2004 December

2004-12-01

2004-12-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 57,988 job ads

2004-12-01 07:05PST (10:05EST) (15:05GMT)
Greg Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
ISM Manufacturing index rose from 56.8% in October to 57.8% in November

2004-12-01 07:41PST (10:41EST) (15:41GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US personal income up only 0.6% in October: Spending up 0.7%
BEA report

2004-12-01 10:20PST (13:20EST) (18:20GMT)
Chuck Jaffe _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Be Prepared for Lay-Off
"Roy from Rowley, MA called my radio show Monday, a few days after being laid off.   A regular saver, Roy's concern wasn't so much the day-to-day expenses, but how he should decide which mutual funds he should continue plugging money into each month.   After the show, however, one of my colleagues at WBIX notes that Roy was lucky, in that he was certain he could hold out without a job for months before the job loss would wreak long-term financial havoc.   By comparison, my co-worker felt that a lay-off would become an almost immediate issue, with the bills piling up badly once severance runs out.   On Tuesday, that worker and everyone else at the radio station were laid off."

2004-12-01
_Federal Reserve Board_
Beige Book
"Conditions in the high-tech sector also were mixed.   The Boston District reported a considerable softening of orders for semiconductors and related equipment in the third quarter.   In the San Francisco District, sales and orders were unchanged for semiconductors and other high-tech products, which led to rising chip inventories and a slight drop in capacity utilization.   In contrast, the Dallas District noted continued growth in production and orders for high-tech products...   Demand for workers at temporary employment agencies picked up in the Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Richmond and New York Districts.   Shortages of temporary workers were reported in the Boston and New York Districts, and the Boston, Chicago, and Dallas Districts reported an increase in the number of temporary workers obtaining more permanent positions.   Business activity sped up at software and information technology services firms in the Boston District, while demand for legal and accounting services was reported as strong in the Dallas District...   Labor markets continued to improve over the past few weeks, with numerous reports of hiring.   The Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis and New York Districts reported increased hiring or improved labor markets.   Contacts in several Districts noted difficulty finding workers for specific occupations, such as accounting, construction and skilled professionals in the energy industry.   There continued to be little wage pressure in most Districts, although a few Districts noted that higher benefit costs are pushing up total compensation.   Only the Chicago District reported that overall wages increased at a slightly faster pace.   [Body shoppers] in the Boston and Dallas Districts expressed concerns about cost increases, particularly for medical, worker's compensation and state unemployment insurance, and said they were attempting to pass these cost increases on to customers...   Boston: ...   Most manufacturers are holding their U.S. head-counts fairly flat except for acquisitions.   Contacts with rapidly growing sales are adding employees, while those in the semiconductor and furniture industries are laying off.   Pay increases in 2005 are expected to remain [depressed] in the 3% to 4% range, but engineering pay is rising more rapidly.   Respondents report difficulties in finding skilled technical and accounting professionals, as well as skilled machinists and tool-makers."

2004-12-01 13:49PST (16:49EST) (21:49GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks cheer slide in petroleum prices
"Blue chips posted a triple-digit gain to end at a 9-month high Wednesday and the Nasdaq rose to its best level since January, buoyed by a more than 7% drop in oil prices and better than expected manufacturing and consumer spending data.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at its high for the session, rising 162.20 points, or 1.6%, to 10,590.22...   The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed to its best level in more than 10 months, surging 41.42 points, to 2,138.23.   Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index was up 17.55 points, or 1.5%, at 1,191.37."

2004-12-01
Alokananda Ghosh _India Telegraph_
NASSCOM has announced plans to issue phony quality cerfificates to off-shoring firms

2004-12-01
Debbie Young _Electronic Business_
Is hiring of top management on the up-swing?
"After a 2-year slump, executive hiring in the technology sector is on the rise.   But C-level managers aren't exactly storming the corner offices.   Although some tech sectors are hot, demand is far from increasing across the board.   And, with memories of high-profile cases of executive misconduct and the industry downturn still fresh, executives and companies are courting each other very cautiously...   'Certain areas in the technology sector are thriving.', says John Challenger, CEO of out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   'Demand is high for those who specialize in network and IT security.   Tech support is another area in which companies are looking for people.'...   In Silicon Valley, there's growing demand for executives willing to shepherd start-ups...   Given the current economic climate, poaching can be an effective strategy.   'Because we went through four years of a dramatic downturn in the market, many outstanding C-level managers stayed in positions they were not especially happy with.', observes John Ferneborg, founder of executive search firm Ferneborg & Associates."

2004-12-01
_Akron Beacon Journal_
Temp worker bargaining ruled against by NLRB
"Temporary workers will no longer be able to bargain for job benefits as part of a unit with permanent employees, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled, reversing a Clinton-era precedent."
 

2004-12-02

2004-12-01 16:30PST (19:30EST) (2004-12-02 00:30GMT)
Alistair Barr _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Share-holder activism likely to be lost with exit of CalPers chief Sean Harrigan
"The ouster of Sean Harrigan, president of the largest U.S. pension fund, is a set-back for share-holder activism and corporate governance, according to an expert in the field.   Harrigan, who used his position as head of the California Public Employees' Retirement System to push corporate reform, was voted off the $178G pension fund's board Wednesday.   Calpers has been one of the most vocal institutions pressing companies to resolve corporate governance problems such as auditor independence, executive pay and board structure."

2004-12-02 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:30GMT)
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
unemployment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 320,435 in the week ending November 27, a decrease of 36,286 from the previous week.   There were 357,811 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8% during the week ending November 20, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,335,927, a decrease of 192,760 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.3% and the volume was 2,949,992."
graphs

2004-12-02 07:30PST (10:30EST) (15:30GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Seasonally adjusted unemployment insurance claims jump 25K to 349K
"The 4-week moving average of new claims rose by 4,250 to 336,500.   In the previous week, jobless claims fell a revised 11K to 324K...   The number of former workers continuing to receive state unemployment benefits fell by 20K to 2.72M in the week ended November 20, the lowest level since 2001 April.   The 4-week average of continuing claims fell by 17,500 to 2.76M, the lowest level since 2001 May."
graphs

2004-12-02
Seth Schiesel _NY Times_
I Want My Moscow TV
"A lone inventor with a colorful past has come up with a way to let you tap into your home TV reception anywhere in the world."

2004-12-02 09:17PST (12:17EST) (17:17GMT)
Jennifer Waters _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Retail sales are feeble
"The specter of Scrooge haunted U.S. retailers in November as the country's largest chain stores delivered decidedly lack-luster sales results.   'Dismal' is a good word.', said Mike Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.   With 66 chain retailers having reported their tallies, sales at stores open longer than a year -- an industry bench-mark known as same-store sales -- rose a meager 1.7%."

2004-12-02 12:58PST (15:58EST) (20:58GMT)
Myra P. Saefong _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Crude petroleum under $44 per barrel
"Crude-oil futures closed under $44 [per] barrel Thursday, returning to their mid-September levels, as higher U.S. distillate inventories and near-term forecasts for mild weather throughout much of the nation eased heating-fuel concern.   At the same time, natural-gas futures dropped 8% to mark a 4-session losing streak...   Crude for January delivery fell to a low of $42.50 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before closing at $43.25 a barrel, down $2.24, or 4.9%, for the session and at its lowest settlement level since September 16.   On Wednesday, prices dropped 7.4%, the biggest one-day hit in three-and-a-half years, according to Alaron Trading.   In Thursday's trading, January heating oil fell 7.21 cents, or 5.4%, to close at $1.2572 a gallon.   January unleaded gas lost 5.98 cents, or 5%, to end at $1.1414 a gallon."

2004-12-02
Brier Dudley _Seattle Times_
Washington State's Tech Leaders Look Ahead
"University research programs are strong and have helped create numerous companies, but money for under-graduate education has steadily declined over those 12 years, he said...   high minimum wage, regulatory structure and worker costs...   Yesterday's 'policy forum' was a sort of Northwest debut for TechNet, a Silicon Valley-based industry group [for tech executives] that hosted the event along with the Technology Alliance, a state organization formed in 1996 by William H. Gates, father of the M$ chairman.   TechNet had similar events earlier this fall in Texas, Massachusetts and California.   One motivation for the forums was angst about out-sourcing and concerns that 'some of these jobs are going to go off-shore'...   Yesterday's gathering was also a preview of the high profile the tech industry is expected to have in the Legislature and in Congress next year.   The industry's state priorities include improving higher-education spending and improving transportation...   Last year, 44% of workers in the state were employed by technology-based companies, and their average income was more than $91K, according to a study UW researchers prepared for the Technology Alliance.   The state's education system needs to produce more computer-science graduates, said Jim Allchin, head of M$'s platform group.   He noted that M$ has to recruit outside the U.S., 'looking for every individual we can get' [only not looking very hard in the USA]."

2004-12-02
Sam Francis _V Dare_
Why not enforce laws against illegal immigration and leave innocent Americans alone?
"the horror to which we have all become so habituated that nobody even notices it -- that perfectly innocent, law-abiding Americans are stopped, their time consumed, and their property pawed over by government parasites who have no better way to justify their presence at the public trough...   The issue of illegal immigration is rapidly gathering political force in places like Suffolk because such places have not enjoyed all the glories of mass immigration the Open Borders Lobby has promised them for so long.   The issue will come to many, many more such places as those glories fail to arrive there either...   The problem is [illegal] immigration and the refusal of public authority at any level in the countryófrom the White House to the county copsóto deal with it...   if you make it a few miles over the border, you need have no fear of being busted for violating federal immigration statutes because the authorities don't even try to enforce them.   The horror is that despite the obvious harm of mass immigration on the daily life of American communities, authorities are not willing to take any even elementary steps to control or check it.   Their reluctance obviously doesn't extend to snooping around law-abiding Americans who have to put up with random 'bomb searches'."
 

2004-12-03

2004-12-03 13:11PST (16:11EST) (21:11GMT)
Rex Crum _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Red China's Lenovo lining up to buy Ill-Begotton Monstrosities' PeeeCeee division
"Its name certainly doesn't carry the recognition of Dell, Hewlett-Packard or Apple Computer, but [Red China's] Lenovo Group could climb up the personal-computer food chain if it ends up buying IBM's PC business.   Lenovo, which sells low-margin PCs in [Red China] under the Legend brand, is reportedly negotiating for IBM's PC business for as much as $2G.   IBM officials declined to comment.   Lenovo's Legend line is still relatively unknown outside of [Red China], and research firm Gartner Group pegs the company's share of worldwide PC shipments at 2%, placing it in 9th place between Gateway Inc. and Apple.   IBM holds third place, behind Dell and H-P, with a 5.6% market share.   But Lenovo has made strides in the PC market, mostly through its strength in [Red China], and is expected to boost its worldwide 2004 shipments by more than 30% from 2003, to 3.7M units, according to Gartner.   Lenovo is expected to increase shipments faster than the 25% rate forecast for Dell Inc...   IBM's personal systems group, for example, reported a pre-tax operating profit of $70M on $9.4G in revenue for the first nine months of 2004, but the division lost $127M on revenue of $8G during the same period in 2003."

2004-12-03 15:26PST (18:26EST) (23:26GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks notch solid gains on drop in petroleum prices but falling dollar & weak employment data cast a pall
"U.S. stocks ended higher Friday, wrapping up a week of solid gains sparked by a 14% drop in crude-oil prices.   However, new lows for the dollar and a weaker-than-expected November employment report fueled concern about the outlook for the U.S. economy.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 7.09 points, at 10,592.21, putting in a 0.7% gain for the week...   The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 4.39 points at 2,147.96, rising 2.2% on the week.   The tech-rich index reached a new intraday high for the year of 2,164, surpassing the previous high of 2,153 hit on January 26.   The S&P 500 Index edged up 0.84 points, to 1,191.17.   It was up 0.7% for the week."

2004-12-03
Susan Ashworth _Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal_
Controversy accompanies new cap on tech visas
"Although new federal legislation raising the cap on specialized work visas should help satisfy Silicon Valley companies' call for more high-tech immigrant workers, critics say the increase will hurt U.S. citizens...   Some professional IT trade organizations, like the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), oppose the increase, saying 'these programs have been used to displace higher-paid U.S. workers and replace them with lower-paid, often less-qualified, foreign temporary workers.   This legislation... may result in the filling of some electrical/electronics engineering positions by lesser-experienced engineers than would otherwise be the case.', says Al Gray, NSPE's executive director.   'The evidence indicates that there is currently no shortage of engineers for positions in the high-tech industry, and the need for 20K additional temporary visas is questionable.   As these H-1B technical professionals locate in Silicon Valley, they will bring further employment pressures on the high-tech engineering professionals.', Mr. Gray says.   According to IEEE-USA, a professional technical society, statistics indicate that engineering professionals in the United States have indeed benefited from a limited cap on H-1B visas...   'Plenty of U.S. citizens are still available for U.S. companies to hire.', Mr. Steadman explains.   'Until we have put more (U.S. technical professionals) back to work, (there was) no reason to add another exemption to the H-1B cap.'"
 

2004-12-04

2004-12-04
Linda Greenhouse _NY Times_
Supreme Court to Hear Case on Cable as Internet Carrier
"The Supreme Court stepped into one of the most heated debates over the future of the Internet: how to classify Internet cable service for purposes of federal regulation."

2004-12-04
_NY Times_
Stop the Stadium in Its Tracks
"We don't believe that a hulking football stadium, built with millions in public money, is the way to develop the West Side of Manhattan."

2004-12-04 14:58PST (17:58EST) (22:58GMT)
Jennifer Waters _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
What happened to the middle class?: Some moving up while others face tougher times
"For the third straight month, manufacturing -- the bread and butter of the middle- to lower-middle class -- lost jobs, exclusively in the higher-paying computer product and auto production segments.   After significant job gains from February through May, manufacturing employment has not moved, according to the Labor Department.   As disconcerting was the loss of 16K retail jobs last month -- a time when retailers are typically staffing up for the holiday shopping period.   But average hourly earnings rose 1 cent to $15.83 in November, making for an annual increase of 2.4%, while the average work week dwindled for the first time since August.   'We're seeing a small percentage of the population getting a larger percentage of the income.', Northern Trust's Chief Economist Paul Kasriel said.   The 'real incomes' of the WM demographic 'are not growing', he said.   John Challenger, whose name is on the door of job specialists Challenger, Gray and Christmas, agreed.   'The jobs that are growing are more skilled jobs.', he said, such as in health care.   'What we've seen is that the un-skilled to semi-skilled jobs that used to pay much more money no longer do.   For the middle-class, where there were once many jobs for the semi-skilled, they have become few and far between.'"

2004-12-04
Norman Matloff _H1-B/L-1/Off-Shoring News-Letter_
Exemption of those with advanced degrees from H-1B limits
Regarding weak limits on L-1 visas
Regarding the additional 20K H-1B limit exemption for those with higher degrees
"a CW editor whom I met at the ITAA/DOC 'convocation' at the time mentioned that the Boston papers were screaming about a teacher 'shortage' at the time, yet his teacher wife couldn't get a job.   That helped him see the deceptive nature of the claims of a techie labor shortage, and from then on, CW has given balanced coverage to these issues...   the INS data show that the median salary for computer-related H-1Bs was $50K in 2001 (INS, _Report on Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B): Fiscal Year 2001_, 2002 July)."

2004-12-04
Jerome R. Stockfisch _Tampa Tribune_
Work for Florida Jobs Agency Has Been Sent Over-Seas
"The state agency charged with finding jobs for Floridians has itself contracted for work that is being performed in India...   State senator Walter 'Skip' Campbell, D-Fort Lauderdale, has been pressing state agencies and the companies they contract with for information on those deals.   Records obtained by the senator indicate that the Agency for Work-Force Innovation, formerly the state's Labor Department, contracted in 2001 with what is now HCL Technologies Ltd.'s MA operation to establish a one-stop computer system, consolidating and stream-lining older systems.   In a letter to Campbell, HCL said work on the $6.6M contract takes place at the agency site in Tallahassee with 'some coding' done at HCL's off-shore center at Mumbai, India.   The letter did not detail the extent of that work, and Rajiv Shesh, president of HCL Technologies (MA) Inc. wouldn't provide additional detail Friday.   The volume is not an issue to Campbell.   'It's the total anti-thesis of what they're supposed to be doing.', Campbell said...   Bush said he was unaware of the contract.   He has stated that Florida should not out-source state jobs to foreign companies...   Campbell has become the Senate's watchdog on privatization and out-sourcing.   In October, he discovered that BearingPoint Inc., another state technology contractor, had subcontracted work in a deal with the Department of Financial Services to a company that also performed work in India...   Florida spends $23G on services from the private sector.   That's about 40% of the $57G state budget.   There are about 116K full- time state employees, down about 10,400 from when Bush became governor in 1998."
 

2004-12-05

2004-12-05
Mireya Navarro _NY Times_
For Younger Latinas, a Shift to Smaller Families
"Latina women are resisting the social pressures that shaped the Hispanic tradition of big families."

2004-12-05
Rob Walker _NY Times_
The Hidden (in Plain Sight) Persuaders
"Why would regular people volunteer to turn their daily interactions into marketing moments?"

2004-12-05
Cathryn Jakobson Ramin _NY Times_
Memory
"'For people who have always been very competent, forgetting brings a disturbing sense of the loss of control and mastery.' [said Oliver Sacks]."

2004-12-05
Lawrence Downes _NY Times_
A Soldier's Story: The Curious Transformation of a Son of Dynasty
"Mayor Richard Daley's 29-year-old son was a managing partner at Companion Capital.   By next month, he'll be a grunt in the United States Army."

2004-12-05
Marshall Loeb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_/_State College Centre Daily_
Stick to the truth when writing resume
NY Daily News
"An estimated 10% to 30% of job applicants lie on their resumes, according to a study by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement consulting company. And those fudging aren't just young, inexperienced workers: Top-level executives are resume fraudsters, too."
 

2004-12-06

2004-12-06
Louis Uchitelle _NY Times_
Consumer spending
"As consumption has risen in America, absorbing 80% of national income now, the production of goods and services has migrated over-seas.   That is the polar opposite of the post-World War II experience.   Then, Americans consumed what they also produced; income from production paid for consumption.   Today, in contrast, 21% of what consumers purchase comes from abroad, and the figure has risen by a percentage point every two years since 1990, according to Commerce Department data.   The figures do not include gasoline or fuel oil.   The imports are purchased on credit -- consumer credit -- and therein lies the stress...   Foreigners are helping to make the indebtedness possible by subsidizing consumer credit through more than $600G a year in loans to the United States...   By all the rules of international economics, Mr. Roach's prognosis of impending crisis is accurate.   Americans cannot endlessly purchase more than they can pay for, while the producing countries, particularly [Red China], provide endless credit to cover the short-fall.   That willingness to lend props up the dollar's value -- until the day comes that Chinese consumers purchase more of their own country's output, and the pressure to export and to finance the exports declines."

2004-12-06
Tom Zeller _NY Times_
Beijing Loves the Web Until the Web Talks Back
"[Red China's] government has strategically deployed the Internet to economic advantage, while clamping down on undesirable content and use."

2004-12-06
David P. Willis _Asbury Park NJ Press_
Security fears cause parents to do fund raising from home or office for their children
"Some companies don't have any policy against it.   At Lucent Technologies, such sales are not obtrusive and only happen about once a year, spokesman John Skalko said.   'It is generally dealt with within a work group.   These are people you have to work with all the time, so you don't abuse it.', Skalko said.   'People are expected to be reasonable and they are.'   John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of the job placement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. in Chicago, said it's appropriate to ask to your boss what's allowed.   'I think where it is particularly a problem is when it gets out of hand.', Challenger said.   'I think that most companies do look the other way until it becomes onerous.'   Fellow employees also have a way of letting the sellers know when it becomes too much, Challenger said.   'People will self-correct.   If people begin to feel put upon, they will begin to say no.'"

2004-12-06 03:57PST (06:57EST) (11:57GMT)
John Oates & Nathan McCourtney & Walter Nodelman _Register_
on off-shoring
"Connecticut only... H-1B Temporary Workers year 1997 2,979 H-1B Temporary Workers year 1998 2,979 H-1B Temporary Workers year 1999 3,826 H-1B Temporary Workers year 2000 4,310 H-1B Temporary Workers year 2001 4,663 H-1B Temporary Workers year 2002 4,835 Six Years Total 23,592.   L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 1997 5,711 L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 1998 5,711 L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 1999 6,708 L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 2000 7,918 L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 2001 8,693 L-1 Intra-Company Transferees 2002 8,609 Six Years Total 43,350 Grand Total Connecticut Jobs Lost 66,942 NBC 30 reported Connecticut Jobs Lost 70K Difference (overstatement) 3,058.   This 66,942 only represents those jobs which were stolen from us by foreign workers who arrived here to work.   The number does not count jobs taken by spouses or young adult children of that visa holder.   Multiplied by 50 states, that calculates out to 3,347,100 jobs lost across my country.   Not 400K which is UBS's fictional numbers.   In addition to these 66,942 stolen jobs, there are the OFF-SHORING situations where the USA job itself was sent to India or elsewhere, rather than bringing the foreign worker to Connecticut."

2004-12-06 10:49PST (13:49EST) (18:49GMT)
Stan Gibson _Yahoo!_/_eWeek_
Job Market Is Expected to Remain Depressed
"Another force applying downward pressure to U.S. IT wages is the increase by Congress, just before the Thanksgiving break, of 20K to the current H-1B visa limit of 65K. The catch: The 20K visas must go to foreign nationals who have earned advanced degrees at U.S. universities. Exempting the cream of the crop from the cap relieves pressure at lower skill levels, an executive at an out-sourcer noted. 'It frees up some number of other people.', said Marc Hebert, executive vice president at Sierra Atlantic, an out-sourcing company with offices in Hyderabad, India, and Fremont, CA."

2004-12-06
Aaron Bernstein _Business Week_
The Red China Price: Shaking Up Trade Theory: details details
"True, [Red China] is emerging as a global power-house, realigning many economic relationships.   But in the long run a more disruptive trend may be the fast-rising tide of white-collar jobs shifting to cheap-labor countries.   The fact that programming, engineering, and other high-skilled jobs are jumping to places such as [Red China] and India seems to conflict head-on with the 200-year-old doctrine of comparative advantage.   With these countries now graduating more college students than the U.S. every year, economists are increasingly uncertain about just where the U.S. has an advantage anymore -- or whether the standard framework for understanding globalization still applies in the face of so-called white-collar off-shoring.   'Now we've got trade patterns that challenge the common view of trade theory, which might not be so true anymore.', says Gary C. Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics (IIE), a Washington (DC) think tank.   A leading advocate of free-trade pacts, he still thinks white-collar job shifts are good for the U.S.   The great debate percolating among the country's top trade economists gained new prominence with a recent article by Nobel laureate Paul A. Samuelson in the Journal of Economic Perspectives (JEP).   In the piece, the 89-year-old professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology... questions whether rising skills in [Red China] and India necessarily will benefit the U.S...   Consultant Forrester Research Inc. (FORR ) in Cambridge, Mass., was among the first to spot the white-collar job shifts and has done the most detailed projections so far.   It sees the pace of U.S. job flows abroad averaging 300K a year through 2015.   This is probably conservative since Forrester has also found that the number of U.S. companies among the 1K largest that engage in some level of white-collar off-shoring will rise sharply -- from 37% today to 54% by 2008.   Already, some 14M white-collar jobs involve work that can be shipped electronically and thus in theory could be moved off-shore, according to a study by economists Ashok D. Bardhan and Cynthia A. Kroll at the University of California at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.   The hit to wages could be powerful if that happens.   Forrester analyst John C. McCarthy identified 242 service jobs as likely to be affected among the 500-plus major occupations tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).   He ranked each by the share of jobs employers are likely to shift abroad by 2015.   His conclusion: The cumulative job outflow will total 3.4M over that period.   That comes to 6% of the 57M people who work in these 242 occupations today.   If that's in the ballpark, U.S. white-collar wages would get whacked, says Harvard University labor economist Lawrence F. Katz.   Every 1% drop in employment due to imports or factories gone abroad shaves 0.5% off pay for remaining workers, he found in a study with Harvard colleagues Richard B. Freeman and George J. Borjas.   So if job losses rise to 6% of the white-collar total, these workers' pay could be depressed by 2% to 3% through 2015, figures Katz.   While a few percentage points over a decade or so may not sound dire, it's roughly as much as blue-collar workers lost to globalization in recent decades.   'White-collar workers have a right to be scared.', says Katz...   just 30% of laid-off workers earn the same or more after three years, according to a study of 22 years of BLS data by economics professor Lori G. Kletzer of the University of California at Santa Cruz.   Only 68% even hold a job at that point, while the rest are unemployed, retired, or perhaps at home with children.   On average, those reemployed earn 10% less than before, Kletzer found."

2004-12-06 10:01PST (13:01EST) (18:01GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Off-Shoring Study a Welcome Surprise in Budget Bill: But will industry bias continue to plague efforts to gather the information
"So far, the government has simply lacked the data to determine off-shore out-sourcing's impact on the U.S. work force, said Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia.   Wolf initiated the measure to grant $2M to the independent, non-partisan National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) for the study.   The new study will provide a break-down of how many jobs have gone abroad and from which industries.   That analysis could have huge implications for future job creation, wage growth and the plight of the middle class... One prominent national study, from the U.S.-[Red China] Economic and Security Review Commission, estimated that 406K U.S. jobs will be shifted off-shore this year, a number well above the Labor Department's estimate. The number is likely even higher, the report's authors suggested, given that companies are reluctant to publicize job shifts abroad."
 

2004-12-07

2004-12-06 16:15PST (19:15EST) (2004-12-07 00:15GMT)
_NBC4 TV_
4 Enter Pleas to Filing Hundreds of Bogus Visa Applications
"A local Iranian media personality and three other Southland residents pleaded not guilty Monday to filing bogus employment visa applications on behalf of hundreds of foreign nationals seeking U.S. entry.   The 4, who were arrested last month, allegedly charged their clients -- mostly Iranian nationals -- $8K-$30K for the fraudulent documents, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.   Henry Hossein Haghighi Heguman, a 59-year-old West Hills resident and businessman who appears regularly on local Iranian television and radio, is the alleged leader of the scheme.   Heguman is charged along with Bita Hoffman, 39, of Carlsbad, a partner in the law firm Hoffman, Rahmaty & Associates in Van Nuys; Farideh Mir, 58, of Sherman Oaks, an employee of Hoffman's firm; and Grace Houra Shahraz Edison, a 49-year-old Canoga Park businesswoman."

2004-12-07 08:40PST (11:40EST) (16:40GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Lay-off announcements top 100K for 3rd straight month (graph)
alternate link
"U.S. corporations announced plans to eliminate 104,530 jobs in November, the third consecutive month that planned lay-offs exceeded 100K, according to a tally kept by out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   Announced jobs cuts increased 2.6% in November from October's 101,840, and were up 5.1% from 2003 November's 99,452, the firm said Tuesday...   Through the first 11 months of 2004, announced lay-offs totaled 930,690, down 19% year-to-date.   It's likely that announced job cuts will exceed 1M for a fourth straight year in 2004...   The 12-month average of announced job cuts rose to 85,309 from 84,886 in October...   Robert Brusca said the trend in the data is worsening...   According to Brusca, in the 7 years before the 2001 recession, lay-offs averaged about 46K during November.   In 2001, 2002 and 2003, November lay-offs averaged about 158K...   So far in 2004, telecom firms have cut 96,696 jobs, nearly equaling 2003's 102,602.   Financial firms have announced plans to eliminate 91,572 jobs so far in 2004...   On Tuesday, Colgate-Palmolive announced job reductions of 4,400, or 12% of its global work-force...   According to government data, there were 1.76M lay-offs and involuntary discharges during September, the most recent data available.   Other government statistics show that 7.31M jobs were destroyed in the first quarter of the year, while 7.75M jobs were created."

2004-12-07
R. Craig Hogan quoted in _NY Times_
E-writing Well
"E-mail is a party to which English teachers have not been invited.   It has companies tearing their hair out."

2004-12-07
Floyd Norris _NY Times_
U.S. Students Fare Badly in International Survey of Math Skills
John Taylor Gatto
"The U.S. finished in the bottom half of 40 surveyed countries in a new international comparison of mathematical skills."

2004-12-07
Steven Greenhouse _NY Times_
3 California Grocery Chains Agree in Suit Over Janitors' Wages and Hours
"Three California super-market chains have settled a suit filed by immigrant janitors who said they often earned below minimum wage and were never paid over-time."

2004-12-07
Dennis Overbye _NY Times_
String Theory, at 20, Explains It All (or Not)
"String theorists agree that it has been a long, strange trip, but they still have faith that they will complete the journey."

2004-12-07
Danielle Ofri _NY Times_
Sometimes, Doctors Find Answers Far Off the Charts
"Sometimes, it is only when the patient is halfway out the door that important information spills out."

2003-12-07
Jonathan Yaden
"In 1994-04-12 spam first entered the Internet world in the form of an unsolicited usenet advertisement, sometimes referred to as the 'green card lottery' posting [or 'green mail']."

2004-12-07
Daniel Griswold _Center for Trade Policy Studies Cato Institute_
Immigration: Beyond the Barbed Wire
"His re-election provides a mandate to push ahead with changes that will help the many people who want to work in the United States and, if history is any guide, alleviate the very real problem of illegal immigration...   Today an estimated 9M [8M to 16M] people are living in the United States illegally, with the number growing by an estimated net 350K [per] year [750K to 800K per year].   Simply throwing more money and man-power at the problem hasn't worked.   Since the early 1990s, we've quintupled spending and tripled personnel at the Mexican border.   We've built 3-tiered walls for 60 miles into the desert.   We've imposed sanctions on employers for the first time in U.S. history...   Our economy continues to produce opportunities for low-skilled workers in important sectors of our economy such as retail, services, construction, and tourism."

2004-12-07 05:00PST (08:00EST) (13:00GMT)
Anthony Mitchell _eCommerce Times_
American Woman Follows Her Job to India
"In 2003, Tara was working in the U.S. as a trainer of customer service representatives for Earthlink, an Internet service provider.   It was her fourth year with Earthlink and she was asked to go to India twice to train her replacements.   Earthlink sent her to Hyderabad to help set up Earthlink's new support center in that South Indian city.   These trips familiarized her with living conditions there.   They also gave her the confidence to accept a job offer as the chief trainer and head of client relations from an InternationalStaff.net contract facility in Hyderabad after her position with Earthlink was eliminated in 2003 October...   lack of mutual understanding lengthens the learning curve when people from one part of the world seek to work in another part of the world, even when that work is conducted remotely."

2004-12-07 07:39PST (10:39EST) (15:39GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Productivity growth revised lower to 1.8%
BLS report
"Output per hour worked in the non-farm business sector rose by an annualized 1.8% in the July-September quarter, down from a 1.9% estimate released a month ago...   Productivity rose 3.9% in the second quarter and 3.7% in the first quarter...   There were signs of increasing inflationary pressures from the labor market.   Unit labor costs -- a key gauge of inflation and profit pressures -- increased at a revised 1.8% annual rate in the third quarter, up from the earlier estimate of 1.5%.   In addition, unit labor costs in the second quarter were revised to a 1.9% gain from the previous estimate of a 1.0% gain.   This is the highest level of labor costs since the second quarter of 2002.   Over the past four quarter, unit labor costs rose 0.8%.   This is the largest annual increase since the third quarter of 2001."

2004-12-07
_PR News Wire_
Former Tufts U Medical Student Convicted of Visa Violations, Loan & Scholarship Fraud
"Arijit Kumar Chowdhury, a.k.a. Steve Valdez, a.k.a. Dale Barber, age 36, formerly of Somerville, MA, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro to a 3-count indictment charging him with fraud in connection with obtaining Federally Guaranteed Stafford Loans totaling approximately $98,865; fraud in obtaining a half-tuition scholarship from Tufts University; and making false statements to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in obtaining a $36,666 scholarship under the Department's Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students program...   Chowdhury entered the United States from his native India in the late 1980s, on a student visa.   After spending 2 years at Texas A&M University, Chowdhury left college and his visa expired.   Chowdhury remained in the United States, however, using the name Steven Valdez and a social security number taken from an individual with a similar name.   Using the name Valdez, Chowdhury falsely claimed to be a United States citizen, falsely claimed to be of Hispanic ethnic background, and falsely claimed to be an orphan.   Based on these false representations, Chowdhury was admitted to Oberlin College and later to Tufts Medical School, financing his education with scholarships that were ear-marked for students from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as student loans that were available only to U.S. citizens."

2004-12-07
Rick Smith _Local Tech Wire_
Off-Shoring Continues To Accelerate (more shortage propaganda)
Duke university report
Techs Unite
"'Less than 5% post-poned off-shoring plans due to political back-lash.'...   A study released in September by the Center for Urban Economic Development found that 400K IT sector jobs have been lost since 2001...   93% said cutting costs was the main decision driver..."

2004-12-07
E.J. Mundell _Springfield MO News-Leader_
DHEA may help older adults shed belly fat
"Preliminary evidence suggests that increased levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), a natural hormone secreted by the adrenal gland, might also help older people keep diabetes at bay.   'The replacement of DHEA, at doses of 50 milligrams per day, brought back DHEA levels in older persons to the range seen in youth.   This resulted in a reduction in abdominal fat that was accompanied by an improvement in insulin action.', explained study co-researcher Dr. Dennis T. Villareal, an assistant professor of geriatrics and nutritional science at Washington University in St. Louis.   The findings appeared in the November 10 issue of the _Journal of the American Medical Association_ [JAMA]...   Doctors have long known that belly fat tends to accumulate with aging, just as DHEA levels begin to fall.   'DHEA declines progressively with age', Villareal said, 'so that when we're 70 years old we only have about 20% of the DHEA we had when we were young.'...   DHEA supplements might even be harmful for people with a history of hormone-sensitive cancers, such as tumors of the breast or prostate.   Anding pointed out that participants in the St. Louis study who took DHEA supplements experienced a 'significant' rise in blood levels of estradiol (an estrogen-like hormone) and testosterone, hormones commonly connected to breast and prostate cancers, respectively."
 

2004-12-08

2004-12-08 10:51PST (13:51EST) (18:51GMT)
August Cole & Jennifer Inez Ward _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Red China's Lenovo buys Ill-Begotten Monstrosities PeeeCeee unit for $1.75G
"Lenovo Group Ltd., [Red China's] top computer maker, will buy IBM's personal computing business for $1.75G in stock and cash in a transaction that signals a dramatic shift in the global PC market.   Under terms of the deal, which is set to close in the second quarter of 2005, IBM will get $650M in cash and $600M in Lenovo stock, according to the companies.   Lenovo is expected to assume $500M in balance sheet liabilities, as well."

2004-12-08
Jim Yardley _NY Times_
Farmers Being Moved Aside by Red China's Real Estate Boom
"A two-tiered property system favors city dwellers while handicapping the farmers once at the core of Chinese society."

2004-12-08 02:46PST (05:46EST) (10:46GMT)
Karin Rives _Raleigh News Observer_
Higher guest-worker visa limit gets mixed reception
"A list of foreign labor certifications that Raleigh employers filed with the U.S. Department of Labor in the past year shows the breadth of the skills that companies hire for.   Their foreign-born employees work as elementary school teachers, university researchers, management consultants, engineers, scientists, chefs, architects and physicians and a host of other positions, although a disproportionate share of the jobs are in the information technology field.   The certifications must be filed as part of the H-1B visa application or when an H-1B employee changes status or needs to renew the visa.   Anwar Sareef, CEO of Raleigh's Alpha-Gamma Technologies, has had to tap into the global work force for years...   But Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, a Summit, NJ-based group opposing the new visa extension, isn't so sure.   He worries that companies hire foreign workers to prepare them to handle the jobs when they later are shipped over-seas...   JM, 25, a software programmer from Cary, doesn't think the 20K additional visas will make much of a difference for job seekers like himself.   But he wishes employers were a little less picky about whom they hire.   'They just don't want to spend any time training anyone.', he said.   'They take it too far.'"

2004-12-08 08:24PST (11:24EST) (16:24GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
ISM says purchasing managers optimistic but hesitant to buy in 2005 but are starting to think about hiring
"U.S. corporate purchasing managers expect business to improve in 2005, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.   Both manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors are more optimistic about the coming year than they were a year ago, the ISM said in its semiannual outlook.   Both sectors expect strong top-line growth in revenues, much slower capital spending and much stronger job growth.   Inflation and energy costs are the top concerns of the executives.   And, despite their optimism about their own firms, the executives are also worried about a weak U.S. economy next year.   Benefit costs and geopolitical problems are the other top concerns of the executives...   Employment is expected to rise 1.6%, compared with 0.3% in the past year...   Employment in non-manufacturing is expected to grow a healthy 3.1%, up from 1.6% this year."

2004-12-08
Paul Brubaker _Montclair NJ Times_
Pascrell spear-heads bill limiting guest-worker abuse
"Nearly a year ago, Montclair resident Sona Shah was one of many citizens who called on representative Bill Pascrell jr., D-8, to take legislative action against companies that abuse guest-worker visa programs by hiring technically skilled foreign workers far below the prevailing wages of their American counterparts...   His legislation, the 'Defend the American Dream Act of 2004', is specifically aimed at abuses of the H1-B visa program.   This program had been introduced under the Clinton administration to aid the nation's technology sector that, in the 1990s, was believed to be experiencing a shortage of skilled workers.   Since then, however, businesses have used the program as a loophole to increase their profit margins by hiring skilled foreign workers for comparatively low wages.   The foreign workers are often schooled in the business' procedures and culture by the American workers they later displace...   Pascrell's legislation [does the fillowing]:

• Requiring employers of H1-B visa holders to pay the prevailing wage.
• Requiring employers to prove they have actively recruited U.S. workers.
• Centralizing enforcement in the Department of Labor by giving it the power to audit employers and investigate potential abuses of the H1-B program.
• Establishing an H1-B visa fee to fund science and technology training grants for U.S. workers.
• Establishing a private right of action, which would allow employees to bring private law-suits to claim mistreatment.

2004-12-08
Trigaux _St. Petersburg Times_
104,530 planned lay-offs
"U.S. employers in November announced plans to reduce their work forces by 104,530.   That's the third straight month in which planned job lay-offs surpassed 100K, putting the nation on pace to have 1M lay-offs for 2004, according to job tracker Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago."

2004-12-08
Paul Brubaker _Montclair NJ Times_
Pascrell spear-heads bill limiting guest-worker visas: Proposal follows year of dialogue concerning the issue with local resident
"Nearly a year ago, Montclair resident Sona Shah was one of many citizens who called on representative Bill Pascrell jr, D-8, to take legislative action against companies that abuse 'guest-worker' visa programs by hiring technically skilled foreign workers far below the prevailing wages of their American counterparts...   businesses have used the program as a loophole to increase their profit margins by hiring skilled foreign workers for comparatively low wages.   The foreign workers are often schooled in the business' procedures and culture by the American workers they later displace.   'They have to train these people and they lose their job.', Pascrell said...   SS, who became a naturalized citizen after arriving in the United States from India at the age of 3, lost her job as a program analyst for ADP Wilco in 1998.   Last February, Shah testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations and out-lined ADP Wilco's system of bringing programmers from India to replace American programmers.   She said that the Indian recruits would become disgruntled once they understood that they were severely under-paid compared to their U.S. counterparts and were restricted by their visas from seeking better employment at other companies...   Pascrell's legislation, which he said would be reintroduced when Congress reconvenes next month, provides for the following reforms: Requiring employers of H1-B visa holders to pay the prevailing wage.   Requiring employers to prove they have actively recruited U.S. workers.   Centralizing enforcement in the Department of Labor by giving it the power to audit employers and investigate potential abuses of the H1-B program.   Establishing an H1-B visa fee to fund science and technology training grants for U.S. workers.   Establishing a private right of action, which would allow employees to bring private lawsuits to claim mistreat-ment.   'No one is trying to shut down H1-B.', Pascrell said.   'What we're trying to shut down is the immoral and pretentious and expedient implementation of H1-B...   Just before Congress recessed for Thanksgiving, a revision was made to the Senate's Omnibus Appropriations bill that expanded the number foreign workers admitted under the H1-B visa program from 65K to 85K."
 

2004-12-09

2004-12-09
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
Unemployment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 467,554 in the week ending December 4, an increase of 147,256 from the previous week.   There were 486,202 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3% during the week ending November 27, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,888,190, an increase of 567,228 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.7% and the volume was 3,397,952."
graphs

2004-12-09
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Seasonally adjusted unemployment insurance claims up: 4-week average up a seasonally adjusted 4,750 to 341,250
"The [seasonally adjusted] number of people filing for state unemployment benefits for the first time rose unexpectedly by 8K to 357K last week, the Labor Department said Thursday...   The number of former workers continuing to receive state unemployment benefits rose by 91K to 2.8M in the week ended December 4.   The [seasonally adjusted] 4-week average of continuing claims fell by 3K to 2.76M, the lowest level since 2001 May."
graphs

2004-12-09 09:54PST (12:54EST) (17:54GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Household debt rose 9.1% in Q3
report from the Federal Reserve Board
"Debt levels of U.S. households increased at a 9.1% annual rate in the third quarter to $9.95T, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.   Household net worth increased about half as fast, rising $545G to $46.7T, the Fed said in its quarterly flow of funds report."

2004-12-09
Chris O'Brien _San Jose Mercury News_
Lean times linger for valley firms
"almost [5] years after the down-turn in technology spending began, high-tech companies still find themselves clawing for any sale they can get...   All over the region, companies that sell technology are being forced to slash costs, look for more business over-seas, try to buy competitors, revamp marketing strategies and keep a tight lid on jobs in the United States...   This is bad news if you're a long-suffering job hunter.   It's good news if you're a Fortune 500 company like FedEx...   tech spending will grow only modestly over the next 12 months...   At the same time, the forecast projects improvement will only translate into job growth in the Bay Area of 1% to 2% in 2005.   Steve Cochrane, an economist at Economy.com, projects growth in tech spending will slow from 14% in 2004 to 9% in the first quarter of 2005 and 5% in the second quarter.   Cochrane said there are no compelling innovations emerging to spur larger spending...   Gartner is projecting that tech spending will only grow about 5% to 7% in 2005...   For 2005, Thompson Financial predicts only a [huge] 15% increase in tech profits compared to a projected 40% increase for 2004...   Meta Group, a technology market-research firm, projects total tech spending in the Europe-Middle East-Africa region will surpass North America in 2005, and spending in the Asia-Pacific region, while smaller, is growing faster.   Juniper Networks of Sunnyvale has seen its revenues grow 83% in the first 9 months of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003.   Almost 50% of the revenue in 2004 came from over-seas, compared with about 30% in 2001."

2004-12-09
Phillip Robinson _SeaCoastOnLine_
Out-Sourcing the CEO Could Save Thousands of Jobs
"When an American programmer makes $60K and a Ph.D.-holding, English-speaking Indian programmer $6K, that's hard for companies to resist.   Add in the pensions you can skip here by laying off older Americans in favor of young Indians.   You can also use special visas to bring some of those foreign workers here to push down wage rates for the jobs that remain in the United States.   And you can stop paying for health-care benefits because they're covered by government in many other countries.   The savings just get bigger and bigger.   And you'll move to the lower U.S. tax bracket for over-seas operations.   Plus you'll pocket the tax subsidies given by other countries to attract off-shoring work.   And if those Indians get uppity and start raising their rates, you'll just threaten to move the jobs to [Red China], with even more millions desperate for work, willing to work for less and less...   Why doesn't this out-sourcing analysis apply to the CEO and other top execs?...   Talk about over-paid: American CEOs used to make 30 times as much as the average worker.   Now they make 400 times as much.   Add in the stock options, mega-pensions, corporate jets, club memberships, loans that don't have to be paid back, and the CEO total take is even richer.   There's the fat to cut, the waste to eliminate.   Other countries get fine executives for a fraction of what we pay here.   Many big European and Japanese corporations, those same outfits American companies cite when pleading that out-sourcing is a necessity to stay competitive, pay the top bosses only $250K to $400K or so, and with minimal extra benefits and stock options.   And most of them already speak English...   Or, maybe, just maybe, there are some Americans able to guide large companies while being paid only $250 to $400K a year.   That means out-sourcing one CEO could save as much money as killing a thousand programming jobs."

2005-12-09
Norman Matloff _H-1B/ L-1/ Off-Shoring e-News-Letter_
Pascrell proposed bill regarding H-1B visas
 

2004-12-10

2004-12-09 16:14PST (19:14EST) (2004-12-10 00:14GMT)
Ed Frauenheim _ZD Net_
Off-Shore Out-Sourcing Set for a Big Year
"By 2008, spending on IT services delivered through 'lobal sourcing' ill reach about 7% of a $728G total market -- or roughly $50G A more bullish view came Thursday from NeoIT, a consulting firm that advises clients about off-shore projects.   NeoIT 'foresees a big year for off-shore out-sourcing growth in 2005' and predicts that more than '80% of the Global 2K will have an off-shore presence by the end of the year.'   Although the studies do not necessarily contradict one another, their differing tones reflect a broader set of conflicting opinions about the hot-button topic.   Comprehensive information about the scale and impact of off-shoring has been lacking, but Congress recently passed a bill that would set aside $2M to study the issue."

2004-12-10
Neil MacFarquhar _NY Times_
Muslim Scholars Increasingly Debate Unholy War
"The debate over violence in Islamic cultures is swelling, with suggestions that the problem lies in the way Islam is being interpreted."

2004-12-10 06:43PST (09:43EST) (14:43GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
PPI up only 0.5% in November
BLS data

2004-12-10 09:13PST (12:13EST) (17:13GMT)
Padraic Cassidy & Shawn Langlois _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Auto parts maker Delphi to cut 8,500 jobs

2004-12-10 07:48PST (10:48EST) (15:48GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
UMich consumer sentiment rose from 92.8 in November to 95.7 in early December

2004-12-10
Jack Davis _Empire Page_
Hewlett-Packard's Global Strategy Is To Keep Americans Off the Pay-Roll
Save American Jobs
"Not only is Hewlett-Packard one of the country's leading job exporters, it is also a leading importer of H1B workers from foreign countries.   The company successfully lobbied Congress to increase the H1B quota to 20K.   It appears that HP wants anybody but Americans.   But the company's outrageous behavior doesn't end here.   HP is looking to shift its call center and software development tasks to at least nine countries in Europe and Asia, including out-sourcing leader India.   In fact, HP has been moving jobs to off-shore locations for years, and is only too glad to cash in on its experience to show other companies how to take jobs away from Americans -- and charge big fees for it...   her company lobbyists continually work the halls of Congress, pressuring law makers for huge tax breaks on over-seas profits."

2004-12-10 05:00PST (08:00EST) (13:00GMT)
_Forbes_
What are the chances of your job being out-sourced?
"The out-sourcing boom persists.   Reuters continued its out-sourcing push Thursday, saying it will increase its editorial staff in Bangalore, India [so it's really off-shoring, not just out-sourcing].   The move is part of a relocation of 100 jobs..."

2004-12-10 12:02PST (15:02EST) (20:02GMT)
Myra P. Saefong _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Crude petroleum futures close under $41 for first time in 4 months
"Crude [petroleum] futures closed under $41 a barrel for the first time in four months following an expected decision by OPEC members to cut 1M barrels per day off actual production starting in January...   January crude closed at $40.71, down $1.82 for the session.   It lost 4.3% for the week."

2004-12-10 13:40PST (16:40EST) (21:40GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks fell slightly this week
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 9.6 points, to 10,543.22, dropping 0.5% on the week...   The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 0.94 points, at 2,128.07, giving up 0.9% on the week.   The S&P 500 Index dipped 1.24 points, to 1,188.00.   The broad gauge slipped 0.25% on the week."
 

2004-12-11

2004-12-11
Steven Greenhouse _NY Times_
Unions Plan Big Drive for Better Pay at Mostly Non-Union WM
"The A.F.L.-C.I.O. and other unions are planning an unusual -- and unusually expensive -- campaign to pressure the world's largest retailer to improve its wages and benefits."
 

2004-12-12

2004-12-12
Ron Paul _Ron Paul Library_
Amnesty and Culture

2004-12-12
Dave Gershman _Ann Arbor News_
U of Michigan health system off-shores clerical work
"Thousands of times a day, doctors working for the University of Michigan Health System dictate notes about their patients for transcription into medical records, a laborious process that cost the health system more than $9M last year.   The task has grown so big in the last decade that the health system, since 1995, has sought help by hiring outside companies to supplement the work of its in-house transcribers.   The outside companies have always sent a portion of the work over-seas...   now about 60% of all medical transcriptions are performed by workers in India...   The health system isn't trying to cut its workforce, said Rosanne Whitehouse, associate hospitals administrator and director of medical information services.   It still employs 42 of its own full- and part-time transcriptionists, a number that has stayed about the same in recent years.   Last year, it paid $2.45M, plus benefits, to its own employees.   Meanwhile, it was paying more than $6M to the outside companies that use both U.S. and foreign workers.   Transcription demand has increased by 10% - 20% annually as the health system has expanded and as health insurance companies and the government demanded more information before paying up, Whitehouse said...   Over-seas out-sourcing is becoming more politically sensitive, especially in Michigan...   sending medical transcription work to India is enough to raise questions from the public...   PT of Ypsilanti, who heard about U-M's out-sourcing from a relative, said she's outraged.   Three of her family members work at Visteon Corp. in Ypsilanti, which is considering closing a factory in Michigan because of competition from [Red China].   Two of her friends recently lost their jobs at Compuware Corporation to workers in India, she said...   SAB of Lansing said she overheard U-M doctors talking about the medical transcription outsourcing during a recent doctor's appointment.   She said she was appalled.   U-M has a responsibility, because of its affiliation with the state, to hire local people...   Workers in India are paid differently and there is no direct comparison available for how their annual pay compares to U.S. workers, but Whitehouse said medical transcribing is considered good work there."
 

2004-12-13

2004-12-13 05:41PST (08:41EST) (13:41GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US retail sales were up 0.1% in November & October was better than previously estimated
"Retail sales have moved up 7.2% in the past 12 months, while ex-auto sales are up 8.6%."

2004-12-13
Steve Lohr _NY Times_
I.B.M. Sought a Partnership with Red China, Not Just a Sale

2004-12-13 09:05PST (12:05EST) (17:05GMT)
Ron Rowland _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Technology is back: But Gold & energy are out
"Gold and oil stocks took a tumble last week.   While there are many reasons to remain long-term bullish on the natural resource sectors, for now there's a new trend in town: Technology."

2004-12-13 13:49PST (16:49EST) (21:49GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
stocks rallied on retail sales report
"The Dow rose 95.10 points, to 10,638.32, its highest close since March 1...   The S&P 500 Index, meanwhile, rose 10.68 points to 1,198.68, moving closer to breaking the key 1,200 barrier, which it last did in 2001 July.   The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 20.43 points to close at 2,148.50...   December has been the second-best month of the year for stocks on average, since 1950, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.   The Dow usually gains about 1.7%, the Nasdaq 2.1%, and the S&P 500 about 1.6%."

2004-12-13
Tom Sullivan _Info World_
Gartner predicts significant drop in IT jobs
"the pinch will be felt both within enterprise IT shops and among external service providers...   This glut is coming within the next two to 10 years, Gartner said...   we can definitely expect both utility computing and off-shore out-sourcing to eliminate IT jobs."

2004-12-13
_eWeek_
Improvements Needed in H-1B
"Program's rules need changing to protect visa holders from exploitation and to prevent discrimination against citizens...   the H-1B program [is] a flood-gate for diluting the U.S. labor market with [marginally] skilled, low-wage workers."

2004-12-13
John Soat _Information Week_
Off-Shore Out-Sourcing, Tax Dollars, Trouble: Could we call it something else, like replacement therapy?
Tekrati: Out-Sourcing to Top Federal IT Spending through 2009 says INPUT
Federal Computer Week
"Out-sourcing will be one of the fastest-growing federal technology initiatives over the next 5 years, according to a report last week from Input, a government market-research firm.   Government spending on IT outsourcing will have a compound annual growth rate of 8.3%, from $11.7G this year to $17.4G in 2009, according to Input.   And what's the most significant factor driving the growth in federal out-sourcing?   A shortage of IT workers, because a significant percentage -- as much as a third -- of federal IT personnel will reach retirement age by 2006.   There's no hotter hot button than out-sourcing; add in tax-payer dollars and foreign programming talent, and you've got the potential for a political fire-storm, no matter how compelling the numbers are.   So far, the feds have kept the lid on.   'While off-shoring IT services is a growing concern, thus far it remains a minimal part of the total spent on federal IT out-sourcing services.', said Chris Campbell, senior analyst, federal market analysis at Input, in a statement."
 

2004-12-14

2004-12-13 21:05PST (2004-12-14 00:05EST) (05:05GMT)
Andrea Coombes _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Body Shopper manPOWER Says More Companies Planning to Hire
"21% of employers plan to hire in the first quarter of 2005, up from 20% in the fourth quarter and up from 14% a year ago...   But even without seasonal adjustments, the first quarter outlook this year is stronger than last year: 14% vs. 7%...   Other industries are flat: 23% of firms in wholesale and retail trade plan to hire, up from 22% in the previous quarter; 20% of non-durables manufacturers will hire, down from 22%; 23% of durables manufacturers, flat from 23% a quarter ago; and 21% of firms in the services sector, down from 20% [sic]..."

2004-12-14 06:04PST (09:04EST) (14:04GMT)
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Trade gap widened in October: US purchases of European goods second highest on record
"The U.S. trade deficit widened by a sharp 8.9% in October to a record $55.5G, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday, showing that it is going to take more than a strong euro to stop the nation's runaway trade gap...   The trade gap in September was revised lower to $50.9G from the initial estimate of $51.6G.   Despite the stronger euro, the U.S. imported $24.7G in goods from the European Union in October, the second highest total on record...   Imports of goods and services rose 3.4% to a record $153.5G.   This is the largest monthly increase in imports since 2002 November.   Exports of goods and services rose a slim 0.6% to a record $98.1G...   The October non-petroleum deficit rose to $42.6G, the second highest level on record...   For the first ten months of the year, the U.S. trade deficit widened to $500.5G, already larger than the record annual deficit of $496.5G set in 2003.   Imports of goods alone rose 4.0% to a record $128.7G.   The U.S. imported record amounts of industrial supplies and consumer goods in October.   Imports of capital goods were the highest since 2000 December.   Exports of goods alone rose 0.3% to a record $70.3G...   The U.S. trade deficit with [Red China] widened to a record $16.8G in October behind record imports of $19.7G."

2004-12-14 14:05PST (17:05EST) (22:05GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
S&P 500 & Nasdaq rally to new highs: But Fed continues to crush job market by raising rate to 2.25%
"U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hitting multi-year highs, as the Federal Reserve accompanied its widely anticipated quarter point increase in its key lending rate with soothing comments on the outlook for the economy...   The Nasdaq Composite Index added 11.34 points, to 2,159.84, its highest closing level since 2001-06-29.   Strength in semiconductor and Internet stocks buoyed the tech-rich index.   The S&P 500 Index gained 4.70 points, to 1,203.38, the first time the broad gauge has climbed over the key 1,200 barrier since 2001 August.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average meanwhile rose 38.13 points, to 10,676.45."
Fed FOMC raised rate to 2.25%
Fed FOMC press release

2004-12-14 15:51PST (18:51EST) (23:51GMT)
Michael Paige _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bill Gates joined Berkshire Hathaway board: Has long been an investor and friend of Warren Buffet: So much for their reputations

2004-12-14
_The Electric New Paper_
Few Big US Firms to Bring Cash Home: Planned tax break could boost economy & create more jobs
"Most big US multi-national companies don't bring their off-shore earnings home, where taxes are steep.   Instead they hoard them in, among other places, Singapore and the Irish Republic, where corporate tax rates are lower.   Quite a lot of those funds are expected to be brought back to the US soon, though, thanks to a one-off tax break, enacted just before the presidential election...   American multinational companies taking advantage of this tax break could bring home up to $350G in foreign earnings."

2004-12-14
Stephen Swoyer _Enterprise Systems Journal_
Off-Shore Out-Sourcing Failures Boost Some IT Salaries
"Foote Partners, LLC... found premium pay tied specifically to information technology skills was also boosted by employers concerned about retaining skilled employees -- and staving off... competition for top IT... talent."
 

2004-12-15

2004-12-14 23:01PST (2004-12-15 02:01EST) (07:01GMT)
Rick Smith _Local Tech Wire_
Off-Shoring & Out-Sourcing Generate Debate
"the CED is sponsoring a panel discussion on out-sourcing at Duke.   The new out-sourcing study released by Duke and research firm Archstone Consulting has added plenty of fuel to the debate.   After we posted a story about the study, Local Tech Wire invited an executive on each side to have their say."

2004-12-15 07:36PST (10:36EST) (15:36GMT)
William J. Golz _National Academy of Engineering_
Off-Shore Out-Sourcing - The New Tea Tax
"what happened to the spirit of the American electorate...?...   is the same American electorate willing to endlessly sustain publicly funded universities as those universities flagrantly use American tax dollars to accelerate the recruitment of foreign nationals by sending university representatives to countries to which America is losing the greatest number of jobs?...   American universities, which are supported almost entirely by American tax-payer dollars, are operating as multi-national corporations.   As the anonymous author of that comment notes, much of the out-sourcing boom in India and [Red China] is supported by Chinese and Indian engineers trained at American universities.   As the faculty member also points out, nearly all foreign students receive subsidized or free tuition as part of their graduate research assistantship, and most foreign students are paid graduate research assistants, earning a higher salary here than they would at home as mid-career professionals, all at American [tax-victim] expense.   As the anonymous faculty member goes on to say, the university presidents, many of whom now earn about $500K per year, and college deans, most of whom earn well in excess of $100K per year, have raised their salaries by fueling the myth of a scientific labor shortage.   A myth which has allowed these university administrators to lobby federal and state government for more funding to boost student enrollments in science and engineering to the point that we now have a glut of trained scientists and engineers.   With this current university-supported glut of highly trained workers, salaries for scientists and engineers in America and abroad are in a downward spiral.   This glut is, however, invaluable to multi-national corporations in a number of ways.   It keeps labor costs down both here and abroad and feeds the ever-increasing need for foreign nationals whom share a culture and a language with the countries that are outsourcing the bulk of American jobs.   Multi-national corporations are therefore happy to lobby congress to have applied research done at universities rather than at government agencies [anything rather than pay the costs for their own research], most of which require American citizenship as a condition of employment."

2004-12-15 13:39PST (16:39EST) (21:39GMT)
Myra P. Saefong _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Petroleum futures at 2-week highs
"U.S. distillate inventories failed to increase last week and Russian oil giant Yukos has filed for bankruptcy, combining to stoke supply concerns Wednesday as wintry weather starts to set in and lifting petroleum futures to their highest levels in 2 weeks.   'This is like triple bad news for the oil markets -- the supply data shows it could be a long winter, the much, much colder temperatures across the country and the bankruptcy of Yukos -- all are contributing to the rise in prices.', said Kevin Kerr, president of Kerr Trading International.   Heating oil for January delivery rose 8.39 cents, or 6.4%, to close at $1.3884 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange, its steepest ending level since November 30.   January crude closed at $44.19 a barrel, up $2.37, or 5.7%.   Similarly, January unleaded gas tacked on 5.18 cents, or 4.7%, to close at $1.1617 a gallon."

2004-12-15 08:20PST (11:20EST) (16:20GMT)
Madeleine Acey & Jeffry Bartash _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Sprint to buy Nextel for $35G, spin off local monopolies into separate unit

2004-12-15 13:37PST (16:37EST) (21:37GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks rallied into close
"Session gains came amid a spike in oil prices and a fresh slide for the dollar.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 15 points, at 10,691.45, after climbing as high as 10,706.16, its best level intraday since February...   The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 2.71 points to 2,162.55, while the S&P 500 Index climbed 2.34 points to end at 1,205.72."

2004-12-15 14:35PST (17:35EST) (22:35GMT)
Michael Paige _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Software stocks buoyed by M & A talk: Oracle's PeopleSoft buy, Symantec-Veritas talk fuel hopes for the dark side of the software business

2004-12-15
James R. Edwards _Human Events_
Congress, Hooked on Foreign IT Workers, Slipped Deal into Huge Spending Bill
"Evidently, going cold turkey on foreign workers and letting the labor market work wasn't an option.   Multi-nationals in this sector have become so addicted to cheap foreign labor that they exhausted the entire fiscal year's quota of 65K H-1B visas on the first day of the fiscal year, October 1...   Their timing betrayed their true motivation.   The Washington Post ran a front-page story November 9 documenting the plight of American tech workers.   The sub-head-line read, 'IT Unemployment Now Exceeds Overall Jobless Rate'.   Common sense tells you that it doesn't benefit skilled, unemployed Americans to bring in more foreign workers to fill jobs they could do.   The truth is these companies want to displace or over-look qualified American technology workers for cheap foreign labor...   They included a measure senator Ted Kennedy insisted on for manipulating the way 'prevailing wage' is calculated; it allows corporations to drive down tech-sector pay so fewer Americans can afford to take those jobs.   The deal also contained a figleaf provision to reduce one of the many abuses of L-1, or intracompany transfer, visas...   The U.S. IT work-force declined to 5.93M in 2003, falling successively each year from the peak in 2000 of 6.47M...   Consulting firm Challenger Gray & Christmas said 16% of all U.S. jobs cut this year were with high-tech firms...   'those same employers who claim such a shortage are laying off programmers and engineers with graduate degrees in droves.', says Matloff...   Harvard economist George Borjas has found, '[T]he immigrant influx of the 1980s and 1990s lowered the wages of most native workers, particularly those workers at the bottom and top of the education distribution.   The wage fell by... 3.6% for college graduates...   [In 2000] the typical male college graduate earned $73K, implying that immigration reduced this worker's wage by nearly $2,600.'...   Conservative economist Thomas Sowell has written, 'The argument that immigrants take jobs that other Americans don't want leaves out the crucial factor of pay.'"

2004-12-15
Shirleen Holt _Seattle Times_
Jobs & joblessness climb (graphs)
"Washington gained 3,200 jobs in November, coming within just a few thousand of the state's job count before the recession.   Meanwhile, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.7% from 5.6% in October, a sign that discouraged workers have resumed their job search.   Although job growth remains relatively weak in the Seattle area -- it has recovered about a third of the jobs it lost -- the statewide economy is just 4,400 jobs short of recouping the 81,400 lost between 2001 January and 2003 June...   Like others, the recession thrust Stern into ill-fitting jobs out of economic necessity.   Her husband had lost his technology job, forcing Stern to go wherever the opportunities were...   There are signs tech workers are considering greener pastures, too.   The devastating down-turn hit [Washington] technology the hardest in 2002, forcing programmers, systems analysts and the like to take jobs below their skills and salary expectations."

2004-12-15
Douglas Tallman _Gazette_
Out-Sourcing a losing fight to some officials
"Although union, business and government officials do not like it, 3 words emerge often in discussions of state money going over-seas for public projects: 'fact of life'.   'My gut reaction says none of that work should go over-seas.', said Mike Galiazzo, executive director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute, a Hunt Valley organization that supports MD businesses...   Two weeks ago, the Montgomery County Conference Center officially opened in North Bethesda, paid for with $40M from the state and county.   The general contractor spent $2M of that on wood-working created in [Red China]."
 

2004-12-16

2004-12-16
Subri Raman & Tony Sznoluch _DoL ETA_
unemployment insurance weekly claims report
"The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 371,400 in the week ending December 11, a decrease of 101,003 from the previous week.   There were 412,627 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.   The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1% during the week ending December 4, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week.   The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,684,771, a decrease of 193,954 from the preceding week.   A year earlier, the rate was 2.6% and the volume was 3,287,681."
graphs

2004-12-16
Gregory Robb _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US unemployment insurance claims fell: Biggest weekly decline in 3 years
"The number of people filing for state unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level seen since July, the Labor Department said Thursday.   Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 43K to 317K in the week ended December 11...   Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said volatility in claims around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays made it hard to discern any true trend in claims.   He said claims should be viewed with caution until sometime in January...   Claims in the previous week were revised to a gain of 10K to 360K compared with the initial estimate of an 8K-claim rise to 357K.   The 4-week moving average of new claims fell by 4,500 to 337,750.   The Labor Department also said that the number of former workers receiving state unemployment checks fell by 50K to 2.74M in the week ended December 4."
graphs

2004-12-16 06:26PST (09:26EST) (16:26GMT)
_BBC_
Millions to lose textile jobs
"Millions of the world's poorest textile trade workers will lose their jobs under new trade rules to be introduced in the new year, a charity has warned.   The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is to end its Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA) at midnight on December 31...   Many countries originally supported the WTO policy but are now fearful that [Red China], which became a WTO member in 2001, will overwhelm the market.   [Red China] now accounts for about 17% of global textile sales, but some experts believe this could rise to 50%.   Christian Aid has warned that millions of jobs will be lost, in a new report called 'Rags To Riches To Rags'...   European producers believe a fully liberalised market could benefit them but only if [Red China] and other countries scrap current trade barriers."

2004-12-16 13:03PST (16:03EST) (21:03GMT)
_KCRA_
Illegal Immigrant Driver's License Bill Re-Introduced
"There's a renewed push to get the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pass legislation allowing [illegal] immigrants to receive driver's licenses.   Law-makers have put a new bill on the table, which is identical to the one that has already been vetoed by Schwarzenegger...   The governor wants immigrant licenses to have a 'distinguishing mark' that shows they may not be reliable identification documents."

2004-12-16 13:06PST (16:06EST) (21:06GMT)
William Spain _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Inflation rears ugly head as job market remains stagnant: Hershey raises prices

2004-12-16 13:19PST (16:19EST) (21:19GMT)
Mark Cotton _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Blue chips rose on Johnson & Johnson - Guidant merger deal
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 14.19 points, to 10,705.64...   The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 16.40 points at 2,146.15, while the S&P 500 Index fell 2.52 points, to 1,203.20.   On the broader market for equities, decliners out-paced advancers by nearly 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, and by a 19 to 12 score on the Nasdaq.   Volume was heavy with nearly 1.8G shares exchanging hands on the Big Board, while 2.35G shares were traded on the Nasdaq.   Boosting volume was Friday's expiration of contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures, known as quadruple witching."

2004-12-16 13:25PST (16:25EST) (21:25GMT)
Robert Schroeder _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stock options expensing rules to take effect in June: Compensation costs must be deducted
"Public companies are required to apply the new rule as of the annual reporting period beginning 2005-06-15, according to the unanimous decision by the Financial Accounting Standards Board.   Companies that file as small business issuers, meanwhile, are required to apply the rules after 2005-12-15."

2004-12-16
David Batstone & David Chandler _Sojourners Mail_
Advent Economics & the WM Way: Ford vs. WM: A Tale of 2 Companies
"The AFL-CIO has launched a major campaign to draw attention to the business practices of WM.   'The biggest corporation in America today has a business plan that lowers standards, first among its own employees and ultimately for all Americans.', says John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO...   WM, with over $250G in annual sales, is more often praised for its streamlined business model.   Its inventory system and distribution network are beyond compare in the retail industry.   WM's recipe for success, however, does depend as well on squeezing labor costs.   The majority of its hourly workers earn less than $8.50 an hour, which means that a full-time sales clerk at WM falls under the official U.S. poverty level for a family of 4.   Nearly a century ago, Henry Ford planned for his employees to be his best customers.   Challenging the conventional wisdom that the best way to maximize profits was to tailor your product to the wealthiest segment of society, Ford decided to market his black Model T as 'America's Everyman car'.   For Ford, mass production went hand-in-hand with mass consumption.   He established a simple benchmark for worker compensation: His workers should be able to buy the product they were making.   Ford promised a $5-a-day minimum wage for all his workers - twice the prevailing automobile industry average.   Doing so, Ford created a virtuous circle...   The company flourished on these twin pillars - a desirable product and a highly motivated employee base.   By the time production of the Model T ceased in 1927, Ford had sold more than 15M cars - half the world's output...   While Ford's business model helped lay the foundation for a rising middle class in America, the WM model reinforces downward mobility.   WM today is the largest commercial employer of labor in the United States.   In 2002, 82% of American households bought something at WM.   Americans must love to shop at WM; on the other hand, maybe they have no choice.   A sizeable percentage of WM's sales come from low-income households.   The effort to minimize production costs is a legitimate business strategy; no argument there.   But does WM realize that the employees whose wages they squeeze are often the customers upon whom they rely to fuel their business? While Ford created demand and wealth with a new and innovative product, WM displaces existing demand - siphoning consumption from elsewhere by under-cutting prices...   For every WM super-center that opens in the next 5 years, 2 other super-markets will close."

2004-12-16
Andy McCue _Silicon.com_
High-profile out-sourcing failures predicted in 2005: Rushed cost-cutting deals will come back to bite
"High-profile outsourcing failures are expected to be a feature of 2005 with rushed cost-cutting deals of the last few years coming back to bite some businesses, according to new research from Gartner...   Gartner figures showing 'considerably less than half' of CIOs have a business background, and just 20% -- a figure that has steadily dropped over the last few years -- have a seat on the board as a trusted adviser to the CEO [while less than 25% of CEOs have a background in science or engineering]."

2004-12-16
Lea Featherstone _Radical Leftist Nation_
Down & Out in WM Land
"Betty Dukes, the lead plaintiff in Dukes v. WM, the landmark sex-discrimination case against the company, points out that WM takes out ads in her local paper the same day the community's poorest citizens collect their welfare checks.   'They are promoting themselves to low-income people.', she says.   'That's who they lure.   They don't lure the rich...   They understand the economy of America.   They know the haves and have-nots.   They don't put WM in Piedmonts.   They don't put WM in those high-end parts of the community.   They plant themselves right in the middle of Poorville.'   Betty Dukes is right.   A 2000 study by Andrew Franklin, then an economist at the University of CT, showed that WM operated primarily in poor and working-class communities, finding, in the bone-dry language of his discipline, 'a significant negative relationship between median household income and WM's presence in the market'...   Only 6% of WM shoppers have annual family incomes of more than $100K.   A 2003 study found that 23% of WM Supercenter customers live on incomes of less than $25K a year.   More than 20% of WM shoppers have no bank account, long considered a sign of dire poverty.   And while almost half of WM Supercenter customers are blue-collar workers and their families, 20% are unemployed or elderly...   Al Zack [a retired UFCW VP said], 'The only problem with the business model is that it really needs to create more poverty to grow.'   That problem is cleverly solved by creating more bad jobs worldwide.   In a chilling reversal of Henry Ford's strategy, which was to pay his workers amply so they could buy Ford cars, WM's stingy compensation policies -- workers make, on average, just over $8 an hour, and if they want health insurance, they must pay more than a third of the premium -- contribute to an economy in which, increasingly, workers can only afford to shop at WM.   To make this model work, WM must keep labor costs down.   It does this by making corporate crime an integral part of its business strategy.   WM routinely violates laws protecting workers' organizing rights (workers have even been fired for union activity).   It is a repeat offender on overtime laws; in more than thirty states, workers have brought wage-and-hour class-action suits against the retailer.   In some cases, workers say, managers encouraged them to clock out and keep working; in others, managers locked the doors and would not let employees go home at the end of their shifts.   And it's often women who suffer most from WM's labor practices."
 

2004-12-17

2004-12-17 05:30PST (08:30EST) (13:40GMT)
Corbett B. Daly _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
US November CPI up 0.2%
dollar gains in wake of CPI report
longer report
BLS report

2004-12-17 13:28PST (16:28EST) (21:28GMT)
David B. Wilkerson _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
MGM share-holders OK sale to Sony-led group
"Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. share-holders on Friday approved the sale of the company for $4.8G to a Sony-led consortium, MGM said...   The consortium includes Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator, as well as Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners, a unit of Credit Suisse Group."

2004-12-17 13:52PST (16:52EST) (21:52GMT)
Susan Lerner _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks strained by pharmaceutical woes
"Blue chips snagged a 4-day winning streak to close lower Friday, pressured by a fresh spike in crude prices and negative developments in the drug sector, including findings of cardiovascular risk in Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex drug.   The decline was not sharp enough to erase the week's gains, however.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 55 points, or 0.5%, at 10,649, but was up 1% from a week ago.   Pfizer was the biggest decliner on the benchmark index, losing 11% on fears for one of its blockbuster drugs.   Merck & Co., which withdrew its similar drug Vioxx three months ago, ended down 0.6%.   The Nasdaq Composite Index ended down 11 points, or 0.5%, at 2,135, hit by a string of disappointing announcements, including PalmOne Inc.'s warnings that third-quarter earnings will fall short of estimates.   The index carved out a 0.3% gain for the week.   The S&P 500 lost 9 points, or 0.8%, to 1,194.   The index gained 0.5% on the week.   Also dampening sentiment was a jump in crude-oil prices back above the $46-[per]-barrel mark.   January crude futures ended up $1.50 to $45.68 [per] barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading as high as $46.20."

2004-12-17 15:40:52PST (18:40:25EST) (23:40:25GMT)
Norman Matloff _H-1B/L-1/off-shoring e-news-letter_
"His call for 'more data' on off-shoring is a tried-and-true method for deflecting attention from the central problems.   And once Congress does get more data, it ignores the data.   For instance, in employer surveys in 2 congressionally-commissioned studies (NRC, 2000 and GAO, 2003) the employers actually admitted paying H-1Bs less than comparable Americans."
senator Joseph Lieberman's press release
Lieberman's report
Norman Matloff's analysis of the press release

2004-12-17
Michael R. Triplett _Daily Labor Report_/_Bureau of National Affairs_
US court of international trade says DoL failed to show that information technology products was not an "article" under terms of the Trade Act
"The Labor Department's determination that former information technology workers did not produce an 'article' for purposes of trade adjustment assistance eligibility was based on improper analysis, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled December 1, remanding the case to DOL for further review (Former Employees of Elec. Data Sys. Corp. v. United States Dep't of Labor, Ct. Int'l Trade, No. 03-00373, 2004/12/01 [released 2004/12/09]).   While stopping short of ruling that information technology was an 'article' under the Trade Act, the trade court said there were strong arguments that the information technology created by former Electronic Data Systems employees -- whose jobs ended when their work was shifted to Mexico in 2002 December -- was an 'article' and that the Labor Department needs to reevaluate its legal findings.   The trade court faulted DOL for relying on the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States... when deciding whether computer applications are 'articles' for purposes of TAA coverage...   The workers lost their jobs at EDS's Fairborn, Ohio, facility in 2002 and filed a petition for TAA benefits in late December 2002.   They alleged in their petition that products used to provide computer application creation and support had been moved from the Ohio facility to Juarez, Mexico.   The products included computer programs, job control language, data-base support and documentation, and other computer documentation."

2004-12-17
Sarah D. Scalet _CIO_
The Off-Shore Sniff Test: When it comes to off-shore out-sourcing, the real privacy problem is what companies are keeping secret
"Nobody ever asked me whether I wanted my financial information sent outside the United States.   After all, I might have said no.   There's a tremendous amount of concern right now about the risks of having personal information, especially financial information, shipped over-seas and processed by the lowest bidder.   Sending data off-shore introduces cultural, geographical and most of all legal complexities to keeping the information secure and private.   But the real problem, it turns out, isn't that having your data sent off-shore is intrinsically any less safe than keeping it in the United States.   It's that companies feel the explicit need not to tell you what they're doing.   The privacy they're most worried about protecting is their own...   89% of [E-Loan] customers have taken the bait [trading away marginally greater privacy of having their applications processed in the USA to get faster turn-around via India]...   the question we should be asking from a privacy perspective is not whether information should go over-seas.   It's which companies will best protect sensitive information, regardless of their location."
 

2004-12-18

2004-12-17 16:45:35PST (19:45:35EST) (2004-12-18 00:45:35GMT)
Norman Matloff _H-1B/L-1/off-shoring e-news-letter_
Norman Matloff's related _Michigan Journal of Law_ article
"There is no requirement that one be of outstanding ability in order to get a student visa (F-1).   All that one needs is to be accepted by a U.S. school.   That school doesn't have to be Harvard or MIT.   Choose your favorite low-level, non-selective college, and it qualifies.   In fact, research shows that the foreign students who get PhDs at American universities are disproportionately enrolled in the academically weaker schools:

department quality	Pct of PhD students foreign born
highest quarter	37.2%
second quarter	44.5%
third quarter	47.5%
lowest quarter	50.6%

(See David S. North 1995 _Soothing the Establishment: The Impact of Foreign-Born Scientists and Engineers on America_ University Press of America, pg 48.)"

2004-12-18
Ron Harris & Steve Bolhafner _St. Louis Post-Dispatch_
Food stamp use is on the rise across the USA
"Since 2000, Gray and more than 6M other Americans have joined the ranks of the families who find it increasingly difficult to perform a most basic function -- to put food on their tables.   The economic indicators are numerous.   After a 7-year decline, the number of Americans on food stamps has shot up 39% since 2000, according to federal statistics.   Every state, except Hawaii, has felt the impact.   In Arizona, food stamp rolls have increased 104%, in Nevada, 97%; Oregon, 79%; South Carolina, 68%; Missouri, 65%.   Texas has added nearly 1M people to its food stamp rolls in only 4 years...   Illinois has seen a 31% increase in the number of people on food stamps since 2000...   Meanwhile, the nation's network of food banks and food pantries say they are under intense pressure to meet the demand of hungry families, nearly half of them working...   Metro Caring, a Denver food pantry that last year served 34,000 people, half of whom were children.   At the Circle of Concern in Valley Park, executive director Glen Koenen said that last month, the pantry served more than 1,200 families, far beyond the pantry's capacity of 750 it established two years ago.   America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest private network of food providers, served 23 million Americans in 2001, 6 million more than the federal food stamp program, according to an independent study.   With demand increasing at food pantries around the country as much as 10%, 20%, even 40% annually, the network is still probably serving more than the federal government, said Doug O'Brien, vice president for public policy and research for the organization...   many Americans... are still reeling from the recession that began in 2000 and was further exacerbated by the terrorist attacks on September 11 the following year...   Even with the recent economic recovery, the country remains 585K jobs short of where it was in 2001, economists say...   Across the country, there are signs that millions of Americans are still feeling the result of the recession, which peaked last year...   It's one thing to lose your job and maybe have 3 months of pay in the bank.   But when you're unemployed for a year or two and you no longer have the money in the bank, once you get a new job your income may not have declined, but your assets have...   millions of workers have been left on the sidelines or in jobs that pay much lower than their previous positions...   The third trend, economists say, is that with housing, medical and home fuel costs rising much faster than the nation's salaries, many families, particularly low-income and the working poor, find themselves pushed onto an even lower economic rung.   Consequently, what were once considered emergency services, such as food pantries and food stamps, have become vital everyday needs."

2004-12-18 04:00PST (07:00EST) (12:00GMT)
Matt Frei _BBC_
Fortress America's problem at the border
"Illegal immigration has become a major problem in much of the developed world.   The US believes 1.5M immigrants cross its borders illegally every year.   The majority of them do not come through its tightly-controlled airports -- they wander in across the long and porous border which separates the US from its southern neighbour, Mexico...   In the distance you could see a huge white building.   The locals call it the Taj Mahal.   It is the border post between the US and Mexico.   It graces a pristine, asphalted road, the legal route between the 2 countries.   It was completed after 9/11 and hardly anyone ever uses it...   But on either side of this monument to futility, the flimsy barbed wire that separates the First World and the Third has been prised open.   The churned-up sand shows a veritable stampede of migrants.   In the high season, which starts after Epiphany, as many as 6K Mexicans and other Hispanics will sneak across the border.   Only 1 in 3 gets caught...   Our brand new Humvee patrol vehicle got a flat tyre and the helicopter was '10-7'...   It looked like a municipal rubbish dump, strewn with precious personal belongings.   Rucksacks containing documents, family photographs, medication...   Agent Neubauer shook his head.   'You wonder how desperate or tired some people are to ditch the few precious personal things that they have taken on this trek.'...   Every year about 600 migrants die, mainly from thirst.   In the summer, the temperatures in Arizona often soar to 40-45C (104-113F)."

2004-12-18
Russell Pearce _American Patrol_
Arizona Deputies Shot by Illegal Aliens
East Valley Tribune
Arizona Republic
 

2004-12-19

2004-12-19
Chua Chin Hon _Singapore Straits Times_
In a reversal of an old mind-set, 9 in 10 say they will go home where opportunities abound
"As a testimony to the growing economic allure of [Red China], nearly 9 in 10 main-land Chinese who have studied over-seas said they would return home to search for better opportunities, according to a new survey.   Results of the survey, widely carried in the [Red Chinese] media yesterday, illustrate the reversal of a decades-old mindset where many Chinese students see an over-seas education as a ticket out of the country for good.   [Red China's] booming economy has been the main driver for this change in attitude, with seven in 10 respondents saying they decided to go home chiefly because there are 'bright economic prospects ahead and the opportunities abound'.   Interviews with Chinese professionals who completed their studies at foreign universities recently suggested that the trend had picked up pace since 2000 and become much more obvious in the past 2 years...   The survey, conducted by the Chinese Youth Federation and 2 news-papers here, polled 3,097 people between October and November this year.   Those selected for the survey included 1,031 students who have returned to [Red China] and 1,420 who are still abroad.   The rest are main-land Chinese who live over-seas and students who have changed their nationality.   Overall, 95% of respondents have studied over-seas.   Among the 87.7% of respondents who said they would return to [Red China], 34.5% said they would do so immediately upon graduation, while 53.2% said they would get some work experience before going home.   Only... 9.5%, felt that it was not an 'inevitable trend' that they would return.   For those who chose not to go back to China, the main reasons they cited were: the complex web of guanxi, or social connections, required to get ahead at work (71.2 per cent), an inadequate legal system (68.8%) and poor living conditions (56.3%).   The survey said that some 700K Chinese have studied over-seas in the past 2 decades."
 

2004-12-20

2004-12-20
Diana Coulter _Christian Science Monitor_
25% of India's teachers are absent on any given day: 34% of the world's illiterate people live in India
"the extent of teacher truancy has been unclear until recently when a team of economists from Harvard University and the World Bank scrutinized it in detail.   They hired research firms to make 3 surprise visits to 3,700 randomly selected government primary schools, largely in rural areas, in 20 Indian states.   The study concluded that, at any time, 25% of the teachers were absent from schools.   In a one-room school, that often meant an empty, padlocked building.   Studies conducted in other countries showed India to be one of the worst cases.   Bangladesh's teacher-truancy rate was 16%.   Zambia's was 17%.   Only Uganda was worse, with 27%.   In the US, the rate as of 1993-94 was between 5% and 6%.   This research came on the heels of another telling report.   UNESCO released its 2005 Global Education Monitoring Report revealing that India is home to 34% of the world's illiterate people.   The country performed poorly even when compared with other developing countries with large populations like [Red China], which comes in second at 11% of the global total...   'We combine classes so there are sometimes 70 or 80 students for one to supervise.'...   Hammer's findings reinforce those from a 1999 school survey of 188 government primary facilities in northern India...   Surveyed teachers were largely content with salary (68%) and leave entitlements (86%).   'The most common complaint is that schools are under-equipped, under-funded, under-staffed, and over-crowded.', the report said.   More than half had a leaking roof, 89% lacked functioning toilets, and half had no water supply.   Some school buildings were misused as cattle sheds, police camps, teacher residences, or for drying cow-dung cakes."

2004-12-20
Adam Lolawa _ComputerWorld_
Off-Shore Out-Sourcing Is a Real Danger to You
"Reports of IT job losses and out-sourcing trends have been in the head-lines for several years now, so it's no surprise that even the most experienced and talented IT professionals have started to worry whether their jobs will be the next to go over-seas.   There's no doubt that more IT professionals will lose their jobs to [off-shore] out-sourcing."

2004-12-20
Judy Olian _TeleComm Careers_/_Scripps Howard News_
The Good, Bad & Ugly of Out-Sourcing
"The debate over the impact of global out-sourcing continues to rage, with Nobel Prize winner Paul Samuelson and Columbia professor Jagdish Bhagwati coming down on opposite sides of the issue.   These 2 'mega' economists disagree over whether short-term job losses brought on by out-sourcing are mitigated in the long run by gains to American workers from free trade and consumption growth in low-wage countries.   Samuelson, still going strong at 89, argues that the loss of competitive advantage to low-wage countries like [Red China] and India is permanent.   He maintains that the American economy and worker lose forever...   So who benefits from out-sourcing?   Certainly U.S. share-holders, investors, and American consumers derive benefits, although sometimes at the expense of American wage earners.   A report from the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that global out-sourcing returns 45% to 55% in net savings to corporations, with added profits from the sale of American products (especially IT) to run the off-shore operations.   Out-sourcing also results in cheaper imports.   Catherine Mann of the Institute of International Economics concludes that the price of personal computers dropped in the early 1990s because U.S. chip manufacturers moved off-shore and reduced chip prices by about 10% to 3