The sentence “Companies are having a hard time filling positions” may seem odd given the current economic recession, but this sentence is true. The number of open job positions has increased 37% from last year but there are still 15 million unemployed adults, 40%, which have been out of, work for 6 months or longer.

Companies were forced for combine job tasks when doing layoffs last year. Now, someone who hopes to get those jobs must meet the new requirements. For example, accountants must also do financial analysis, factory workers need to program computers to run machinery and information technology workers are being forced to do both the business and technology side of the job.

Unemployed workers are being forced to take courses to learn their new skills and obtain certification. Employers rather wait and hold job vacant then settle for less.

Leadpile works in the education space, check out our EDU offer and help promote degrees to help you get your dream job.

Just before the release of the movie “The Social Network”, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced he was donating $100 million for education that will go toward improving public schools in Newark, New Jersey. A new foundation named Startup: Education will focus on improving education in the United States. The mayor will be working with the education plan to strategize this reform.

Zuckerberg is hoping that his donation being public will help to influence others to do the same thing. This is the first donation that he has decided to do with his $6.9 billion fortune, making him one of the youngest billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

Despite some skepticism over the timing of the donation being so near to the movie release,  the donation is nonetheless valuable. With over 500 million users to Facebook, it is good to see that the social network is giving back to the community in such a large way. Hopefully, this is the beginning of more donations to come and not just for good press to surround the movie.

With the struggling economy, many people are facing unemployment and hard times. Gen Y, known to be possibly one of the better educated generations is struggling to float, many not having enough experience to obtain or hold jobs in the state of the economy. Moving back in with their parents or family being the best option for many having challenges financially while fighting to get careers launched.

According to msnbc.com , “the Millennials” defined as those born in the 1980-90’s are the first generation of American work forces since World War II who have cloudier prospects than the generations that preceded them. Currently unemployment is at the highest it has been in decades for 18-29 year olds.

The average student debt as stated by College Board is $23,000 – facing these large debt amounts and the high unemployment rate among young Millennials can affect them financially and psychologically.

Law schools around the nation are changing their grade point averages to help current law students education and possibly attract new ones as well.
Many graduate law students were having problems acquiring a job after their hard work and effort in law school because of having a slightly lower GPA than desired by employers or practices. Many believed this to be unfair, leading some law schools to not only help benefit their students, but their institution or school as well.
These law schools, including New York and Georgetown, believe it can help to increase their reputation by adding about 0.33 to the last couple of years recorded grades. This way, students who spent over $100,000 in school are given the chance to finish with more than a mediocre GPA.
These schools aren’t the ones attempting to help relieve students’ stress. Other popular and competitive law educators such as Yale and Harvard, cut out the original grading system and replaced it with a pass or fail option.
Still working in the education field? Leadpile has a new education vertical!

There may be more to working at Wal-Mart than welcoming guests with a smile and rolling down the prices!

According to msnbc.com employees at Wal-Mart may now be eligible to receive college credit for their in-store training and get a tuition discount towards a college degree. Wal-Mart has also committed to $50 million in assistance over a 3 year span to help it’s employees pay for books and tuition above the reduced rate at American Public university, an online school. American Public University has over 700,000 students, offers more than 100 certificate and degree programs. Wal-Mart also offers scholarships through its foundation and offers assistance to workers seeking GEDs. Executives believe that the link with the school will help workers land better jobs both inside and outside the Wal-Mart company.

LeadPile has recently started generating leads in the Online Education vertical!…We have some great affiliates that we are teamed up with to deliver the highest quality leads available! Interested in generating leads? Have a demand for leads? Reach out to a LeadPile team member!

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Two words companies have been hearing more of in 2010. In February, the number of employees voluntarily quitting surpassed the number being fired or let-go for the first time since October 2008.

Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics starting tracking such data the average numbers of employees quitting their jobs per month has been about 2.7 million. In October 2008 this number dropped to 1.72 million but now that employees feel the recession is taking a turn for the better this number is steadily increasing. March 2009 showed 1.87 million employees voluntarily quitting their jobs.

Human-resource consultant Right Management conducted a poll at the end of 2009 asking workers if they intended to leave their job when the market got better, 60% said yes.

Experts say there are 2 reasons for this increase. First, the natural turnover of employees leaving to advance their careers by either finding a better position or furthering their education. Secondly, employees were reluctant to leave their current job during the recession, these hang-ups are disappearing.

The cost of turnover can cost up to half of an employees yearly salary after recruitment and training. Companies are trying to find better ways to retain current employees such as concierge services, discounted lunches and hiring bonus. But most employees are looking for less stress at work, improving work-life balance and creating more opportunities internal and externally.

For some employees it may be to late for these types of incentives. What would it take for you to remain at a job you were not happy with? Money? Promotion? Happiness?

Leadpile has recently launched it’s own Education portal! Inquire within to become a lead buyer or seller!

A group of 50 colleges (and this number is growing) are pledging to do fund student financial needs through grants and work-study programs rather than with loans. Limiting loans with the “Project on Student Debt” will help in the efforts of reducing graduates debt amounts leaving them in large financial debt when leaving school.

With the economy in poor standing, this affected all schools – particularly private schools, resulting in tuition hikes and budget hikes.

With student aid, few students will pay the full tuition price for example. Financial aid is defined as the total cost of attendance (tuition, books, room & board) minus a family’s expected contribution. Public colleges threshold for receiving need-based aid is typically $60,000 or less.

For example according to money.cnn.com:

Full estimated tuition price at Harvard per year is $50,000. A family with an income of $120,000 can expect to pay after Harvard’s financial aid $16,000 per year. This same family would pay an estimated $15,800 at Yale and $34,000 at Stanford after receiving financial aid help.

The financial commitment to attend college may be intimidating. Researching your options for financial aid in addition to merit-based scholarships and grants can be a great way to lessen the financial burden. A complete list of schools participating with the “no loan” financial aid packages can be found here: www.ProjectOnStudentDebt.org .

LeadPile is adding Online Education to our list of lead types and will soon be generating leads!

An old favorite turns 40! Sesame Street had it’s 40 anniversary this week and was celebrated all over including Google’s homepage which changed images daily from one Sesame Street resident to another. Sesame Street has been teaching and entertaining children for 4 decades now, and is probably to thank for a large percentage of the US population under 40 learning how to count to 10.
Sesame Street not only teaches the ABC’s and 123’s, but also teaches acceptance and sets examples for children to follow. According to Newsweek, Sesame Street is now in 16 countries across the world including South Africa were the show features an HIV positive Muppet and in the Palestinian where coexistence and cooperation were displayed. Topics such as death and 9/11 have also been acknowledged by Sesame Street and children with illnesses and conditions are often regularly included on the show as well.
Newsweek states that not only is “Sesame Street no ordinary nonprofit. It is, arguably, the most important children’s program in the history of television. No show has effected the way we think about education, parenting, childhood development and cultural diversity, both in the United States and abroad, more than Big Bird and friends. You might even say that Sesame Street changed the world, one letter at a time”.
It seems too simple that a children’s program created 40 years ago could still be one of the best, but it is and nothing I have seen comes close to comparing. Leadpile wishes Sesame Street a Happy Anniversary!!!!!

There are not many people these days that have not had some sort of interest in going back to school.  Online degree/online education is a very important subject consumers tend to research online.  Leadpile Lead Exchange realizes this, therefore we have rolled out some banners and a landing site for our publishers to use as a way to connect future students with educators.

Those looking to further their education have some common questions, and they tend to look for these answers on the internet.  Questions such as:

*  How long will it take for me to finish?

*  How much time do I need to dedicate to this schooling?

*  What type of degree program should I do?

*  How much does it cost to do online education?

*  Where do I get connected with people to get information?

Knowing these questions are being asked, Leadpile is trying to connect those interested people with some of the answers.  If you are a publisher interested in connecting this very important group of people, with those that can answer their questions, please contact us.

www.fastonlinedegrees.com is a site our publishers can drive traffic to, or utilize our Leadpile Microclick forms and banners.  Congratulations to all those looking to pursue their education!

Over and over I am bringing the attention to the payday loan industry, and really how it is not necessarily taking advantage of consumers.  I couldn’t resist a good post on the Payday Pundit, who brought up some good points about a payday loan.

“Let’s consider some alternatives for the working mom who is short $100 until payday, 14 days from now. She could get a $100 payday loan, pay $15, and the APR for that two week loan would be 391 percent..

She could also choose to write a bad check and pay an average of $48 in NSF and merchant fees. That would be a comparable APR of 1,251 percent!

Even if she has courtesy pay with her credit union, the average fee is $25, or an APR of 650 percent. Another option for her might be to not pay the $100 minimum balance due on her credit card, resulting in a $26 late fee—678 percent. If she chooses to not pay her $100 utility bill which may result in a $50 late or reconnect fee, that’s a comparable APR of 1,304 percent!

The argument can be made that by securing a payday loan to solve her cash flow needs, this woman is taking a proactive approach to her financial dilemma.

The Center for Responsible Lending indicates the 11 states that banned or limited payday lending saved consumers $1.4 billion in fees in 2006. But eliminating local payday lending activity does not eliminate the need for emergency cash loans. People still come up short prior to payday and the center does not address how these consumers managed their cash-flow problems. If they had to use one of the other alternatives, or had to drive to an adjoining state that made payday loans, or used the Internet to get an even higher priced loan, it is possible consumers in these states paid even more to solve their cashflow problems.”

This just keeps going back to the fact that there are bad with everything, and if you abuse the use of a payday loan you will NOT be in a better position.  However, as Credit Union National Association and the National Credit Union Foundation state there are other alternatives that could be worse for a consumer.  Education is key with payday loans and any other type of financial solution customers choose to take.

Question is, the holidays are now here and there are going to be families that need those gifts and food on their table. Is the payday loan the smartest solution for that consumer?  Leadpile Lead Exchange will be here no matter what the answer to that question is, to provide the service to the consumers that DO need this temporary loan.

In recent months with all the foreclosures happening around the world, there is unfortunately some that are trying to capitalize on this. According to MSNBC, one in eleven consumers are facing foreclosure or behind on their mortgage payments. Therefore, consumers are trying to get out of this situation in any way they can. However, there are those scam artist that are trying to take advantage of these consumers trying to get out of their tough situation.
There are two types of scams going on right now with home owners. There are the scams where the consumers are asked to put up some upfront fees to pay for the “assistance”, but then the scam artist disappear with their money. “But the more lucrative scam involves seducing homeowners into complicated transactions that allow con artists to steal equity in the house or walk away from the closing table after netting thousands in phony payouts,” according to MSNBC.
This is a huge problem for home owners that are already in a bad situation. Before allowing anyone to assist in “helping”, all consumers need to really know who it is that they are working with. Asking questions and checking out specifics of these companies/individuals can hopefully prevent some from getting scammed. Unfortunately, peoples hardship is another person’s gain. Our home is one of the largest investments we will ever have, and we can’t allow those criminals to take that away. This can not happen if we are all aware and educated on the different types of scams.

Leadpile Lead Exchange does not currently generate a lot of foreclosure leads, however if there is a company out there that is truly wanting to help consumers from going through this sort of situation, we are certainly able to look at generating more leads. Matching up consumers with legitimate companies to help them is also our goal.

In recent months the debt vertical has become a very popular, yet challenging vertical to work with. Understanding reasons consumers have gotten into debt and the specifics that the lead buyers are looking for, has been something we have worked on to fully understand.
According to Bankrate.com there are 10 main reasons why consumers get buried in debt. Understanding more about debt allows consumers to be more educated and ultimately try and avoid these types of situations.

1. Reduced income, but same monthly expenses
2. Divorce
3. Poor money management
4. Underemployment
5. Gambling
6. Medical expenses
7. Not saving money or not saving enough money
8. No money communication skills
9. Spending money you don’t have yet
10. No understanding of money

These are all scenarios any consumer can be faced with, including myself. With the economy being very tough right now, many lead generation companies are focusing on the debt vertical. Fortunately, there are various types of debt help that the consumers can get, but most consumers do not know the difference between one another.
The main details that debt consolidation and debt settlement companies are looking for is the amount of unsecured debt. What is unsecured debt?
Unsecured debt is debt that is not secured by any collateral. For instance, credit card debt, medical bills, cell phone bills and other collection accounts. Most debt companies do not work with secured debt such as mortgages, tax debt, student loans and auto loans.
Leadpile Lead Exchange generates a lot of debt leads. Lead types such as debt consolidation, debt settlement, and credit repair are all types of leads we are generating that are there to assist the consumers with the debt/credit. We are connecting the consumers that need help, with those companies that can help them get out of debt.