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Florida is poised to lead the U.S. economy in 2021 as the state and nation look to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. In Florida TaxWatch’s 2021 economic preview, the state’s Real Gross State Product (RGSP) was projected to grow this year at an uber-healthy 4.9 percent clip.

That growth would out-pace other bellwether states such as Texas (4.0 percent) and the U.S. as a whole (3.6 percent). The nearly 5.0 percent growth rate would be some 1.5 percent ahead of the state’s 2015 to 2019 annual growth, which averaged 3.4 percent.

The job of your dream may be within reach, a conditional offer in hand, when your prospective employer says they first need to run a background check on you.

Florida, like many states, has a drug-free workplace program that regulates and encourages companies to do drug testing. According to Nolo.com, “Florida employers who establish such a program can qualify for a discount on their workers' compensation insurance premiums. 

However, employers must follow the state's rules to get their discount. Florida employers must test in certain circumstances and must observe certain procedures intended to protect employee and applicant rights.”

These days, you’re more likely to be contacted for an online interview than an in-person interview. One reason, of course, is the pandemic, but another is the vastly-improved video-conferencing capabilities of platforms such as Zoom. The good news is that companies are, indeed, hiring, even now. The online interview process offers both benefits and new challenges for the interviewee. Here’s how to navigate your next online interview.

Coronavirus cases are on the decline, and many industries are beginning to open back up again. This means that people who have not been working are preparing to apply for jobs and enter the workforce again. If you are looking for a job, you may be getting ready to do what most people do and start looking for jobs online. However, there may be a better choice.

Working with a staffing company may help you find a job that you are better suited for and land a job faster than randomly applying for work online. Here are a few of the benefits of working with a staffing company.

For those currently looking for employment the COVID-19 vaccination rollout could be a gamechanger in several different ways.

First, there is hope on the horizon that as more Americans get vaccinated, the economy will open back up, and along with that reopening more jobs should come in the pipeline.

In the near term the staffing demands for the COVID-19 vaccinations has motivated some companies to go on hiring sprees. Those job seekers with healthcare backgrounds are in high demand for openings that range from full-time to part-time to temporary.

Job seekers should optimize their LinkedIn profile as the social networking site has 766 million users worldwide and is a favorite of employment recruiters. Utilizing social media, especially LinkedIn, is becoming the new normal when it comes to finding a job.

“When used correctly, and with panache, LinkedIn can perform near miracles for your career's development,” job search expert Alison Doyle wrote on The Balance Careers. “Recruiters and employers both use LinkedIn to source candidates for employment, sometimes even using recently departed employees or newly-placed employees for career-networking opportunities of their own.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic stretches past its one-year mark it appears that anyone looking for a job in 2021 will have to do so during the ongoing public health crisis. If you are currently out of work, you are not alone as the U.S. unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in January 2021 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

While that rate is down from 14.7 percent in April 2020, it is still almost double where national unemployment stood on the eve of the pandemic, which was 3.5 percent in February 2020.

Economic uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has made long-range workforce decisions a roll of the dice for many businesses, but temporary workers can help mitigate staffing risks.

In fact, one in three companies turned to temporary workers as a solution during the early days of the pandemic with Gartner reporting last May that, “32 percent of organizations are replacing full time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure. Utilizing more gig workers provides employers with greater workforce management flexibility.”