Employee Participation

The U.S. economy added 171,000 jobs in October, more than September's upwardly revised gain of 148,000. Yet the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent.

Federal officials have added Bergen and Somerset counties to the list of New Jersey counties where residents left jobless because of Sandy are eligible for unemployment benefits.

Finance and accounting professionals report feeling less confidence, resulting in a drop to 50.4 for a 2.2 point decline from the second quarter, according to The Mergis Group Finance and Accounting Employee Confidence Index.

Although implementing a recognition program is low-cost way to reinforce corporate values and the employee value proposition, a fair number of companies have yet to offer them, says Laurie Bienstock, director of rewards for North America at Towers Watson, a global professional services company.

While high-level human resources professionals have been involved in performance management, this hasnt been the case for lower-level HR positions, such as the HR generalist, says Jay Jamrog, senior vice president of research of Institute for Corporate Productivity.

Canada's surprisingly strong job creation performance in recent months slowed to a crawl in October, as the economy added a meager 1,800 jobs and the unemployment rate remained at 7.4 percent.