Call it compassionate capitalism or a desire to do good in these darkening times, but one US manager has placed a "for hire" ad online touting his developers' skills just one day after being forced to axe them.

Employers must curb their demands for fixed amounts of experience from job applicants to avoid falling foul of discrimination legislation, an employment law specialist has warned.

MySpace will open up to third party developers within the next few months.

Facebook opened up its APIs in May this year and has been rewarded with a flood of applications written by third parties for the site.

It doesn't come with quite the astounding salary Elan recruitment agency was offering earlier this week to one lucky senior server technical analyst, but any project engineer currently at a loose end could do worse than check out this vacancy down at Reed:

Nice. Sadly, the post is only for a month, but we're sure that a temporary stay in the finest hotel West Yorkshire has to offer while jetting off to the Seychelles for the weekend will make a nice change from scouring the job ads. ®

Apple has begun recruiting staff to run its first Australian Apple Store, currently being kitted out in Sydney's central George Street. It's also looking for workers for new stores in the UK in Exeter, Milton Keynes, Glasgow, Reading and Brighton.

Book review Smart and gets things done is a pretty apt description of the kind of people we want to recruit into our development teams.

Unfortunately, this is no easy matter. And, given the consequences of a wrong choice for either party, it can often be a pretty hit and miss affair.

Joel Spolsky, of VBA and Joel On Software fame, has put together this slim little volume that aims to let us all into the secret of recruiting the best of the best of the best. Oh, and along the way we get to learn a lot about Joel, his company, and what a great place it is to work in...

Up to 300 UK staff at outsourcing colossus CSC face the sack on Monday, as the firm ramps up a programme of brutal cutbacks.

Sources say compulsory redundancy notices, part of a company-wide restructuring, will be handed out across Regional and Global Operations, Global Solutions & Technology, Global Security Services, and Business Management divisions.

The man behind an UK-based online employment agency has been found guilty of ripping off workers and ordered to pay £20,000. Adrian Farmer's lawyers say he may have to sell his house to pay the penalties.

Farmer was found guilty of charging workers £124 each for falsely claiming that he was able to find them work abroad. He did this while banned from operating an employment agency. He was banned in 2003 for 10 years.

The case began with an investigation by the Employment Agency, a part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). A Welsh Magistrates' Court found him guilty last year of operating the recruitment website while banned by the DTI.

Farmer was found guilty of breaking the Employment Agencies Act, but the DTI requested that sentencing be taken out the hands of the Magistrates Court and carried out by Swansea Crown Court.

The DTI said that the Crown Court should consider whether or not to apply the sanctions of the Proceeds of Crime Act. The Court said that Farmer had benefited from the proceeds of crime, and ordered that £20,387.86 be confiscated from Farmer as the proceeds of crime.

The Court also imposed a fine of £2,500 in punishment for operating an employment agency while barred from doing so. Compensation will be paid to two workers from the confiscated funds.

The Government said that its action was part of a campaign to tackle rogue agencies. "The Government is committed to cracking down on these agents, we have launched a consultation on a package of measures to protect vulnerable agency workers and we are working to ensure that enforcement is targeted where there is risk," said Jim Fitzpatrick, Employment Relations Minister.

"This prosecution underlines our message to rogue agents that we will not hesitate to act against any agency that wrongly and wilfully ignores the law or rips off workers," said Fitzpatrick. "It is essential that employment agencies comply with the legislation and the DTI will continue to take whatever action is necessary, including prosecution and prohibition, to protect workers against these illegal practices."

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