Job-hunting in a tough market?
5 ways to make it easier

In this economy, the thoughtful bird gets the worm, says expert

TORONTO, April 3 /CNW/ - With unemployment rates headed for 8% and organizations scaling back hiring plans, job hunting can seem harder than ever. But you'd be surprised at how easy it is to improve your chances. "The trick is to raise your profile and look like a 'perfect fit' - without looking desperate," says Maureen Carroll, Recruiting Manager at Head2Head, an innovative recruiting solutions company headquartered in Toronto. "It's not about standing at the corner of Yonge and Bloor wearing a sandwich board; it's about networking and thoughtful responses." Carroll, 36, knows what great candidates look like: she interviews more than 400 annually, and the Head2Head recruiting team is responsible for more than 13,000 hires every year.

"Job-hunting sucks at the best of times, and in a tight market it can be frustrating," says Carroll. "But there are lots of ways to make it easier - and less painful." Carroll offers 5 tips for ensuring your resume gets the best results in a slower job market:

1. Now is not the time to change careers. You may not be entirely happy with your current career niche, but this isn't the best time to start trying to make a huge change. "Look for opportunities to use the skills you have now," says Carroll. "Once you're established in a role you can look for ways to transition to a new career."

2. If you get an invitation to do something, go! "Finding a job is a lot like dating," says Carroll, who points out that half the battle is keeping yourself top-of-mind with other people, so when they hear of an opportunity, they think of you first. "The No. 1 way to find a job is through friends and family."

3. Create a project to give you the bullet points. Missing a few key skills/experiences from your resume? Come up with a project - like work for a non-profit, or a personal branding-related project - to give yourself the relevant bullet points. "Showing that you're proactive - that you are willing to get creative to achieve new things - is a great way to get the attention of recruiters and hiring managers," says Carroll.

4. Self-employment - aka 'contract work' - doesn't have to be scary. "We've been taught to think of the corporate job - with all the trimmings - as the only 'safe' option," says Carroll, "but the truth is that contract work can be just as steady - and often put more money on your bottom line. This is a good time to consider becoming an independent contractor."

5. Research the places you'd most like to work - and then connect to someone there. "Thanks to social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, it's easier than ever to connect with people who work at the companies you'd most like to work for," says Carroll. "And the most desirable companies are often the ones which are still hiring in this market - but generally on a quieter basis. Contacting someone to invite them for a 15-minute coffee 'informational' meeting is a great way to build relationships - and it's relationships which will ultimately help get you a job."

Overall, Carroll is positive about employment prospects for Canadians. "Sure, the market is slower than it was a year ago," she acknowledges. "But companies are still hiring - it's just a matter of making sure you're the first one they think of when they do."

ABOUT HEAD2HEAD

Head2Head provides specialized recruiting services, including outsourced and insourced recruiting solutions, to more than 250 of Canada's leading organizations. Founded in Toronto in 2000, H2H has more than 35 employees, 120 consultants, and offices in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

For further information: Sarah Welstead, Director of User Experience, (416) 440-2043, sarah@head2head.ca

Cholesterol Drug Cuts Vein Clot Risk By 40 Percent
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090329/health/health_us_heart_drugs?printer=1

ORLANDO, Florida (AFP) - The cholesterol-fighting drug rosuvastatin, marketed as Crestor to help fight high cholesterol, can help cut the risk of blood clots dramatically, according to research released Sunday.

The study dubbed Jupiter -- Justification for the Use of Statins in Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin -- found that taking the British lab AstraZeneca's Crestor reduced the clot risk in the veins by as much as 40 percent and more.

It did not however consider other popular statins such as Lipitor or Zocor.

Those brands, and generics, are battling for billion-dollar global market shares.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a very common disorder with an incidence that increases with age. Deep vein thrombosis, which can cause pain in the legs, is an early form of VTE, while pulmonary embolism is a frequently fatal, advanced form of the condition caused by a clot that travels to the lungs.

"VTE is a serious, sometimes fatal, event that is costly and inconvenient to treat," said Robert Glynn, a biostatistician at Brigham and Women?s Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who presented the results at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology here.

"When patients and their doctors discuss initiation of statin therapy, prevention of VTE is an important additional consideration beyond proven benefits in the prevention of heart attack and stroke," he said.

While "our findings require confirmation, ... they have the potential to broaden our perspective on the treatment targets for statin therapy, including consideration of VTE, in addition to conditions caused by arterial thrombosis such as heart attack and stroke (among) estimated benefits associated with statin use," Glynn argued.

According to Paul Ridker, of Brigham and Women?s and the JUPITER trial chairman: "the clinical bottom line here is simple, in addition to reducing risks of heart attack and stroke, we now have hard evidence that aggressive statin therapy reduces life-threatening blood clots in the veins.

"In contrast to drugs like warfarin and heparin, we got this benefit with no bleeding hazard at all, so the new data are an exciting advance for our patients," Ridker stressed.

The clinical test was carried out on 17,802 subjects both men and women in good health.

"During follow-up, 34 participants in the rosuvastatin group and 60 in the placebo group developed symptomatic VTE, a 43 percent reduction," they explained in a statement.

"Similar reductions in risk were observed in people who had certain triggers for VTE, including cancer or recent hospitalization, surgery, or trauma (provoked VTE), and in those who did not have any of these triggers (unprovoked VTE). Risk reductions were seen for both deep vein thrombosis and for pulmonary embolism," the researchers added.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming 900,000 lives every year.

The US consumer watchdog Public Citizen in March 2004 urged the FDA to take Crestor off the US market, saying it was "linked to cases of life-threatening muscle damage and kidney failure or damage."

You're Fooling Yourself If You Think Heart Disease And Stroke Is Just A Man's Disease

TORONTO, April 1 /CNW/ - This is no April Fool's Day joke. In fact, in Canada, the number of male deaths from heart disease and stroke actually dropped by 19 per cent for men between 1973 and 2003, while the number increased in women by five per cent. And while heart disease and stroke arestill important health concerns for men, they are now the number one killer of women in Canada...and yet only one in eight women is aware that this is her biggest health risk.

Fortunately, studies have shown that the risks of heart disease and stroke can be mitigated through positive lifestyle changes by up to 80 per cent. In 2008, Becel became the founding sponsor of The Heart Truth(TM) campaign to help the Heart and Stroke Foundation deliver this message of hope - that you do have the power to dramatically reduce the risks of the leading cause of death in Canadian women.

This April Fool's Day, do something smart. Join women across Canada in the 'Do One Small Thing' movement to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Thousands of women have already pledged to begin making small, simple everyday changes that can help make a big difference.

Some suggested 'One Small Things':

Another way Canadian women are participating and supporting this important movement, is through The Becel Love Your Heart simulcast. On April 23rd, Becel has invited some of Canada's top female recording artists - Diana Krall, Chantal Kreviazuk and Deborah Cox in Toronto and Isabelle Boulay, Laurence Jalbert, France D'Amour and Sylvie Paquette in Montreal - to perform in an historic simulcast concert event to help inspire and motivate women across Canada. The event will be an evening of celebration through songs from the heart and heartfelt stories that Becel hopes will become a call to action for Canadian women to make positive changes in their lives, one small thing at a time. The live concert will be simulcast to Cineplex and Empire theatres across Canada and consumer response to the limited seating, in-theatre simulcast event has been tremendous. To learn more about how you can do one small thing to love your heart visit www.loveyourheart.ca

About The Heart Truth campaign

While one in three Canadian women die of heart disease and stroke, most don't know that it's their most serious health concern. The Heart Truth campaign educates women about identifying their risks and warning signs of heart disease and stroke. The Heart Truth provides women with the tools they need to take charge of their heart health. The campaign is especially relevant for women 40 to 60 years old, whose risk increases as they age. www.thehearttruth.ca

New Program Makes It Easier To Recycle Electronic Waste In Ont.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/03/31/electronics-recycling.html
CBC News | Last Updated: Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Excerpt…
A new electronics recycling program was launched in Ontario on Tuesday with the aim of greatly increasing the number of old computers, television sets and fax machines diverted from landfills over the next five years.

Under the $62-million program, a network of collection sites is being set across Ontario up with the assurance that the electronics waste will be recycled or reused in an environmentally appropriate way. The products to be collected include desktop and laptop computers, mice, keyboards, disk drives, monitors, desktop printers, fax machines and televisions. Cellphones and cameras will be added in later phases of the program.

Consumers can go to a website, called Do What You Can, select "electronics," and enter their postal codes or municipalities to find out the nearest locations of sites where they can bring their unwanted electronic goods. A handful of retailers will host collection events in the coming months as part of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Program.

"We want to get this stuff out of the landfill," said Barbara McConnell, spokesperson for the Ontario Electronic Stewardship, an organization run by industry to develop and operate the program.

"The aim is to divert more electronics waste in Ontario into programs where we can be confident that they will be recycled. "

McConnell said about 91,000 tonnes of electronics are sold in the province every year, while about 25,000 tonnes of unwanted electronics are recovered through public and private sector recycling programs. The program aims to recover an additional 161,000 tonnes over the next five years. Starting on Wednesday, companies that sell electronics products in Ontario will be required to pay a fee to ensure those goods are recycled or reused. The fees will be paid to the Ontario Electronic Stewardship to cover the costs of the program.

The funds will be used to cover the costs of collection, transportation, consolidation, processing, research and development and consumer information and education programs. It will also cover the cost of the Do What You Can website. Kate Jordan, spokesperson for the Ontario Environment Ministry, said Tuesday that manufacturers will have to pay a fee based on the number of products they introduce into the Ontario marketplace.

"It's not a tax," she said. "This program is funded 100 per cent by industry."

Bumper Rice Harvest Could Bring Down Consumer Prices
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/10305/icode/
25-02-2009

But economic slowdown will affect the poor and their access to basic foods

25 February 2009, Rome - The 2008 rice bumper harvest is coming to a close with better-than-expected production that could help ease consumer prices, FAO said in its February Rice Market Monitor. But the agency warned that the global economic slowdown could outweigh the gains for the poorest of the world's rice consumers, because of falling incomes and rising job insecurity.

FAO currently predicts global paddy production in the 2008 season to rise to 683 million tonnes, 3.5 percent more than in 2007 and the fastest rate of growth for three years. The increase will be due to a 2.2 percent increase in the amount of land cultivated globally as farmers and governments reacted to the high prices. The global 2008 rice harvest ends in Asian northern hemisphere countries around May.

Rapid increases in the price of rice -- the staple food for around two and a half billion people - and other cereals played a major role in the food price shocks last year, characterised by high fuel and fertilizer prices that triggered political unrest in many countries.

Down but still high

Global rice prices for 2008 ended the year on average 80 percent higher than in 2007 despite the steady decline since their peak levels in May, FAO said. The price of a tonne of the benchmark Thai white 100 percent second grade was $611 in January compared to $385 in the same month in 2008 having risen to a peak of $963.

"One positive effect of the high rice prices in 2008 was that farmers and governments took up the challenges and opportunities and planted more, boosting production despite high fuel and fertilizer costs and a scarcity of quality seed," said FAO Senior Economist Concepcion Calpe.

Favourable weather in many parts of the world also helped to sustain yields in the face of high fuel and fertilizer prices.

Slowdown to hit consumers

Soaring rice prices last year led governments round the world to take a variety of measures to try and dampen the effects on the poor.

"If last year they (governments) had to intervene on two conflicting fronts, both to stimulate rice production and to keep rice affordable to consumers, they may face even greater challenges in 2009 in the context of the severe global economic slowdown," FAO said in its report.

"In this context, governments may again have to intervene, this time to sustain rice producer prices while also protecting the purchasing power of their populations, at a moment when demands for public help from other sectors are quickly intensifying."

Much of the global production gain for the 2008 paddy season is expected to be concentrated in Asia, with bumper harvests expected in both large and small producing countries.

African harvest soars

African countries are also forecasting exceptional results and rice production is expected to rise by an impressive 18 percent due to government support and increased use of new, high-yielding and resilient seed varieties. As a result, rice imports to Africa are now expected to decline to their lowest level since 2004.

The excellent 2008 paddy crop is expected to lead to a strong rebuilding of world rice reserves this year to 118 million tonnes, in milled rice equivalent, the highest level since 2002 and nine million tonnes more than in 2008. Traditional importing countries are forecast to replenish their reserves by over one million tonnes to some 20 million tonnes, but most of the world stock increase is likely to be concentrated among exporting countries.

Although lower prices are good for consumers, export prices below US$400 per tonne for top quality white rice could adversely affect producers and hamper polices geared towards self-sufficiency in many importing countries, FAO said.