"Show me the jobs" - seems to be the sentiment that Americans are expressing regarding all the hoopla about the recession showing "big signs" of the end nearing. Unless you have been in a closet somewhere, for the past year, that same old song has been going on for months now. Each time some real indicator states something different than the propaganda before it. The good news is that most Americans seem to be aware of the rhetoric as the current consumer confidence index is around 46. So what does that mean? Well a good consumer confidence index is around 90. Thus, as you can see 46 is a long way away from 90. In short, used to be workers are saying - show me the jobs - than i might believe it. Even more so, show the job growth that is outside of the construction industry, since we all know construction jobs are being fueled by the government economic stimulus package. The greater question, again, is - where are the jobs lead by the private sector versus just the government. When people can see that, then maybe that will be a "real" indicator that the recession is behind us.

Sure the economy is down on a grand scale, but the economy still has life especially in the small business arena. As a matter of fact, in Dover, DE some local businesses are actually hiring due to growth and expansion. Two men and a Truck, Once Upon a Child and a host of real estate companies have been leading the way, in Dover, with increasing employee head count. This seems true to form why the small business sector is the backbone of the economy, accounting for well over 55% of all jobs in the US. In a word - resilience. As in Dover, local communities depend on the services of local merchants and these small business demonstrate resilience, through their consistent ability to deliver despite the national economic situation. Kudos!

OK lets jump right into this one. Undoubtedly you have heard of pervasive problems surrounding unscrupulous, unethical and downright grimy recruiters. If you haven't than you need to get out a little more. These bad apple recruiters are making it that much harder for talented job seekers to land work. How? Well, quite a few employers outsource recruiting functions to recruiting firms. The recruiting firm will of course have recruiters doing the so called "search" work to find candidates. The candidate "search" is so called considering this simply means resume keyword matching from resumes posted on job boards or resume phishing scams i.e. posting fake job listings with the intent of simply beefing up a resume database. Now, since recruiting firms are paid based on placing a candidate, there is a huge incentive to just place someone - anyone - hence the term "headhunter". So in short, these headhunters are paid a percentage of the salary of the person that they place. You would think that provides some incentive towards a professional relationship with candidates right? Wrong. In essence recruiters work for the client or employer whereas the candidate is unrepresented and often regarded as a disposable commodity by shady recruiters.

It's time to wake up people. Be mindful of who you are sending your resume to. As more and more awareness regarding shady recruiting practices are unveiled, the job seeker is better equipped to make informed decisions on what recruiters are reputable and which ones to avoid like the plague. The fact of the matter is that it is time to weed out these bad apples that are making a bad name for quality recruiting and staffing firms across many industries. Moreover, these bad apple recruiters are nothing short of an unnecessary unwanted obstacle to job seekers already faced with their fair share of challenges in these tough economic times. So if you have any verifiable experiences with bad apple recruiters share it. A comprehensive list of both reputable and bad apple recruiters is work in progress that is yours simply for the asking. Stand up and remember who is the talent for hire.