Google (GOOG), one of the nation’s great growth engines for employment, has essentially stopped hiring for the last month, according to several executives at the company. A spokesperson at the company says there has been no freeze on hiring, but several executives I have spoken with who have hiring responsibility said it was made clear to them one month ago they were to make no new hires, including at the secretarial level and they were directed to fill all vacancies with internal candidates. In effect, they term it an unofficial hiring freeze.

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Hard to know what to get excited about regarding David Faber’s report on CNBC this morning alleging that Sprint Nextel (S) is in talks with various parties that are “not informal”–in Faber’s words–to sell its struggling Nextel unit. Faber says private equity funds (remember them?) “aligned with telecom” are among interested parties, as is the Nextel International affiliate, better known as NII Holdings (NIHD).

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