All They Want for Christmas

The Black Friday shopping rush may be over, but if you’re like millions of people you’re probably still struggling with what to get the most difficult friends and family members in your life—your hippie aunt, your banker brother, your unemployed best friend. Choosing the right gift can be tricky business. Spend too much, and you’re flaunting your wealth. Spend too little, and you’re seen as cheap.

As you enter the home stretch of holiday shopping, let the recession be your guide: Recession-themed gifts are cheap (we’re still in an economic downturn, after all), they’re timely (what better exemplifies 2009 than the recession?), and they’re usually good for at least a chuckle—just so long as you have a little fun with it. After the jump, we’ve put together a roundup of our favorite cheap, chic, gift-giving strategies perfect for this holiday season…

Holiday Parties for the Unemployed

For once you get to lord it over the Goldman Sachs suckers, my unemployed friends. Sure, they’re getting record bonuses this year, but do they get a holiday bash? Uh-uh.

Meanwhile, around the country, people are organizing company parties for the company-less. (In case you missed seeing your co-workers get drunk in totally inappropriate clothing choices and then clumsily grope each other.)…

Screwed: 500 at Consol Energy

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 1,196

Some Good News: General Motors announces that they won’t be issuing any more layoffs in the near future.

Consol Energy has issued layoff warnings to 500 workers at Fola Coal and Little Eagle Mining… National Express is planning 200 job cuts in the UK… St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan has laid off 180 union and non-union staff… Approval of the new 2010 budget has resulted in a projected 100 municipal layoffs in Minneapolis City… Comcast has implemented 77 layoffs at its Manchester, NH office… The Shelton School Board has approved budget cuts and a total of 69 teachers will face layoffs after the New Year… Belleville Intelligencer is cutting 40 jobs by the middle of January and sending the remaining 10 employees to a smaller facility… Sermo, the online community for medical professionals, is laying off 30 employees… City manager of Overland Park is recommending layoffs for 2010 to meet financial shortfalls.

Recession Briefing 12.9: Will Jobs Really Come Back?

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

“What if the job losses this time around aren’t temporary, the ‘ebb’ part of the ebb and flow of the business cycle?” Caroline Baum asks. “What if employers are hacking away at their permanent workforce?” (Bloomberg)

The recession has slashed U.S. output of planet warming gases and puts the country on track to reach President Barack Obama’s short-term emissions goal, but cutting the pollution further will take more effort as the economy recovers. (Reuters)

One of the oddest phenomena of the boom years was how kitchen appliances quickly morphed into sexy, high-maintenance trophies. These high-flying days flickered out when the real estate market imploded, but they may come back. (The Big Money)…

The Recession is Over… Because Jobs are Back?

In November, both the number of unemployed persons, at 15.4 million, and the unemployment rate, at 10.0 percent, edged down. At the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons was 7.5 million, and the jobless rate was 4.9 percent. (via Bureau of Labor Statistics report)

Why it might be false: One positive jobs report is kind of like a diamond in the rough when you look at it against the backdrop of other employment indicators, such as the high number of laid-off workers who don’t see jobs on the horizon; part-time workers are an army of 9.3 million—the highest ever; and the number of people collecting unemployment benefits stands around 10 million. Ten million…

Want to Live Longer? Have a Recession.

In good times we live longer, in bad times we die younger. Makes sense—but it’s not true.

The Depression, for instance, increased life expectancy by more than 6 years, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, during the boom years of the early 20th century, life expectancy actually went down…

Recession Briefing: Sin Is In

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

More people are turning to vice amid the recession. “People are staying up until the wee hours of the morning, there’s an increase in smoking, drinking and sexual behaviors like surfing porn and using hookers,” confirms Jonathan Alpert, a psychotherapist and relationship columnist. (Forbes)

A different breed of house flipper has begun to proliferate: one who seeks bargains at foreclosure auctions. Unlike the boom-time flippers, the latest generation needs cold cash, lots of local-market knowledge and strong nerves. (Wall Street Journal)

Economic analyst Ed Yardeni runs the numbers on the effect of the economic stimulus on jobs and determines that the Obama administration has spent $246,436 per job saved or created based on the $157.8bn that has been awarded so far. (Reuters)

Screwed: Possible 5,000 at Los Angeles Unified School District

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 8,392

Los Angeles’s Unified School District board will vote today on whether to pass a budget for next year that includes a whopping 5,000 layoffs… An Post will begin the first round of 1,300 layoffs of Irish workers next month… BAE Systems continued to slash jobs, losing 642 U.K. workers at its Insyte division… IMG eliminated 200 positions worldwide in order to “position the company for growth”… Partygaming is considering cutting 200 jobs… Farmer’s Insurance Group will lay off 200 employees by the year’s end… Karachi Electricity Supply Company handed out 160 pink slips to officers and engineers… KeyCorp of Cleveland, Ohio announced plans to eliminate 150 jobs as it moves mortgage processing to another company… Liz Claiborne Inc. laid off 115 workers in accordance with a “scaling down” of distribution…

Yes, You Should Pre-Poach Now

You laid off a bunch of people this year. You’d love to staff back up, but you believe you can’t even think about that … not until the business improves. Right? Wrong. Now – instead of when you’re under pressure to hire – is the best time to identify and build relationships with talent.

Business expert, headhunter and founder of AskTheHeadHunter.com, Nick Corcodilos stresses that in order to effectively recruit great employees, you need to make a connection with them long before you actually need them. You need to seek out those interested in what your company offers and build relationships with those that have common interests and goals when neither you nor they are desperate. The following tips can help you attract and maintain relationships with key talent now…

Get Back to $100,000 in 140 Seconds

For many of us, one of the upsides of the recession is having the time to indulge in creative pursuits—like using the video camera you got last Christmas to film the dog sleeping. (I love it when they do that dream-chasing thing.)

Well, time to make all that time wasting creative experimentation pay off. Nikon is holding a contest for the best super-short video…