Workers in certain industries can have more comfort in knowing that, even if they are fired, there is so much demand they should be able to find another job very quickly.

Talk of a recession and creeping unemployment rates are enough to make you wonder: Where can you find stability in unstable times? Kiplinger consulted career experts and combed through job trend data to come up with five industries that should provide safer havens to workers, no matter what the economy is doing. No matter what field you work in, you have the possibility of losing your job. But there are things you can do to protect yourself and increase your odds of getting another job, just in case.

Healthcare  
Many of the nation’s fastest-growing careers are in the health care industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An increasingly aging population fuels demand in this field. Some specific jobs with stable prospects include doctor, nurse, pharmacist, physical therapist and physician assistant.

Education
Teachers for any grade level who specialize in high-demand fields such as math, science or bilingual education should have an easier time finding and keeping a job. And the outlook for college instructors looks stable, too. College enrollment is rising as the number of 18- to 24-year-olds increases. Some areas of the country are more stable than others for teachers because education jobs follow population trends. So teachers in fast-growing states in the South and West, such as Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Georgia, will have more opportunity than in slower-growth areas in the Midwest and Northeast.

Security
Crime doesn’t stop in a recession. That makes security jobs, such as police officers, detectives, private security guards and international security experts, a good bet. Layoffs in this industry are rare. In the off-chance law enforcement officers lose their jobs to budget cuts, they have little difficulty finding jobs with other agencies because demand is so high.

Environmental Sciences
The current “green” movement reaches far beyond changing your light bulbs to fluorescents. It’s also translating into a solid career choice. The BLS expects environmental careers, including ecologists, hydrologists, environmental chemists and others, to grow 25% over the next decade.

Government
Some of the most stable jobs around are within the federal government, where firings and lay-offs happen at just one-quarter the rate in the private sector. One reason: Even in hard economic times when big businesses are forced to downsize, the government must carry on. And only one in every 5,000 non-defense workers is ever fired for poor performance each year. Crazy odds! Due to an increasingly aging workforce, the government is doing a lot of hiring lately, especially among the 20-something crowd.

What perks would drive a normal person to consider the graveyard shift? 

Money money money! Yet money isn’t the only benefit. There are other intangibles, like greater autonomy, fewer meetings (all the higher-ups are sleeping!) and the likelihood of getting promoted sooner since there are less people to compete against.

1. Registered Nurse (RN)
Day Shift: $54,500 annually
Night Shift: $55,700 annually

2. Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)
Day Shift: $36,300
Night Shift: $38,400

3. Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA)
Day Shift: $22,200
Night Shift: $22,600

4. Truck Driver
Day Shift: $31,300
Night Shift: $36,000

5. Bartender
Day Shift: $24,600
Night Shift: $31,200

6. Waiter/Waitress
Day Shift: $16,500
Night Shift: $22,500

7. Verizon telephone operator
Day shift: $890 weekly
Night shift: $979 weekly

8. Television writer/ news writer
Writers on the night shift get a 15% differential hourly rate.

9. Nanny
Night nannies generally start their shift at 2 p.m. and work until 10 p.m. They receive about 20% more than daytime nannies

10. Pharmacist
Median Total Cash Compensation: $97,700
Night Shift: differential varies significantly, from 2% to 10%

Embellishing your resime is one thing; lying is another.

Most bosses are pretty forgiving if you come clean about a minor brush with the law or a supervisor so nutty he sent you running for the door. Yet resume tinkering is practically an epidemic. Superheated competition for jobs, especially those with big paychecks, tempts many to pump air into their resumes. A gig as an administrative assistant expands into a management title. A mail-order MBA is passed off as the real deal. Most bosses are pretty forgiving if you come clean about a minor brush with the law or a supervisor so nutty he sent you running for the door.

An annual employer survey turned up “inconsistencies” in the work histories of nearly half of job-seekers last year, with 20% of applicants providing false or misleading information about their educational credentials. Discrepancies in verifying past employment were up 13% over 2005 and up 7% involving education. Job hunters should be forgiven for feeling like they are criminals before they even get to the interview. But increasingly, employers are looking to protect their reputations and deflect any liability if they unwittingly hire a crook or a fraudster. So job offers routinely come with a big string attached — passing a background screen.

With No Summer Job, What Are Teenagers Going To Get Themselves Into

Nearly half of hiring managers say they have no plans to hire any seasonal workers this year, according to a study of 1,100 companies released today.  When asked why they wouldn’t be hiring, 31% of those polled said they didn’t have the budget. During the recession of 2001, the teen employment rate plummeted maintaining that teens are typically the hardest hit group during tough economic times. 

Adding to the problems is the growing number of older workers going after traditional teen jobs in retail and food services, and also the increase in illegal and legal immigrants vying for those jobs.

Overall, the numbers of teens working in the United States has been on the decline, as parents from all socioeconomic groups have wanted their children to focus on academics and extracurricular activities instead of paying work. This summer, enrollment in enrichment camps and travel plans may decline because of the economy, and that means more teens potentially looking for work.

Acknowledging A Loss Is The Most Difficult Thing To Do

Americans owe a staggering $1.1 trillion on home equity loans — and banks are increasingly worried they may not get some of that money back. To get it, many lenders are taking the extraordinary step of preventing some people from selling their homes or refinancing their mortgages unless they pay off all or part of their home equity loans first. In the past, when home prices were not falling, lenders did not resort to these measures.

Such tactics are impeding efforts by policy makers to help struggling homeowners get easier terms on their mortgages and stem the rising tide of foreclosures. But at a time when each day seems to bring more bad news for the financial industry, lenders defend the hard-nosed maneuvers as a way to keep their own losses from deepening.

When borrowers default on their mortgages, lenders foreclose and sell the homes to recoup their money. But when homes sell for less than the value of their mortgages and home equity loans (a situation known as a short sale) lenders with first liens must be compensated fully before holders of second or third liens get a dime. In places like California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, where home prices have fallen significantly, second-lien holders can be left with little or nothing once first mortgages are paid.

People with weak, or subprime, credit could be hurt the most. More than a third of all subprime loans made in 2006 had associated second-lien debt, up from 17% in 2000. And many people added second loans after taking out first mortgages, so it is impossible to say for certain how many homeowners have multiple liens on their properties.

Consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food

From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India. While the price of spaghetti has doubled in Haiti, the cost of miso is packing a hit in Japan.

In the long term, prices are expected to stabilize, but consumers still face at least 10 years of more expensive food. The Chinese middle class is starting to change the traditional thought process of beef as a luxury. Attempts to control prices in one country often have dire effects elsewhere. China’s restrictions on wheat flour exports resulted in a price spike in Indonesia this year, according to the FAO. Ukraine and Russia imposed export restrictions on wheat, causing tight supplies and higher prices for importing countries.

As our economy worsens, middle-aged Americans move in with their parents.

Taking shelter with parents isn’t uncommon for young people in their 20s, especially when the job market is poor. But now the slumping economy and the credit crunch are forcing some children to do so later in life — even in middle age. Financial planners report receiving many calls from parents seeking advice about taking in their grown children after divorces and layoffs.

Parents “jeopardize their financial freedom by continuing to subsidize their children,” says one financial planner. “We have a hard time saying no as a culture to our children, and they keep asking for more.” Plenty of well-meaning parents must delay retirement or scale back their dreams because they have to help their children.

A new survey by retiree-advocacy group American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found that one-fourth of Generation Xers, those 28 to 39 years old, receive financial help from family and friends.

5 Things NOT To Do On Your Computer At Work 

If you’re reading this at work, you should probably be asking yourself: Am I actually allowed to browse online and read news stories at the office? The parameters for computer use at work (and even at home) are often confusing. We communicate, network, watch our TV shows, do our grocery shopping, and get our news on our computers. But it’s no free-for-all. Employees should know exactly what their employer’s policies are for e-mail and Internet usage, because workers are losing their jobs after computer-based missteps. Here are five ways to log on and lose your job:

1.) Blogging. While some blogging advocates say a well-executed blog can boost your career by presenting your best side to the HR executives Googling you, there are limitations.

2.) Playing. Solitaire, that ever seductive way to while away the hours, is probably not a great choice for the workplace. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg caught sight of a solitaire game on a city employee’s computer screen in 2006 and fired him. “I expect all city workers, including myself, to work hard,” Bloomberg said then.

Richard Bayer, chief operating officer of the Five O’Clock Club, an outplacement and career coaching organization, says employees who use a company computer for personal matters on company time — whether playing solitaire or checking on their 401(k)’s — are essentially stealing from their employer. “It’s a new, 21st-century form of theft,” Bayer says.

3.) Look at Dirty Pics. Nearly one third of bosses have fired workers for misusing the Internet, according to a recent study by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. 84% of those employers said the reason was the viewing, downloading, or uploading of inappropriate or offensive content. The computer system belongs to the company, and courts have consistently sided with employers when it comes to computer-related terminations. So look at that stuff on your own time.

4.) Posting Your Pictures. Social networking may quickly gain an air of formality. Employers are beginning to monitor social networking sites. Not only do companies fear employees posting proprietary information, but they also don’t want to find photos of the boss dancing on the table drunk at the holiday party. Opinions posted that run contrary to company values can also get employees into trouble.

5.) Write R-rated e-mails. More than a quarter of employers have sent an employee packing for e-mail-related offenses, according to the American Management Association/ePolicy Institute survey, and 62% of those said it was for inappropriate or offensive language. When you write, just assume that someone inside the company is reading it. Most of the 43% of companies that monitor e-mail do it automatically, but 40% have live human beings reading and reviewing it.

Employers largely are concerned with their legal liability noting that a growing number of companies are choosing to archive electronically stored information, rather than erase it, and it’s subject to discovery in a federal lawsuit.

Those with net worth of $1 million to $10 million reshape U.S. culture

• Middle-class millionaires now account for 10% of the U.S. population.

• 7.6% of American households, or 8.4 million households are middle-class millionaires

• The average middle-class millionaire works 70 hours per week

• Middle-class millionaires are five times more likely than the average worker to say they are always available for work

• 89% believes that anyone can attain wealth through hard work

• 62% believes that networking, or knowing many people, is the key to financial success

• 9 out of 10 middle-class millionaires say they made a bad career or business move, but almost three-fourths say that was crucial to their business success

• They are five times more likely than the average middle-class person to continue on in the same business course in spite an earlier failure

• 65% of middle-class millionaires characterize their approach to negotiating as “doing whatever you need to do to win“

• They say they need a net worth of $24 million to feel wealthy, and $13.4 million to be considered rich.

Could the U.S. be in recession?

61% of the public believes the economy is now suffering through its first recession since 2001. The fallout from a depressed housing market and a credit crunch nearly caused the economy to stall in the final three months of last year. Some experts, like the majority of people questioned in the poll, say the economy actually may be shrinking now. The worry is that consumers and businesses will hunker down further and pull back spending, sending the economy into a tailspin.

For all of 2007, the economy grew by just 2.2%. That was the weakest performance since 2002, when the country was struggling to recover from the last recession. The housing collapse was the biggest culprit in 2007. Thanks alot, housing problem!!

When people are feeling negative, they want to cheer themselves up by shopping. People have no idea this is going on.

A new study shows people’s spending judgment goes out the window when they’re down, especially if they’re a bit self-absorbed. Study participants who watched a sadness-inducing video clip offered to pay nearly four times as much money to buy a water bottle than a group that watched an emotionally neutral clip.

The new study released Friday by researchers from four universities goes further, trying to answer whether temporary sadness alone can trigger spendthrift tendencies. The study found a willingness to spend freely by sad people occurs mainly when their sadness triggers greater “self-focus.”

The researchers concluded sadness can trigger a chain of emotions leading to extravagant tendencies. Sadness leads people to become more focused on themselves, causing the person to feel that they and their possessions are worth little. That feeling increases willingness to pay more — presumably to feel better about themselves.

The government’s efforts to stimulate the U.S. economy by doling out checks to workers could backfire, according to two surveys asking consumers what they will do with their checks.

Nearly three-quarters of those asked on both surveys said they will either pay down debt or save any money sent to them as part of an economic stimulus package. The remaining quarter indicated they would spend the money, which is the goal of the program. So that’s $25 billion, not $100 billion, and it’s not clear how quickly it will be spent. What’s more, money that is directed toward lenders, be it to pay off mortgages or credit-card bills, is money that’s already been spent. In other words, it’s already done its job in helping the economy.

International Council of Shopping Centers  found that 46% of respondents said they would mostly pay off debt with the checks while another 28% said they would save the money. Both surveys found that the results didn’t differ across income levels.

The rationale behind the stimulus, which is primarily aimed at lower- and middle-income taxpayers, is that those with less income are more likely to spend the money on things they might not have been able to afford otherwise, such as big-screen TVs or new clothes. That in turn would boost economic activity and help the U.S. avoid a recession.

This is madness. As our infrastructure crumbles and our nation devolves into an uneducated, uncivilized social wasteland, we continue to amass trillions of dollars in debt creating bomb craters in the sands of Iraq.  If this continues, we will follow in the footsteps of all previous corrupt, immoral empires.

Virginia and New Jersey Hold The Wealthiest Communities

1. Fairfax County, Va. Median income: $100,318

2. Loudoun County, Va. Median income: $99,371

3. Howard County, Md. Median income: $94,260

4. Hunterdon Country, N.J. Median income: $93,297

5. Douglas County, Colo. Median income: $92,125

6. Somerset County, N.J. Median income: $91,688

7. Morris County, N.J. Median income: $89,587

8. Montgomery County, Md. Median income: $87,624

9. Arlington County, Va. Median income: $87,350

10. Nassau County, N.Y. Median income: $85,994

The Importance of First Impressions

The first impression a CEO gives, even based solely on certain facial characteristics, could predict how successful his company will be, a new study suggests. First impressions (what others think of a person at a glance) can tell us a lot about another person, and several psychological studies have shown that they can predict success in areas such as running for elected office or teaching. But how well a teacher teaches and how much a candidate appeals to voters are both subjective ideas.

Psychologists Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University set out to study whether first impressions could predict performance in a more objective evaluation: how successful a CEO’s company was. In their experiment, the researchers had college students rate the faces of the CEOs of the highest and lowest ranking Fortune 1000 companies according to their perceived leadership abilities. Certain personality traits associated with leadership, including competence, dominance, likeability, facial maturity and trustworthiness, can be judged from a person’s face, previous studies have shown.

The researchers grouped these traits into two factors influencing leadership. Competence, dominance and facial maturity were combined to represent “power,” while likeability and trustworthiness represented “warmth.” The CEOs who were rated as more powerful by the students turned out to be running more successful companies.

 Take The Quiz

If employee turnover and absenteeism within the company are too high, and productivity and morale too low, the person in charge may be the one at fault.To find out how good or bad — a boss you are, the National Federation of Independent Business, a small business advocacy group, suggests asking yourself these questions:

1. Have you ever publicly criticized an employee?

2. Do you take credit for your employees’ work?

3. Do your employees fear you?

4. Do you expect employees to do what you tell them without question?

5. Do you believe employees should know what to do without you telling them or providing guidelines?

6. Are you a yeller?

7. Do you demean employees as a form of punishment?

8. Do you play favorites?

9. Do you hate delegating?

10. Do you check everyone’s work?

According to the answer key, the more “yes” answers, the greater the likelihood you are a bad boss. Author Trevor Gay has come up with a basic list of the differences between good and bad bosses. In his 35 years of work (in the health care industry), Mr. Gay said he discovered that his best bosses had these attributes:

• Inspired confidence
• Were humble
• Had integrity
• Knew what they were talking about
• Let me get on with things
• Were always there when I needed help
• Usually said, ‘Yes, try it.’”

His worst bosses had these deficiencies:

• Never seemed to be around when I needed them
• Always asked me to justify what I wanted to do
• Always wanted to know what I was doing
• Often said ‘no, we can’t do that’
• Gave the impression of being distrustful
• Didn’t smile much
• Talked about themselves a lot.