Economic news might be looking upward for Illinois for the first time in a few months. According to a survey by the staffing firm Manpower, who regularly releases such surveys, 18 percent of companies in the greater Chicago area are planning to take on more employees next quarter, and increase of 10 percent over the first quarter of the year. With only 3 percent of companies surveyed planning on cutting jobs (as compared to 16 percent in the first quarter of the year), this is a net gain of 15%. The strongest job prospects appear in industries like construction and durable goods manufacturing, while employers in government plan to cut jobs. Overall, 75 percent plan to maintain their current level of employment, continuing a small upward trend. more ›

The new United We Work site - which just went public this week - seems to be catching on. Free for job seekers and employers alike through the end of the year, the site is expected to have 500,000 job openings posted by the end of this week. The incentive for employers to use the site, is a reduction in the cost of hiring because the responsibility for finding qualified candidates is shared across participating employers. “We believe that if we can break those [cost barriers] down, it may stimulate an employer to hire now instead of waiting six months,” Jason Kerr, founder of QuietAgent told the Tribune. more ›