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How satisfied you are with your job and your pay may depend on your gender.

Men and women are about equally likely to say that they are satisfied with their jobs; about 65 percent of both sexes say they are satisfied. Plus, for both sexes higher job satisfaction is associated with higher job pay.

But it typically takes a lot less money to get women to say they are satisfied with their work than it does to get men to say it.

via Money, Gender and Job Satisfaction – Economix Blog – NYTimes.com.

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It’s going to be harder for new graduates to find a job this year, says a recent study.

This year has been extremely rough: New college graduates had 40% fewer job prospects, a new report shows. And the outlook for 2010, while better, is still not very promising.

Jobs for graduates with bachelor’s degrees, which account for most new graduate hires, will drop nearly 1% next year, according to Michigan State University’s survey on recruiting trends.

Overall, hiring of grads with any degree will decline by 2% compared to 2009.

via Survey says job market for 2010 graduates still gloomy – Nov. 17, 2009.

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It’s time for BusinessWeek’s annual ranking of the best places to raise your kids.

As we did last year, we teamed up with OnBoard Informatics, a New York-based provider of real estate analysis, to select one town and two runners-up for each of the 50 states. The selections were limited to towns that have at least 45,000 residents and a median income of between $40,000 and $125,000. Vermont was given a pass on the population restrictions because none of its cities would otherwise have made the cut.

see Best Places to Raise Your Kids: 2010: Affordable, safe, and family-friendly – BusinessWeek.

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BNA Human Resources Library

Recently I met with a student who was researching issues pertaining to employee morale in the workplace. When looking at this topic, it may help to think beyond just the terms “employee morale.”  When looking through some books and encyclopedias on the topic, readings on “morale” let to topics such as employee motivation and workplace satisfaction.  With the idea that happy employees are generally more productive, you can see where a lot of different terms can come into play when researching this topic.  Having said that, here are a few resources that I found to be useful when looking at the topic.

International Encyclopedia of Business and Management.  Has a great article (about 10 pages with citations to additional readings) on the topic of workplace satisfaction.

BNA Human Resources Library (subscription database).  A simple search for “morale” yields suggestions on how to improve morale in the workplace, what makes for happier employees, issues pertaining to management/employee communication, etc.  A very good source on the topic.  If you can get to the topic

Business Source Complete (subscription database).  My best suggestion here is to look for academic journal articles and case studies using some of the search terms above.  Better yet, use the other two sources listed here first, jot down a few additional terms, and the search those as well.

ebary (subscription database).  Try searching ebrary for “morale”, and it will give you electronic books such as “Building a High-Morale Workplace”.

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GreenBiz.com reports that Gap has steadily been decreasing it’s energy use over time.

Gap Inc. shrunk its carbon footprint by 20 percent over the past five years through lighting retrofits, sourcing renewable energy and an energy management program that targets energy-intensive stores.

Its performance helped the San Francisco-based company exceed the goal it set as a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders Program. Gap planned to reduce emissions by 11 percent between 2003 and 2008.

via Gap Shrinks Carbon Footprint by 20 Percent | GreenBiz.com.

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