Employee Participation

Meet the Saba People Cloud, a new application that helps businesses build a database of scores that can help them assess the most valuable employees based on social networking.

Although unemployment remains high and there's a perception of a talent surplus, human resources professionals might have to choose from limited quantities of high-skilled workers as the widening skills gap makes it difficult for U.S. employers to compete globally, according to a new Deloitte study.

Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, adding to signs that the job market is strengthening.

The median rates of unscheduled employee absences averaged 0.6 percent of scheduled worker days per month through 2011, which is down from 0.8 percent in 2010 and 0.7 percent in 2009, according to an employer survey by Bloomberg BNA.

Labor unions, saying they can't hope to compete with the new breed of conservative fundraising groups, plan to spend less money this year on specific candidates and political party organizations and more on door-to-door canvassing, phone banks and registration drives to help President Barack Obama and other Democrats.

Cigarette and tobacco producer Reynolds American Inc. says it will eliminate 10 percent of its U.S. jobs, effecting about 540 workers, by the end of 2014.