Rights groups say that people looking for work need to check whether prospective employers have written protections for LGBT workers and domestic partner benefits.

The Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday released its list of the Best Places to Work.

The group named 260 companies this year that met its standards for their employment policies and practices that include LGBT workers. 

All 260 businesses scored 100% on the HRC Foundation’s 2009 Corporate Equality Index which evaluates non-discrimination policies, benefits, diversity training and other internal resources for LGBT workers, as well as external support for LGBT consumers and job seekers.

The list is broken down into nearly 30 categories, from Advertising and Marketing to Transportation and Travel and is available at the HRC Web site.

“As our nation faces unprecedented economic challenges, people are being forced to make important decisions about their career’s and livelihood,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.  

“Though equal opportunity and benefits are not the only factors that prospective employees should consider, they are vital to ensuring a business values and respects its LGBT workforce.”

Economists this week predicted a net loss of at least 2 million jobs this year- possibly more – even if President Barack Obama’s $825 billion package of increased government spending and tax cuts is enacted. Last year, the economy lost a net 2.6 million jobs, the most since 1945, though the labor force has grown significantly since then.

So far this week, tens of thousands of new layoffs were announced in just two days by some of the biggest names in American business – Pfizer, Caterpillar, Home Depot and GM.

More pink slips, pay freezes and other hits are expected to slam workers in the months ahead as companies desperately look for ways to survive.

Jindal said Wednesday that when the order expires Friday he will not renew it.

“The reason for allowing the order to lapse is that I don’t think it is necessary to create additional special categories or special rights,” Jindal told The New Orleans Advocate newspaper.

“We are firmly and strongly committed to fair treatment of all of our people and certainly don’t condone discrimination in any form,” Jindal said.

The executive order, signed by then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco, bars state agencies and contractors from various sorts of harassment and discrimination by race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin political affiliation or disabilities. It was modeled after a similar anti-discrimination order issued in 1992 by then-Gov. Edwin Edwards.

The governor said that federal law already bans discrimination.  But neither federal nor Louisiana state law bars discrimination against LGBTs in employment.

That Jindal is allowing the order to expire is no surprise. He has fought it since its inception.

When Blanco announced in 2005 she was preparing the order, Jindal, then a member of Congress, joined with Sen. James David Cain and two Republican members of the Legislature to fight the measure.

It nevertheless went into effect the following year.

Jindal was widely been seen as a potential Vice Presidential running mate for John McCain.