• Lost without a link

Paper CVs are passé — recruiters want evidence that prospective employees are comfortable in a digital world, BusinessWeek (July 6) reports.

Having a profile on LinkedIn, the professional networking site, is essential; a blog is a bonus. Recruiters are also using social media websites such as LinkedIn to recruit “passive” candidates and save money. Monster’s share of job listings has fallen, while one recruiter described LinkedIn as a “goldmine” of untapped talent. Applicants should be wary of using cute or joint husband and wife e-mail addresses in their professional profiles.

• Overtime on the rise

Does an extra hour a day keep redundancy away? People are regularly working six-day weeks in order to keep their jobs, according to a survey of 4,000 people by BT Business.

The survey found that overtime had become the norm for almost 50 per cent of employees since the recession began. Men are more likely to work overtime, with 66 per cent working more than 48 hours per week. The main reasons given were “seeing colleagues being made redundant” and companies pushing them to give better customer service. Sadly, 37 per cent of workers also said that there was less laughter in the workplace than a year ago.

• Rising salaries

Bonuses may still be outlawed in all but the boldest financial institutions, but average pay for senior executives has risen from £70,000 to £74,000 in the past six months, according to Experteer, an executive job website. Senior salaries in financial services and the public sector rose by 6 per cent in the past six months and by 7 per cent in consulting, it found. IT executives were less fortunate, with salaries falling by 4 per cent.

• Work until you are 79?

Retirement — what retirement? Forty per cent of women and 32 per cent of men do not have a pension, a survey by YouGov found. This is a particular concern in the third (voluntary) sector, where more than two thirds of the workforce is female. More than one in four workers aged between 25 and 44 do not have any provisions in place for retirement and 31 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 believed that they would need to work until they were 70 to 79. The survey was for Foster Denovo, an employee benefits adviser.

• PA of the Year

The winner of the The Times Crème and Hays Secretarial PA of the Year 2009 competition is Anuszka Elland, PA to Kate Davies, an assistant director of the NHS for Nottinghamshire County. Ms Elland said: “PAs contribute greatly to an organisation and their efforts need to be recognised.” She beat competition from around the world to win a trip to Monte Carlo — before returning to the grindstone.

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