Latest news with #JVS
CNET
4 days ago
- Business
- CNET
How to Prepare for a Layoff: 10 Tips to Stay Ahead in a Tough Job Market
Though no job is immune to layoffs, some industries are more vulnerable than others. Tharon Green/CNET Though the official unemployment rate is holding steady at 4.2%, many workers feel it's just a matter of time before there's a major shake-up. At least one in three US employees says they're experiencing layoff anxiety. Last week, the number of people filing for jobless benefits rose to the highest level in months. The Trump administration's cuts across federal agencies, health organizations and nonprofits have led to some 300,000 layoffs. As employers reduce personnel and freeze plans to hire new workers, there have been mass cuts across the tech industry, entertainment and education. ZipRecruiter's Career Expert Sam DeMase said that preparing for a job loss while you're actively employed helps you avoid having to scramble during a crisis. "Being proactive can really help give you some peace of mind if a layoff does happen," said DeMase. Think you're about to be laid off? Signs to look for Companies and households are getting ready for a recession, said Lisa Countryman-Quiroz, CEO of JVS Bay Area, a career training nonprofit in California. "We are living in a time of pretty radical uncertainty," she said. Experts warn that a global economic slowdown could uproot the US labor market as businesses adjust profit expectations and trim budgets. While there aren't always clear indicators of pending layoffs, there are some clues to look out for, according to DeMase. 👀 Does your position generate revenue? Non-revenue-generating roles within an organization might be crucial for overall functioning, yet these positions (HR, IT, legal and administration) tend to be more vulnerable since they don't directly produce business income. 👀 Has there been organizational restructuring? Leadership changes and reorganizations often signal an effort to improve performance or address financial difficulties. Merging, streamlining or employee buyouts could indicate a company is cutting costs or downsizing. 👀 Is your manager communicating regularly? If your supervisor has suddenly gone quiet or is canceling meetings, it might not be a scheduling conflict. They could be trying to minimize contact or deprioritize communication before a company-wide announcement. 👀 Have projects been scrapped or budgets frozen? If upcoming expenses or travels aren't being approved, or if hiring and promotions are suddenly frozen, that could be a warning sign that the company is focusing on financial cutbacks. Zooming out to the broader job market, DeMase says to look out for competitor layoffs within your industry or fewer job listings in your line of work, which could indicate economic pressures. If you're noticing a decline in entry-level jobs, that may mean those roles have been eliminated or replaced by automation. How to prepare for a layoff Amid overall economic uncertainty, employers are pulling back on open postings, and there's a high level of competition among eligible applicants. On average, DeMase said to expect a layoff to potentially leave you unemployed for three to 10 months. Though layoffs are financially motivated, they're likely to hit your confidence hard. "It feels horrible, like your value is gone. But that's not the case," DeMase said. "It's really important to remember that a layoff is a business decision." In a turbulent job market, preparation is everything. Here's how to make sure you're not caught off guard. "It's really important to remember that a layoff is a business decision." Sam DeMase, career expert at ZipRecruiter 1. Collect your paperwork in advance Though some employers still give advanced notice when there's a reduction in force, workers are increasingly being dismissed with little to no notice. You're likely to be locked out of company devices and communications, including email and payroll software, rather immediately. DeMase said to gather your personal information on your work computer and to make sure you have proof of employment and tax documentation. You'll need pay stubs and verification to apply for financial assistance or state unemployment benefits. Though you should never take confidential company information, you can save copies of your performance reviews and work samples for future reference. 2. Refresh your resume and network now While you're still employed, take a moment to update your resume and LinkedIn profile. DeMase recommends compiling a list of your achievements, notable projects and positive feedback from colleagues or clients. It's also a good idea to "warm up your network," said DeMase. If you've been employed for a long time at a company, check in with former colleagues and clients now. "That way, when you do reach out after you've been laid off, it's not a 911," she said. 3. Understand your severance payment When their position is eliminated, laid-off workers might be offered a severance package as compensation. The amount varies by employer, but a common formula is one or two weeks' pay for each year of employment. Any payment is taxable as ordinary income. Companies aren't required to offer severance payments. If you accept a severance package, you'll likely be required to sign an agreement stating that you won't sue your ex-employer. If you're 40 or older, your employer must give you at least 21 days to decide whether to accept a severance agreement under the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act. If it's a group termination (meaning multiple employees lost their jobs), you'll have at least 45 days to accept the agreement under the same law. 4. Research health insurance coverage Some employers will let you keep your employer-based medical, dental and vision coverage for a specified period at no additional cost. You might also consider seeking out coverage under a family member or spouse. If neither is an option, make sure you know about the federal law called the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. COBRA allows workers who leave their jobs to continue their health insurance if their company has 20 or more employees, usually for 18 to 36 months. You'll usually pay the entire premium, plus a 2% surcharge, which can get expensive when you've just lost your job. Another option is to shop on the Health Insurance Marketplace for a plan. If you've lost employer-based coverage, you might qualify for a special enrollment period if you sign up within 60 days of losing coverage. 5. Confirm other company benefits Payout for unused time off, including vacation and sick time. Some states require employers to pay workers for unused PTO if they leave their jobs for any reason. Company stock or retirement plan: Since accounts like 401(k) or 403(b) are employer-sponsored, find out if you can leave it where it is or roll it over to another investment account. Company equipment. If you have a company laptop or cellphone, you may be allowed to keep the equipment or buy it at a reduced price. Additional benefits. Some companies help laid-off workers find their next job by offering career counseling or resume assistance. 6. Look into unemployment eligibility If you get laid off and lose your job through no fault of your own, you'll typically qualify for unemployment benefits, although the rules vary by state. You'll usually file for benefits in the state where you worked. Contact your state's unemployment office immediately after you learn that your job has been cut. You can expect to wait about two to three weeks from the time you file until you receive your first unemployment check. Read more: How to File for Unemployment Benefits 7. Build your emergency fund ASAP If you're able to find areas of savings in your budget, make building your emergency fund a top priority. A high-yield savings account is a smart place to stash your emergency fund because you can earn interest and also access your money without penalty. Experts generally recommend an emergency fund that can cover at least six months of living expenses, though that's unattainable for most households living paycheck to paycheck. "Anything that you can put together, even a month's worth of rent, is going to be helpful." Lisa Countryman-Quiroz, CEO of JVS Bay Area "Anything that you can put together, even a month's worth of rent, is going to be helpful," said Countryman-Quiroz. Having even some emergency reserves will not only protect you but also give you peace of mind. "Come from a position of power and choice, rather than from one of scarcity and desperation and necessity," she said. 8. Don't liquidate your retirement accounts If you're suspicious that a layoff is coming, don't cash out your 401(k) or any other retirement account in a panic. You may owe a 10% early withdrawal penalty in addition to income taxes. However, if you're currently contributing extra to your retirement account, DeMase recommends rerouting some of that spending to your emergency savings so it can be liquid if you lose your job. 9. Review your spending and debts Creating a no-frills budget that only covers the necessities will give you a clear action plan in case you lose your job. Or if your savings are lacking, you could implement a bare-bones budget now so that you'll have a safety cushion if your income takes a hit. If you have any debt, try to pay off what you can now so you won't be stuck in a growing interest cycle when you're without a paycheck. DeMase said it's a good idea to start scaling back on any nonessential spending now. Take a close look at your budget to see what's necessary (housing, groceries, debt, utilities, etc.) versus what's optional (subscriptions, dining out, vacations, etc.). Use a budgeting app to help find expenses you can cut. 10. Find additional work and training If you're concerned that a job loss is on the horizon, you might be able to seek out alternative sources of income. DeMase said to consider taking on a side hustle, like freelance work or a part-time gig, while you're still employed. Having extra income streams now can help you save money and pay off debt faster. It's also a good opportunity to look into leveling up your expertise and qualifications. Countryman-Quiroz says that "future-proofing" your employability means building up interpersonal communication and collaboration as well as tech skills, specifically in the realm of AI. Local nonprofits and workforce development organizations often provide free resources to build skills in new sectors. Free and low-cost resources for job seekers Cal JOBS: Cal JOBS offers a complete set of employment tools for job seekers in California. American Job Center Finder: Thousands of job centers nationwide help people search for work, find training and answer other employment-related questions. LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn offers video courses taught by industry experts in Business, Creative, Technology and Certifications. Goodwill Industries: Goodwill Career Centers provide job training and placement services.
The Independent
16-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Fine cancelled for couple who found immigrant in motorhome's bike rack
A couple who were fined £1,500 after they found an 'immigrant' in their motorhome's bike rack have had the penalty cancelled. After returning home to Essex from France, Joanne and Adrian Fenton found a young man under the cover of their bike rack. After reporting the incident to the police they were fined by the Home Office. But after objecting to the penalty, they received an email from the Border Force, which is part of the Home Office, cancelling the fine. 'We don't want anyone else to go through what we've gone through,' Mr Fenton, 57, told the JVS show on BBC Three Counties Radio. 'If someone does call the police because they've got someone discovered in their motorhome, Border Force shouldn't even be considering fining them because everyone's doing the moral and the right thing.' He said the Home Office should 'be looking at their policy and make sure that it's fit for purpose and not targeting holidaymakers'. Mrs Fenton, 55, told the BBC: 'It's about motorhomes and caravaners coming through the borders – how many more people are going to get caught out exactly the same?' Mr and Mrs Fenton told the BBC they had been vigilant and border officials who checked the vehicle in Calais had not found the man. They boarded Le Shuttle from Calais to Folkestone in Kent on the evening of October 15 after they had been travelling around France. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Home Office would look into the case. Conservative former minister Sir John Whittingdale, who raised the case in the Commons, said the couple should be 'thanked rather than punished'. At Prime Minister's Questions this week, the MP for Maldon said: 'Will the Prime Minister look at the case of my constituents, Mr And Mrs Adrian Fenton, who returned home from visiting France in their motorhome to discover an illegal immigrant concealed in the bike rack. 'They reported it immediately to the police, only to receive a fine from the Border Force of £1,500. 'Will he agree that my constituents ought to be thanked rather than punished? And does he accept that this action will send a message to deter anybody from acting responsibly in the future?' The Prime Minister replied: 'Can I thank him for raising this important case on behalf of his constituents? I've seen some of the details, and I am concerned about it, and I do think it's important, as he says, that the Home Office look into it, and therefore we will do so. 'And I will make sure that he is updated in relation to that in due course.'
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Life is so dark': Trump cancels flights to KC for 108 refugees fleeing war, persecution
On Feb. 2, a family of refugees — a father, mother and their five young sons, having fled the oppression of Taliban-led Afghanistan —were scheduled to arrive at Kansas City International Airport at 2:29 p.m. on United Airlines Flight No. 561 to begin their new lives in Kansas City. They had tickets, but no chance to board a plane. In the wake of President Donald Trump's executive order suspending the U.S. Refugee Assistance Program — an inauguration day order that on Monday was challenged in federal court — the family's flight was canceled. So, too, was the flight of a Congolese mother, father and their two teenagers set to arrive at KCI on Feb. 7, having waited seven years to reunite with their loved ones already here. A flight three days later for another family of eight from the Democratic Republic of Congo, with six children under age 14, was similarly canceled. 'We had flights already scheduled. . .To get so close and have it pulled away has to be devastating,' said Hilary Singer, executive director of Jewish Vocational Services. JVS is one of four refugee resettlement organizations in the Kansas City area that, last year, collectively resettled some 1,600 people from countries torn by worn and persecution, including genocide. Numbers supplied by JVS, Della Lamb Community Services and Mission Adelante show that as least 108 refugees (JVS 42, Della Lamb 56, Adelante 10) who were expected to arrive in Kansas City in February no longer will. The figure is likely higher given that Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, which resettled 343 refugees in its last fiscal year, opted not to say how many refugees had been expected to arrive this month through its efforts. Suspension of the program — which includes cutting off federal aid used to support refugees in their first 90 days in the U.S. — not only has devastated families, but also has thrust refugee aid organizations into uncertain futures. 'February 6th was one of the hardest days I've experienced in my time at Mission Adelante,' Executive Director Jarrett Meek posted in a blog Monday, citing a freeze on federal funds. 'We had to let go of our entire refugee resettlement team — seven dedicated employees, who had worked, loved, and given their all to serve the 171 refugees we had welcomed over the last 12 months.' Trump, in his Jan. 20 executive order, noted that he was suspending the program over security and other concerns. 'Over the last 4 years,' the order reads, 'the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S, Refugee Admission Program. . . .The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.' The order notes that within 90 days of its signing, the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, would submit a report to the president regarding whether the resumption of refugees through the program 'would be in the interest of the United States.' On Monday, a coalition of resettlement organizations sued the Trump administration in federal court in Seattle, holding that Trump's suspension is unlawful. It asks the courts to restart the program. Under former President Joe Biden, about 100,000 refugees were allowed into the U.S. Some 10,000 had been approved to arrive when Trump's order went into effect. 'President Trump cannot override the will of Congress with the stroke of a pen,' Melissa Keaney, attorney for the International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the plaintiffs, said in a news release. 'The United States has a moral and legal obligation to protect refugees, and the longer this illegal suspension continues, the more dire the consequences will be. Refugees and the families and communities waiting to welcome them have been thrown into indefinite limbo and the resettlement agencies ready to serve them don't know if they can keep the lights on.' For families, there is the personal toll. 'The first time we heard this news, my wife, she was crying,' said Qasim Rahim, 33. A refugee from Afghanistan, Rahim had been a target of the Taliban, having worked for organizations that supported the U.S. government. In August 2021, he was among the Afghan crowds that swarmed the tarmac at Kabul's international airport desperate to flee the country. His ultimate destination was Kansas City, where a sister and her family already lived. 'I was lucky to have got on a plane and came here,' Rahim said. 'Probably I was to be killed by them.' Although Rahim could get out, his wife, Samia Tahiri, could not. It had already been two years since they'd seen each other, as Tahiri was still a student when they married, studying business in India at a university in Bangalore. Under the Taliban, girls are barely educated and women do not attend universities or hold outside jobs. The Taliban's most recent vice and virtue laws make it unlawful for women to bare their faces in public. They must be fully veiled. As their voices are considered intimate, they are banned from singing or reading aloud or being heard outside their homes. Tahiri, now 27, remained in India. Five years would pass before this past December when she and her husband were reunited in Kansas City. The expectation was that Tahiri's parents, four siblings, as well as her aunt, uncle and cousin would follow from where they were refugees in Pakistan, perhaps as soon as this year. But then on Feb. 3, the family received a letter from the International Organization for Migration: The activities of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program had 'been suspended.' Tahiri broke down when the email arrived. They talk but by phone. But it's been eight years since Tahiri has physically been with her family. 'I almost lost my hope,' she said. 'Nothing is clear right now.' The same holds for Evarist Peter, 23, who, along with his younger brother, arrived in Kansas City in December 2022 from a refugee camp in Tanzania. A sister and brother would also come. Peter now lives in Gladstone. 'I was born in Tanzania, but I am Congolese,' from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Peter said. Violent clashes between Congolese armed forced and various militias have wracked the country for decades, displacing millions of people, including Peter's parents. 'I was born as a refugee. I was raised up as a refugee. I got the this opportunity to come to America,' he said. Speaking mostly French and Swahili, he quickly learned English. He's now a student at Penn Valley Community College while also working part-time fulfilling orders for Amazon. Left behind, he said, are his parents and five siblings. Although he hopes that the refugee resettlement program will recommence after the 90-day suspension, he also knows that it may not happen and that years more could pass before he sees his mother, brothers and sisters again. 'Because you know life, I will say home, without mom is dark,' he said. 'It''s something dark, you know. Life is so dark without father.' The news that they won't be coming, he said, came hard. 'If somebody expected something and it happened differently, it is painful,' he said. 'Painful.' Meek of Mission Adelante said their organization was expecting refugees from Venezeula. Della Lamb said the same. 'We were supposed to start receiving people last week,' said Sarah Kolsto, Della Lamb's refugee services director. 'And the way it works is that our clients (before arriving) basically get rid of all of their earthly belongings. So that's what they all did.' Refugee organizations were aware that immigration and refugee resettlement would change in the second Trump administration. In January 2017, during the first days of his first term, the president signed an executive order that banned travel to the U.S. for 90 days from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The order sparked protests across the country and it was challenged in court. But in June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that such a ban was Constitutional and within the president's power. Singer, at JVS, said that during the first Trump administration refugee resettlement in the Kansas City area dropped precipitously. In 2016, the last year of Barack Obama's presidency, JVS resettled 600 refugees from a dozen countries into the Kansas City area. By the end of Trump's first term, the number had dropped to 80 individuals, most of them Christian and 80% from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By the end of Joe Biden's presidency in 2024, the number had returned to 650 people from a range of countries including Congo, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Venezuela and others. 'We were anticipating with Trump something similar to what the administration did during his first term,' Kolsto of Della Lamb said. 'He came in saying, 'OK, we're not going to let this many refugees in.' He lowered the ceiling. So we were anticipating that. 'But what he did in this round, it's really, really extreme and chaotic. He's not only completely cut off refugee arrivals for a minimum of 90 days, he's also stopped funding. That includes funds for clients to pay rent and utilities, give them pocket money for those first three months while they're looking for employment. It included case management support. We receive funding to provide salaries for our case managers. We haven't laid anybody off at this point, but we are having to find private resources to continue to support these people.' That's currently where Kansas City's refugee resettlement organizations stand — reaching out to private donors to help support and provide services to the refugees who just recently arrived. In it's last fiscal year, Della Lamb resettled 362 individuals. This fiscal year, before the stoppage, it had been slated to resettle 530. 'I can say with probably a pretty good degree of certainty that even if they they kind of restart this program,' Kolsto said, 'it's not going to be anywhere near the capacity that we were at, right?' Meanwhile, refugees like Tahiri and Rahim are left waiting and hoping. 'We have to live with hope,' Rahim said. 'Without hope, nobody can live. We are still trying to be strong.'
