The jobs bill contains two major provisions. First, it would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give them an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year. The Social Security trust fund would be reimbursed for the lost revenue.

Second, it would extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump in $20 billion in time for the spring construction season. The money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.

Despite doubts among many lawmakers that it will create many jobs, the House passed legislation giving companies that hire the jobless a temporary payroll tax break. The measure passed 217-201 on a mostly party-line vote. The bill also extends federal highway programs through the end of the year.

The 2010 Business Issues-Expert Resources seminar series, sponsored by NJSA Industry Partners, will kick off its first breakfast meeting on January 26 at the Sheraton Edison Hotel.  This is a FREE EVENT for owners, managers and employees of staffing firms who want to utilize the various social networking tools available for sourcing clients and candidates. 

There will be five other breakfast/evening sessions on web-related and social networking topics – the most complete educational series on these important tools for the staffing industry.

You can click here for the registration brochure for all the sessions, and please feel free to sign up for all of them or one at a time.  The breakfast sessions are FREE and the evening sessions are at a nominal cost.

Plan to attend with your recruiters, sales associates, and technology staff.  If you have any questions, call the NJSA office at 973-283-0072.

On October 5, 2009, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (“NJDOL”) issued a proposed amendment to the regulations governing the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation Law.  Specifically, the NJDOL is seeking to amend the existing definition of “misconduct” set forth in N.J.A.C. 12:17-10.2(a) for purposes of determining when a claimant may be disqualified from receiving benefits when they have engaged in such “misconduct” in connection with their work.

Under the existing regulation, misconduct “must be improper, intentional, connected with one’s work, malicious, and within the individual’s control, and is either a deliberate violation of the employer’s rules or a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of an employee.” Under the NJDOL’s proposed amended regulation, however, “misconduct” would now be defined as “an act of wanton or willful disregard of the employer’s interest, a deliberate violation of the employer’s rules, a disregard of standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect of his employee, or negligence in such degree or recurrence as to manifest culpability, wrongful intent, or evil design, or show an intentional and substantial disregard of the employer’s interest or of the employee’s duties and obligations to the employer.”

Consequently, among other things, employers would also appear to be able to establish “misconduct” more easily based upon a new negligence standard. To date, the proposed amended regulation has not yet been adopted.  However, written comments were required to be submitted to the NJDOL by December 4, 2009, and we anticipate that the NJDOL will ultimately adopt a regulation modifying the definition of such “misconduct” in some form.

Staffing NJ PAC contributed to the campaigns of the following Assembly representatives who were reelected: Jay Webber, Joe Cryan, Nellie Pou, Joe Malone, Upendra Chivukula, and Michael Doherty.

On May 7, 2009, legislation was enacted creating the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility (MCTM) tax – a new employer-paid payroll tax – as part of a bailout plan for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which manages buses, trains, bridges, and tunnels in New York City and surrounding areas.

• you’re required to withhold New York State income tax from wages; and
• your payroll expense exceeds $2500 in any calendar quarter

The tax rate is 0.34% of an employer’s total payroll expense for employees employed within the MCTD (i.e. $0.34 per $100 of wages).  An employer that is required to deduct and withhold NY State income tax from employees’ wages and has a payroll expense of exceeding $2,500 in any calendar quarter is required to pay the MCTM tax.  The United Nations, federal government, and interstate agencies or public corporations created pursuant to an agreement between two or more states or with Canada are excluded.

• For quarterly filers, the first payment is due with the third quarterly withholding payment on October 31, 2009, and is to include all tax owed since March 1.
• For EFT filers, the first payment is due with the first withholding payment due on or after October 31, 2009, and is also to include all tax owed since March 1.

According to a quarterly report conducted by CareerBuilder.com, as the U.S. economy shows early signs of stabilization and employers grow more willing to have conversations about their hiring needs, staffing firms are expected to see an uptick in demand in key functional areas in the third quarter. The report tracks current and projected use of staffing firms by employers and job candidates, is pointing to more activity in healthcare, technical and contract hiring for staffing firms. The study included over 5,200 hiring managers and over 9,000 workers.

“As the U.S. works toward a healthier financial picture, the outlook for the staffing industry is holding steady overall with encouraging movement in some areas,” said Todd McCormick, president of the Recruiter Business Unit and Canadian operations at CareerBuilder. “While remaining cautious in their hiring pace, employers are more optimistic about their use of staffing firms in the fall as they seek out talent to fill interim and long-term positions.”

New York Governor David Patterson signed into law legislation requiring employers to notify employees in writing at the time of hire of their regular and overtime hourly wage rates, and to obtain a written acknowledgement of receipt of such notice. The new requirements take effect October 26, 2009.
 
However, as a result of discussions with representatives from the New York Staffing Association, it was noted that staffing firm pay rates for particular employees vary by assignment and therefore it may not be possible for the staffing firm to determine a pay rate with precision at the time of hiring. It was agreed that application of the law to staffing firms needed clarification and the New York Department of Labor plan to provide such guidance through regulation or other administrative means “so that temporary employment agencies who in good faith lack the specific information they must disclose under this legislation will have a means of appropriate legal compliance applicable to their situation.”
 
Appropriate guidance for staffing firms will be provided prior to the October 26 effective date of the legislation.

1. The candidate says he doesn’t believe his company will give him a counteroffer.
2. The candidate says he will have to consider the counter if it is given to him.
3. The candidate’s motive to move (‘I don’t like our policies here’) could still be ‘worked out’ by his employer when he leaves.
4. The time it takes for a candidate to return your call is longer than normal.
5. The candidate agrees to accept the offer, then asks for ‘one more thing’ after he gets what he’s asking for.
6. The feelings of the candidate’s spouse are never considered during this process. 
7. Your client doesn’t think meeting with him after he accepted the offer is important.
8. The candidate was never really sure about making a move to begin with.
9. The candidate has accepted a counteroffer before with his current employer.
10. The candidate will not commit to turning down a counteroffer with you when you are extending the offer.
11. The candidate verbally expresses concern about ‘what will happen if I make a move and the economy gets worse?’

An increase in individual income taxes passed by the state Legislature last month will also affect many New Jersey businesses, since many business owners pay personal income taxes on their business profits. The state increased the income tax from 6.37 percent to 8 percent for income between $400,000 and $500,000; from 8.97 percent to 10.25 percent for income between $500,000 and $1 million; and from 8.97 percent to 10.75 percent for income exceeding $1 million. The increases are set to expire after one year. The state increased taxes on upper-income earners as part of its effort to close a budget gap worsened by the recession. Nationally, nearly one-third of all business taxes are paid through the individual income tax, because many companies are organized as “S corporations” – limited liability companies or partnerships whose business profits are taxed as the personal income of the company’s owners.

A health care reform bill, drafted by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) is being debated by Committee members this week. The Committee bill includes an employer mandate that requires employers that don’t provide health insurance to their employees to pay an annual fee to the government of $750 for each full-time employee and $375 for each part-time employee. But the fee provision does not take into account employees, such as temporary, part-time, and seasonal employees, who work sporadically and whose hours fluctuate. An amendment, supported by the American Staffing Association, would allow staffing firms and other employers of such workers to pro-rate the annual fee based on the actual hours worked by the employees.