Screwed: 300 in Montenegro

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

Today’s total: 997

First, the good news: In Scotland, Tesco Personal Finance is said to be creating 800 new jobs and car retailer Arnold Clark is creating 700 jobs (perhaps a good time to be in Scotland?). … Morgan Stanley is adding 400 positions on its trading floor. … GEICO will bring 300 new jobs to western New York. … There are reports that state and local governments added 110,000 jobs since the beginning of the year, the below notwithstanding.

And now the bad news: Montenegro’s steelworks have handed out 300 pink slips. … Alabama’s Baldwin County schools have cut 205 jobs. … Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas will begin laying off 200 employees. … 130 mental health workers in Pierce County in Washington state have been laid off. … Osceola County, Fla., may lay off 100 workers. …Wells Fargo has cut 62 positions in Durham, N.C. …

Sotomayor Had It Easy

A severe company-wide crisis is underway and, as a mid-level manager, you have to decide: Push forward with a risky new plan that could save jobs and bring in more revenue — if it works — or scrap your costly team now and stay the course. But wait. Now you’re a lower-level worker facing the same situation from a different perspective. How do your elegancies shift? Would you remain loyal to the company? Or stand by your fellow co-workers as part of a team?

Such role-playing games are the type of exercises Hallie Crawford, a certified career coach in Atlanta, Ga., says some of her clients are being run through in job interviews. “It’s kind of a no-win situation,” Crawford says of the above scenario, which a recent client faced. Side with upper management and you’re a yes man; side with co-workers and you‘re disloyal.

Think this week’s vetting process for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was tough? Try sitting through just about any mid-level job interview these days …

You’ve Got the Job! See You in Six Months

Is there such a thing as job security without a job? In this recession, anything’s possible.

To balance a strict hiring freeze with the need to secure talent, more and more employers are signing up new hires with delayed start dates, some as long as six to eight months away.

In a new CareerBuilder survey, one in ten of more than 2,500 hiring managers, HR managers and other recruiters said they’ve recently offered positions with postponed start dates. The move allows them to develop staff for the future, while keeping the current headcount down as the recession lingers.

Less than half of these recruiters said they provided a pay incentive to new hires who were willing to wait out the downturn, the survey found.

The new strategy comes as employers face the allure of a buyers’ market for talent at a time when few have the resources to take them on…