Free Republic

Hong Kong - a beacon of hope to the American worker? (photo: Randal Rayborn) The pundits told us the great transition from the Industrial Age to Information Age would be easy. Nothing like the wrenching social dislocations of the 1800’s, when people left behind the grinding poverty of rural agrarian life to earn better wages laboring in urban factories. This time, the transition would require nothing more difficult than a bit of retraining. Add a few computer skills to your resume, those pundits assured us, and all the golden rewards of the new Age would rain down upon you....

Obama and the Dems credit the recent better job market to the Stimulus bill, but defend the-still-week job market by saying that jobs are a “lagging indicator,” it lags the rest of the economy when it comes to improvements, therefore the Stimulus does not yet fully reflect in the job market. The Problem is this: February, the month the stimulus was signed and before any stimulus money was dished out, the economy lost 60,000 jobs less than in January, and in March the economy lost even less jobs than in February. If the “logging indicator” excuse is true, why did...

Help wanted: pharmacists, engineers and nurses. Believe it or not, even some banks are hiring, at least for their technology teams. While the recession has claimed 4.4 million jobs, the economy has created others, many of them for highly trained and specialized professionals. More than 2 million jobs openings now exist across a range of industries, according to government data. Job seekers beware, though. An average of nearly five people are competing for each opening. That's up sharply from a ratio of less than 2-to-1 in December 2007, when the recession was just starting and nearly 4 million openings existed....

Unemployment figures keep rising and everyone is wondering what the Democrats are going to do about it. Even though the Democrats who caused the housing crisis via the CRA are mostly at fault. Republicans need to stick together and fight these terrible plans. We also need to hope that Obama will take advise from Republicans on an alternative, our jobs depend on it.

U.S. joblessness is at its worst level in decades, and further deterioration is in the cards. The Labor Department reported Friday that 598,000 private sector jobs were lost in January, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.6%, up from 7.2% in December. (See "U.S. Jobs Hemorrhage In '08.") Economists had expected only 540,000 jobs would be eliminated, with an unemployment rate to 7.5%. The amount of Americans out of work will probably grow. The labor market lags behind economic output, and with the U.S. economy widely expected to contract in the first half of the year, the unemployment rate could reach...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton on Friday stood behind his offer to trade "lazy Missourians" for hardworking Mexican citizens. Jetton, a Republican from Marble Hill, first made the suggestion earlier this month at a Republican Party gathering in Springfield. He repeated it Thursday when asked about it at The Associated Press and Missouri Press Association Day at the Capitol. "I think there are some lazy Missourians in this state who really don't want to work, and I think there's a lot of hardworking Mexicans who would love to come up here and make a little money...

BILOXI, Mississippi (Reuters) - Officials from the Federal Reserve on Saturday warned of dangers from a rising tide of trade disputes and the harmful impact on what one otherwise termed a "resilient" United States economy. Three regional Fed presidents steered clear of current economic or monetary policy topics at a panel discussion on the southern U.S. economy at the Southern Governors' Association conference. The presidents of the St. Louis, Dallas and Atlanta Feds, respectively, mostly focused on the dangers of protectionism and the need for an educated and flexible work force to cope with rising foreign competition. The governors convened...

Chinese students who have gone to Russia have a bright career future due to China-Russia relations. China's 15,000 some students in Russia are the largest group of any Asian nation. And all of them have or will have jobs whether they stay on in Russia or ...

Like many other baseball fans, Joe Kosa, 28, is spending his Sunday glued to a TV. But relaxed he's not. Instead, the ESPN (NYSE:DIS - News) production assistant is stationed in front of dozens of flat-screen TVs tuned to global sporting events at the headquarters of the Disney-owned network. He's furiously jotting down notes to weave into a storyline that will be read in 60 seconds flat on tonight's 6 p.m. SportsCenter broadcast. With the San Diego Padres leading the Chicago Cubs 9-0, the outcome is hardly in doubt, and writing the highlights should be easy. Then, Clay Hensley, who...

My husband jokes that I should have been an electrician. In this age of outsourcing and job insecurity, the trades seem to us to be the best professions of the future. To be sure, most aren't glamorous and are often physically demanding. But a number seem to have financial security and stability, and their job portability doesn't hurt, either. Many of us white-collar employees don't get to choose where we will live; we must go wherever our employer requires us. Many folks in the trades can command a good income, choose their own hours, and put down roots in a...

Travel Weekly Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The bubble will burst this year for travel companies outsourcing call centres to India, recruitment chiefs have predicted. Problems with language, customer service and call handling are forcing companies to think again about using cheap labour for activities such as sales calls. AA Appointments managing director John Tolmie said: "It makes sense to have back office and ticketing in India if you want low skills and the numbers, but the British public are put off by people trying to sell them something from overseas. You do not get the levels of service you expect....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. job market sprung back last month from a hurricane-induced slowdown as employers added 215,000 workers to their payrolls, according to a government report on Friday that hewed close to expectations in financial markets. In its monthly report on employment, the Labor Department also said the unemployment rate held steady in November at 5 percent, as expected.

Dan Gillespie never thought he'd have to look so hard for work. When the Seattle-area resident left the Air Force in 1980, he earned a computer science degree and enjoyed 20 years of steady work. He saved enough money to buy his wife's childhood home last year. Three months later, he was laid off. Gillespie, 53, hasn't found a job since. Even the corner store won't hire him. He and his wife sold the house last month. "The computer jobs are gone," he said. "So what's next? We can't all move into gene splicing." Long-term unemployment, defined as joblessness for...

The recovery from the recession of 2001 is often described as "jobless." But this is not entirely correct. My analysis of Census Bureau data shows that between March 2000 and 2004, the number of adults working in United States actually increased. What's interesting, however, is that all the net growth in jobs went to immigrant workers. In fact, while the number of unemployed adult native-born workers increased by 2.3 million over this time, the number of employed immigrants rose by 2.3 million. Significantly, about half the growth in immigrant employment was from illegal immigration. ...

Q&A: Joe RichTitle: Executive vice president Company: Clark Consulting, Marlboro, Mass. What he does: Having just surveyed 37 U.S. IT companies about their college recruiting plans, Rich is lukewarm at best in his optimism about new IT graduates' job prospects in the U.S. high-tech sector. The main reason: Graduate hiring by U.S. high-tech companies this year increased by a mere 1.6% over 2003. What's more, although the total number of new college graduates has increased, most U.S. high-tech companies hired fewer college graduates this year than in 2003. What is the near-term IT employment forecast for recent university graduates? Hiring...

..."This is definitely a transitional year," said Andrea Koncz, a NACE spokesperson. NACE releases its "Salary Survey" quarterly, with the final report for the 2003-2004 recruiting year due in September. Engineering majors are seeing the most cash, led by gains from chemical engineering graduates who now earn $52,819 a year, up 1.9 percent from a year earlier. Computer engineering graduates are following closely behind with $51,572, but that figure represents a 0.3 percent decrease from last year. Those graduating with a degree in computer science are seeing heartier increases. According to NACE, information sciences and systems graduates earn $43,053 a...

Survey: 57% who lost full-time jobs 2001-2003 and found full-time work again are earning less. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Judging from the latest government data, more than 50 percent of workers who lost or left full-time work between 2001 and 2003 and were lucky enough to have found another full-time job by this year were earning less than they used to. From January 2001 through December 2003, 5.3 million long-tenured workers were displaced from full-time or part-time jobs they had held at least three years, according to a new report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics....

A new set of figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show HIGHER-paying jobs growing faster. A FactCheck.org exclusive. (But there's evidence on both sides). Now that the economy is growing and creating new jobs, John Kerry has been saying that the quality of those jobs is "much lower" than the quality of jobs that have been lost. A recent ad by some Kerry allies even shows a middle-aged man reporting for his new job wearing a paper hat at a seedy-looking burger joint. Well, hold on -- there's strong new evidence to the contrary. A new set of numbers...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. jobless claims fell to a nearly four-year low, the government said on Thursday, but the report was skewed by seasonal factors while weak June sales at top retailers may bode ill for consumer spending. First-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits plunged 39,000 to 310,000 last week, the Labor Department said. It was the lowest level for claims since 302,000 in the week ended Oct. 8, 2000. A Labor Department official said the seasonal adjustment method used to calculate the data had anticipated a surge in claims for automakers' annual summer maintenance closures, but that rise...

WASHINGTON DC - Numbers out today continue to point to the evidence that America is enduring one of the strongest economies it has known in the past 20 years. According to Bloomberg, "The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 39,000 last week to 310,000, the lowest since October 2000, the government said, adding that the numbers may be distorted because of difficulties adjusting for seasonal shutdowns at auto plants. Last week's decrease was the biggest since the week that ended Dec. 8, 2001, the Labor Department said in Washington. The four-week moving average of...

How Good Are the New Jobs? by Tim Kane, Ph.D. Backgrounder #1773 June 30, 2004 Economic pessimists have changed their tune. After years of trumpeting a "jobless recovery," the skeptics are admitting that America is in the midst of a jobs boom, with 1.4 million new jobs over nine straight months of payroll growth. Now the pessimists insist that the new jobs are no good. But if the jobs being created are not any good, what is? Since January 2001, American incomes have risen by 7.5 percent, wages have risen by 2.4 percent, and the government projects 21 million good...

U.S. job openings dip in May, new hires fall 5.1% (Reuters) — Fewer U.S. jobs were open in May than the month before and the number of new hires fell 5.1 percent, the Labor Department said Wednesday. However, for the 13th straight month, new hires exceeded the number of people who quit or lost their jobs. Job openings as of the last day of May stood at 3.104 million, down 1 percent from 3.135 million in April, as manufacturing jobs fell and those in major industries remained unchanged.

Just watching Fox - Hannity and Colmes, our esteemed Commerce Secretary is hyping figues about the job market. The figures show strong growth and sinking unemployment but there is a hidden problem, he's qulifying the figures with the following -- more Americans working today than at any other point in History.

NEW YORK - After 20 months of looking for work and sending out hundreds of résumés, Jeffrey Schwab has given up trying to find another job as a draftsman. He's now taken early Social Security and is considering whether to sell his Bellingham, Wash., home to move to something smaller. "From what I can tell, there's not much to look for," says Mr. Schwab, who has 35 years of pipeline-design experience. "I am standing around with nothing to do." Even though the economy has created 1.2 million jobs since January, some 265,000 people have dropped out of the job hunt...

On television screens across Ohio this week, a dejected middle-aged worker will slip on a white paper cap and prepare to flip burgers as an announcer intones, "After a year, you finally land another job. And you wonder, is this what you worked your whole life for?" advertisement The MoveOn.org political ad, and a furious counteroffensive by President Bush's reelection campaign, are crystallizing a burgeoning election-year debate over the quality of jobs being added to the nation's payrolls. One key measure is wages. MoveOn intends the humble burger flipper to play on worker anxiety about the loss of relatively high-paying...

Survey finds employers gearing up to add jobs NEW YORK - U.S. companies are gearing up to create jobs at rates not seen since the height of the 1990s boom, a survey released Tuesday showed, adding to evidence that job growth will keep the U.S. economic recovery rolling. Following two months of strong government payroll reports, the survey is a boon to President George W. Bush in the run-up to elections and will likely confirm expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates at the end of June as it moves to beat off emerging inflation. Thirty percent...

Hot summer for job seekers Survey finds 3Q hiring plans to keep pace with those of the second quarter; outlook is best in West. June 15, 2004: 12:06 AM EDT NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - From July through September, the pace of hiring in the United States is projected to be as strong as it is in the second quarter. That's the finding of a survey of 16,000 U.S. employers released Tuesday by Milwaukee-based temporary staffing company Manpower Inc. "In our second quarter survey, U.S. employers reported the strongest employment outlook since early 2001. The fact that employers expect to hire...

<p>U.S. Employers Plan More Hiring in Third Quarter, Manpower Says June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Thirty percent of U.S. employers plan to add workers in the third quarter, the most since the last three months of 2000, when the recession ended, according to a survey released by Manpower Inc.</p>

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies are gearing up to create jobs at rates not seen since the height of the 1990s boom, a survey released on Tuesday showed, adding to evidence that job growth will keep the U.S. economic recovery rolling. Following two months of strong government payroll reports, the survey is a boon to President Bush in the run-up to elections and will likely confirm expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise U.S. interest rates at the end of June as it moves to beat off emerging inflation. Thirty percent of polled U.S. employers plan to add to...

June 5, 2004 -- The American economy has created nearly 1 million new jobs in only three months — and economists predict that the pace is likely to continue in the coming months. "The labor market recovery (that) people have been pining for is finally here," declared Ian Morris, economist at HSBC. "It's not great news for interest rates or bonds, but for everyone else, well it's time to break out the Champagne," said a Treasury bond trader. Indeed, the Labor Department's announcement early yesterday that another 248,000 non-farm jobs were created in May sparked a stock market rally that...

May 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Labor Department may report Friday that U.S. companies added 225,000 workers to their payrolls last month, fueled by an economy that's raced ahead at the fastest clip since 1984, economists said. The projected increase would bring to almost 850,000 the number of jobs created since March, for the best three months of job creation since the year 2000. The Labor Department may also report the unemployment rate held at 5.6 percent. Separate reports from the Institute for Supply Management are forecast to show manufacturing and the service industry expanded this month. A report from the...

From USA Today:Employment has picked up significantly this year in a number of closely contested states that could decide the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. The latest Labor Department figures on state jobs show that 10 of the 17 states expected to be the most tightly contested this campaign season were among the fastest-growing job markets in the country in April. The report, out Friday, showed a marked acceleration in job gains in industrial states in and around the Midwest defying the expectations of economists who predicted last year that those states would lag the national recovery. "The hemorrhaging...

<p>The U.S. Jobless Recovery Is Jobless No More: Caroline Baum May 7 (Bloomberg) -- So the nation's purchasing managers had it right after all.</p> <p>For months, the closely watched manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management has been heralding a revival in manufacturing employment. The ISM employment index broke above 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction, in November, rising to a 16-year high of 57.8 in April.</p>

Payroll growth of 288,000 comes in well above forecasts; unemployment dips to 5.6 percent. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Employers added jobs at a surprisingly rapid clip for the second straight month in April and the unemployment rate fell, a government report showed Friday, as the nation's labor market finally showed signs of sustained improvement. Even the manufacturing sector added 21,000 jobs last month after shedding jobs for 42 straight months -- until a revision showed a gain in the sector each of the last three months. Construction added 18,000 jobs and retail added 23,000 jobs, while the business and professional...

Employers added 288,000 jobs to their payrolls in April as the nation's unemployment rate slipped to 5.6 percent, reinforcing hopes for a sustained turnaround in the jobs market that had lagged for so long. Payrolls have risen now for eight straight months, with 867,000 new jobs created so far this year, the Labor Department (news - web sites) reported Friday. The strengthening jobs market comes just in time to aid President Bush (news - web sites)'s re-election efforts, which were in question a few months ago based on his economic record. Bush is on track to be the first president...

<p>It's happening in an aging factory in south St. Louis, and it's taking shape in a shiny glass office building in Town and Country.</p> <p>In these places and others, the economy - after inching along, sputtering and then flashing some promise late last year - is finally showing signs of producing what many Americans care about most: much-needed new jobs.</p>

<p>If you are among the 1.2 million students expected to graduate in 2004, your starting salary should be higher than your 2003 counterparts'. The good news is 24 percent of hiring managers will increase salaries for new grads.</p> <p>For those college graduates lucky enough to find a job, 60 percent can expect to make less than $30,000 a year, according to CareerBuilder.com's "Life at Work 2004" survey. Of this 60 percent, 17 percent of hiring managers will be offering college graduates salaries of less than $20,000. Further starting salary breakdowns are: 43 percent starting at $20,000 to $29,999; 26 percent starting at $30,000 to $39,999; 8 percent starting at $40,000 to $49,999; and 7 percent starting at $50,000 and above.</p>

Maryland businesses added 25,800 jobs last month, the best performance in a year as companies kicked into spring hiring. It was a big improvement over the 70,000 jobs lost in dreary January. The number of unemployed in Maryland declined by 10,700 in response, according to numbers released yesterday by the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

Qualcomm is Hiring big time. These are just IT jobs. Go to the main page and select 'Careers'. http://jobs.qualcomm.com/staffing/Staffing.asp?page=search_results

N.C. job growth surges in March By KARIN RIVES, Staff Writer North Carolina's unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent last month, dropping below the national average for the first time in four years. Nearly 30,000 people returned to work last month. That is more than double the job growth in February. The state's jobless rate in March declined from 6 percent the month before and was the lowest since April 2001, the N.C. Employment Security Commission reported Friday. That contrasts with the national jobless rate, which inched up to 5.7 percent last month despite significant job creation nationwide. "The North...

<p>The unemployment rate seems to indicate the job market isn't all that bad. At 5.7% in March, it is just a notch above its average of 5.6% for the past half century.</p> <p>But many economists believe the unemployment rate can be misleading and that an obscure indicator called the employment-to-population ratio is more accurate.</p>

As hiring finally begins to pick up, one expert tells where he sees the most opportunities, how to take advantage of them, and why offshoring of IT jobs may not last.Ever so slowly, some sectors of the U.S. economy are starting to bring more people aboard. In many cases, the ones doing the most hiring are relatively small, nimble, fast-growing outfits—and the skills they're looking for reflect that. "There's a real shift in what the most successful companies now want," says Lin Stiles, head of executive-search firm Linford Stiles & Associates (http://www.leanexecs.com). "We're not hearing as much about traditional credentials...

MAINE TOURISM BUSINESSES SAY 'HELP WANTED' Tourism businesses in Maine are struggling to fill openings for the summer season. The Meadowmere Resort in Ogunquit can't fill ten of their positions. If they don't have enough chambermaids, the resort might have to close a section of the hotel this summer. The tourism industry hopes congress raises the cap on visas and is trying to come up with a back-up plan in case that doesn't happen.

Last spring, career counselors and their students described the job outlook for college seniors as "horrible," "bleak" and "problematic." This year, fewer discouraging words are heard. "I'm seeing a definite improvement," said Dr. Richard Paterik, director of career development at the University of Dallas, adding that hiring hasn't returned to the levels seen in 2000. A University of Dallas student job fair on Wednesday drew 15 employers, up from 12 at a similar career fair last fall and 11 last spring. National surveys confirm that businesses are back in the hunt for new graduates. The National Association of Colleges and...

<p>U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 339,000 Last Week (Update1) March 25 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless benefits totaled 339,000 last week, close to a three-year low, a government report showed.</p> <p>Applications increased by 1,000 from 338,000 the week before, the Labor Department said in Washington. The previous week's total was the lowest since the week ended Jan. 13, 2001. Filings have averaged 347,250 this year, down from 403,000 for all of 2003.</p>

Undergraduates in U.S. universities are starting to abandon their studies in computer technology and engineering amid widespread worries about the accelerating pace of offshoring by high-technology employers. A new study, to be published in May, shows there was a dramatic drop-off of enrollment in those fields last year -- 19 percent -- and some educators warn about the potential consequences for America's global competitiveness.

U.S. Seen Adding Nearly 3 Million Jobs Thu Mar 18, 2004 05:30 PM ET DETROIT (Reuters) - The U.S. economy is gearing up to add nearly 3 million jobs by the end of next year and unemployment will drop below 5 percent by the start of 2006, a team of University of Michigan economists said on Thursday. "We expect to see a strengthening of the jobs picture, with monthly gains in payroll employment exceeding 100,000 over the next several months and moving up from there through the summer months," Saul Hymans, one of the university's leading economic professors, said in...

Where have all the jobs gone? Well...nowhere, really. There is much hysteria regarding current employment trends that are leading many to believe that we are losing significant numbers of jobs overseas. Even more frightening is the fact that these conclusions are leading many to believe that we should impose unjust and misguided trade restrictions. As I am rather fond of doing, let's take a moment and look at the numbers. The number of private-sector jobs in the United States increased by 17.8 million between 1993 and 2002. This means that a grand total of 327.7 million jobs were added. However,...