Furniture Sales Jobs Florida Grow Alongside Retail Sales

The local retail industry, which supports many of the furniture sales jobs Florida (Click here) has to offer, is continuing to grow.

The March District Retail Survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta found that sales tax revenues throughout the sixth district increased by 6 percent over the year. Each state in the district - which includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee - saw sales increase over the year.

Florida saw the third-largest increase in sales revenues, growing by 5.9 percent over the year. This is great news for anyone seeking Tampa jobs FL or jobs Fort Lauderdale (http://broward.jobing.com) in the furniture industry or any other retail sector.

Louisiana saw the largest increase in sales revenues, at 15.1 percent, followed by Georgia at 8.1 percent, Tennessee at 4.1 percent, Alabama at 2.9 percent, and Mississippi by 2.2 percent.

Here's a look at how four important areas of the retail industry are stacking up:

• Employment - The majority of retailers in the sixth district said they had no trouble filling job openings during March, marking the sixth consecutive month that there was an overabundance of job seekers. Nationwide, employment in the retail industry increased by 17,700 workers.
• Sales and expectations - About 56 percent of retailers saw more sales than last year, while about 55 percent of retailers saw more traffic. A total of 72 percent of retailers expect that sales will continue growing during the next three months.
• Inventories - Most retailers in the sixth district saw inventories remain steady or slightly increase during March. Throughout the nation, retailers have seen a slowdown in inventory growth during the last year.
• Prices - The majority of retailers in the district saw their selling prices remain stagnant or slightly increase during March, with many reporting that input and labor prices have continued to climb.

San Diego Government Jobs, Others Criticized on Finances

Those with San Diego government jobs (http://sandiego.jobing.com/jobs/government) and other state positions are being criticized for their lack of financial responsibility.

The California State Controller's Office recently released several audits showing that there are a number of state agencies that failed to collect salary and travel advances from employees. That led Gov. Jerry Brown to order all state departments to recover taxpayer money and improve their internal accounting practices.

Current state law allows state agencies to advance an employee's salary when checks are delayed, an employee travels, a hardship request is made, a vendor requires immediate payment, or an employee quits and needs their final check.

One audit from 2009 found that most state agencies either took too long to collect salary advances or failed to collect them at all. In particular, 11 agencies failed to collect a total of $13.3 million in advances, including $500,000 that had been outstanding for three years.

However, Brown is now requiring all state agencies to clear salary and travel expense advances within 30 days, after which time the agency will be required to deduct the advance from the employee's next paycheck. In addition, agencies are being asked to improve their record keeping, oversight, training, and collection practices.

"It's shocking that the state has apparently failed to collect millions of dollars in salary and travel advances owed by state employees," Brown said in a statement. "This situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government, and I have ordered state agencies to immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers. State agencies must regain control of this program."

And the audits aren't over yet, as Controller John Chiang plans to continue examining the practices in place at many other state agencies. Those future audits could result in millions of other dollars that have yet to be collected.

"The state's poor debt collection and accounting practices are fleecing public coffers at a time when vital public programs are being decimated by unprecedented budget cuts," Chiang said. "I applaud Governor Brown's commitment to making every dollar count."

Nonprofit Fundraising Jobs See Donations Grow

Those with nonprofit fundraising jobs are starting to see an influx of donations. Visit http://jobs.heart.org to learn more.

A recent report from the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund found that more people are donating money this year. Incoming donations to the organization increased by 25 percent between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011, marking the highest first quarter contribution level in the organization's history.

Fidelity is an independent public charity that helps donors support more than 140,000 nonprofit organizations with more than $11 billion in grants. The organization is the largest donor-advised charity and one of the largest public charities in the nation.
The report further found that:

• New charitable donations came in at $269 million during Q1 2011.
• Outgoing grants reached $293 million, an 8 percent increase from Q1 of last year.
• Incoming donations accounted for $1.6 billion during 2010, a 42 percent increase from 2009.
• 2011 marks the sixth year in a row that Fidelity has received more than $1 billion in donations.

"We are seeing a significant increase in donors leveraging a broader spectrum of their assets, such as restricted stock and privately held securities, for charitable purposes," Sarah Libbey, president of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, said. "This reflects continued strength in the mergers and acquisitions market, and also is a sign of more strategic charitable planning on the part of donors and their advisors.

"This is an exciting trend, as these types of assets have powerful tax advantages and donating them to a donor-advised fund like the Gift Fund makes the process easy and typically more financially advantageous for the receiving charities," she added.

Volunteer Mesa Arizona Jobs Recognized Nationally

Those with volunteer Mesa Arizona jobs are being recognized for their hard work. Visit http://phoenix.jobing.com/tag/mesa to see current openings.

The City of Mesa was recently awarded $10,000 and featured in USA Weekend for its 2010 Make a Difference Day. The city is one of three - along with Trenton, Ohio, and Wheaton, Illinois - that were recognized  for their volunteer projects and events.

More than 325 volunteers participated in last year's Make a Difference Day, which focused on the Casa Mesa neighborhood as part of the Building Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, as well as other neighborhoods throughout the city.

"This is a tremendous honor for Mesa and a very fitting national recognition of our staff and, especially, our hundreds of volunteers who care so much about our city and work hard to make a difference," Mayor Scott Smith said in a statement.

Volunteers who participated in the event:

• Removed 39 tons of trash from alleyways.
• Picked up trash along roadways .
• Used 50 gallons of paint to remove graffiti.
• Cleaned playground equipment at a neighborhood park.
• Delivered fire safety awareness information to 800 homes.
• Painted 469 address numbers on curbs in an effort to decrease emergency response times.
• Registered 100 people to receive important financial information.

City officials selected Casa Mesa for the Building Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, which provides training, education, and resources to specific neighborhoods and works to inform residents about services and programs that can enhance their quality of life.

Mesa plans to grow its volunteer efforts even more by joining the Cities of Service coalition, a bipartisan group of mayors who work together over several years to expand community service and volunteer activities throughout the nation.

Top 10 Schools for Arizona Pharmacy Jobs

There are a number of great schools to consider if you're considering Arizona pharmacy jobs. Visit http://azjobs.cancercenter.com for more information.

Attending the right pharmacy school can help you prepare for one of the many pharmacy jobs available to students, including pharmacy aides, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacists. All of these employees play an important role in helping people get their prescription drugs.

The majority of pharmacy employees, about 65 percent, work in a retail setting. Some other employees work for hospitals, mail order and Internet pharmacies, pharmaceutical wholesalers, physicians' offices, and the federal government.

According to Education-Portal.com, the University of Arizona is one of the top 10 schools in the nation for pharmacy majors. The university offers a variety of great pharmacy programs that prepare students for their future careers.

The top 10 pharmacy schools, as well as the pharmacy programs they offer, include:

• Ohio State University - Bachelor of Science in the Pharmaceutical Sciences; Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Pharmacology; Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry; Ph.D. in Pharmaceuticals; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Administration; PhD in Translational Science; MS in Health-System Pharmacy Administration.
• Purdue University - Pre-Pharmacy; BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology. ; Ph.D. and MS in Industrial and Physical Pharmacy or Pharmacy Practice.
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor - BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Ph.D. in Social and Administrative Sciences; and Master of Engineering in Pharmaceutical Engineering.
• University of Arizona - Pre-Pharmacy; Doctor of Pharmacy; and Ph.D. and MS in Drug Discovery and Development; Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacokinetics; Pharmacology and Toxicology; Pharmaceutical economics, Policy, and Outcome; and Clinical Research.
• University of Southern California - Pre-Pharmacy program; Pharmacy Explorers Program; Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics; Ph.D. or MS in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy; and Certificate, Doctor, or MS in Regulatory Science.
• University of Iowa - Doctor of pharmacy; Ph.D. in Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences; Ph.D. in Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Socioeconomics; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products; Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmaceutics; Ph.D. in Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics; Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy; and MS in Health System Pharmacy.
• University of Kentucky - Pre-Pharmacy; Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. and MS in Traditional Pharmaceutical Sciences, Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics, or Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy.
• University of Illinois-Chicago - Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Biopharmaceutical sciences; Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry; Ph.D. in Pharmacognosy; Ph.D. in Pharmacy Administration; and MS in Forensic Science.
• University of California-San Francisco - Doctor of Pharmacy; Ph.D. in Biological and Medical Informatics; Ph.D. in Biophysics; Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology; and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogeconomics.

King Soopers Jobs, Others Wait on Beer Battle Outcome

The continuing beer battles in Colorado could ultimately effect King Soopers jobs. Check out http://grocery.coloradojobs.com to see some openings.

Last week, the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee passed a bill that would allow convenience stores of 5,000 square feet or less to sell full-strength beer. According to the Denver Business Journal, that bill is just one of many attempts to change Colorado's existing alcohol laws.

Colorado's existing alcohol law - which was recently overturned by Roxy Huber, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue - allows restaurants and bars to sell full-strength beer, while allowing convenience and grocery stores to sell only low-strength beer.

Nearly two weeks ago, the House Committee on Economic and Business Development passed a similar bill that would allow both convenience and grocery stores to sell full-strength beer. However, many experts think this bill is less plausible because it would support more out-of-state grocery chains, such as City Market and King Soopers.

Those in favor of such a bill claim that allowing convenience and grocery stores to sell full-strength would create thousands of new jobs throughout the state. Those who oppose the bill, which are mainly liquor stores and craft breweries, claim such a bill would cause them to cut Denver job numbers and even close.

A recent study from Summit Economics found the law allowing both convenience and grocery stores to sell full-strength beer would cause 700 of the state’s 1,653 liquor stores to close within three years, leading to the loss of 4,830 jobs and $700 million in revenues.

Miami Nursing Jobs, Others Improve

The local economy has been kind to those looking for everything from Miami nursing jobs to hospitality positions to finance roles.

During February, the Miami area's unemployment rate dropped from 12.1 percent to 11.8 percent, after declining from 13.1 percent during January. Despite that most recent decrease, the area's rate was still higher than the national average at the time of 8.9 percent.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Miami-Miami beach-Kendall area employed about 988,000 workers during February, which is up from 980,000 workers during January and a 1 percent increase from last year.

Here's a look at how each industry stacked up over the month and year:

• Mining and logging - Remained steady over the month and year with 300 employees.
• Construction - Added 900 jobs over the month, but decreased by 3.4 percent over the year, for a total of 31,200 workers.
• Manufacturing - Added 100 jobs over the month, but dropped by 3.1 percent over the year to 34,400 employees.
• Trade, transportation, and utilities - Added 600 jobs over the month and increased by 1.4 percent over the year to 248,800 workers.
• Information - Added 100 jobs over the month, but declined by 2.8 percent over the year, for a total of 17,400 jobs.
• Financial activities - Added 600 jobs over the month and grew by .3 percent over the year to 63,100 workers.
• Professional and business services - Added 1,900 jobs over the month and increased by .5 percent over the year to 130,800 employees.
• Education and health services - Added 1,900 jobs over the month and grew by 2 percent over the year to 161,500 jobs.
• Leisure and hospitality - Added 1,100 jobs over the month and increased by 2.9 percent over the year for a total of 108,400 workers.
• Other services - Added 400 jobs over the month and grew by 1.8 percent over the year to 39,900 employees.
• Government - Added 400 jobs over the month and increased by .7 percent over the year for a total of 152,200 jobs.