and volunteer placements; other times we look at year-round jobs and life-long careers. But today, I want to hear from you. Tell me, what is your dream job? And are you doing it right now? Leave a note in the comments section — I can’t wait to hear from you. ...

The ADP National Employment Report was released yesterday, showing a possible slowing in the number of layoffs during the month of April. For April, the ADP is reporting that 491,000 private sector jobs were loss — no doubt a huge number, but a slowing from the predicted 600,000 plus expected to be lost. It’s also a significant improvement over last month, when the ADP reported a loss of 708,000 jobs. An unofficial gauge of the private labor market, the ADP Report typically comes out a few days before the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports its official unemployment numbers for the ...

Do you want up-to-the-minute updates about job postings, industry announcements and more? Just sign up to follow JobMonkey on Twitter. After telling you for months how invaluable Twitter is in your online networking, we figured we should get in on the game! It only takes a minute to sign up and then you’ll never miss a tweet! ...

As promised, the federal government has released the March unemployment numbers and I’ve got them for you. The highlights (or should I say lowlights): 663,000 jobs were cut last month, according to the Labor Department The national unemployment rate rose 0.4 percentage points to 8.5 % The number of unemployed combined with the underemployed is 15.6% — a steep jump from the 9.1 % rate last March 5.1 million jobs have been lost since the start of this recession — and 2/3rd of those lay-offs have come in the last five months January job loss numbers were updated to include an...

Here’s a fun little poll for this cold and snowy Tuesday afternoon. If Congress passes President Obama’s $825 billion Stimulus Plan, you will be getting a stimulus check in the mail for $500 ($1,000 for couples — income restrictions do apply.) So, what would you do with your check? Would you stimulate the economy by spending it? And if so, on what? Would you pay down debt? Or would you show your faith in America’s flagging financial institutions and sock it away in the bank? I’m boring: I’d add it to my online savings account and call it a day. What about yo...

Happy holidays to all the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and Festivus (okay, just kidding about that one) celebrators among our readers.  May your coming year be filled with joy, prosperity and hope.  I hope all your dreams come true, especially your career ones!  Peace. ...

On this national day of Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a few minutes to thank *you*, all of our readers, for coming here and making this new JobMonkey venture a big success. Maybe you’re coming here to take a break from the job hunting grind or perhaps you want to gather up some strength and inspiration to make a big career change.  It’s been a pleasure to chat with you every day and I look forward to getting to know you better in the coming weeks and months. In that spirit, would you please leave me a comment and let me know: What Are You Thankful For? ...

You’ve heard of white collar jobs and blue collar jobs.  Now there is a third category: green collar jobs. This week, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at green collar jobs — what green collar means, how many green collar jobs are available, and what you need to know to land a green collar job. What does Green Collar mean? According to San Francisco State University’s Raquel Pinderhughes, green collar jobs are "blue collar jobs in green businesses."  This cross-over definition seems to be the most widely accepted. In a New York Times piece, for exa...