Since Congress approved a tax cut in January that benefitted businesses, more employees are reaping the benefits in their paychecks.

At last count 15 national companies are giving thousands of employees up to a $1,000 bonus. Those companies include JetBlue, AT&T and American Airlines.  There are dozens more local companies across the country that have done the same.

Other corporations, both national and local, have announced increases to pay and 401K accounts.

 Americans for Tax Reform, a nonprofit created in 1985 at the request of President Reagan urges legislators to commit to opposing efforts to increase income taxes on individuals or businesses.

The ATR has compiled a list of every employer granting bonuses after January’s tax cut. Find the list here: https://www.atr.org/list

More money in employees’ pockets means better workers will stay and perform well. Poor wages mean less workers or no workers, a hard lesson learned by Toys ‘R’ Us this week as the retail giant announced that it will close after 70 years. The store had long paid just minimum wage with little extra incentive. Would-be employees found employment elsewhere with better benefits.

Now, with the national unemployment rate at a record low of 17.1 percent, many retail stores are desperate for good help, and they are willing to compensate to keep hard workers on board. Which means if you are looking for work in retail, it is a competitive market and you can use that to your advantage.

For military spouses, this is great news. As you conduct your job search in retail work, interview with a variety of locations and ask specific questions about the packages and pay being offered. You may find that a manager who recognizes the value of an experienced military spouse is willing to sweeten the hiring package.

By Amy Nielsen

I have been waiting for my dream job to post so I can apply for it. I heard about the position from someone who works in the same office a few weeks ago. Over the last weeks, the funding has been frozen as the fiscal year changed over.

I have been checking the postings every few days. Today the new openings went up finally. When I saw it, I nearly hyperventilated.

I have been working hard to put myself in the right places to find out what kinds of opportunities are going to be coming available over the next few months. I spent the late winter months learning everything I could about the agencies and organizations in our community who do similar work to what I want to do. I have been going to all sundry events that have anything to do with health and wellness. I have been trying to meet as many of the movers and shakers as I could.

 I am not in a rush to find a job. I have a lot of slices on my plate with family, teaching, and volunteer commitments. Rather, I am really interested in finding the right job. The research time I put in over the winter is beginning to pay off as I meet more people and am able to put faces to names.

I started this journey with the intention of opening my own business. I have determined over the last year that I am just too fundamentally lazy for that to work. Working by myself is like playing ping pong alone.  Coworkers fire me up and keep me motivated. I like to work as part of a team with independence to do my piece.

I have the luxury right now to not have to be employed immediately upon graduating from school. Being an adult student with a family, I have other sources of support. I’m not trying to pay the rent with this new career. I can take the time to work my way carefully into the community.

Finding the right fit will take time. I live in a rural area with limited opportunities. Those that do come up are fiercely fought for and hard earned when awarded. Ours is a small community in the corner of the state.  The big universities are far enough away that those students are not interested in applying for positions here unless they come from here to begin with.

Agencies and organizations don’t have a lot of turnover at the levels I am applying for. Those employees that do move on usually do so to other positions within the local area. It’s a small circle of passionate people who have been paying a lot of dues for a lot of years here. A hard circle to break into and hold one’s own. Some days it feels a bit like feeding my toes to the piranha.

So I applied. I sent in my resume and cover letter. Just to be sure I sent it correctly, as I am not the most savvy at filling in these online forms, I sent a note to the two women I have been most in contact with about this specific organization. Both are employees who have been encouraging me to keep my eyes open for just this opportunity. I know that as employees they cannot specifically direct my application, but I am hoping they can at least watch out for it.

The job posting reads like it was written for me. My credentials line up perfectly with the requested certifications. I am already very familiar with the materials I would be presenting on a daily basis. I enjoy teaching the kinds of students the program attracts. Even my extracurricular talents work in favor to make my presentations that much more valuable for the organization.

My biggest fear in this whole process is whether I filled out the online application correctly so the autobot that reads the algorithm doesn’t kick my resume out for being incorrectly categorized. I am sure that I have missed job opportunities because I haven’t filled out the online application correctly. There is often times no way to know if what I clicked is clear because the applicable answer to the question isn’t there.

For example, I hold a bachelors degree technical theater. When the form asks for higher education level, I click bachelors of arts. When it asks for the subject of my degree, there is no option for theater. I have to click arts/undefined. But this is not the same thing at all and doesn’t convey the same kind of training I have had. Rarely can I list my post graduate certificates in culinary arts, holistic nutrition, and herbalism as there are never spaces for them. Yet they are very relevant training to what I will be teaching in the jobs I am applying for.

Unless I can get myself in front of a human being and have a conversation about my wild and crazy ride, the autobot is not going put my resume in the hire pile. I just don’t fit in little boxes like that. That is part of the reason these kinds of organizations want to hire someone like me. If they can find us. If we can get in the door in the first place.

Now I wait and hope that the boxes were clicked properly and that I am in fact in the right place at the right time. I have seized my day. I have grabbed the tiger by the tail. I have applied for my dream job. I even wished on the candles on my birthday cake for this job. So now it has to happen. Right?

Want to determine your hours? Your own work load? Be your own boss?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released a list of occupations that in 2016, had a large number of self-employed workers. They are:

• Animal trainers
• Door-to-door sales, street vendors
• Farmers and agriculture
• Artists
• Fishermen and hunters
• Hairdressers and cosmetologists
• Massage therapists
• Musicians and singers
• Photographers
• Dressmakers and tailors
• Writers and authors

Among these jobs, farm and agriculture rated the highest income at an annual average of $66,000. Animal trainers were at the bottom of the list with a mere $22,000 annually. Each of the other jobs fell between the two.

 What may appeal to many job seekers is that for these careers, on the job training is often more essential than professional schooling. Those that do require certification, such as hairdressers and massage therapists can finish school in a matter of months, rather than years.

The downside, you are responsible for everything – paying taxes, finding insurance, advertising your business and dealing with difficult customers.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has a webpage to introduce people to the world of self-employment and business ownership. Find it here:

https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/how-start-business/business-types/self-employed-independent-contractors

To learn more about salary and hiring outlook for specific industries, visit https://www.bls.gov/oes/

The online retail giant, Amazon, is hiring 5,000 at-home workers, and have specifically targeted military spouses as the kind of employees they want. Now.

The jobs are part of a larger plan to add 30,000 workers to the company’s ranks. The at-home positions are Virtual Customer Service employees.

In a statement last week, Tom Weiland, Amazon’s vice president for worldwide customer service specifically named military spouses as a group the company is focused on hiring from.

“There are lots of people who want or need a flexible job – whether they’re a military spouse, a college student, or a parent – and we’re happy to empower these talented people no matter where they happen to live,” he said.

This is just the latest growth in what has been a hiring surge for Amazon. In 2011 Amazon had just 56,000 employees. Five years later, Amazon ranks numbered 341,000.

To find out more about the available jobs, visit https://www.amazon.jobs/en/locations/virtual-locations?base_query=&loc_query=&job_count=10&result_limit=10&sort=relevant&location%5B%5D=virtual-locations&cache

By Amy Nielsen

I arrived today with a gust of wind that propelled me through the door with such force that I almost fell over the six-foot-tall rooster.

The wind whipped and the sun glared an ineffective attempt at warmth. I was at the County Revival and Renewal Conference, a networking opportunity I decided I couldn't pass on, even if it meant skipping a long-planned family trip into the city.

The conference was presented by the county revitalization and renewal, non-profit collaborative organization. They have been in charge of the beautification of the county for the last 15 or so years. And, in the last year, the county was awarded the right to build a casino.

Bids went out, a company was chosen, and the building is rising. This potential economic windfall is the impetus to step up the game in the county, to do more than just beautify the county for this organization.

With the addition of another, smaller, satellite non-profit organization, the revival collaborative is reshaping themselves to focus on the health and wellness of the county and help it become more of a destination, rather than just the zip code of the resort casino.

This county is already a mash up of world class resorts and stunning poverty. Our county routinely ranks low, if not lowest in the state, for health and wellness yet is located in the heart of a beautiful wilderness area. There is a need and a desire to put great effort into changing that statistic.

By health and wellness they have defined several very specific areas of interest: place making to promote not only downtowns but inspire people to walk in downtown areas, creating centers of wellness focusing on total mind, body, spirit and health for all ages and accessibility needs, and lastly focusing on teaching health and wellness to the youth through public and private partnerships in the public schools.

The conference sponsored a small vendor showcase of local organizations and businesses that all offer health and wellness oriented services. While browsing among the local organic breads and cookies, community supported agriculture options, and the local worm farm and compost distributers, I saw a woman knew.

I had interviewed with her for a position we both knew I was ridiculously overqualified for and just as equally passionate about. She had moved on from that organization and was here promoting her latest health initiative collaboration. I knew instantly that I was in the right place.

The first order of business was a small awards ceremony for the volunteers of the past year. There were some impressive folks being honored, many with years of dedicated individual service to not only this but several other local community civic groups. Equally impressive were the public private partnerships that were showcased. This organization, like all civic oriented non-profits, runs on its volunteers. Having spent a large portion of my life in and around such organizations I know the value of a good volunteer. They are worth their weight in gold. If I don't land a job with this group, I will certainly be looking to volunteer for them.

Next up was the keynote speaker. I had only read a little about what she was going to speak about because I was focused on a specific afternoon breakout session. I planned to listen politely and work on my crochet for this portion of the day. I got my tea during the break, pulled out the vest I’m working on and settled in for the next hour. As far as I am concerned, I will learn something new, no matter what she talks about.

The topic was fascinating and her delivery was delightful. I learned about a whole new way of looking at planning a public access space. I learned how to get the most bang out of the extremely limited bucks that go around for things like effective signs to direct pedestrians from the parking areas to main street. Totally cool. I never put much thought into who makes those kinds of decisions. So now I, and you, know. Go out and help beautify your town.

As I said, interesting, but not what I was really here for. Up for lunch. This place knows how to do world class food. It was good, plentiful and not rushed. Then, finally, what I came for. The afternoon breakout session. I had read in the pre-conference information that one of the sessions was going to focus on improving school food and the ways and hows of instituting a school garden. This is exactly what I want to be doing.

I got down to the room a little early to scope it out and get a good seat. I was hoping to meet the presenter ahead of the class and at least introduce myself. I was in luck. She was just finishing setting up her materials. We chatted briefly then she went to grab her lunch before her time started. I checked out the materials in the back of the room, collected each of the handouts, and sat down to read a bit before the session started.

As it happened the presenter was an invited guest, not actually from the local organization as I had thought. She had started a program the county is hoping to implement once they get the funding and the personnel lined up. When she returned from lunch she introduced me to the woman who invited her and who was in charge of the project for the county.

BINGO!

This was exactly the woman I needed to meet. In fact, when I told her what I do and what I want to do, she had to sit down because, in her words, I was, “the answer to all her prayers.” She introduce me to the other educators in the room who are already on her team. We collectively figured out that I know several of the same folks in our hill towns and will fit in very nicely, thank you very much! I am the missing piece. The link to make it all go.

We have a lunch date next week to meet again and discuss the proper ins and outs of exactly what I can do for the organization and what the organization can offer me in return. I am getting in at the ground floor of a supremely exciting project for which I am uniquely suited and talented. This is what it means to step out of your comfort zone, put on the big girl panties and go forth to conquer your destiny. Cape flapping.

Looking for a job?

Try applying to a company that will not only employ you, but may also help you earn a degree.

There are a lot of well-known, national companies who offer tuition reimbursement as part of their employee benefit package. In fact, 83 percent of companies surveyed by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in 2015 said they offer educational assistance or tuition reimbursement.

Some employers fund education because they feel it will help retain good employees and raise productivity. Others take advantage of the tax credits and deductions they earn by funding an employee education program.

Either way, employees win, and with many of these companies, they win big.

A list compiled by yescollege.com shows the biggest employer education programs out there. It includes:

UPS – The education benefit starts the day employees begin work and can amount to as much as $25,000 in tuition reimbursement.

The Home Depot – After 90 days, part-time employees can receive up to $1,500 a year in assistance, full-time employees receive up to $3,000 and salaried employees receive up to $5,000 a year.

To see the full list, visit: http://yescollege.com/2016/06/companies-tuition-reimbursement/

Keep in mind that IRS rules limit tax-free benefits received from an employer to $5,250 per year. Any amount over that is considered compensation and the employee will be taxed. Still, the tax bill is going to be smaller than the tuition bill.

One of the fastest growing sectors of tuition assistance employers is the food industry. Employees at Chipotle Mexican Grill, McDonalds, Taco Bell, TGI Friday's, Arby's and Pizza Hut all have access to tuition help.

Are you PCS'ing to a location you expect to spend just a year or so at? A fast food job may give you a little extra money, and a few more credits toward your degree.

Want to know more? Google the phrase: “companies that pay your tuition, ” and then get that resume ready to send.