Employment News

College students go deep into debt to get a degree that qualifies them for a high-paying job. But thanks to a recently-negotiated contract with the Teamsters union, some delivery drivers for United Parcel Service (UPS) will earn up to $172,000 without spending a day in a classroom.

“I have never seen a national contract that levels the playing field for workers so dramatically as this one,” said Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “The agreement puts more money in our members’ pockets and establishes a full range of new protections for them on the job.” 

Thinking about applying for one of those jobs? You aren’t alone. Bloomberg News recently reported that searches on job site Indeed for jobs at UPS rose 50% after the historic contract was signed.

Danelle McCusker Rees is president of human resources and operational training at UPS. In an interview with CNBC, she said she began her UPS career in 2002 as a part-time driver helper. 

“Every UPS job – even one that is part-time – is an opportunity for a career,” she told the network. “I’m an example of that.”

Between 2018 and 2022, McCuster Rees said 38,000 part-time UPS employees were promoted to full-time positions.

What UPS is looking for

So, how do you get a job there? McCuster Rees said the company seeks people who have a  “customer-focused mindset."

“Agility is important as well ... as a company, we have the ability to quickly adjust to changing market conditions, and our employees have to be flexible too,” she said.

Being a good driver and always showing up when you’re supposed to are also traits the company likes. And now it’s paying a premium price for those individuals.

In addition to delivery drivers earning up to $172,000 in salary and benefits, a couple of other driver jobs pay well, too. 

Tractor-trailer drivers earn $162,000 on average while long-haul drivers earn an average of $172,000 in salary and benefits. Neither job requires a college degree.

If you’re looking for a job, be careful where you look. Scammers have picked up on a new trick where they take outdated ads from real honest-to-goodness employers, change the text around, then post them on employment websites and career-oriented platforms like LinkedIn or Indeed. 

The modified ads seem to be real job offers with legitimate companies. But the scammer’s goal is to trick job seekers into sharing personal information like Social Security numbers, credit card information, etc.

So how do you know if you’re dealing with a scammer?

The first gotcha is that many of the hijacked job postings are angled toward people who want to work remotely and at their own speed, so the offers that are being fed are ones to work from home as a customer service representative or a personal assistant. 

Step two is to ask you for information so they can – ahem – deposit your salary. Social Security number? Bank account number? Don’t do it.

They’re so brazen that sometimes, they say you got the job and send you a check to buy equipment that you have to cash (and send money to them). Every single one of those moves has “scam” written all over it.

In its Top 10 Work-from-Home scams, Aura adds that when you contact one of the supposed employers, they ask to conduct a quick job interview over WhatsApp or another messaging service. Or, that you’ll quickly be "hired" and asked to perform illegal work. But, when you catch on to the scam, the fake “company” will cut off all contact.

Other things to watch out for

On top of those alarms, the Federal Trade Commission says there are three other ways to spot and avoid phony job postings:

Verify job openings before you apply. Go to the official website of the organization or company you’re applying to and look at the company’s “career opportunities” or “jobs” section. If the job you’re being pitched isn’t there, take a hard pass.

Check out what others are saying. Search the name of the company along with words like “scam,” “review,” or “complaint.” If there’s something fishy, the results might include the experiences of others who’ve lost money.

Never deposit a check from someone you don’t know. Let’s be real – a trustworthy employer will never send you a check and then tell you to send them part of the money. 

Widespread layoffs in recent months have sent millions of Americans to the unemployment office but fortunately, there were a lot of companies across several industries that did a lot of hiring last month.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the economy created 253,000 jobs in April, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.4%. Hiring was widespread across a number of different industries.

For example, companies in the professional and business services sector hired 43,000 new employees last month. Professional, scientific, and technical services added 45,000 positions.

Employment in health care increased by 40,000 in April, a healthy increase but slightly lower than the monthly average over the previous six months. Doctors' offices, hospitals, and residential nursing centers all added employees.

Bars and restaurants continued to hire workers. Employment in leisure and hospitality continued to trend up in April, adding 25,000 jobs. However, the industry still has fewer employees than it did before the pandemic.

Social assistance agencies hired 25,000 employees while agencies providing individual and family services added 21,000 to their staffs.

Even financial services firms were hiring

In spite of turmoil within the banking industry, employment in financial activities increased by 23,000 in April, with gains in insurance carriers and related activities. In spite of a slowing housing market, real estate added 9,000 jobs last month.

At the same time, employees took home bigger paychecks. In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose to $33.36.

If all of this sounds like good news, it is – for people looking for jobs and those who already have one. It’s not so good for the Federal Reserve, which has been hiking interest rates in an effort to reduce inflation.

In fact, the Fed is trying to increase the rate of unemployment – even if it means pushing the economy into a recession – to reduce consumer spending and bring down prices.

Working remotely has become a mainstay since the COVID-19 pandemic, and there are countless ways for consumers to earn money – or extra money – from home. 

For those who may be looking to bolster their bank accounts, earn some extra income, or improve their financial standing, a remote side job could be just the thing. 

Picking a remote side job

FlexJobs, a site dedicated to highlighting remote work opportunities, put together a list of over two dozen remote side jobs that are currently hiring. Below are just some, including the average hourly wage for each, though actual pay will depend on where employees live. 

• Project Manager ($37/hour): This option came with the highest average hourly wage, and interested candidates can choose from positions like Senior Software Engineer, Senior Product Manager, Database Administrator, Program Coordinator, and more. 

• Curriculum Writer ($33/hour): The second highest-paying remote side job is a curriculum writer. Some companies are based in Hong Kong or Toronto, but employees can work anywhere in the world. Interested applicants for these jobs must have strong writing, organization, and communication skills, and in some instances, knowledge about specific state standards or rubrics may be necessary. 

• Executive Assistant ($29/hour): Organization is essential for remote executive assistants. Those hired will be responsible for keeping schedules in check, planning travel, taking care of expense reports, and sometimes even posting on social media.

• Writer ($29/hour): These positions can include everything from Bloggers, Reporters, Content Managers, Editors, Journalists, Copywriters, News Writers, or Columnists. There are also opportunities for technical writers and authors.  

• Recruiter ($27/hour): These remote side jobs range from industry-specific recruiters, like Blood Donor Recruiters or American Sign Language Recruiters, to general Corporate Recruiters. Experience and skills will vary from position to position. 

• Social Media Manager ($26/hour): Interested applicants for these positions should have a solid grasp of all things social media. This includes the different platforms – Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube – as well as different post formats – videos, images, text, etc. 

• Copy Editor ($25/hour): Do you have a solid grasp of grammar, punctuation, and spelling? Can you check documents for consistency? Do you excel at proofreading? Then these remote side jobs are likely to be a good fit. 

• Graphic Designer ($24/hour): Whether you’re interested in part-time, full-time, contract, or freelance work, there are many opportunities for graphic designers. These positions could be Creative Directors, Illustrators, Conceptual Professionals, Commercial Artists, Layout Managers, Designers, or Art Directors. 

• Search Engine Evaluator ($24/hour): Many of these positions are geared toward consumers who are bilingual – Russian, Arabic, Mandarin, and Spanish are just a few of the languages that require Search Engine Evaluators. 

• Career Coach ($24/hour): Whether you’re interested in working with students, seniors, or those in the middle of their career lives, there are options when it comes to remote career coaching. There are also language-specific career coaches, including French and Portuguese, as well as scouting for sports like soccer, football, or volleyball. 

Don’t fall victim to job-related scams

While consumers looking for jobs online should consider a number of things, including their skill set, how much time they want to devote to the job, and what their schedule will look like, it’s also important to be aware of the scams that exist within the job search.

Some red flags consumers should keep in mind are salaries that are much higher than similar jobs, employers asking for personal information (Social Security number, bank account information) right off the bat, emails that come in from personal accounts, not company accounts, or a company making a hiring decision very quickly. 

People should be diligent in their job hunt, researching the companies, the open positions, and the salaries they’re being offered. 

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Warwick is dispelling one of the biggest beliefs about working overnight shifts. While many consumers think it may just take time to adjust to this new schedule, the researchers found that this isn’t the case for all overnight workers. 

“There’s still an assumption that if you do night work, you adjust at some stage,” said researcher Bärbel Finkenstädt. “But you don’t. We saw that most workers compensate in terms of quantity of sleep, but not in terms of quality during the work time.” 

Risks of shift work

The researchers conducted their study on two groups of hospital workers – one group worked the night shift for three or more nights per week, and the other group alternated between morning and afternoon shifts. All participants wore devices that tracked their sleep, circadian rhythms, and surface temperature. 

After analyzing the results from the wearable devices, the team identified significant differences between night shift workers and day shift workers. Night shift workers had poorer sleep quality, and nearly 50% of them experienced disruptions to their natural circadian rhythms. 

These findings held up regardless of how long the participants worked night shifts. Participants who had been on that assignment for years were experiencing poorer sleep, and the longer they did night work, the worse their outcomes were. 

“Nearly 20% of the night workers could not even adjust their circadian rhythms during their free time, with the severity of impairment tending to increase with the number of years in night work,” said researcher Francis Lévi. “The telemonitoring technology, and analysis methods we have set up make it now possible to objectively evaluate circadian and sleep health in night workers in real time, and design prevention measures for individual workers whenever necessary.” 

While working nights is unavoidable in many industries, the researchers say it’s important that efforts are taken to ensure that workers are prioritizing their health as best as they can. 

“I think there’s a misunderstanding that night shift work is just an inconvenience, whereas it can be linked to serious health risks,” said researcher Julia Brettschneider. “We can’t avoid shift work for many professions, like health care workers, so we should be thinking about what can be done in terms of real-world adjustments to improve working conditions and schedules of shift workers. A better understanding of the biological mechanisms helps to find answers to this question.”