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5/16/04
EMPLOYMENT Toss those mortarboards: College grad recruitment will be up 12.8 percent this year, according to a recent survey of 500 US employers by CollegeGrad.com. 
Employers who were reluctant to hire last year are now committed to adding college graduates to their ranks, according to the online job site, which said it has more than 120,000 positions listed for the class of 2004, significantly more than 2003. ''Entry-level hiring is taking a very positive turn for the Class of 2004,'' said Brian Krueger, president of CollegeGrad.com. ''We are seeing a strong increase in the number of entry-level jobs available in nearly every discipline.'' According to the online survey results, Enterprise Rent-A-Car says it expects to hire some 6,500 entry-level trainees around the country. ''As we continue to grow, we will be seeking to hire motivated, college-educated employees,'' said Mary Artim, manager of human resources for Enterprise. Until recently, the outlook for new grads was dim as employers, concerned about the economy, delayed hiring. After an e-mail survey in March, for example, the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported that many of the nation's businesses were planning to reduce their college internship and cooperative education programs in 2004. The association said employers planned to reduce new hires for their cooperative education programs by 6.8 percent. Internships and cooperative work arrangements have long been regarded as important paths to permanent employment. Last month, the situation improved for college graduates, however. The association reported that a survey of 973 members, including 209 employers, revealed that companies would be hiring 11.2 percent more new graduates this year than they hired last year. In all, 51.5 percent of the employers polled said they would hire more new college graduates this year than they hired in 2003. The outlook is best among service sector employers, the association said. Those employers plan to increase recruitment of new grads 16.1 percent over last year. Manufacturers are predicting a 12.6 percent increase in the recruitment of college graduates for entry-level positions. By contrast, government or nonprofit employers will decrease hiring by 4.5 percent, down from 7 percent last year. --DIANE E. LEWIS
COURT RULING A Massachusetts employer who disapproves of a decision made by the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination can no longer seek redress through a jury trial. In a new ruling this month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned a 1997 decision that allowed companies to present their cases before a jury if they disagreed with the decision rendered by the state's antidiscrimination agency. The high court ruled 6 to 1 against such jury trials, saying the practice undermines the commission's authority to fulfill its mandate of protecting Massachusetts workers from on-the-job bias. The court said it erred in 1997 when it ruled in Stonehill College v. Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination that employers had the right to reintroduce a case before a superior court jury, even though the civil rights agency had issued a decision following an investigation and hearing. According to the high court decision, hearings or administrative proceedings conducted by the agency are supposed to help reduce workplace bias by punishing and deterring discriminative behavior against employees by their employers. The court also said that equal protection is not violated when employees rather than employers are allowed to choose the forum in which a charge of discrimination should be tried. Some employment lawyers who represent management interests disagreed with the decision. ''Even employers have the right to have their position heard by a jury of their peers,'' said Robert Hale, an employment lawyer at Goodwin Procter in Boston. --DIANE E. LEWIS
DIVERSITY PROGRAMS Which companies offer minority women the best opportunities for training and advancement? Working Mother magazine reports that companies that hold their managers accountable for the promotion and advancement of women of color tend to have more effective diversity programs. Many of these companies also reward managers who mentor minority women, the magazine said. The magazine, which last week released its ''2004 Best Companies for Women of Color,'' lauded six companies for their diversity initiatives. Those companies are Allstate Insurance, American Express, Fannie Mae, General Mills, IBM, and JPMorgan Chase. Two of the firms have African-American chief executives who have made diversity a top priority, said Working Mother. The chief executives are Kenneth Chenault of American Express and Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae. --DIANE E. LEWIS
SMALL BUSINESS Would-be entrepreneurs would find it costlier and likely harder to get federal loans under a new White House plan that has some lenders and small business advocates worried. To save money, the Bush administration's budget for fiscal year 2005 would slash federal subsidies for two Small Business Administration loan programs. Federal guarantees would drop from a maximum of 85 percent to 50 percent on popular 7(a) loans, making them riskier and less attractive for lenders. The program's fees for lenders and loan recipients, which had been reduced in recent years to stimulate business, also would be raised to their previous levels. Moreover, the so-called microloan program, which doles out loans of $35,000 or less, would be eliminated. Doug Heye, a spokesman for the SBA, which supports the changes, said the microloans were not widely used and that similar-size loans are available through the agency. Because of the larger number of businesses that depend on 7(a) loans, the proposed changes to that program have sparked the most concern. The proposed change would increase the fee from 1 percent on the federally guaranteed portion of the loan to 2 percent. Thus, if a business got a $100,000 loan with $80,000 of it guaranteed, the firm would pay a $1,600 fee, twice what it would pay today. But the biggest worry stems from the proposal to reduce the federal guarantee for 7(a) loans to 50 percent. That might cause many banks to stop participating in the program because their loans would become riskier, said Anthony Wilkinson, president of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, whose members make a majority of 7(a) loans. And that, he added, could make it tougher for small businesses to get financing. --SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
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