Annual free job-search advice days planned

U.S. executive placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said it would provide free job-search counseling by telephone for two days at the end of the year. "As the job market continues to recover at a snail's pace and millions of Americans struggle to overcome long-term unemployment," the company plans to pull its counselors off of their regular duties on December 27-28 through the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and put them on the phones for the company's 27th annual national job-search call-in day. Information on the free phone-in counseling for job seekers can be found at the company's Web site at www.challengergray.com. The telephone number for the two-day event is 312-422-5010. "The recovery is far from complete. There are still more than 12.2 million Americans who are unemployed," said John Challenger, chief executive officer of the company. "Another 6 1/2 million have stopped actively seeking employment but still want a job and more than 8 million are working part-time jobs because full-time ones are unavailable. "We try to provide callers with some strategies that will increase the odds of them being in the best position when job openings do materialize."