Results tagged “hiring”

City Applies For Federal Grants To Hire More Cops

At the end of this year, Chicago could be short 800 cops compared to last year the police union told the Sun-Times. The shortage is attributed to vacancies, attrition rates, and Mayor Daley’s 2009 budget which has significantly slowed down hiring. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis told the Sun-Times last week that the CPD hopes to use federal grant money to hire 150 new officers this year. In the short term Weis will manage the officer shortage by shifting officers from desk jobs, or pay officers overtime with federal grants to cover the streets this summer.

Employment Recovery on the Horizon?

According to a survey of local employers conducted by temporary employment service Manpower Inc, 14 percent said that they expect to add more workers during the third quarter of this year, from July through September. That's an increase from the 10 percent that employers said they expected to hire in the second quarter, from April through June. Furthermore, fewer employers said that they expected to cut their workforce in the third quarter, suggesting that the recent declines in the labor market may be slowing. The survey also showed that 12 percent of employers polled expect to reduce payrolls, compared with 14 percent who said they were cutting jobs in the prior quarter. 71 percent expect to maintain their current staff levels. The construction, financial services, professional and business services, education and health services, and leisure and hospitality services sectors showed the best prospects for growth, while durable goods manufacturing, transportation and utilities, and wholesale and retail reported plans to cut jobs.

More Trouble for Daley

Mayor Daley's public troubles grew yesterday as news emerged that the mayor has taken some 46 trips abroad in the last two years, 19 of them at taxpayer expense. The Sun-Times is reporting that "seven of the trips were fully or partially bankrolled by the Daley campaign fund, seven by the Chicago 2016 Olympic organizing committee, four by the Sister Cities program, three by World Business Chicago and two by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce." Two trips - to Washington, D.C. and Kona, Hawaii - were aboard a private jet owned by Educap, a nonprofit organization under federal fraud investigation.

Blagoje-Watch: Day 31

Blagojevitch lawyers Sam Adams, Jr. (left) and Ed Genson (right) confer while facing the state's impeachment committee. AP Photo/Seth Perlman

Marinelli Interviews With Bears

After a 9-7 season and no trip to the playoffs, the Chicago Bears are certainly looking to improve. But can hiring the former head coach from the first NFL team to ever go 0-16 possibly help? Rod Marinelli, fired by Detroit after their debacle of a season, was seen at Halas Hall over the weekend where he apparently interviewed for a job with the Bears.

That Noelle Brennan. It's like she thought of everything!

Citing a recent county ordinance encouraging contractors to give ex-convicts a second chance, two county employees with criminal records defended their jobs. James D'Amico is responsible for maintaining county buildings, and Myron Colvin is a grant writer for the county's scandal-plagued job training program. D'Amico pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls during a charged political race in 1996, and Colvin pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of assault after a club fight in 1989. Both chalked it up to being young.

Just months after the city's Human Resources Commissioner, Jacqueline King, resigned her position following a scathing report by federal hiring monitor Noelle Brennan, Chicago has awarded over $150 million worth of consulting contracts for "examination, administration and security" of employee selection tests, "executive talent identification and recruiting" and operation of "assessment centers" to a group of contractors.

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