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The social, economic and political achievements of women will be in the spotlight for International Women’s Day on 8 March.

This year’s theme is pledge for parity, inspired by the World Economic Forum’s predictions that, at the current pace, the world will not close the global gender gap for another 117 years.

Global events are planned to celebrate women’s achievements while calling for faster progress on equality. In Nigeria, people are taking to the streets of Lagos to walk against gender-based violence, while in India female sherpas will lead tours of their favourite parts of Mumbai. London is hosting the Women of the World festival. READ MORE AT THE GUARDIAN

The U.S. labor market has healed substantially since the unemployment rate spiked to double digits following the financial crisis. Still, for many different demographic segments, progress in finding jobs has been slow in coming.

A look under the hood of February's better-than-expected job gains, however, shows this to be changing: The labor market's strength is broadening to include a group that has historically lagged the national average.

The unemployment rate among Hispanics or Latinos has declined by almost a full percentage point so far in 2016, to 5.4 percent, its lowest level since March 2007. This is the best two-month drop since the start of 2011, with February's decline of 0.5 percentage points marking the most rapid one-month improvement since April 2014. READ MORE AT BLOOMBERG BUSINESS

Read biographies of feature guests for the 2016 International Women's Day Networking Celebration taking place Tuesday, March 08 at Parliament Chicago. 

Deisy Garcia, Global Mobility Manager, Walgreens

Deisy is a Global Mobility Manager for Walgreens Boots Alliance. As a Global Mobility Manager, Deisy partners with transferees, vendors and the Business to ensure a smooth transition and assignment for the employees. Deisy brings over 15 years of Human Resources experience. Her professional background includes filling roles in Global Mobility, Domestic Relocation, Benefits, Leave of Absence Management, and general HR.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication from DePaul University and an MBA from University of Phoenix in Schaumburg. Deisy is a Certified Global Mobility Specialist (GMS). Giving back to the community is important to Deisy. She currently serves on the Mujeres de HACE Alumnae Board as the Treasurer with the goal to continuously contribute to women’s development. Deisy has also lead several fundraising and volunteer recruitment events for Junior Achievement and has taught financial literacy classes to school aged children.
We can’t forget to mention Deisy’s passion for dogs, travel and culture.

Rosemary Magaña, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor at Northwestern University
Rosemary received her master’s degree in clinical psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She currently works as a psychotherapist at Northwestern University’s Counseling and Psychological Services providing clinical services to students in additions to, serving as liaison to Multicultural Student Affairs staff and providing outreach to Latino/a students. Rosemary is passionate about addressing the stigma surrounding mental health issues, as well as, advocating for the rights and needs of those who are survivors of sexual assault and/or domestic violence. Rosemary currently serves as one of the co-chairs for the Young Professional Advisory Council, whose members serve as ambassadors for Mujeres Latinas en Accion, supporting MLEA’s work in empowering Latina woman.

Roxanne Nava, Chief Small Business Officer, City of Chicago Small Business Center

As Chief Small Business Officer, Roxanne advocates for small business owners and entrepreneurs and ensure policies and procedures are implemented in a way that works for small business. Under her leadership the City has developed Small Business Opportunity Centers to help businesses access capital, Neighborhood Business Development Centers to provide local business counseling, and other programs to support neighborhood vitality.

Celena Roldán Moreno, CEO, American Red Cross of Chicago and Northern Illinois
Celena Roldán is the incoming CEO of the American Red Cross for Chicago and Northern Illinois. This chapter of the Red Cross responds to 1,200 disasters every year and teaches more than a quarter million people in Chicagoland each year health, safety and disaster preparedness skills. Prior to joining Red Cross, Roldán was associated with Erie Neighborhood House which was founded in 1870 to strengthen low-income, primarily Latino families through skill-building, access to critical resources, advocacy and collaborative action. She began her tenure at Erie in 2001 as the Social Worker and Disabilities Coordinator and then became Director of Child Care in 2006 before taking on the role of Executive Director in 2010.

Roldán holds a Master's degree in Early Childhood Administration from National Louis University, as well as Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Alfonso Gutiérrez, News Anchor, Telemundo Chicago/WSNS
Alfonso Gutiérrez works as a news anchor for Noticiero Telemundo Chicago, which airs Monday through Friday at 4:30 PM, 5:00 PM, and 10:00 PM on Telemundo Chicago/WSNS, the local station which serves the Spanish speaking community of Chicago.

As part of Noticiero Telemundo Chicago, Gutiérrez reports the latest and most important news for Chicago area viewers. Gutiérrez first joined Telemundo Chicago in 2003, when he worked in the creative services department as an intern.

Before joining Telemundo Chicago as a full time anchor, Gutiérrez worked as a reporter and morning segment presenter at Telemundo 25 Denver, KDEN in 2006. Gutiérrez also worked as producer and host of a radio show at 89.3 FM-WHFR in Detroit, Michigan, which proved to be a challenge as it was the only Spanish-language radio show in a predominantly Anglo-Saxon community. These early beginnings were combined with Telecommunications studies at Henry Ford College in Michigan.

Gutiérrez has received two Emmy Awards for his journalistic work in a series of special investigations for Telemundo Chicago. He has been nominated an additional 6 times to the Emmy for his work as reporter and producer. Gutiérrez received his Bachelor’s degree in Video and Film Production from Columbia College Chicago.
Originally from Jalisco, Mexico, Gutiérrez advocates for the success of young students, inspiring them to become future leaders. For several years, Gutiérrez has supported Fundación Necahual, whose mission is to empower children and young adults who have been in vulnerable situations and need cultural and education resources.
To learn more about Alfonso Gutiérrez, please visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/alfonso.telemundo and follow him on Twitter @alfonsoreporta.

 Time is running out to register. The 2016 International Women's Day Networking Celebration is this Tuesday. Don't miss out! 

The end of midterms marks the beginning of spring break, which means summer is a little more than eight weeks away. Many students have secured their summer internships or jobs, and those who are graduating will soon begin the first steps of their full time careers.

Not sure if you’re heading in the right direction? According to Tory Nair, Director of Career Services, if you’re seeking a summer or fall internship, you should be sending out resumes and trying to secure a position before summer break. If you’re graduating, you also should be starting your job search because it can take between six to eight months to secure full-time employment. READ MORE AT AU TODAY

There may be no single demographic more important for media buyers and planners to understand than Hispanic Millennials.

There’s never been a group quite like them, and they will wield outsized influence on advertising over the next few years because of that uniqueness and the vast size of this group.

There are almost 23 million Hispanic Millennials, representing 27 percent of Americans 18-34, according to the latest Census data. A majority of them between the ages 18-29 were born in the United States, but they’re very conscious of maintaining connections to their heritage.

Nearly half still identify themselves as coming from their parents’ home country.

They’re extremely tech-focused, adopting new gadgets faster than nearly any other group. They are more likely than the average Millennial to still live at home, and they’re more integrated in their families and communities than their non-Hispanic cohorts.

That may sound like a lot of contradictions. Yet Hispanic Millennials are not contradictory but rather multi-layered, and understanding that can help to reach them through advertising.

Here’s a portrait of the Hispanic Millennials and their media habits, based on research and statistics. READ MORE AT MEDIALIFE

According to data from the Economic Policy Institute, only 26% of Hispanic families had savings in a retirement plan like a 401(k) or IRA, in 2013. Meanwhile, 65% of white families and 41% of black families and 58% of Asian families and those of other races had savings in such accounts.

Part of the reason for this gap is that many Hispanics, particularly those that work in low wage jobs, don't have access to retirement plans, said Monique Morrissey, an economist at the EPI who analyzed data from the Federal Reserve for the report.

Immigrant Hispanic workers, for example, are often more likely to be undocumented and therefore working off the books or work in low wage jobs that don't offer access to retirement accounts, Morrissey said. Native-born Hispanics, however, are more likely to have access to and participate in retirement accounts at rates closer to those of African-Americans, Morrissey said. READ MORE AT CNN MONEY

According to the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 2015 DATOS report there are more than three million Hispanic-owned firms in the U.S. with an aggregate revenue of $517.4 billion and Hispanic female firms are growing at a rate of 88 percent.

In Arizona, the number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew 70 percent from 2007 to 2012 with the majority of businesses being female-owned, according to the report.

“Phoenix is a hot place to be. There are advantages to Hispanics in Arizona, including great universities, a favorable tax rate and we don’t have a lot of the infrastructure challenges. While we’re still a new market, it’s going to be an appealing place to work as we build [our ecosystem],” Gonzalo A. de la Melena Jr., president and CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said. READ MORE AT TECH.CO

It’s 2016, but the issue of workplace diversity is still unresolved – far from it. The World Economic Forum predicts that at current rates, the gender gap won’t close until 2133.

Balance not just in gender, but other aspects including race and sexuality is important to developing thriving societies and more competitive human capital. That’s why it’s really important not to neglect this issue and let it slide.

The technology industry has an especially pronounced problem with diversity. Most U.S. venture funded tech company founders are male, but the ratio of female founders is slowly rising. Across the major tech companies including Apple AAPL +0.66%, Google GOOGL -0.19% and Facebook FB -0.36%, women hold less than 24% of jobs. READ MORE AT FORBES

America's Latino entrepreneurs are lying in wait -- sitting on a potential $1.4 trillion in revenue boost to the economy. But a series of financial and cultural hurdles are blocking their progress.

That's the finding of a recent report by the Stanford Graduate School of Business that surveyed roughly 1,800 businesses owned by Latinos.

Latino entrepreneurs are extremely active. Latinos opened 86% of all the new businesses created in the U.S. between 2007 and 2012, according to Remy Arteaga, the lead researcher. But they lagged non-Latino businesses in how much revenue they brought in -- $155,806 in 2012 versus $573,209, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.

"When you start looking at that difference, you realize how much money is being left on the table," said Jerry Porras, professor of organizational behavior and change at Stanford's business school.

The biggest issue? A lack of access to capital. READ MORE AT CNN MONEY

A baker recently shared her prize-winning cake recipe. Not surprisingly, it contained quite a few ingredients that needed to be accurately measured and combined in a very specific order. When you don't follow the recipe, unfortunate results will likely ensue.

The same thing goes for job searching. It's about combining the proper amount of several ingredients, in the correct order, over a period of time to receive that most delicious job offer.

1. Self-assessment. Take time at the beginning, and along your job search journey, to not only focus on your aspirations, but what is reasonable. What have the challenges you've met so far in your career prepared you to take on next? Do you want any position, or are you seeking a job that will better position you to do what you really want to do when you begin your next job search? And lastly, think about what role someone would be seeking to fill, see your resume and say, "That's it. I've got to talk with that person."

2. Resume. Despite all the buzz about LinkedIn, video resumes and other nontraditional ways to showcase your background, a well-composed resume is still a requirement for the vast majority of job searches. Make certain that it is easy for employers to see what challenges you've faced in your current and prior roles, what you've done to step up to the plate and meet them, and what your actual results have been. READ MORE AT U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT

Ask for informational interviews

You have likely heard this phrase multiple times: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” (In other words, successful people network.) This is great advice for someone with years of experience, but what do you do if you are just entering the working world? Luckily, networking may be easier than you think:

1. Focus your efforts—but not too narrowly

What career field do you hope to enter? Are you searching for a job, an internship, or information only?

As you build your network, think of your intentions as seeds that you are planting—if you plant enough seeds, some will surely take root and grow. One contact may not be able to help you directly, but he or she may know someone who can, or that person may mention you to his or her own network. This is the power of networking. You may only know 20 people, but if each of those people knows 20 contacts in turn, you can now reach 400 individuals. READ MORE AT TIME

February is American Heart Month. Heart disease continues to be the No. 1 killer of Hispanic women in the U.S. In fact, more women die of heart disease than all forms of cancer combined. Unfortunately, the killer is not as easy to see, and may be difficult to identify for Latinas and their families.

¡Help break the barrier of heart disease by making heart healthy choices for you and your family!

Latina women play a very important role in the family. They are the gatekeepers for their families’ well-being and health and often put the needs of others before their own. Let’s empower women to take care of their health first so they can be there for their loved ones.

As women, they are at greater risk of heart disease and stroke. Currently, some eight million women in the U.S. are living with heart disease, yet only one in six women believe that heart disease is her greatest health threat. READ MORE AT HOLA ARKANSAS

In the past decade, Luis and Claudia Velez have opened or bought five Little Caesar's Pizza restaurants in Southwest Florida, started a business center in Golden Gate City, and partnered with a Miami company to provide impact glass windows, doors and walls in Collier County.

Luis Velez and his wife, both from Colombia, say they started the first Little Caesar's restaurant because they thought it was a good opportunity. After the first restaurant proved profitable, the others soon followed.

Although their companies require a lot of work and responsibility, they say it's worth it. READ MORE AT NAPLES DAILY NEWS

The 2016 presidential election cycle has already been going on for what feels like two thousand and sixteen years, but scarcely a moment has been spent with the lens and microphone on one of America's most important demographics, young Hispanics.

A recent Pew Poll found that Millennials make up nearly half of all Latino eligible voters. Since the last presidential election, over 3 million Hispanics reached the voting age. In addition, over a million foreign-born Hispanics became naturalized citizens and will be able to vote this year.

The entire 2016 election will boil down to which party does a better job courting Hispanics, and whether turnout of Millennials "trumps" previous years. READ MORE AT HUFFINGTONPOST

With two presidential candidates of Hispanic heritage, one of whom admitted to shortcomings when it comes to fluency in Spanish, the question has arisen about the extent to which skill level in the language is a fair measure of just how Hispanic somebody really is.

In a recent debate, Sen. Marco Rubio made reference to Sen. Ted Cruz’s lack of Spanish-speaking skills, which prompted the Texan to utter a few words in Español.

Before he dropped out of the race after the South Carolina debate on Saturday, Jeb Bush’s supporters likes to say that he is more Latino, in some ways, than either Cruz or Rubio because, among other things, he speaks Spanish fluently.

A new Pew Research report says that most Latinos surveyed say that speaking Spanish should not be tied to qualifying as a Latino. READ MORE AT FOX NEWS LATINO

Building on the success of its campaign Hispanics in Nursing launched in 2015, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) and Hispanic Communications Network-La Red Hispana announced the second phase of a national bilingual campaign to increase diversity in nursing. This year's campaign includes the launch of public service-style radio messages featuring true stories and personal experiences of 21 real-life nursing students who seek to inspire Hispanic students to seriously consider the possibility of pursuing a nursing career. "Our 21 NAHN role models took time while in nursing school to volunteer and share their personal stories of challenges and solutions, for which we are grateful" said Angie Millan, DNP, RN, FAAN, Project Director of the grant. "NAHN is delighted to partner with HCN for a second year to feature these nursing students in the role model radio and video interviews."

"Hispanics in Nursing was designed to address the educational and professional disparities in the healthcare field, increasing the exposure of successful Hispanic role models in the nursing profession", said NAHN President, Daniel M. Suarez, MA, RN. READ MORE AT PRNEWSWIRE

Nearly two years after the nation’s largest tech companies started to publish their employee diversity numbers for the first time, Latino insiders in Silicon Valley – America's tech hub – say the industry is not doing enough to ensure its workforce is diverse.

For years, the tech industry guarded its diversity numbers, until public pressure forced companies to reveal what many suspected: a dismal reality in which few women, African-Americans and Hispanics worked in jobs, and especially in leadership roles, in the nation’s most desirable tech companies.

Of the 241,804 employees who work among the nation’s leading tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Twitter, just 4 percent are Hispanic. Latinos comprise an even smaller percentage of those in leadership roles, those holding a director-level position or above, according to the latest data compiled by the Wall Street Journal. READ MORE AT FOX NEWS LATINO

One of the biggest discoveries in science was announced Thursday: the detection of gravitational waves from the collision of two black holes, a discovery that confirms many of Albert Einstein's theories about the universe.

At the forefront of this exciting discovery are Gabriela González and France A. Córdova.

"This is the first of many discoveries," said Dr. González in an interview with NBC Latino. "Now that we know for a fact that these black hole binary systems are out there, and now that we know we have detectors that work right now, these detectors are going to get better. Of course we will find more proof." READ MORE AT NBC NEWS

The Hispanic population in Idaho is booming and will continue to be a greater percentage of the population in coming years.

That's the conclusion of a new report by the University of Idaho and McClure Center for Public Policy Research.

Currently Hispanics make up 13 % of Idaho's population.70 % were born in the U.S and 79% are U.S. Citizens.

Juan Alvarez, the chairman of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs says that's significant.

“Well, it tells you times have changed," Alvarez said. " In the past, a lot of the Hispanic population was viewed as a migrant population. That is no longer the case. They are very stable. Their children are staying put. Their children are going to school.” READ MORE AT ABC 8 NEWS

The new digital and mobile healthcare program is aimed at a U.S. audience of 54 million Hispanic healthcare users.

A big employee benefits consulting firm and a digital and mobile healthcare technology startup have big mobile plans in mind to help serve Hispanic consumers in the United States.

Mercer LLC, a business unit of risk, insurance and professional services firm Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., and ConsejoSano, a digital health platform developer, have launched a mobile telehealth initiative aimed at Hispanics.

Under the terms of the agreement, Mercer will market ConsejoSano’s subscription-based telehealth platform to its base of U.S. employers with Hispanic employees and also market to the approximately 54 million U.S. Hispanic healthcare users, including 22 million working adults. READ MORE AT MOBILE STRATEGIES 360