| March belonged to Ford Motor Co., as it outsold General Motors for only the second time since 1998. Ford’s boost was aided by a 21% jump in truck sales. The last time Ford outsold GM was in February 2010, but only by 471 vehicles, according to Auto Week. As the price of gas rises, small business profitability seems to be declining. A recent Discover Financial Services Small Business Watch survey found 76% of respondents said they’re feeling the effects of the increase at the pump. Of those, 90% said prices are having a somewhat negative or very negative effect on their operations, a number that is on par with sentiments in April 2008 when the national average for gasoline hovered near $3.42 per gallon. There’s an increasing divide between skills workers have and skills employers require. More than half of business leaders, 53% to be exact, said their companies have been facing a very or fairly major challenge in recruiting non-managerial employees with the skills, training and education their company needs. The results came despite the unemployment rate being close to 10% at the time the Corporate Voices for Working Families and Civic Enterprises survey was completed. More than 500,000 square feet of green roof space has been installed in Chicago, including at O’Hare International Airport (pictured above). For the seventh year in a row, the city topped Green Roofs for Healthy Cities annual industry survey. The 2010 survey also showed the green roof industry grew 28.5% in 2010, up significantly from an increase of 16% in 2009. For companies of all sizes, one in three employees may become a flight risk. If they have a choice, employees said they hope to be working for a different employer sometime during 2011, according to Met Life’s 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefits. |
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