78% of American workers told CareerBuilder they feel burned out. 46% feel their workload has increased over the last six months. 45% described their current workload as heavy or too heavy. 23% said they are dissatisfied with their current work/life balance. 54% of workers said their companies offer some sort of flexible work arrangements and 66% indicated they take advantage of at least one of the programs offered.

In June 2008, average annualized small-business salaries dropped by 0.4% to $32,386.11, according to SurePayroll.

36% of US organizations offer health care coverage for both same-sex partners and for dependent grandchildren. In addition, 30% offer health care benefits for foster children, and 15% give paid adoption leave. 62% pay for long-distance calls home during business travel; 37% offer a compressed work week; 24% offer such benefits as postal services, legal assistance, and food services or a subsidized cafeteria; and 5% offer concierge service. 72% offer wellness resources and information; 40% offer smoking cessation programs; 31% offer weight-loss programs; and 21% offer bariatric procedure coverage. Human resource professionals report that benefits costs to employers average 39% of payroll. Of those costs, 21% are attributed to mandatory benefits, and 18% to employee-selected benefits, Society for Human Resource Management reported.

The Computing Research Association found a 20% drop in 2008 in students completing bachelors degrees in professional IT fields. Enrollment in undergraduate degree programs in computer sciences is more than 50% lower than it was 5 years ago, the group said. Between 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 the number of new students declaring computer sciences as a major fell 43% to 8,021. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 854,000 professional IT jobs will be added between 2006 and 2016, an increase of about 24%. When replacement jobs are added in, total IT job openings in the 10-year period is estimated at 1.6 mln. The bureau estimates that one in 19 new jobs created in the 10-year period will be professional IT positions.

More than 40% of employees report they are very satisfied with their jobs, according to the 2008 Job Satisfaction survey. 80% of employees report overall satisfaction. The%age of very satisfied employees rose from 38% in 2007 to 41% 2008. The figure has remained relatively consistent since SHRM first conducted this survey in 2002, with 30% responding very satisfied. The overall satisfaction score - 82% 2008 - was 79% 2007, and 77% in 2002. In 2008’s survey, female employees reported higher levels of job satisfaction than men, as did employees aged 56 and older, compared with those 35 and younger. 2008’s unstable economic climate is reflected in employees’ perceptions of job security (59%), where it was cited as the top aspect of satisfaction. Ranked in importance, it was followed by benefits, compensation, feeling safe in the workplace, communication between employees and senior management, and opportunities to use skills and abilities.

In a poll of 1,500 technology workers, 37% said they would accept a salary cut if they could work from home, according to Dice Holdings. The average U.S. technology professional makes $74,570 per year. About 7% of such workers already telecommute.

Jobvite found that 78% of companies were using social media outlets such as Facebook and LinkedIn to find candidates. Recruiters were behind on this trend, but only slightly (64%).

Of 100 senior Canadian executives interviewed by Robert Half International, 67% said they thought professional networking sites were useful for recruiting new employees, and 25% said they thought social networking sites like Facebook would be useful. In the US, 62% said professional networking sites were useful for recruiting new employees, and 35% said social networking sites were useful.

US high-tech industry added jobs for a third year in a row, according to AeA. In 2007, 91,400 jobs were added, slightly less than the gains of 139,000 in 2006 but in line with the 87,400 added in 2005. Doftware services was the industry showing the strongest growth, adding 82,600 jobs in 2007, continuing a four-year growth run, followed by engineering and tech services, which added 45,800 jobs in 2007.

California’s high-tech industry added 21,400 net jobs - a 2% increase - for a tech industry total of 940,700 in 2006, the most current state data available. Leading the way in job creation were the computer systems design and related services sector (+12,600 jobs) and the engineering services sector (+6,100 jobs). California’s tech workers had the highest average wage at $101,200, which is 112% above the state’s average private sector wage.

Venture capital investments increased 8% to $13.8 bln in 2007, accounting for 47% of all venture capital in the country. Nationally, the high-tech industry added jobs for the third consecutive year. Tech industry employment totaled 5.9 mln, after adding 91,400 jobs in 2007. This is on top of job gains of 139,000 in 2006 and 87,400 in 2005.

37% of American workers said they had experienced bullying on the job, according to Zogby International.

74% of California workers in February 2008 believed the economy was getting weaker, an increase of 3% from January 2008. 52% of workers remain confident in their ability to find a new job, down 3%. 59% of workers are confident in the future of their employer, a decrease of 4% from January 2008. 40% of workers are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, up 4% from the previous month.

US employers lost 63,000 jobs in February 2008, the most in five years, after trimming 22,000 jobs in January 2008, US Labor Department said.

The turnover rate of CEOs at the world’s wealthiest companies jumped 10% in 2007, according to Weber Shandwick. In 2007, 81 CEOs at the world’s top 500 companies (ranked by income) left their jobs, including 27 at North American-based businesses alone. At 16.2%, the rate of CEO outplacement is approaching a 16.4% global high set three years ago.

US workers aged 18-34 prefer flexible working conditions 2:1 over other age groups. 70% of Citrix survey respondents agreed that working remotely would be a welcome opportunity. Although 23% of American workers regularly work from an offsite location, using Web technology to do their jobs, 62% of those who don’t currently Web commute agreed they would like to do so. Respondents aged 18-34 were more apt than most to look forward to controlling their own schedules, while 35-44 year olds said they would prize more time with family.

Hourly wages for highly-skilled technology professionals reached an all-time high during Q4 2007. And though growth slowed sequentially at the end of the year, it still remained ahead of 2006, according to Yoh Index of Technology Wages. The average hourly wage for high-impact IT workers was recorded at $32.39 during October 2007, the highest average pay figure documented by the Yoh Index of Technology Wages since its inception in 2001. While average wages had experienced a 7.1% increase in September, they were followed by 5.7% growth in October, and 3.4% improvement in November and December, when compared to the same months in 2006.

According to Vault.com, 48% of respondents have known a married colleague to have an affair with someone at the office. In addition, 40% know of a married or seriously involved co-worker who had a romantic liaison with someone other than their partner while on a business trip. 82% of respondents say they’ve known of an office romance between two co-workers, and 50% know of at least one couple that went on to get married. As far as the respondents themselves, 46% admit to having had an office romance, and 23% have had a romantic tryst at the actual office. Places trysts occurred include the boardroom, the janitor’s closet, the break room, a stairwell, the parking lot, the restroom, and the boss’ office.

Approximately 53.9 mln Europeans visited a career services and development site during an average month during Q4 2007, averaging 3.5 visits per visitor.

The market share of US visits to the Employment category increased 27% for the week ending Jan. 26, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007. Through the first four weeks of 2008, visits to the Employment category have increased 22% on average, compared to 2007. The most-visited website for last week was CareerBuilder.com which received 13% of the U.S. visits to the Employment category.

Pressure on companies to provide work/life balance programs for employees combined with advances in mobile technologies is increasing the number of mobile workers in the U.S. and around the world. By year-end 2011, IDC expects nearly 75% of the US workforce will be mobile.

The number of long-term unemployed stood at 1.4 mln in January 2007, up about 21% YTY and up 3% MTM. The full-year average for 2007 was 1.2 mln long-term unemployed, nearly double the reading for 2000. For all of 2007, about 17.6% of those who were unemployed had been out of work 6+ months. That compares to only 11.4% who were long-term unemployed in 2000. While the unemployment rate dropped to 4.9% in January 2007 from 5% in December 2007, the latest reading showed 18.3% of the unemployed have now been out of work for at least six months, Congressional Budget Office reports.

Nonfarm payrolls fell by an estimated 17,000 in January 2007, US Labor Department said. This is the first decline since August 2003.

Source: comScore

20% or more of US corporate employees said they were accessing services like YouTube, downloading and uploading video and music or even playing online games and using P2P programs like BitTorrent while at work, according to IDC.

85% of chief information officers (CIOs) see significant change coming over the next 3 years as they look to meet rising business expectations for IT to make the difference in their enterprise strategy, according to Gartner. 27% of CIOs believe that they have the right number of skilled people to meet business needs.