Time to suspend the recession talk for one more week. From CNNMoney.com’s Unemployment claims down:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in seven weeks, an unexpected sign of improvement for the job market.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications for unemployment benefits totaled 311,000 last week, a drop of 9,000 from the previous week.

It marked the lowest level for jobless claims since July 28.

The decline came as a surprise to economists, who had been forecasting a rise in claims of about 6,000.

As I have said before, our day-to-day activities at Select Metrix are showing a robust hiring market.

UPDATE: Maybe I spoke too soon – Research group says economy will lose steam

UPDATE 2: Obviously, way too soon – Holiday retail sales growth could disappoint

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According to a recent article in Workforce Managements Newsletter, almost as many employees are discharged for poor performance as those who leave for better pay or for personal reasons.

The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations, an Alexandria, Virginia-based group found about 70 percent of companies say job candidates omit relevant background information €œoccasionally or frequently.€

A fairly high rate especially if you are not conducting some type of background check. We have been very consistent here at The Hire Sense encouraging you as an employer to run background checks on all final candidates. If you aren’t performing background checks today, I hope the latest statistic will prompt you to start.

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I’ve been swamped of late and am still trying to catch up on my RSS reading. I did just read this hilarious post from GL over at What Would Dad Say. You have to read the whole thing – it is excellent. I’m still laughing as I type. The content primarily discusses what not to do in a layoff The post is written from the recently laid-off employee’s perspective.

The line that got me laughing (emphasis mine):

1. Include an obvious misspelling or two in the letter €” ideally, something that would slip past a spell checker but be caught easily by anyone who bothered to proofread it. Suggestion: €œIf you have nay questions . . .€

Unemployed people like to see the kind of flamboyant incompetence that still draws a paycheck.

Oh man, have I been there. I know exactly what the author is experiencing.

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Another managerial trait this week that we measure when assessing sales manager candidates.  A critical aspect of successful sales management is the manager’s ability to hold salespeople accountable.  At times that can be like herding cats, but it is still mission critical to developing a top-notch sales team.

Correcting Others
This ability confronts controversial or difficult issues in an objective manner while having non-emotional discussions about disciplinary matters. This trait is directly related to the manager’s balance in their ability to evaluate others and be empathetic.

A manager with strength in this trait can usually provide constructive criticism to another in a way that it is not received as insulting or degrading. The balance they exhibit in weighing the needs of the situation versus the needs of the people involved allows them to address both adequately.

A manager with a low ability in this capacity could either tend to be too insensitive or harsh in such correction, or be too sensitive and not willing to provide the necessary criticism or positive discipline required to develop an employee. As to whether they tend to be too harsh or too sensitive, a correlation can be made based on their score in the empathetic ability trait. Over attention to their empathetic ability may tend to result in someone who is so sensitive to the feelings of others that they place that person€™s emotions over the needs of correcting a problem. Under attention to this same ability can result in a person who views others more as functional work units rather than  individuals. They tend to discount other€™s emotions in comparison to the importance of correcting a problem.

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