BUSINESS ADVANTAGE
Brighter economy drives up holiday hiring plans The Associated Press UPS will hire up to 95,000. Kohl’s plans to take on 67,000 and FedEx 50,000. Wal-Mart will add 60,000. One after the other, a flurry of major U.S. retail and transportation companies announced sharp increases this week in the number of temporary workers they plan to hire for the holiday season. Collectively, such hiring could reach its highest point this year for stores since 1999, when the economy was roaring and the Great Recession was still eight years away. Credit the combination of a strengthening economy and optimism about consumer spending. Stores have determined they will need more temporary help for the holiday season, which accounts for 20 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales. Their stepped-up hiring plans reflect another reality, too — more retailers have come to recognize the need to improve their customer service in the age of online kings
such as Amazon. Many shoppers now jump back and forth between their mobile devices and physical stores and expect the same easy shopping experience at both. Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., a global outplacement consultancy, predicts retailers will add more than 800,000 seasonal workers for the October-throughDecember period. Such hiring last topped that figure in 1999, when stores added 849,500 temporary workers. It credits brightening confidence among consumers. “The last two years saw holiday hiring return to prerecession levels,” said John Challenger, CEO of the Chicago-based outplacement firm. “This year, we could see hiring return to levels not seen since the height of the dot.com boom ... There are more people who are surer about their spending.” The outlook for job and income growth has improved, said Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. The U.S. unemployment rate has tumbled to 6.1
percent. A year ago, it was 7.2 percent. Three years ago, it was 9 percent. So far this year, employers have added a solid average of 215,000 jobs a month, up from a monthly average of 194,000 in 2013 and 186,000 in 2012. Companies have been slower to offer workers decent pay increases, but that may finally be changing, Baumohl said. Workers’ inflation-adjusted earnings rose 0.4 percent in August, the Labor Department said Sept. 17. It was the sharpest monthly gain in more than a year. Consumers, long beaten down by the recession’s bleak aftermath, have been feeling more hopeful. A measure of consumer confidence by the Conference Board reached a seven-year high last month. And after shrinking their debt loads for years after the recession officially ended in 2009, consumers are pulling out their credit cards again.
Georgia crowdfunding backers hope to raise interest The Associated Press If Georgia is any measure, it will take years for Americans and companies vying for investment through crowdfunding to get comfortable with the practice. About three years after Georgia began allowing individual residents to invest in small businesses, 35 companies have registered with the state to try it. At least a dozen states have passed similar laws or rules as the Securities and Exchange Commission continues working on interstate crowdfunding rules designed to open the practice up nationally. Backers complain the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is slowing down a viable way to get more money into small business owners’ hands, while the agency has said it is seeking the best ways to protect investors and companies. The slow but steady interest in Georgia’s version could be a sign the federal process is just one hurdle facing the much-hailed crowdfunding concept. “Like any new technology, you have early adopters who spread the word,” said Brian
Dally, co-founder and CEO of real estate investment portal GroundFloor. The company, which connects investors with builders pitching specific projects, moved to Georgia from North Carolina this summer because of the state’s flexible crowdfunding rules. “Equity crowdfunding,” as the strategy is known, isn’t as simple as donating $5 on the popular site Kickstarter — where people have contributed toward albums, movies and products, including a smart watch. Georgia’s secretary of state’s office created the rule — known as the Invest Georgia Exemption — in December 2011. Without it, companies can only raise money from individual investors who are “accredited,” with $1 million net worth, or at least $200,000 income for at least two years according to federal rules. You do not get your money back if the company doesn’t meet their crowdfunding goal, such as on typical crowdfunding sites. People wanting to invest in Georgia companies must live in the state and have to provide plenty of personal and financial information. The latter has been a stumbling block for
some who like the idea of investing locally or crowdfunding in general but get skittish when faced with long legal documents, said Megan Johnson, a co-founder of SparkMarket. The site features companies’ crowdfunding investors in Georgia, including a manufacturer of guitars from oil cans and a TV network targeted at men. “You own a stake in the business, and you’re on board for the good, bad and the ugly,” Johnson said. Vincent Russo, the secretary of state’s general counsel when the crowdfunding exemption was created, said plenty of small companies could use it but have to find the crowd. “It has taken longer than I would have liked, or than anybody would have liked,” Russo, who now works as a commercial attorney, said. “But Georgia is leading the conversation.” Richard Swart, director of a University of California Berkeley program on finance innovations, supports crowdfunding generally but said companies have to generate enthusiasm in many investors. That equals
more valuable time and effort from people already stretched thin. Georgia business and investment types in metro Atlanta are trying to boost interest. Well-known investor Knox Massey recently founded a MeetUp group that brings companies in almost every month to talk about how crowdfunding might benefit them. Most attendees know little about Georgia’s exemption, but that is to be expected with any new form of financing, he said. Rodney Sampson was one of those people a few years ago. He and three co-founders launched a crowdfunding campaign in January for Opportunity Hub, an incubator that gives new companies work space and access to experienced mentors. They have raised about $50,000 so far, with 90 percent coming from people who do not qualify as accredited investors under federal rules. Sampson said success is the best way to spread awareness. “What better model for it to be tested on than a company that helps other companies?” Sampson asked.
Labor commissioner finds it ‘odd’ Georgia has top U.S. jobless rate By Noreen Cochran ncochran@northfultonbiz.com
Last month, Georgia outdid the nation in its jobless rate – 8.1 percent, up from 7.7 percent in July. On Sept. 19, the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a report saying, for August, “Georgia had the highest unemployment rate among the states.” The Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said he found the conclusion “questionable” and “confusing.” “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, yes [Georgia is the highest], but according to them we are top in job growth at the same time,” he said. “That’s
odd.” additional 54,000 workers Butler said the were separated from their state’s job growth jobs. rate – 2 percent a “You have to look at it this year, compared to the way. The household survey national 1.8 rate – is the only data that says translated to 80,000 we’re losing jobs,” he said. new positions in a year. “There’s a mountain of data “It’s kind of a Mark Butler on the other side that says strange situation that we’re gaining jobs. Most the Bureau of Labor of that comes from payroll Statistics has us in. surveys – actual payroll They are saying our unemployment numbers. Both can’t be right.” is high due to their household Another indicator, the number survey,” he said. “However, if of new unemployment claims you look at the same information filed, is in direct contrast to the they also released, they say we are survey results, Butler said. sixth in job growth for the last 12 “You also have to add in another months.” big indicator is, if we’re losing all Butler said the bureau surveyed these jobs as the household survey 1,400 participants and interpreted says, then why has our initial the results to conclude an claims fallen almost 30 percent
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last month?” he said. “When people lose their job, they come in and file for unemployment. That’s why we question it.” Butler said he viewed the report with equanimity. “I don’t think it’s embarrassing because it’s flawed,” he said. “If you only look at that one metric, you’re not getting the whole picture.” Department spokesman Sam Hall said the metro Atlanta rate also increased, from 7.9 in July to 8.0. “Despite the rate increase, the number of jobs in metro Atlanta increased by 5,900,” he said in a statement, “while the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 22.9 percent from July.”
The monthly job gains were in state and local government, private education and health services, manufacturing, construction and other services. Hall said over-the-year job growth outdid the state’s 2.0 percent by one-tenth of a point. “This was the second largest August-to-August growth since 2007,” he said. Government jobs, which had been losing ground, wound up flat for that time period with more than 311,000 public employees in place. New unemployment claims dropped by more than 4,400 compared to July. In August, Fulton County’s jobless rate was 8.9 percent, up 0.2 percent from July.