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The job market is booming and employees are reaping the benefits.
With the unemployment rate at a 28-year low, some companies are offering
generous incentive packages to attract the best workers. Ceci Rodgers
reports. Part-time workers needed. Pay -- $9 an hour. Full benefits.
No nights or weekends. Sound too good to be true? Not in this job
market. And not at UPS in Chicago, where such deal sweeteners are
crucial to getting and keeping qualified workers. We see more and
more people who want to stay at UPS not just because of the organizations
reputation, but also because we offer such a good wage and benefit
package. UPS is hardly the only company sweetening the pot. A booming
economy and a shortage of labor is creating a windfall for workers
in some surprising occupations. We're now seeing fast food restaurants
even offer benefits today. I mean, this is something that was unheard
of just a few years ago. That's right. Burger flippers with full benefits.
In the retail sector, part-timers working as few as 24 hours a week
at Marshall fields enjoy full benefits. Construction workers are also
benefitting. They just negotiated a 5% wage hike in Illinois, more
than the 4.3% average annual gain in hourly earnings nationwide and
more than double the rate of inflation. But are wage gains getting
out of hand? The Clinton administration says they're not, because
companies continue to find ways to work more productively. Still,
some at the federal reserve see the labor shortage preventing businesses
from expanding -- a sign of overheating. And Fed watchers say the
financial crisis in Asia is about the only thing preventing the central
bank from raising interest rates now to cool things off. Ceci Rodgers,
"CNN Financial News," Chicago.