Despite the recession, one company is recruiting for construction jobs in Connecticut.

KBE Building Corporation (KBE) (http://www.kbebuilding.com) has been on a robust hiring spree throughout the summer and fall, demonstrating that not all news is bleak in the construction industry.

“We’ve hired 11 people in our Columbia office since late May and are looking for eight more”, said Allan Kleban, KBE’s Vice President of Business Development. Kleban attributed the new positions to two of the firm’s niche markets, universities and large retail stores; the third niche market is senior housing & healthcare, which has been down of late. “We recently completed one Harris Teeter and are building another, we’re building a new dorm at UMBC, and we’re working on three Wal-Marts in the region, among others”, added Kleban. (more…)

A company is advising the unemployed on how to secure temporary jobs in Connecticut.

There is good news for people looking for temporary work over the holidays: Many retailers plan to hire more seasonal employees this year than previous years.

The outsourcing firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas estimates as many as 60,000 Americans will secure holiday jobs this year. According to the Los Angeles Times, Toys R Us alone plans to hire 45,000 holiday helpers, and other retail giants are planning to take on 20 to 30 percent more seasonal employees than last year. (more…)

Lydall has released their third quarter finances and gave some insight into opening up jobs in Connecticut.

Net sales for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010 were $83.8 million compared with $66.1 million for the same period in 2009. Excluding the negative impact of foreign currency translation, net sales increased by $20.7 million, or 31.3%, in the third quarter of 2010 compared with the third quarter of 2009.

The Company revised prior period financial statements due to errors detected in the third quarter of 2010. None of the revisions were considered material to the periods impacted, as further described below. All figures in this press release are provided as revised.

Net income for the current quarter was $1.5 million, or $0.09 per share, compared to a net loss of ($0.5) million, or ($0.03) per share, in the third quarter of 2009. Net income in the third quarter of 2010 included a net tax benefit of $1.8 million, or $0.11 per share, and a gain on sale of product line of $0.4 million, or $0.02 per share.

Operating income in the third quarter of 2010 was $0.1 million compared to an operating loss of ($0.4) million in the third quarter of 2009. The current quarter was negatively impacted by the results of the Company’s North American automotive (“NA Auto”) facility, which continued to experience manufacturing inefficiencies associated with production of fiber products, as previously identified at the end of the second quarter.

Dale Barnhart, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are pleased by the positive trend in revenues resulting from market revitalization and certain share gains. For two consecutive quarters we have exceeded our highest reported revenues since the third quarter of 2008, and we continue to report strong backlog. We are disappointed with the performance of our NA Auto facility, but believe the corrective actions will start to show improvements in the fourth quarter. Our Performance Materials segment and our Affinity business, as well as our European automotive facilities, executed well during the quarter and are benefiting both from the positive trend in revenues and from their ongoing focus on lean manufacturing.

“In the Performance Materials segment, we continued to see greater demand for our filtration and industrial thermal insulation products. Net sales in the third quarter of 2010, excluding foreign currency translation, increased by 31.1% compared to the third quarter of 2009. Excluding the gain on sale of our electrical papers product line, this segment reported an operating margin of 17.4% for the third quarter of 2010 compared to 11.1% in the prior year. Performance Materials has done an excellent job of realigning manufacturing capabilities among the production sites which has enabled us to better optimize the use of existing capacity and also to free up capacity to grow the business organically.

“In the Thermal/Acoustical segment, the second quarter’s demand for the Company’s products continued into the third quarter. While segment net sales increased by 28.0%, excluding foreign currency translation, in the third quarter of 2010, sales of automotive parts increased by 48.5% compared to the third quarter of 2009. The manufacturing inefficiencies we encountered at our NA Auto facility towards the end of the second quarter continued to challenge us in the third quarter, and contributed to the segment’s operating loss of ($3.2) million. During the second and third quarters of 2010, we responded to a rapid acceleration of orders with a plant expansion, implementation of new equipment, hiring and training a significant number of new employees, and fabrication of a great deal of new tooling, and all at the same time as we increased output to meet our customers’ demand.”

Consolidated gross margin percentage for the third quarter of 2010 was 14.9% compared with 17.0% for the same quarter of 2009. This decrease in gross margin percentage was driven by the manufacturing inefficiencies associated with production of fiber products in the Thermal/Acoustical segment. Partially offsetting the negative impact on gross margin percentage from the Thermal/Acoustical segment was improvement in gross margin percentage from the Performance Materials segment.

Selling, product development, and administrative expenses were $12.7 million, or 15.2% of net sales, for the third quarter ended September 30, 2010, compared with $11.7 million, or 17.6% of net sales, for the same quarter of 2009. This increase was primarily due to salaries and benefits, sales commission, severance related charges, and consulting services totaling $1.5 million and partially offset by the reversal of accrued incentive compensation expense of $0.4 million.

An East Coast career fair is starting up with the goal of creating jobs in Connecticut.

Unicruit announced it will bring together more than 40 industry leading employers and government agencies as well as students and alumni of 16 colleges and universities that represent the Big East Career Consortium. Participating schools include Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, South Florida, Syracuse, Villanova, and West Virginia. The virtual career fair, which is free to attend for college students and alumni, will open on November 10, 2010 at 10 AM Eastern and will be available on demand until November 19th.

Unicruit is partnering with the Big East Career Consortium to deliver the fully interactive, 3D virtual career fair.
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