There looks to be some positive news for the job market in the Nashville and Murfreesboro area for the first part of the New Year.
Employers expect to hire at a solid pace during quarter one 2011, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. Among survey participants, the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, TN MSA employment outlook is the fifth best in the nation.
From January to March, 19 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 8 percent expects to reduce their payrolls.
Another 70 percent expect to maintain their current staff levels and 3 percent are not certain of their hiring plans.
“Employers are slightly more optimistic about hiring plans for the first three months of 2011 compared to the fourth quarter of 2010 when the Net Employment Outlook was 9 percent,” said Manpower spokesperson Bill Floyd. “Employers expect a faster hiring pace compared with one year ago, when the Net Employment Outlook was 4 percent.”
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The Middle Tennessee Association of Realtors used its annual holiday celebration recently as an opportunity to collect donations for two local charities, Toys for Tots and The Brittany Project.
MTAR supplies these charities with several toys and a collection of new Christmas trees, which could be distributed to needy families in our area.
“As we gather to celebrate the holiday season, we have asked our members to also help others less fortunate with their holiday celebrations” noted 2010 MTAR President Dave Patton of Reliant Realty in Murfreesboro.
For several years, MTAR has made it an integral part of its holiday activities to host a toy drive in support of the Murfreesboro Fire Department’s Toys For Tots program.
This year, the realtors expanded their efforts to support The Brittany Project, a charity that collects pre-lit Christmas trees and provides them to families who could not otherwise afford them.
The effort is named for Brittany Maxwell, the late Murfreesboro Police Officer who initiated the effort.
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For the 55th consecutive year, the men and women of the North American Aerospace Defense Command are getting ready to track Santa.
The NORAD Tracks Santa website, noradsanta.com, is currently live and features holiday games and activities that change daily.
On Dec. 24, the website will stream videos, captured by NORAD “Santa Cams,” from cities along Santa’s journey.
This year, children are able to track Santa through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and TroopTube. Simply type in “@noradsanta” into the search engine of the particular website to start tracking.
Also, beginning at 1 a.m. Dec. 24, visitors to the website can watch Santa as he prepares his sleigh, checks his list and goes through all of his preparations to ensure he has a successful journey.
As soon as Santa takes off from the North Pole, children can also track him with up-to-the-minute updates on Google Maps and Google Earth through the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
Santa trackers will begin answering phones and replying to e-mail at 3 a.m on Dec. 24 and will continue until 4 a.m. Dec. 25. Children of all ages can then call the NTS toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD or send an e-mail to noradtracksanta@gmail.com.
The NORAD Tracks Santa program began in 1955 after a phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander on duty who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested — the whereabouts of Santa. This began the tradition of tracking Santa, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958.
The NORAD Tracks Santa program has grown immensely since first presented on the internet in 1998. The website receives millions of unique visitors from hundreds of countries and territories around the world. In addition, a live Operations Center is occupied for 25 hours with more than 1,200 volunteers each year who receive hundreds of thousands of phone calls and emails from families around the world.
Want to have your business news featured in The Edge? Send an e-mail to eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
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