Economic News 2000 October

2000-10-01

2000-10-02

2000-10-02
_LA Times_
H-1B Visas for Engineers
"Why are we importing more engineers into this country?   There are unemployed and under-employed engineers in this country who are not being utilized."

2000-10-02
Holly Bailey _Open Secrets_
Computer Executives' Political Donations
"more than half of all House and Senate members have benefited in the form of political contributions this election cycle from the computer industry's economic prowess on Wall Street.   Of the House's 435 members, 325 of them have taken an average of $5K from the tech industry, while 75 out of 100 members of the Senate have reported an average contribution of $22K during the 1999-00 election cycle.   But that's nothing compared to the entire pot of computer industry contributions, which now totals more than $22M in soft money, PAC and individual contributions.   All told, that's nearly 3 times what the industry contributed during all of 1995-96..."
 

2000-10-03

2000-10-03 12:55PDT (15:55EDT) (19:55GMT)
Patrick Ross _CNET_
Senate voted to increase already extremely excessive H-1B visas
"[after nearly a year of economic depression and increased lay-offs in the tech industry] the Senate voted 96-1 to increase the number of high-tech workers permitted to enter the United States under special visas...   The bill lifts the visa limit to 195K annually for the next three years, up from 115K this year...   Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah...dismissed the fact that President Clinton and his chief of staff, John Podesta, have hinted at a veto of the bill if it didn't include immigration relief for Latino illegal aliens...   The Democratic leadership in the Senate fought during the last two weeks to attach language on Latino amnesty.   Enough Democrats defected, however, that Republicans were able to block any such amendments.   Once faced with an up-and-down vote on H-1B visas alone, only one Democrat -- Ernest Hollings of South Carolina -- voted against the legislation, without citing why."
 

2000-10-04

2000-10-04
May Wong _abc News_/_AP_
Tech Worker Glut: A Hard Push for H-1B Visa Bill
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/dailynews/techvisas001004.html
"skilled technology workers like Gupta are gems - especially if they have a 6-year H-1B visa from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.   That is why high-tech companies heavily lobbied federal law-makers to pass a bill that would authorize nearly 600K new H-1B visas over the next 3 years...   The quick congressional action after 9 months of jockeying fulfills an election-year promise by Democratic and Republican leaders to the high-tech world, which is flexing its political muscle through increased lobbying and campaign donations to both parties...   Jeff Modisett, co-chief executive of TechNet, a national bipartisan political organization that represents high-tech interests."
 

2000-10-05

2000-10-06

2000-10-06 06:32PDT (09:32EDT) (14:32UK) (13:32GMT)
_BBC_
US unemployment rate at 30 year low
"The US [seasonally adjusted] unemployment rate [for September] fell to 3.9%, equalling April's 30-year-low, the Labor Department reported on Friday."

2000-10-06 09:10PDT (12:10EDT) (16:10GMT)
_Raleigh NC News & Observer_
Black law-makers oppose increase in H-1B visas: Ask for veto

2000-10-06 13:35PDT (16:35EDT) (20:35GMT)
Patrick Ross _CNET_
Despite glut of tech workers and nearly a year of economic depression, the US House voted today to increase both numbers of H-1B guest-work visas and increase fees for them
"The House Friday voted to increase the fees employers pay for each H-1B high-tech visa to $1K in a measure sponsored by Rules Committee chairman David Dreier, R-CA."

2000-10-06
Diane Rezendes Khirallah _Information Week_
Clinton Says He'll Sign H-1B Visa Expansion Bill
"The new law, which passed both houses of Congress last week, will allow an additional 317,500 international IT workers to live in the United States, working for U.S. companies.   Though most will likely come from India, the visas are open to any qualified foreign national.   This is the second temporary increase in H-1B quotas in 3 years.   The American Electronics Association and the Information Technology Association of America hailed its passage: Without the new law, the quota would have dropped back to 65K by 2002.   With an [alleged] IT labor shortage that the ITAA estimates at 1.6M workers, the new measure should offer some relief, says ITAA VP Jeff Lande, but it's hardly a cure.   Pushing for more H-1B visas has been one of the 26,400-member association's top priorities since the bill's introduction into Congress.   Passage was delayed, Lande insists, because of partisan tactics and not because of opposition to the measure.     With a 96-1 Senate vote...   Professor Norm Matloff of the University of Southern California contends that employers exploit foreign workers, H-1B or not, citing a May article in Forbes that reports Indian programmers with H-1B visas typically earn 25% to 30% less than their American peers.   And U.S. representative Eva Clayton (D-NC) is circulating a letter asking for a presidential veto."
 

2000-10-07

2000-10-08

2000-10-08
_US News & World Report_
Nation & World numbers
"An epidemic of obesity threatens the health of millions of Americans, accounting for an estimated 300K deaths a year...
 
Critics say American schools are obsessed with standardized tests.   But a recent survey of 803 parents of public school students in grades K-12 found little evidence of a backlash...   Is there too much academic pressure on your child? 9%.   standardized tests? 11%.   Are standardized-test questions too difficult or unfair? 12%.   Does a focus on tests cause neglect of real learning? 18%...
 
The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is off 5.5% since September 1.   Many economists say at 1409 it is still over-valued...
 
Congress voted to let more skilled immigrants come work for U.S. tech titans.   In the first 5 months of 2000, 42,563 H-1B visa applications were approved for technology jobs within the computer industry.   Visas approved Country (per cent of total): India 7,619 (64.9%); [Red China] 3,438 (8.08%); Philippines 960 (2.25%); Canada 864 (2.03%); Pakistan 814 (1.9%). Source: INS"
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2000-10-09

2000-10-09
Elisabeth Goodridge _Information Week_/_Techies_
Older IT professionals assert age bias: Mid-career workers claim they're victim to a stereotype that says they can't learn new technology

2000-10-09
Elisabeth Goodridge _Information Week_/_Techies_
Money issues complicate job outlook of techies over 35 Companies wanting to pay less turn to younger and foreign workers, some older IT workers say.

2000-10-09
Elisabeth Goodridge _Information Week_
Older IT Professionals Struggle Against Age Bias: Despite an Alleged IT Labor Shortage, Many Experienced Workers Say They Can't Find Jobs
"he felt pretty confident about his chances.   His work experience as a computer programmer and IT trainer went back 25 years, and he had just completed a successful contracting stint -- extended 3 times -- at a company affiliated with the bank that manages investments.   I was very attractive on paper...'   Six months later... the position was still posted on a web site advertising tech jobs...
 
But if filling IT positions is such a big problem for companies, then why do skilled, experienced workers...struggle to find full-time employment?...   Norm Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine, submitted written testimony to Congress in 1998 that the problem of age discrimination in IT is getting worse...   In a 1998 study that analyzed employment status, experience, and age among IT professionals, the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers USA determined that more experienced workers -- primarily those who are older and demand higher pay -- on average search for 6 to 9 months before landing a job...   Intel has been a defendant in several age-discrimination cases during the last 5 years, and the U.S. subsidiary of Siemens Corp. settled such a case out of court last summer.   Earlier this year, former Oracle executive VP Randy Baker filed a civil suit against CEO Larry Ellison and executive VP Gary Bloom, alleging he was dismissed from the company because of his age.   Issues that hinder IT workers of all ages seem to hit mid-career professionals the hardest...
 
The fierce lobbying of Congress to increase the number of foreign workers allowed in the country using H-1B visas has ballooned into a major controversy within the 'IT' industry, and older workers are among those most opposed to the plan.   'I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined that such a thing as this could have happened.', Bradsher says.   'In any other profession, if you flooded the job market with imported workers, you'd have rioting in the streets and burning buildings and all that sort of thing.   But we're so addicted to our work that we don't respond.'"
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2000-10-10

2000-10-10
Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar _Swaminomics_
Vishwa Bharat vs. Akhand Bharat: some Hindus say they want to totally subjugate South Asia=India, the USA, and eventually the world... or will it be an "inter-mingling"? and, if so, will Jeffersonian natural individual human rights be violated?

2000-10-10
_LA Times_
Tech Worker Visas
"Re: 'Congress Raises Visa Quota for Tech Workers', October 4: American companies, unwilling to pay competitive rates for high-tech workers, entice foreign labor to toil for sub-standard wages with the false hope of permanent US residency."
 

2000-10-11

2000-10-12

2000-10-12
Craig Schneider _CFO_
Clinton to sign bill to vastly increase already excessive H-1B visas

2000-10-13

2000-10-12 16:05PST (19:05EST) (2000-10-13 00:05GMT)
Elisabeth Goodridge _Information Week_
Older IT Pros Struggle with Age Bias
see also above
"But if filling IT positions is such a big problem for companies, then why do skilled, experienced workers such as Linn struggle to find full-time employment?   Though little quantitative data exists regarding the issue, some industry observers and workers point to a rampant rise in age discrimination -- starting as early as age 35 -- in the tech industry...   In a 1998 study that analyzed employment status, experience, and age among IT professionals, the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers USA determined that more experienced workers -- primarily those who are older and demand higher pay -- on average search for 6 to 9 months before landing a job...   The IT industry is among those exhibiting a particularly high number of incidents of age discrimination, said Laurie McCann, a staff attorney at AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) who specializes in such cases."
 

2000-10-14

2000-10-14 01:52PDT (04:52EDT) (08:52GMT)
Thomas C. Greene _Register_
H-1B visa bill is a done deal
"After sailing through the Senate by a margin of 96-1, the bill that would increase the quota for high-tech-worker visas went to the House where it was approved as well, again with only one nay vote.   The bill will grant nearly 200K H-1B visas to foreign tech geeks for each of the next 3 years."

2000-10-15

2000-10-16

2000-10-16
_Business Week_
Even independent boards richly reward CEOs for mediocre performance
"While Dominion share-holders lost 10.9% on their stock, the committee handed CEO Thomas E. Capps a 192% pay hike, including options valued at $8.9M that brought his 1999 compensation to $11.3M...   critics maintain that the IRS definition of independence allows a lot of insiders in under the radar.   Still, in 1999, 57% of committees with insiders hiked CEO pay despite negative returns, compared with 65% in Newman's 1992 study..."

2000-10-06
John William Templeton _San Francisco Chronicle_
Tech recruiters spurn many colleges while demanding more visas for cheap foreign labor
alternate link
 

2000-10-17

2000-10-17
_Digital Media Wire_
Entertainment Site Z.com Lays Off Half Its Staff: iPIX Lays Off 20% Of Staff: o HollywoodTicket.com Announces Lay-offs
 

2000-10-18

2000-10-18 10:10PDT (13:10EDT) (17:10GMT)
Patrick Ross _CNET_
Corrupt Clinton signed bill to increase already excessive H-1B guest-work visas to 195K per year
 

2000-10-19

2000-10-20

2000-10-21

2000-10-22

2000-10-23

2000-10-23 09:50PDT (12:50EDT) (16:50GMT)
Melanie Austria Farmer _CNET_
Dot-com job cuts continue to rise
CNN/Money
CNN/Money technology
"The study, released Monday by out-placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, found that job cuts for the period from September 25 through October 20 rose to 5,677, a record for a single month and the fifth consecutive month of increases.   The October figure marks an increase of 18% from the preceding month, when struggling dot-coms accounted for 4,805 lay-offs.   Since 1999 December, the total number of job cuts is 22,267, according to Challenger Gray."
 

2000-10-24

2000-10-24
_At New York_
Blaze of Dot-Com Lay-Offs Likely to Increase
"Another day, another round of dot-com lay-offs.   And, according to a study by out-placement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, the sharp increase in job cuts is likely to increase in coming months.   In a study released Monday, Challenger Gray said the total number of job cuts since 1999 December was 22,267.   From September 25 through October 20, dot-com lay-offs climbed to 5,677, a record for a single month and the fifth consecutive month that the lay-off total has increased.   The firm, which tracks job cuts in all sectors, also found that 16% of 274 companies doing business on the Internet have gone out of business since last December."

2000-10-24
Steven Bonisteel _Computer User_
Dot-Com Lay-Offs Hit New High in October
ClickZ
"October is not yet over and already the month has set a new high-water mark for staff lay-offs among dot-com businesses, according to a report released Monday by out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. (GGC)...   lay-offs at Internet companies had reached 5,677 by October 20, up 18% over September's month-long total of 4,805.   And those numbers don't count another 240 positions that electronic postage company Stamps.com said it had trimmed...   As of October 20, GGC said, a total of 22,267 positions have been cut from dot-com companies since 1999 December, when the company began tracking the statistic.   During the first 6 months of the year, there were just 5,400 cuts -- less than October's total to date.   In addition, more than 4K of the jobs cuts during the first half of the year came in May and June.   July cuts totaled 2,194, the company said, followed by 4,193 cuts in August and September's 4,805.   GGC said on-line services firms (consultants and providers of information and financial services) led the way with 8,113 job cuts from 1999 December to October 20, with on-line retailers and their 5,450 lay-offs second.   Health and fitness firms on-line cut 2,190 jobs; portal companies, 1,786; and entertainment companies, 1,643...   GGC noted that some 44, or about 16%, of 274 dot-com companies that announced lay-offs since December have now failed."
 

2000-10-25

2000-10-26

2000-10-27

2000-10-27
_IT Director_
Lay-offs continue to plague Internet workers
"Since 1999 December the company estimates that some there have been some 22K lay-offs in the dot com space.   Last month in particular was a bad one.   Throughout the period from September 25th to October 20th of 2000 more than 5,500 dot com employees were sent to the dole queue, marking the worst period of lay-offs for the sector since Challenger Gray & Christmas (CG&C) started watching its performance...   According to CG&C the worst sectors to be working in right now are the consulting and financial space which have laid off more than 8K people since December, accounting for 36% of total lay-offs in the dot-com space.   Closely following that however was the retail game, which has claimed more than 5K job losses over the same period."
 

2000-10-28

2000-10-28
_CNET_
Where House members stand (alphabetical)
by their rank positions
 

2000-10-29

2000-10-30

2000-10-30
Randall E. Stross _US News & World Report_
We, the stunted: Whose fault is it that the web doesn't play a bigger role in politics
"Admittedly, neither H-1B visas for technical workers nor foreign acquisition of U.S. telecommunications giants is likely to be the hot-button issue that will pull in the undecided among MTV's demographic.   But why not take up, even for the briefest of moments, the Napster case?   Or the AOL-Time Warner merger?   Or government surveillance of E-mail?...   Would you like biographies, issue positions, and voting records on 40K candidates, from president to City Council members?   Nonpartisan Project Vote Smart (www.vote-smart.org) provides this and more, for free.   Want to track down campaign contributions, by candidates--or by donor name, ZIP code, or company?   OpenSecrets.org is the place to go, and it too is free...   In Peoria, IL, in 1854, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas tangled in an early debate, and what's most striking is their audience's appetite for seven hours of sophisticated discourse."
 

2000-10-31

2000-10-31
Dan Gebler _eCommerce Times_/_Tech News World_
Dot-Com Workers Down But Not Out
"Last week, out-placement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, Inc. reported that lay-offs among dot-com companies for the month of October had reached a record 5,677 -- an 18% increase from September -- bringing the tally of job cuts for the year 2000 to 22,267.   Many of the lost dot-com jobs are byproducts of firms that have failed.   However, a great deal of this year's lay-offs are due to companies that are down-sizing in a relentless pursuit of cost-cutting and profit-seeking.   The numbers are alarming not only because they represent an unprecedented amount of lay-offs in the 'New Economy', but also because there have been no signs that this trend will be reversed in the months to come."

2000-10-31
Dan Gebler _EcommerceTimes_/_News Factor_
Dot-Com Workers Down, But Not Out
"Laid-off dot-commers are finding their skills valuable in other contexts."

2000 October
_American Journal of Roentgenology_/_NIH_
The job market in diagnostic radiology updated with findings from a help wanted index of job advertisements
" In 1999, 3926 positions were advertised for diagnostic radiologists, representing a 75% increase from 1998.   Private practice jobs, which represented 53% of advertisements from 1991 through 1994 and 64% of ads from 1995 through 1998, increased to 66% of ads in 1999...   The demand for diagnostic radiologists continues to rise, with more ads placed in 1999 than any other year from 1991 through 1998."

2000 October
_Migration News_
Congress: H-1B, H-2C, Amnesty
"In 2000 September, there were 461K foreign professionals in the US with H-1B visas.   The leading countries of origin for H-1B visas issued in FY99 were India, 55,047; UK, 6,665; [Red China], 5,779; Japan, 3,339; and Philippines, 3,065...   The H-1B program expanded rapidly in the mid-1990s, and the first wave of H-1B foreigners reached the six-year limit on their US visas in 2000.   About 60% of H-1B visas are issued to computer-related professionals, and many of them want and expect their US employers to sponsor them for immigrant status [i.e. EB or green cards]...   The General Accounting Office released a report on the H-1B program in 2000 September that seemed to support critics, concluding: 'The program is vulnerable to abuse, both by employers who do not have bona fide jobs to fill or who do not meet required labor conditions, and by potential workers who present false credentials.'   The GAO reported that, in 1999, the median pay of H-1B workers was $45K, their median age was 28, half were born in India, and 40% were already in the US."

2000 October
Gerald W. Bracey _Phi Delta Kappan_ vol82 #2 pp 133-
10th report on the condition of education
"The Sandia Report, officially known as Perspectives on Education in America, appeared in published form only after the Bush Administration had left town.   For 12 years, the Reagan and Bush Administrations had pushed vouchers and tuition tax credits, with varying degrees of intensity.   One of their strategies was never to say anything positive about public schools.   For instance, 5 months after the math and science study that Alexander and Ravitch hyped, another international comparison appeared.   This one, How in the World Do Students Read?, found American students second in the world in reading skills among 9-year-olds tested in 27 countries and eighth (though statistically tied with 9 others for second) among 31 countries that tested 14-year-olds.   No one called a press conference, and there was no media coverage.   Even Education Week found out about the study only by accident some 2 months later.   A Europe-dwelling friend of then reporter Robert Rothman sent him a copy from Germany.   Education Week gave the report front-page coverage.   USA Today played off the Education Week story with its own page-one article, complete with a quote from Francie Alexander, then deputy assistant secretary of education, dismissing the study.   In the Reagan/Bush years, bad news about schools got hyped; good news got suppressed when possible and ignored otherwise.
 
Asked why the Sandia Report was not yet published, Department of Education officials declared that it did not meet professional standards and was undergoing peer review.   It was not being suppressed, they said.   Peer review?   Up to that point, it was unprecedented for one agency's reports to be 'peer reviewed' by other agencies.   But both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education passed judgment on the Sandia Report.   It is to their everlasting shame that NSF's Peter House and the Department of Education's Emerson Elliott allowed their good offices to be used for what were purely political and ideological purposes.   They should never have put their names on the reviews.
 
The Sandia Report eventually appeared in the 1993 May/June Journal of Educational Research, filling the entire issue.   In that venue, 5K people, few of whom have any burning interest in policy issues or in the fate of American public education, saw it.   Recently, I phoned Lee Bray, who is now retired.   Bray did not want to reopen old wounds, but he did say, 'The report was suppressed.   They will deny it, but it was definitely suppressed.'...
 
Korea had the second-highest math scores among the 41 nations in TIMSS and finished 9th in the 1998 International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).   FWIW, the U.S.A. always finishes higher than Korea in the IMO and remains the only nation ever to finish first with all members of the team attaining perfect scores...   The RAND study found that, nationally, NAEP math scores had been rising during the 1990-96 period."
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