The worst job market in a generation is getting worse.  The unemployment rate in June rose to 9.5% - the highest since the early 80s.  All told, almost 15 million Americans are out of work.

So what's a new grad or a displaced worker to do?  Create your own job.  That’s the advice of serial entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman.  “Now that there aren't jobs - high unemployment and it's just not as safe to be in big corporate America - it's a perfect time to be more innovative, more creative and plot out your own future.”

He should know.  Hoffman was a founding employee of priceline.com before moving to Enable Holdings, the parent company of auction house uBid.com and retailer RedTag.com.

His tips for those looking to be their own boss:

• Don't put your dreams on hold. “Wherever there’s chaos or crisis, there's opportunity.”

• Be a problem solver.  “When there are problems there are more solutions needed”

"Right here, right now, it's happening," says Diane Garnick, investment strategist at Invesco, which has about $400 billion of assets. "Companies are reducing costs by disintermediation," which is a fancy way of saying "they're cutting out the middle man" (and employees.)

Judging by the Nasdaq's outperformance since this March lows, or the endless discussion about the iPhone and smart-phones in general, this is not an undiscovered phenomenon. Just this week, the results and guidance from Oracle vs. those from Nike show the strength of tech, especially relative to other sectors.

But Garnick's point is the trend - this next wave of tech growth and innovation - is just getting started, benefiting businesses, consumers and investors alike...

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If there's any silver lining to the recession, it's the abundance of bargains available for consumers still in a position to spend money.

With its uBid.com auction site and new fixed-price discount site RedTag.com, Enable Holdings is one source of such deals. In the accompanying video, CEO Jeffrey Hoffman discusses some of the recent and current offerings available, including:

• A Samsung 52" HDTV with a retail value of $2000, sold at auction on uBid.com for $1016.
• A 1.1-carat diamond with a retail value of $5300, sold at auction on uBid.com for $1100
• An iPod Touch 8G available on RedTag.com for $175.

Enable Holdings is an inventory liquidator as opposed to a traditional (or traditional online) retailer; Hoffman says business is brisk these days with more retailers facing bankruptcy. The firm's sites offer both new and "recertified" goods sent by retailers and manufacturers when other avenues have been exhausted and they are seeking some return, anything really, for their goods. That's why auctions on uBid.com typically start at $1.

As such, the firm's sites don't have what Hoffman calls "continuity of goods" but "whatever the retail industry [has] shipped to us."

Electronics and jewelry are the most popular items on the site right now but uBid.com recently launched an automotive channel...

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Circuit City, Mervyns and Filene’s Basement; just a few of the many recent retail casualties. If you think it’s bad now, it’s only going to get worse, says Jeffrey Hoffman. In this clip, Hoffman the CEO of Enable Holdings - the parent company of online auction house uBid.com and fixed-price discount retailer) RedTag.com - explains the difficulties facing retailers and manufacturers.

Hoffman thinks many companies didn’t anticipate the size and scope of the recession, leaving them with way too much inventory. The result: his liquidation business is booming. For his clients, it’s a different story.

Recently, Hoffman’s become a popular guy with attorneys and bankers representing companies on the verge of bankruptcy. They turn to him, he says, in hopes of selling their excess merchandise online. He can’t disclose which retailers are in dire straits, but says “there’s a lot more brand names we grew up with that are just not going to make it.”

Of course, this means great deals for consumers, especially in apparel, jewelry and consumer electronics, as Hoffman details in an upcoming segment.

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With more investors stepping off the sidelines and edging back into stocks, a key question is -- where's the growth?

Joe Ransom, a senior portfolio manager at Silvant Capital Management, argues there's plenty of growth left in big tech names including Google, Qualcomm, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle.

One piece of advice from Ransom: Don't just rely on sector plays. Do the homework and sift out individual companies with a competitive edge. Case in point, Apple. Despite this week's sell-off after Steve Jobs failed to appear at their developers' conference, Ransom notes Apple remains attractively valued and a darling among consumers, who continually trade up and expand their family of Apple products.

Silvant, which has about $3.8 billion of assets under management, is long all those names in Ransom's funds, including the RidgeWorth Select Large Cap Growth Fund (STTAX), which is up 12.5% year-to-date. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of the interview, where Ransom discusses his other favorites, including energy.  

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At 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning, Facebook will allow user to register user names and domain names (facebook.com/username) to go with them.

One marketer tells me employees at her firm have been instructed to wait up until midnight Friday so they can quickly register user names for all of the firm's clients before squatters can claim them during the land rush.

This approach may not be necessary.

On Digital Media Law, Jonathan Handel explains how a company can protect its trademark before the land rush commences:

At http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights, there’s a “Preventing the Registration of a Username” form for entering your company name, title, email, trademark, and registration number. (Oddly, there’s no place to enter your own name.) As that last data item suggests, only registered marks are eligible, although I’d recommend that holders of trademark applications in process simply enter the application number instead. Filling in the form will prevent someone else from using your trademark as a user name.

What happens if an infringer registers your trademark before you fill out the form?...

See also:

• The Future of Facebook Usernames Revealed!
• Facebook Misses Anotehr Revenue Opportunity

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Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, has gotten off to a solid start. In the first week since Bing was launched, Microsoft's share of U.S. search rose to 11.1% vs. 9.1% the prior week, according to ComScore.

In addition, Microsoft increased its "average daily penetration among U.S. searchers" to 15.5% for June 2-6 vs. 13.8% for May 26-30, the data provider says.

Bing has been well received and Microsoft has put some hefty marketing dollars behind the launch. Given that, it would be surprising if Bing didn't gain some traction right out of the gate.

The challenge for Microsoft is whether Bing will be able to sustain its initial gains and then grow from there. If only because changing people's habits is hard, catching Google in search seems impossible, and taking substantial share from Yahoo is likely to be difficult as well.

So an even bigger challenge for Microsoft is...

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From The Business Insider, June  8, 2009:

As expected, Apple (AAPL) unveiled a faster iPhone today and cut the current iPhone's price. The new iPhone 3G S will go on sale next Friday, June 19 and will be available for pre-order today. It will cost $199 for a 16 GB unit and $299 for a 32 GB device.

The iPhone 3G will go down to $99 today.

No surprises on the iPhone 3G S's features:

• Faster processor.
• More storage capacity.
• Faster Internet speeds.
• Video recording.
• Better camera.
• Digital compass.
• More battery life.

It'll also support the Nike+ system and voice controls. More to come...

For more coverage, see The Business Insider.

Also, iPhone 3.0 software ships June 17

Apple: 3 million iPhones, iPod Touches sold since March

From paidContent.org, June 5, 2009:

Steve Jobs is coming back. According to the WSJ.com’s sources, Apple’s CEO who is a pancreatic cancer survivor, will return from medical leave this month. But what everyone wants to know, is will he be back at the company’s annual software developers conference on Monday, to possibly debut a new iPhone. Some analysts aren’t holding their breath. According to the WSJ.com’s source, Jobs was “one real sick guy.” Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty said, “We don’t think that’s likely to happen at WWDC.” 

As for a new iPhone, the WSJ’s source told them that Apple is “ready enough” with its latest iPhone to launch it next week, though analysts still believe a mid-July debut is more likely, as the timing will be right for initial iPhone buyers to upgrade. The new version looks similar to the model rolled out last year but has more processing power and the ability to record and edit video. The FT.com is also reporting that Apple will slash the cost of the new iPhone, with analysts speculating it could be priced either at $99 or $149, which would certainly boost sales.

Meanwhile, it looks like even if Jobs returns to Apple, COO Tim Cook will continue to run the daily operations. Jobs absence, say analysts, is “less and less of a key variable” as Apple seems to have survived just fine while he’s been out on medical leave.

More coverage from paidContent.org:

• Yahoo brings more third party aps to its properties
• Five features Bing shouldn't be getting credit for

From The Business Insider, June 3, 2009:

Yesterday we heard that shares of Yahoo (YHOO) still had a call option on the possibility of Microsoft (MSFT) takeout in them.

Well, if you're buying Yahoo, don't do it because of some fantasy about a seach deal, if you believe the company's new, outspoken CEO, Carol Bartz. Her answer on the possibility of a search deal is: No, no, no.

According to headlines crossing the wires from MarketWatch, Bartz told a group in New York that a Microsoft merger would not save on costs (Correction: It appears that particular headline was wrong, and that in fact such a deal would save $500-$700 million, according to Bartz), and that it wouldn't even get DoJ approval (we're not sure about that). She added that Bing wouldn't get anywhere in the search game, except perhaps a small bump. If there are going to be deals, they'll be with Yahoo as the buyer and they'll be small.

We'll update when a full report from Bartz' speech comes in. Shares of Yahoo are off 4.5%.

Update: Dow Jones has a fuller writeup of the presentation at the Bank of America conference

Bartz set a slightly different tone from her comments last week, when she said at the All Thing Digital conference that she would be open to striking a search deal with Microsoft if it offered "boatloads of money."

The Yahoo CEO also dismissed Microsoft's newly revamped search engine, dubbed Bing, as an improvement that will spur temporary interest among users, but do little to alter their long-term search habits.

"It's interesting but not over-the-top interesting," she said. "People will keep the same habits."...

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