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There was a gain of 467,000 U.S. jobs last month despite the Omicron surge. The new figure from the Labor Department is higher than the forecast of 150,000.

In addition, the jobless rate rose from 3.9% in December to 4% in January – with the tally of unemployed people coming in at 6.5 million.

Available jobs numbered 10.9 million in December, according to the latest job openings and labor turnover report (JOLTS). In addition, the number of workers quitting their jobs decreased to 4.3 million in December – following the 4.5 million counted in November.

WorkingNation is always on the hunt for workforce opportunities. See what we found this week.

From Alabama: WBRC reports West Alabama Works is setting up a portal on its website to help teens find employment or job training.

From Illinois: Our Quad Cities reports highway construction apprenticeships are being offered by Black Hawk College in Moline.

From Pennsylvania: My ChesCo reports the U.S. Postal Service is hosting a number of job fairs in a number of cities around the state.

From Puerto Rico: Global Press Journal reports women in Puerto Rico are fighting to crack entry into the male-dominated solar industry via training programs like the one at Puerto Rico National Model Forest.

From Utah: The Daily Utah Chronicle reports the University of Utah is developing a fund to help students with unpaid internships keep up with their living expenses.

Did you miss our previous Back to Work stories from around the country? Catch up here.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.