2002-11-01

2002-10-31 21:01PST (2002-11-01 00:01EST) (2002-11-01 05:01GMT
Kimberley A. Strassel _WSJ_
The Truth Wins: Anti-gun scholar Michael Bellesiles gets the boot
"Within months of the book's appearance, however, a battle raged over Mr. Bellesiles's scholarship.   It ended last week when a distinguished panel of scholars declared the work 'unprofessional and misleading', & Mr. Bellesiles resigned from Emory University."

2002-11-01
_Dice_
Dice Report: 25,972 job ads

2002-11-01 05:57PST (08:57EST) (13:57GMT)
_AP_/_CBS.MarketWatch.com_
September consumer spending down 0.4%... largest decline in 10 months

2002-11-01 08:41PST (11:41EST) (16:41GMT)
Rachel Koning _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Jobless rate at 5.7%; pay-rolls off 5,000: Private workweek, factory workweek contract in October
"The pool of available workers -- the number of unemployed job seekers and those who haven't looked for work in the last 12 months but said they would take a job -- was little changed in October from September, at 12.7M people...   Pay-rolls were revised for the previous month to a loss of 13K from a loss of 43K jobs...   Average hourly wages rose 0.2% to $14.89...   The private sector's work-week contracted by 6 minutes to 34.1 hours, with the factory work-week contracting by 12 minutes and over-time flat."

2002-11-01 08:41PST (11:41EST) (16:41GMT)
Beryl Lieff Benderly _National Association of Science Writers_
when she got her M.A. in anthropology, they said her writing was too colorful for academia... and then she became a free-lance science writer
 

2002-11-02

2002-11-02 01:26PST (04:26EST) (09:26GMT)
Jeffry Barlash _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks up, up, up & away? No.
"It capped off the 4th straight week of gains.   During that time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has recovered from a low of 7,197 to its current position of 8,517.64 -- a gaudy 18% advance...   If Republicans win, Wall Street might get giddy with the thought of more tax cuts or fewer regulations.   Still, even if the GOP were to gain full control of Congress, such steps could be months away...   Based on post-war history, the U.S. should have created about 2.7M jobs in the... recovery, according to Donald Straszheim of Straszheim Global Advisers.   Instead, there's been no net gain."
 

2002-11-03

2002-11-03 06:00PST (09:00EST) (14:00GMT)
_CNet_
When back-office work moves over-seas
"While call center workers in the U.S. can make in the high $30K range or more a year, their Indian counterparts might earn $4K or up to $7K for a management-level post.   Including other expenses, total cost savings of 30% to 40% are possible in moving back-office tasks over-seas...   India's National Association of Software & Services Companies (Nasscom) says the country's call center & BPO industry -- what it calls IT-enabled services -- grew by 70% during the 2001-2002 period to produce a total of $1.46G in revenue."

2002-11-03
Douglas Feiden & Ellen Locker _NY Daily News_
Thousands get laid off but CEOs still make millions
alternate URL
"Merrill Lynch axed 17,400 employees and kept a stable of analysts who allegedly misled investors.   The reward for CEO David Komansky: A $42M pay-day - not to mention the $110M-plus in options he has yet to cash out.   -- Base salary, $700K; cash bonus, $1M; restricted stock granted, $4.1M; 'special restricted stock' granted, $6.4M; stock options granted, $4.1M, options exercised, $25.7M.   Komansky has another $112M in unexercised stock options from prior years.   -- AT&T cut 10,100 jobs, lost $6.8G, watched its stock tank and bailed out of cable TV.   That didn't stop it from giving CEO Michael Armstrong $21M, plus sweeteners such as free financial consulting & rides on corporate jets...   The typical chief of a major U.S. corporation raked in an average $15.5M in total pay last year, a nationwide survey found.   That's 428 times the $36,250 in annual salary earned by the typical American worker, a disparity 10 times greater than it was in 1980.   In the New York region, the average big-company CEO pulled down $26.6M."
 

2002-11-04

2002-11-04 03:28PST (06:28EST) (11:28GMT)
Mariko Ando _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Asia markets climb on rate cut hopes: Markets in Tokyo, Singapore closed for holiday
"South Korea and Hong Kong's key indexes each jumped more than 3%.   Stock prices in Taiwan and Australia also rose on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve would trim interest rates by a quarter percentage point at its meeting on Wednesday in a bid to jump start the world's No.1 economy...   Tech buying in Seoul, Taipei In Seoul, the Kospi rallied 3.9% to close at 672.68 points...   Other technology issues also gained ground helped by recent strength in their U.S. peers as well as a 6.06% jump in the Philadelphia semiconductor index last Friday...   Technology issues were higher also in Taiwan, where the key Weighted Index gained 1.9% to 4,583.68."

2002-11-04 07:16PST (10:16EST) (15:16GMT)
_CNN_/_Reuters_
Job cuts surge in October: Challenger survey shows 176K planned job losses, the highest total since January.
"The October figure is the second-highest of the year, behind only January's 212,704, according to the monthly job-cut survey released by Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc...   The technology sector alone accounted for 34% of October job cuts..."

2002-11-04 07:22PST (10:22EST) (15:22GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Lay-offs soar 151% in October
"The monthly tally of announced lay-offs rose to 176,010 in October, the second highest total of the year, said Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   The figure is 151% higher than September's 70,057, which was the lowest since 2000 November...   'There are more negative economic reports now than when the recession officially began.', said John Challenger, CEO of the out-placement firm...   The Labor Department reported on Friday that the economy lost 5K workers in October...   In October, telecommunications companies announced plans to cut 33,801 jobs.   Computer companies planned to axe 17,843 jobs.   The transportation, aerospace, financial, government, consumer products & automotive allhad more than 10K announced cuts in October."

2002-11-04 07:26PST (10:26EST) (15:26GMT)
_USA Today_/_Reuters_
Announced job cuts soar in October
"Planned job cuts announced by U.S. companies rocketed to 176,010 in October, a rate of more than 7,600 job cuts per business day...   But the 2002 October figure is 27% below the 242,192 planned job cuts announced in 2001 October...   Through October, 1,180,627 job cuts have been announced, compared to 1,613,880 last year..."

2002-11-04 14:32PST (17:32EST) (22:32GMT)
Caren Bohan _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Factory Orders Tumble, LayOffs Surge
"The October figure marked the second highest number of lay-off announcements this year, lower only than January's, & compared to a total of 70,057 announcements in September."
 

2002-11-05

2002-11-04 21:01PST (2002-11-05 00:01EST) (2002-11-05 05:01GMT)
Kristen Gerencher _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Managers still major cause of job tension
"Managers who send mixed or unclear messages about the state of the company and day-to-day expectations are likely to add to their staff's burden, while those who are quick to praise a job well done often succeed in diffusing work-place stress, management consultants said... recommending an open-door policy...   Many workers are struggling to overcome corporate cultures that encourage working late or overtime, said John Arden, a psychologist and author of _Surviving Job Stress_...   Those who harp on every detail lack delegation skills and often come across as control freaks, while those who take a hands-off approach give their employees more freedom but typically turn around and blame them for trying to fill in the blanks, he said...   Giving people a sense of control over their own duties and ensuring it's a good match with their abilities is essential..."

2002-11-04 21:05PST (2002-11-05 00:05EST) (2002-11-05 05:05GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
The risk of betting on cash piles: Is zero in their destination?
"In the past several weeks, investors have been placing bets on tiny cash-rich tech companies with low prices on the notion that they're unlikely to go the way of the dodo bird...   Taking a look at stock performances since 1962, for stocks (broadly speaking) that declined by more than 60%, survival rates during the following two years are less than 70% according to research from Sanford Bernstein...   Given that the software and services industries have low barriers to entry and new entrants flood those businesses during boom years, the median life of such companies -- which has been historically 3 to 4 years -- will be shorter, Zlotnikov wrote...   in the fast-moving tech sector where innovation requires spending on research and development...   Bernstein's Zlotnikov says that the positive performance in the software industry in the third quarter has more to do with cost cutting and less to do with improving demand or pricing power.   More than half of the software companies exceeded third-quarter sales projections, but forward revenue estimates were reduced, he said.   While 3 out of 4 business application software vendors... exceeded earnings targets in the third quarter, 70% of them fell short of sales projections...   If sales remain weak, companies may have to continue to cut expenses in order to achieve those earnings goals...   In the third quarter, while 80% of software companies met or exceeded consensus earnings estimates, many, depending on the sector, largely lowered forward earnings projections, he said...   Vignette, at 96 cents, had a cash position that was 124% of its market cap.   This compares to the average cash position of 5% for all tech companies in 1965.   Cash positions as a percent of market cap rose to 10% in the mid-70s, but dropped back down to between 5% and 10% in the 80s.   Now, they're nearing 20%...   when investors [stop ignoring] negative news that consumers are unconfident, over-leveraged & unemployed, then they'd better be ready to watch some quick gains turn into quick losses."

2002-11-05 02:00PST (05:00EST) (10:00GMT)
Michael Grebb _Wired_
Red China's CyberWall Nearly Concrete
"At a panel discussion held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on [Red China], experts warned that [Red China] has recently improved its censorship technology -- much of which is provided by US companies.   The panel also claimed that [Red China] now employs some 30K 'Internet police' to monitor its citizens, & that is has increased arrests of dissidents & journalists posting illegal content on the Internet.   Congress created the [Red China] commission in 2000 October to monitor human rights in the Communist country...   Lin Hai, a Shanghai computer scientist who spent 18 months in a [Red Chinese] prison for distributing forbidden e-mail addresses to an on-line dissident magazine...   For example, Yahoo recently agreed to certain Chinese government censorship requests, & US manufacturers of Internet routers have also cooperated with Red Chinese officials to stay within their censorship parameters."

2002-11-05 08:27PST (11:27EST) (16:27GMT)
_USA Today_/_AP_
Red Chinese province launches ID requirement for Net cafe users
"A Chinese province has required Internet cafe users to buy access cards that identify them to police, further tightening official monitoring of who uses the Internet & what they do online, a police spokesman said Monday.   The system was installed in all 3,200 Internet cafes in the central province of Jiangxi last month, said the spokesman, who works with the police computer crime division in the provincial capital of Nanchang...   They get an access card, which is swiped on an identifying machine when they go on-line.   That sends a signal to police, who continuously monitor the Web for people attempting to reach barred sites.   Police can also block access to selected card-holders.   More than 200K users have obtained such cards so far, the official said."

2002-11-05
Margaret Quan _EE Times_/_TheWorkCircuit_
Lay-off tally climbed in October, firm says
"A series of large lay-offs at major corporations contributed to the 176,010 jobs lost in October, the second highest monthly total this year, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.   The telecom industry has lost more jobs this year than any other industry, the out-placement firm said...   October, which saw more jobs lost than any other month this year except January, when 212,704 total positions were lost, said John Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.   The pace of job cuts is below 2001 levels, however, the Chicago-based firm said.   The telecom industry has chopped 239,358 jobs in the first 10 months of 2002, down slightly from the 267,578 jobs eliminated in 2001...   The computer industry saw the second highest number of job cuts, with 103,672 so far this year.   That number is a third fewer than the 157,355 jobs lost in 2001, Challenger, Gray and Christmas said..."

2002-11-05
Sharon Gaudin _Datamation_
Harsh Fall: High-tech lay-offs soared in October
"After falling to a 22-month low in September, job cuts announced by U.S. companies in October jumped to 176,010 -- 151% higher than September's 70,057, according to figures released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., which tracks job cuts daily. While September's numbers were the lowest monthly total since 2000 September, October's rate is equal to 7,600 job cuts per business day."

2002-11-05
Joan Fleischer Tamen _Sun-Sentinel_
Planned job cuts soar across U.S., including several S. Florida companies
"More than 1K Florida workers were among those notified by their employers in October that they face losing their jobs as companies continue to cut workers in a sputtering economic recovery."

2002-11-05
Sue McAllister _South Coast MA Today_/_Standard Times_/_Knight Ridder_
Laid-off tech workers turn to selling real estate
"With the technology industry showing no signs of quick revival, many unemployed or dissatisfied high-tech workers are leaving the fold and getting their real estate licenses, in the hopes of making good in the storied Silicon Valley housing market."

2002-11-05
_abc_ VNS Scraps National Exit Poll Work: Voter News Service Abandons National Exit Poll Operation in Setback for Elections System
"it was a major set-back for VNS a consortium consisting of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox & The Associated Press.   VNS had completely rebuilt its system in response to the 2000 election, when television networks twice used its information to make wrong calls in the decisive Florida vote for the presidential election."

2002-11-05
Stephanie Armour _USA Today_
On-line resumes create quandary for employers
"33% send the resumes via e-mail...   In April, the system [at Boeing] processed 92K resumes \xd1 a pace that would result in more than 1.1M resumes this year."
 

2002-11-06

2002-11-05 21:02PST (2002-11-06 00:02EST) (2002-11-06 05:02GMT)
Keith Girard _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Laid-off professionals stimulate small-business growth
"The number of small business start-ups rose during every economic down-turn of the past 50 years, & this one appears to be no different...   More than 85% of all start-ups are doomed to failure.   Of those that go under, mismanagement more than any other cause -- including poor sales, declining markets and competition from big national chains -- is the principal reason...
  The administration earlier this year called for a 20% cut in the SBA's budget, a move that would have slashed its lending capacity by 50%...   many small firms are turning to credit cards to finance short-term capital needs...   The fact that most small enterprises are perennially strapped for cash has also put them behind the technology curve...   it typically takes 20 years to complete a so-called 'technology adoption cycle'...
  In 1993, about 1.3M people were tapping into the Internet.   Today, 80M are accessing the web, according to the group...   Today, women own 40% of all U.S. firms -- some 8M in all -- & they employ more than 18.5M people.   That's 1 in every 5 U.S. workers, & combined, those businesses contribute $2.3T to the economy...   Usually it's burdensome red tape, but small business must often battle bias, bureaucratic indifference, and in some cases outright fraud to participate in programs or capture a piece of the $170G a year the government spends on goods and services.   Only last month, for example, the government agreed to end a decade-long practice of bundling small contracts into a single large contract...   one of the reasons their costs are higher is because of the price they must pay to comply with -- government regulations.   Small businesses are punished more than most by tax laws, accounting rules & such work-place regulations as the Americans with Disabilities Act...   scammers prey on small businesses with a vengeance."

2002-11-06
Urmi A. Goswami _Economic Times of India_
US eases H-1B visa rules for geeks & medicos
"On November 2, US President George W Bush signed the Department of Justice Authorisation Bill which will make extension for H-1B visas easier.   It will also make it possible for more Indian doctors to live and work in the US once their academic programme is over.   The extension of H-1B visas will particularly benefit the high tech sector.   This is good news for Indian H-1B visa holders, as nearly 50% of them are working in the high-tech sector."

2002-11-06 08:22PST (11:22EST) (16:22GMT)
Rex Crum _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Apple cuts prices, up-grades lap-tops
"Apple discounted its line of iBook lap-tops by $200 across the board, bringing its bottom-end iBook to $999.   That iBook comes with a 700MHz PowerPC processor, 128MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 12.1-inch screen, and a CD-ROM disk drive.   Another iBook comes with an 800MHz processor, 128MB of memory, a 30GB hard drive, a 12.1-inch screen, a combination drive for burning CDs & playing DVDs, & a $1,299 price tag.   Apple also introduced a $1,599 iBook that has an 800MHz processor, 256MB of SDRAM memory, a 30GB hard drive, the combination CD-RW/DVD-Rom drive, and a 14.1-inch screen...   The 867MHz [Titanium] PowerBook costs $2,299 & comes with 256MB of SDRAM memory, a 40GB hard drive & a combi nation CD-RW/DVD-Rom drive.   Another model costs $2,999 & has what Apple calls a SuperDrive that burns & plays CDs and DVDs, as well as a 1GHz processor, 512MB of memory, & a 60GB hard drive...
  Apple shipped 462K [micro-computers] during the third quarter, to hold onto to 4th place in the U.S. [micro-]computer market...   Those shipments were down from 488K units in the 3rd quarter of 2001."

2002-11-06 12:57PST (15:57EST) (20:57FMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
FOMC cuts rates aggressively: 50 basis point cut designed to get through "soft spot"
"By aggressively cutting the federal funds target rate to a 41-year low of 1.25%, the Fed hopes to boost consumer and investor confidence and pump more money into an anemic economy."

2002-11-06
_ACIP_
President Signs H-1B 7th Year Extension Bill
"On Friday, November 2, the President signed HR2215, 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act, into law.   This bill includes a provision that allows H-1B visa holders to extend their stay beyond the statutory 6-year period if a labor certification has been pending for at least 365 days."
 

2002-11-07

2002-11-06 21:09PST (2002-11-07 00:09EST) (2002-11-07 05:09GMT)
Barbara Kollmeyer _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Advantage India as the Reps double USA take
"New Delhi recently decided to engage the lobbying firm of Bob Dole, a Republican grandee, at a whopping sum of $800K a year for India-centred lobbying efforts in the Senate...   The India Caucus in the House commands a membership of 156, next only to the Israel-backers, but in the Senate there have been few lobbyists for the country...   Reacting to the developments, Tarun Das of CII said it was positive for India and hoped for a relaxation in technology controls on US exports to India."

2002-11-07 09:35PST (12:35EST) (17:35GMT)
Rachel Koning _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Productivity gains continue: New jobless claims hover around key 400K mark
"Productivity rose at a 4% pace in the third quarter & is up 5.3% in the past year, the biggest jump in 19 years...   Initial jobless claims fell 20K in the week ended November 2 to 390K...   Meanwhile, productivity in the non-farm business sector expanded 4% in the third quarter over the previous quarter, the agency also reported.   Output was up 4.1 percent and hours worked rose just 0.1%...   Adjusted for inflation, compensation was up 2.9%, the most in 2 years.   But the report offered some positive news for companies, unit labor costs rose just 0.8% after a 2.2% rise a quarter earlier...   the number of Americans who continue to collect unemployment insurance benefits rose by 4K to 3.58M, the highest since early September.   The insured unemployment rate held steady at 2.8%."
graphs

2002-11-07 14:47PST (17:47EST) (22:47GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
P&G ends planned deal with EDS: Profit warning sinks out-sourcing contract
"Procter & Gamble, the largest U.S.A. maker of household goods, said Thursday that it has ended out-sourcing talks that would have involved selling its back-office computer operations to Electronic Data Systems...   Procter & Gamble, maker of everything from Ivory soap to Iams pet food, said it plans to award 3 to 5 out-sourcing [bodyshopping] contracts over the next few years, instead of one large contract...   EDS reported third-quarter earnings earlier this month that dropped almost 60% from a year earlier.   The company said it plans to fire as much as 4% of its work force, or about 5,500 people, including as many as 1K by year's end.   The company's contract signings in the third quarter declined to $3G from $6.8G in the same quarter last year."

2002-11-07 14:47PST (17:47EST) (22:47GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
P&G ends planned deal with EDS: Profit warning sinks out-sourcing contract

2002-11-07 14:47PST (17:47EST) (22:47GMT)
William Dean Hinton _Orlando FL Weekly_
welcome to (Ch)eatonville
 

2002-11-08

2002-11-07 18:10PST (2002-11-07 21:10EST) (2002-11-08 02:10GMT)
Walter Shapiro _USA Today_
Incumbent protection racket worked well Tuesday "The economy may be in the doldrums, but Congress has become virtually a lay-off-free zone.   Only 8 of the 389 House incumbents who sought re-election [2%] were defeated, & half of those ran against other incumbents because of redistricting.   Politicians crave job security, but a system built around safe seats deprives most voters of a meaningful choice."

2002-11-08 07:10PST (10:10EST) (15:10GMT)
Irwin Kellner _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Weaker dollar could be tonic economy needs
"When the dollar goes down [in value compared to other currencies], prices of U.S. exports overseas fall, too, making them more attractive to buyers in other countries.   At the same time, the products other countries sell us become more expensive here in the U.S., thus reducing our demand for them.   As imports into the U.S. become more expensive, consumers would probably buy more American-made products.   This would not only boost sales & earnings of U.S. firms - it would increase the likelihood that they will stop firing workers, & maybe even start hiring once again.   [It may also induce domestic price increases, and] a weaker dollar could cause an out-flow of foreign funds from our financial markets, thus depressing both stock & bond prices."
 

2002-11-09

2002-11-08 16:03PST (2002-11-08 19:03EST) (2002-11-09 00:03GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Economic data will show the soft spot
"Greenspan, fresh from the coup of last Wednesday's shocking cut, will testify Wednesday before the Joint Economic Committee.   Under chairman Jim Saxton, a New Jersey Republican congressman, the committee has been as bullish on the economy as White House adviser Karl Rove...   Just as the FOMC statement did, Greenspan is likely to emphasize that only the near-term economic outlook is cloudy.   Once you get past the next few months, it's all sunshine and lollipops.   Low inflation, strong productivity gains and improving business conditions should give us something later in 2003 that's at least recognizable as a recovery...   Mike Moran, economist with Daiwa Securities... argues that problems in the economy are not economic, but political & psychological...   Manufacturing pay-rolls fell by 49K in October while temp help services dropped by 56K...   Output of high-tech equipment has been rebounding from the depths of 2001."

2002-11-09 11:19PST (14:19EST) (19:19GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Silicon Valley's Jobless Rate 7.9%
"The technology down-turn continues to hammer California's Silicon Valley, where the unemployment rate in October was 7.9 percent, the highest level since 1983 and well above last month's statewide average of 6.4 percent.   State officials on Friday said unemployment in Santa Clara County, the heart of the Silicon Valley high-tech hub, was unchanged in October from September, but they revised the September rate up to 7.9% from an initial 7.7%...   sharply reduced demand for technology goods & services over the past 2 years...   has led to scores of lay-offs in Silicon Valley, where teh jobless rate had been as low as 1.3% in 2000 December...   other major California urban areas saw their local jobless rates improve last month, helping the state's overall 6.4% October unemployment rate hold steady from September.   In San Francisco...   the October unemployment rate was 6.7%, compared with 6.9% in September.   The jobless rate in Los Angeles County fell in October to 6.1% from 6.5% the prior month, & in neighboring Orange County the October unemployment rate narrowed to 4% from 4.1% in September.   San Diego County's 4.2% unemployment rate was unchanged from September."

2002-11-09
Margaret Steen _San Jose Mercury News_
Local jobless rate 7.9%, worst since 1983: SANTA CLARA COUNTY TOLL 80K IN OCTOBER AS LAY-OFFS CONTINUE
"The county's October unemployment rate was the same as in September, which was revised upward from 7.7%.   That's the highest since 1983 and significantly higher than the state and national numbers.   The number of jobs in the county grew slightly, by 1,200.   The statewide jobless rate was 6.4% in October; the national rate was 5.7%.   (State & national figures are seasonally adjusted; county numbers are not.)"
 

2002-11-10

2002-11-10
James T. Madore _NewsDay_
Ad Drought Forces Lay-Offs
"Dow Jones & Co., publisher of _The Wall Street Journal_, which will eliminate 230 jobs, & at Reuters Group, though it didn't reveal details of its workforce reduction.   _Business Week_ & _Forbes_ also confirmed job cuts, totaling about 50 people...   Dow Jones, which employed 8K worldwide at the end of 2001, has shed more than 1,100 jobs since 2000.   This has occurred as revenues fell 30%."
 

2002-11-11

2002-11-10 22:15PST (2002-11-11 01:15EST) (2002-11-11 06:15GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Bill Gates Gives $100 Mln to Fight AIDS in India
"Some 20% of M$'s engineers are of Indian origin & Gates said in a recent interview the company took a special interest in the country because of that."

2002-11-10 23:27PST (2002-11-11 02:27EST) (2002-11-11 07:27GMT)
Stephanie Armour _USA Today_
Bouncing pay-checks blind-side some workers

2002-11-11
_Washington Post_/_Reuters_
Silicon Valley's Jobless Rate Hits 7.9%
"The technology down-turn continues to hammer California's Silicon Valley, where the unemployment rate in October was 7.9%, the highest level since 1983 & well above last month's statewide average of 6.4%... unchanged in October from September, but they revised the September rate up to 7.9% from an initial 7.7%...   in Silicon Valley, where the jobless rate had been as low as 1.3% in 2000 December...   In contrast to Silicon Valley, other major California urban areas saw their local jobless rates improve last month, helping the state's overall 6.4% October unemployment rate hold steady from September.   In San Francisco, which has seen its once red-hot dot-com industry evaporate & has suffered as financial services firms cut jobs, the October unemployment rate was 6.7%, compared with 6.9% in September.   The jobless rate in Los Angeles County fell in October to 6.1% from 6.5% the prior month, & in neighboring Orange County the October unemployment rate narrowed to 4% from 4.1% in September.   San Diego County's 4.2% unemployment rate was unchanged from September."

2002-11-11
Manjeet Kripalani _BusinessWeek_
Calling Bangalore: Multi-nationals are making it a hub for high-tech research
"These may be dreary times in Silicon Valley.   But in Bangalore, India, the technology boom is alive & well.   Inside Intel's new $25M glass-&-chrome complex... designing new chips.   Downtown, Sun Microsystems...   Texas Instruments, Cadence, Analog Devices, and Cisco are rapidly expanding design centers for telecom products...   In the first wave, starting in the 1980s, multi-nationals like General Electric Co. & Citibank took advantage of India's huge pool of low-cost, well-trained, English-speaking technicians to set up mundane software-code-writing operations.   Software services has since grown into an $8G annual export industry, and is expected to reach $50G by 2008...
  Now, U.S. companies are turning Bangalore into a strategic base for genuine R&D, not just grunt work...   SAP...   Oracle Corp.'s 2,400-strong center has generated such hot products as Oracle Student System, which helps colleges process admissions, housing, & graduation records...
  India's huge supply of 'high-quality', low-cost engineers.   Each year, India graduates 220K software & computer science engineers.   Bangalore alone produces 25K -- almost as many as the entire U.S.   The average wage is $12K, with a PhD commanding up to $30K a year...   local IT giants like Infosys Technologies Ltd. & Wipro Ltd., known for delivering high-end software & consulting tasks for multi-nationals...   Eastman Kodak Co....   JVC...   Officials also hope to win permission from New Delhi to open industrial parks where multi-nationals can manufacture without paying tariffs on imported materials & equipment...   Bangalore's economy is growing at a torrid 10% annual clip -- twice the national average.   By 2010, Kulkarni predicts, its gross domestic product will reach $15G, enabling it to pass Bombay as India's wealthiest city.   Indian-American Hans Taparia, 29, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who runs a tech consulting business in Bangalore, says he sees old class-mates arrive monthly."

2002-11-11
_Financial Express_
India's Influence in Technology Growing Beyond Its Borders

2002-11-11
Peter Dizikes _abc_
An Innovation Recession?
"A U.S. Commerce Department study shows that information technology companies accounted for nearly 30% of national growth between 1995 and 2000, despite comprising just 8% of the national GDP.   And tech firms grew in large part due to innovations cooked up in America's research labs.   Indeed, research is the life-blood of the technology industry.   And yet, with businesses having chopped information technology spending, the fall-out has hit the labs.   According to one study, spending on research and development (R&D) in the technology sector declined 8% from mid-2001 through early 2002, a total drop of $1.7G."

2002-11-11
Lisa Vaas _eWeek_
New IT Job Hot Spots
"out of 3K jobless managers & executives recently surveyed by Chicago-based out-placement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., 16% opted for relocation in the third quarter -- a 33% increase over the numbers doing so in the second quarter.   [upstate NY, DC, and southern California] The Riverside-San Bernardino region has created the most jobs in the country this year to date: 29,700 in July & 26K in August, according to the BLS."
 

2002-11-12

2002-11-11 21:01PST (2002-11-12 00:01EST) (2002-11-12 05:01GMT)
Andrea Coombes _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
PC makers cut tech support along with prices
"Consumer Reports survey... 32% of those surveyed were dissatisfied with provided technical support, up from 24% last year.   44% were completely or very satisfied, down from 52% a year ago...   33% of those who used phone support said they were kept on hold for an 'unreasonably long time'...   25% said they had to make a few phone calls or wade through a number of complicated phone menus before reaching a [human]...   60% said they couldn't find the answer to their question on the manufacturer's web site, while 32% said the on-line instructions they used didn't work.   41% of those who e-mailed tech support said the reply they got wasn't helpful, with another 10% noting they didn't get areply at all.   18% said it took more than 2 days to hear back from the manufacturer.   As happened in last year's survey, Apple, Dell & Gateway ranked higher in overall tech support than other companies.   Apple got high marks for having knowledgeable support technicians & useful web support.   Dell rated higher than the others in solving the technical problem, while Gateway won a high rating for its e-mail support.   At the other end of the spectrum were eMachines and Sony.   EMachines received the lowest marks for solving the technical problem & for having knowledgeable support staff, & Sony had the worst rating for having to wait on the phone."

2002-11-12 03:38PST (06:38EST) (11:38GMT)
Andrew Backover _USA Today_
Ebbers linked to over $4M in farm subsidies
"Former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers, under increasing fire for the $408M in personal loans he got from the company, also harvested millions in farm subsidies from U.S. tax-payers.   Three farms owned in part by Ebbers or linked to him got more than $4M in U.S. Department of Agriculture aid from at least 1998 through 2001, say USDA records obtained by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).   Recipients, on average, got about $36K from 1996 through 2001, the non-profit says."

2002-11-12
_Reuters_/_Times of India_
India, US to discuss sophisticated tech deals
"US firms were not allowed to sell sophisticated equipment or technology to Indian firms under US legislation banning sale of dual-use technology that could be used for both peaceful & military purposes.   The restrictions were further tightened when Washington imposed trade sanctions against New Delhi and Islamabad after they conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998.   But the United States waived the sanctions last year after India became one of the first nations to back the US war on terrorism."

2002-11-12 13:15PST (16:15EST) (21:15GMT)
Steve Gelsi & Emily Church _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Reuters faces mounting challengse: Lay-offs, labor woes, customer loss hits business
"After reaching a height of about 783K workers in 2000, employment in the U.S. security and commodity industry declined by 49,900 jobs in 2001 and another 18K jobs so far in 2002, according to the Securities Industry Association...   Reuters is expected to step up cost-cutting as sales decline.   The company in June announced cuts of 650 senior management jobs.   Reuters cut over 1,300 jobs last year."

2002-11-12
Bill Gates to invest $400M in India

2002-11-12
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen _Time_
Where Did EveryOne Go?: Firms are laying off workers even as business revives.   That boosts profits at the cost of morale.
"Hamilton Beazley, 58, chairman of the Strategic Leadership Group... coined the term ghost work -- now catching on around the country -- to describe the additional work-load taken on by surviving employees, usually without their former colleagues' trove of knowledge...   top executives... see cost cuts - especially lay-offs - as one of the few ways to eke out profits.   Companies have already cut 1.2M jobs this year through October \xd1 that's about 3,600...   As lay-offs rise, so [do the standard] productivity [statistics].   The Department of Labor reported last week that non-farm business productivity clocked an annualized gain in the third quarter of 4% over the preceding quarter...
  the government doesn't track hours kept by managers & others who don't get over-time pay...   Manufacturing workers call ghost work 'speed-up' (because the remaining employees have to hustle harder) or 'stretch-out' (because of the longer hours)....   The computer industry ranks second after telecommunications in lay-offs this year, according to Challenger, & that limits disgruntled workers' options."

2002-11-12
William P. Butz, Gabrielle A. Bloom, Mihal E. Gross, Terrence K. Kelly, Aaron Kofner, Helga E. Rippen _Rand Corporation_
Is There a Shortage of Scientists and Engineers? How Would We Know? (pdf)

2002-11-12
Michael S. Teitelbaum _PhDs_/_Alfred P. Sloan Foundation_
The U.S. Science and Engineering Work-Force: An Unconventional Portrait
 

2002-11-13

2002-11-12 21:06PST (2002-11-13 00:06EST) (2002-11-13 05:06GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Eliminating double taxation of dividends may induce big tech firms to pay them
"One of the major initiatives for Republicans in the 108th U.S. Congress will be eliminating corporate income taxes on money distributed to share-holders as dividends.   The move would give successful tech companies a reason to share their increasing cash hordes with share-holders.   Such a tax break would be a blessing for more than half the U.S. households invested in equities - especially families that invest directly or indirectly in tech stocks.   Due in large part to the tax burden, most tech companies skirt dividend payments...   Arguably, the most straight-forward way companies can prove they've earned what they said they earned is through a dividend record."

2002-11-13 02:13PST (05:13EST) (10:13GMT)
Mariko Ando _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Nikkei dips to new 19-year low:GDP report highlights fear over Japan's economic out-look
"Before the opening bell, the government said Japan's gross domestic product grew at a faster-than-expected 0.7% in the third quarter, compared to the year-ago period...   Several major exporters lost ground, dragging down the Nikkei Average by 26.25 points, or 0.3%, to close at 8,432.52 -- its lowest finish since 1983 April 8.   The broader Topix index shed 0.4% to 836.43.   The dollar bought 119.70 yen in Asia action, compared to 119.65 yen in New York late Tuesday...   Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed virtually flat at 9,616.62, failing to find inspiration from Wall Street's stronger finish...   Taiwanese stocks were little moved, with the Weighted Index ending 0.1% lower at 4,671.77 points...   In Seoul, the benchmark Kospi pared early gains and ended 0.1% lower at 653.85, following the latest economic report which raised doubts about the country's consumer sentiment.   South Korea's consumers confidence index fell to 97.1 in October from 103.9 in September, the government said."

2002-11-13 06:39PST (09:39EST) (14:39GMT)
_Reuters_
India, US Governments Agree to Boost Sophisticated Tech Deals
"set up a joint panel to help boost the sale of sophisticated US technology to India, banned for years under US law.   The panel would help cooperation between the countries in India's civilian space & civilian nuclear programs & was also expected to make it easier for India's communication, electronics & computer sectors to access U.S. technology...   days of talks between officials of the 2 countries led by U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Kenneth Juster & Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal..."

2002-11-13 08:54PST (11:54EST) (16:54GMT)
Sue Herera & Joanne Po _CNBC_
US businesses flock to Red China: Red China is now the top country for foreign invesment, but some US companies are doing better than others at navigating the new terrain.
"For the first time ever, [Red China] has surpassed the United States as the most attractive destination for foreign direct investment.   Those investments are expected to top $50G dollars by the end of the year.   U.S. firms alone invested $35G dollars in [Red China] last year...   Already a center for manufacturing for many products like light bulbs & plastics, GE, the parent company of CNBC, has made developing the [Red Chinese] market one of its top priorities."

2002-11-13 09:36PST (12:36EST) (17:36GMT)
Rex Crum _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
JP Morgan negotiating $5G deal to out-source computer operations to Ill-Begotten Monstrosities

2002-11-13
Gates: India to become global hub for mission-critical work
"In the next few years, he predicted, firms in the US & Europe would be sure to i nsist that Indian companies be considered for doing all mission critical work."

2002-11-13
Chidanand Rajghatta _The Times of India_
Dil da maamla or Bill da maamla?
"Bill Gates' high regard for Indians, and through them for India, runs deep.   It also goes a long way back.   In fact, it goes all the way to 1981, when M$ was just another tiny start-up with less than 50 people, and not the 50K-strong behemoth it is now."

2002-11-13 12:12PST (15:12EST) (20:12GMT)
Mitch Wagner _Yahoo!_/_TechWeb News_/_Information Week_
M$ To Boost Investment In India
"M$ plans to spend $400M on software and business development in India over the next 3 years, strengthening ties with Indian business partners.   Chairman & chief software architect Bill Gates said Wednesday that M$ will supply Web-building software free of charge to the government of Bangalore, often dubbed the Silicon Valley of the East, as part of an E-governance initiative.   Some $20M of the $400M investment, announced Tuesday, will be part of Project Shiksha in India, used to promote technology education to assist in training about 80K school teachers & 3.5M students in government-run schools.   M$ will set up 10 IT Academy Centres for computer education in partnership with state education departments, & will collaborate with more than 2K school labs."

2002-11-13 13:27PST (16:27EST) (21:27GMT)
William L. Watts _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Bush: Ready to talk about stimulus
"'Both of us [GW Bush & Alan Greenspan] understand that our economy is not nearly as strong as it's going to be, & our job here in Washington is to create the environment necessary for people to feel confident about risking capital.'   Later, Bush's top economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey] told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum that the White House was looking at tax cuts & other fiscal measures to provide stimulus."

2002-11-13
Mike Blain _WashTech News_
Supremes refused to hear appeal of M$ "permatemp" settlement
"Under a settlement agreement upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 May, M$ agreed to pay approximately $97M, which includes compensation to class members, attorneys' fees, & expenses of litigation.   This settlement was the largest ever for a 'permatemp' class action...   The law-suit was filed in 1992 and has received considerable national and international attention, prompting many US employers to re-examine or change the way they deal with agency or other contract employees.
  In the class action, plaintiffs challenged the widespread employer practice of paying full-time workers through 'temp' agencies, arguing that doing so was primarily a means of avoiding payment of employment ben efits.   The practice of 'pay-rolling' long-term, on-site employees through temp agencies expanded rapidly during the 1990s, after the Internal Revenue Service cracked down on employers who were treating workers as 'independent contractors'.
  The law-suit was filed on behalf of long-term M$ contractors who plaintiffs attorneys say were mislabeled as employees of temporary staffing firms or deemed 'independent contractors, but who were in fact 'common law' employees of M$.   The law-suit sought to recover benefits, including the right to participate in the M$ Employee Stock Purchase Plan, for permatemps at M$...
  M$ first instituted its mandatory break-in-service policy in 1999...   The policy, instituted largely in response to the Vizcaino case, now mandates that agency contractors leave M$ for 100 days after working for 1 consecutive year at the company...   A digital production artist currently contracting at M$... first began working at the software giant in 1996 and says she has been juggling M$ contract assignments ever since, with the possibility of a regular full-time job always dangled before her, but never fulfilled."
 

2002-11-14

2002-11-14 00:20PST (03:20EST) (08:20GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_AP_
Senate Clears Way for Its Pay Raise
History of congressional salary raises
"The Senate, without debate, used its second vote on Wednesday to reject 58-36 a measure by senator Russ Feingold (news, bio, voting record), D-WI, that would have denied the congressional pay raise.   With the slumping economy and financial markets, job lay-offs and federal budget deficits, 'this is the wrong time for Congress to give itself a pay hike', Feingold said in a statement.   The House cleared the way for the raise in July.   With the 3.1% pay raise, senators and representatives will make $154,700 next year instead of the $150K earned this year.   Law-makers' salaries have gone up $18K since the end of 1999.   Under a 1989 law, congressional cost-of-living pay raises pegged to inflation go into effect automatically unless law-makers vote to block them.   [It] would also apply to more than 1K top executive branch officials, including the vice president & members of the congressional leadership.   The first members of Congress received $6 a day.   In 1855, compensation was set at $3K a year.   It hit $10K in 1935, $60K in 1979, & went above $100K in 1991.   The pay level stalled at $133,600 during the mid-1990s with law-makers wary of giving themselves a raise when the federal budget was in deficit, but it h as risen steadily since then."

2002-11-14 08:28PST (11:28EST) (16:28GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Consumers may be despondent, but it's not keeping them out of the stores.
"Retail sales were unchanged in October at a seasonally adjusted $301.7G, despite a 1.9% drop in auto sales, the Commerce Department estimated Thursday.   Excluding autos, sales rose 0.7% to $230G, the biggest gain in 6 months...   Sales at department stores rose 1.2%, the largest gain in 14 months.   Sales at catalog & Internet stores rose 1.4%, the biggest gain since January...   the Labor Department said its 4-week average of initial jobless claims fell by 6K to 397K, the lowest since August 24.   Claims in the most recent week fell 8K to 388K.   The moving average for continuing claims also fell to a 2-month low of 3.58M...   import prices rose 0.1% in October...   Retail sales in September fell a revised 1.3%, slightly worse than the first estimate.   Total sales are down 0.7% from [2001] October...   So far in 2002, sales are up 3.4% from the first 10 months of 2001."

2002-11-14
Power Lunch _CNBC_
"After gaining access to the World Trade Organization last December, Red China has received an influx of foreign investment -- $46.44G in the first 10 months of the year.   That's up nearly 20% from a year ago.   The big draw for foreign investors: China's extremely low labor costs.   According to [Red China's] foreign trade minister, imports from Southeast Asia alone rose 27% in the first 10 months of the year.   The trade minister also expects total imports and exports to hit $2.4T by 2020, about quadruple this year's expected trade level.   The huge influx of foreign funds helped [Red China's] economy grow 7.9% in the first 3 quarters of the year."

2002-11-14
Sean Rushton & Mark Carpenter _CCAGW_
CCAGW Blasts Congress for Pay Raise: War, Recession, Deficits Fail to Deter Self-Aggrandizement
"The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today denounced Congress upon final passage of its latest salary increase...   The increase of almost $5K will bring congressional compensation to a total of $154,700 per year...   In 1989 Congress granted itself automatic 'cost of living' increases every year, unless there is a specific vote to cancel it...   Senators and representatives earn 4 times the median income of full-time, year-round American male workers, excluding benefits and pensions...   Over the past 5 years, members of Congress have given themselves $13,300 per year in raises, which is more than a minimum wage employee would earn during an entire year of full-time work...   Other perks include: free out-patient care at certain hospitals, a special $3K tax deduction, frequent-flyer miles from government travel, meals & vacations from lobbyists & business groups, access to taxpayer provided first-class gyms & tennis courts, subsidized life and health insurance, & a special pension program."
 

2002-11-15

2002-11-15
L.M. Sixel _Houston Chronicle_
Call centers steadily leaving town: Operations cheaper over-seas
"Houston has about 50 centers with 20K employees working banks of phones answering customer billing questions, scheduling flights and solving personnel problems for companies as varied as Continental Airlines, United HealthCare and Hewitt Associates.   Drawn to Houston because of the city's skilled and multilingual job pool, call centers pay up to $9 an hour, plus bonuses & a full array of benefits, said Deborah Mostert, marketing executive at the Greater Houston Partnership...   Call centers in Dallas are also moving to India, Philippines and other English-speaking nations, said Bob Arnold, assistant director of institutional a dvancement of the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development in Dallas, part of the Dallas County Community College District.   The wages for call center workers in India are only 15% of what they are in the United States...   the typical call center spends 55% to 60% of its budget on man-power...   [In Dallas] 100K people were working in call centers 3 to 4 years ago..."

2002-11-15
Michelle Malkin _Front Page Magazine_
open doors for Hezbollah
Greenspun.com
Storm Front

2002-11-15 07:19PST (10:19EST) (15:19GMT)
Frank Barnako _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
No recession for broad-band access growth
"Almost 30% of U.S. households accessing the Internet are now doing so by high-speed connections like cable modems & DSL.   From February 2000 through last June, the rate of broad-band Internet use has nearly tripled, according to Gartner Dataquest...   the number of households with broadband capability has been growing at an average monthly rate of 9%.   Cable modems have increased their share from 49% to 54% of the market, while DSL has grown from 19% to 34%."

2002-11-15 11:42PST (14:42EST) (19:42GMT)
William L. Watts _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
House passes bankruptcy bill; Dispute over wording of abortion issue contenders means Senate prospects doomed
"Firms such as MBNA, Citigroup & other banks, credit-card issuers, auto lenders & retailers have pushed hard for the legislation.   Consumer groups & labor unions have fought the bill, arguing it's too tough on people who fall behind due to lost jobs & health woes."

2002-11-15 14:19PST (17:19EST) (22:19GMT)
Steve Gelsi & August Cole _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Major indices end rough week higher
"The Dow Jones Industrial Average slowly worked its way off the day's low & rose 36.96 points to 8,579.09.   The index began the week at 8,536.   The Nasdaq ended down 0.38 points at 1,411.14; the index opened the week at 1,359.   Also closing higher on the week, the S&P 500 gained 5.56 points to 909.83 for the day, ahead of the week's debut at 876.   The Russell 2000 closed Friday off 0.32 points to 385.92, but higher than the 369-point start of the week."
 

2002-11-16

2002-11-16 04:30PST (07:30EST) (12:30GMT)
Kenneth Barry _Reuters_
Companies Battle Loss of Pricing Power
"Falling prices may be a boon for consumers, but for companies in a sluggish economy & facing stiff competition, price declines are a major hurdle to achieving earnings targets...   Intense competition has kept companies from raising prices.   In the era of globalization, multi-national corporations can quickly relocate a plant from Mexico to [Red China] or a customer service center from the United States to India to exploit the cheapest labor."

2002-11-16 08:01PST (11:01EST) (16:01GMT)
Susan Kelly & Kyle Peterson _Reuters_
Exporters Welcome Weaker Dollar
"But the dollar has shed about 15% of its value against a trade-weighted currency index, from a yearly peak in January, a factor that has enabled budding, yet tentative, optimism in the manufacturing sector...   a coalition of 60 manufacturing groups lobbying the Bush administration to set a policy that would let the dollar fall under the weight of economic forces...   Analysts said the strong dollar policy, created by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, was unlikely to change soon.   It was intended to boost the spending power of U.S. importers, not the competitiveness of manufacturers, which contribute only about 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product...   So far this year the dollar is down about 10% against the yen from its peak in January.   The dollar currently buys about 120.35 yen.   It is off about 14% versus the euro.   One euro equals about $1.0086.   When the dollar peaked in February, it was about 30% above its 1997 levels.   GM's Mohatarem argues the dollar ought to trade closer to 100 yen and around $1.10 to $1.15 against the euro."

2002-11-16
Joan Fleischer Tamen _Sun-Sentinel_
Recovery excludes high-tech workers
"More than 450K technical workers have been jobless for 6 months or more & now account for 1 of every 3 long-term unemployed, according to national statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics...   Unemployment in Broward County fell to 5.8% from a revised 5.9% in September.   That compares with 5.9% a year ago.   There are 48,155 residents unemployed, 935 fewer than a month ago.   Palm Beach County saw its jobless rate fall to 6.2% from a revised 6.5% in September.   A year ago, it was 6.7%.   There are 34,106 jobless residents, 2,016 fewer than in September.   Miami-Dade County's unemployment fell to 7.2% from a revised 7.4% in August.   The jobless rate a year ago was 8.0%.   Miami-Dade has 79,924 unemployed, 1,827 fewer than in September.   Florida's jobless rate fell to 5.1% from a revised 5.3% in September.   There are 401K Florida residents out of work.   The U.S. jobless rate rose to 5.7% from 5.6% in September...   The number of workers unemployed for more than 27 weeks has risen by 1M since May.   One-fifth of unemployed Americans have been out of work 27 weeks or longer, the highest since 1994, Bernstein said...   Since January, 36K jobs have been lost on top of the 1.6M wiped out from March to December last year..."

2002-11-16
Al Lewis _Denver Post_
Lay-offs last trick for CEOs
"Americans suffered nearly 2M lay-offs last year and more than 1.1M so far this year, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tallies job-cut announcements, not actual lay-offs...   Locally, Denver Post business reporters tallied 31,500 Coloradans who lost jobs last year, & another 16,500 so far this year...   Even relatively low-paying jobs in Mexico are at risk.   Denver-based luggage maker Samsonite Corp. this year cut 1,300 workers at its Mexico factory, shifting to cheaper labor in Asia...   'You can't keep cutting jobs, year after year', says Challenger, 'and wonder why demand is so lack-luster.'"
 

2002-11-17

2002-11-17 00:00PST (03:00EST) (08:00GMT)
Individual gifts could be lifeline as ailing economy saps other aid
"Today, The Seattle Times launches its 24th Fund for the Needy drive, and it's not a moment too soon...   The financial situation for the 14 social-service groups, including the Salvation Army, on The Times' giving list this year is troublesome because they are receiving clients who need help with hardships both financial & emotional, all at once, the groups' leaders say...   people... who not long ago were stable enough to donate to charities, now find themselves in need of charitable aid...   well-trained and well-connected...   To help make up for a budget short-fall, King County Executive Ron Sims has proposed cutting $10.3M in discretionary spending, which includes money for human services & public health.   Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has proposed trimming homeless & public-health services by millions...   This year's Fund for the Needy goal of $525K, down from $600K last year, reflects the continuing concerns about the ability to give.   Despite recession and presumed donor fatigue after the terrorist attacks, Seattle Times readers last year raised $579,819 over 21\xda2 months, nearly meeting the Fund for the Needy goal of $600K.   The fund has raised about $8.5M since it began in 1979...   [Boeing] Employees gave a total of $14.55M to the company's United Way fund drive this fall, up from $12.7M last year."
 

2002-11-18

2002-11-18 05:45PST (08:45EST) (13:45GMT)
Melissa McCord _AP_/_Yahoo!_
Survey: 2003 Hiring Will Increase
"20% of the companies surveyed by Manpower expect to hire more people in the January-March quarter, while 12% plan to cut workers, according to the survey...   Employers also are a bit more optimistic than they were for the first quarter of 2002, when 16% expected to hire more workers and 16% planned to reduce staff.   Manpower, which is based in Glendale, Wis., is the nation's largest staffing company.   It has conducted the survey for 27 years."

2002-11-18 10:32PST (13:32EST) (18:32GMT)
Michael Baron _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
BearingPoint joins 2nd phase of privacy violating access card project
"BearingPoint is down 17 cents, or 2%, to $8.26, in afternoon dealings.   The McClean, VA, provider of business consulting services is saying that it will participate in the second phase of the Defense Department's follow-on common access card project.   A number of companies are working with the government to demonstrate biometric technology as part of the project."

2002-11-18 11:17PST (14:17EST) (19:17GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_AP_
Republic of China Aims to Lower Joblessness
"Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian pledged Monday to curb the country's soaring jobless rate by spending more on public projects, creating new jobs, and providing incentives for private investment...   [The Republic of China's jobless rate lingered above 5% in recent months, with the number of unemployed totaling about 530K...   the government will spend at least 1.2T New Taiwan dollars ($34.6G) on major projects each year for the next 5 years...   $1.3G in the next 2 years to create 140K jobs in the public sector...   $28.9G to help encourage private investment...   Investment in Taiwan has dropped to its lowest levels in 4 decades as many local businesses have relocated to Red China to take advantage of its cheap land & labor."

2002-11-18 14:47PST (17:47EST) (22:47GMT)
Mark Calvey _East Bay Business Times_ http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2002/11/18/daily8.html"> Bank of India [formerly known as Bank of America] cutting 900 tech jobs, moving them to India
Tim Arnoult memo
"Bank of India [formerly Bank of America] is cutting 232 jobs in Concord and San Francisco as it eliminates 900 jobs by year-end in its information technology operations...   [BofI's] decision to out-source tech work to India...   But some of those laid off have been told they must train their Indian counterparts to receive their severance.   Dozens of Indians have recently arrived at [BofI's] tech centers on temporary work visas for [BofI] training, according to the Business Journal of Jacksonville, FL.   Indians are also visiting [BofI's] huge Concord operations center for training as well...   Bank of [India] was discussing plans internally earlier this year to send up to 5% of its tech work over-seas to places such as India & Eastern Europe, according to confidential documents distributed last February to BofA manager & obtained by the Charlotte Observer.   In India, a tech worker earns about half of their U.S. counterparts."

2002-11-18
Margaret Quan _EE Times_
H-1Bs now can stay longer
"Have they seen the reports about rising un-employment among EEs or noticed the jobless rate of 7.9% in Silicon Valley during the month of October?   I ask because a Justice Department Appropriations Authorization bill signed by President Bush on November 2 has a provision that could affect the job picture for engineers.   A section of that legislation extends the current six-year term for H-1B visa holders, who now essentially may stay in the United States indefinitely until they receive a green card, as long as they remain employed...   Another 176K announced corporate lay-offs in October alone means there's a problem.   It's not a shortage of labor."
 

2002-11-19

2002-11-18 21:05PST (2002-11-19 00:05EST) (2002-11-19 05:21:38GMT)
Bambi Francisco _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Dot-com CEO turns to research
"95% of all research dollars go to the big bulge bracket firms, according to John Eade, director of research at Argus Research, an independent research firm that's been around since 1934...   Approximately 68K Wall Street jobs were cut between 2000 September & 2002 September, according to the Securities Industry Association...   There are currently 125 to 150 independent research companies all trying to get institutions to buy their research, according to Argus.   And that number keeps growing."

2002-11-19 06:26PST (09:26EST) (14:26GMT)
_USA Today_/_AP_
Consumer prices rise 0.3% in October
"The increase in the Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation gauge, came after a 0.2% advance in September & matched the 0.3% gain in August, the Labor Department reported Tuesday...   energy costs, which have risen at a 14.2% rate.   That's a turn-around from 2001, when energy prices fell 13%.   In October, energy prices rose 1.9%, following a 0.7% gain.   October's advance was led by a 3.8% jump in gasoline prices, biggest increase since April...   Gasoline prices have gone up 29.9% this year, but are 15.1% below their peak of 2001 May...   computer prices dropped 1.9%.   Clothing prices were flat.   Food prices nudged up 0.1% in October, down from a 0.2% increase, with prices falling for vegetables, fruit & poultry.   But medical care costs continue to hit consumers.   They rose 0.6% in October & are up 4.8% from a year ago."

2002-11-19
Ambani suggests Indo-US free trade agreement
"Chairman of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani has suggested that India and the United States enter into a free trade agreement similar to the 'North American Free Trade agreement' to enable both to derive benefits from economic cooperation between them.   The agreement, he said, should allow freer exchange of technology, labour & intellectual property rights."

2002-11-19 08:38PST (11:38EST) (16:38GMT)
Rachel Konig _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Trade deficit still high
"The balance in goods and services trade stood at a deficit of $38G in September compared to $38.3G in August, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.   September's figure was marginally wider than the $37.8G short-fall projected in a survey by CBS.MarketWatch.com...   Overall, imports into the United States totaled $120.2G in September, down slightly from $120.8G in August.   Weaker imports, particularly consumer goods, are a sign U.S. shoppers had less of an appetite for foreign-made goods...   The September deficit in advanced technology products at $2.2G was the highest on record.   Commerce officials explained this category includes over 500 products including computers, computer hardware and software, robotics and biotechnology, to name a few.   Exports of these goods were down in September.   A generally weaker dollar had a limited impact improving U.S. exports.   Exports totaled $82.2G after reaching $82.5G in August...   deficit with [Red China] in September, at $10.3G, was the highest on record.   The gap was the result of record high imports of $12.3G topping record high exports of $2G.   The deficit with Japan stood at $5.9G compared to $5.3G in August.   The deficit with...   Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore & Taiwan was a slightly larger $2.1G in September compared to $1.8G a month earlier.   Trade with Western Europe was little changed at a $7G deficit & with Eastern Europe, the deficit was a smaller $771M from $816M...   U.S. deficit with Canada, at $4.6G, was the highest since 2001 February.   [There was a reduced deficit with] Mexico... September over August, $3G vs. $3.5G."

2002-11-19
Sharon Gaudin _Boston Internet_
Nearly 1M IT Jobs Moving Off-Shore
internetnews.com
"Nearly 1M IT-related jobs will move off-shore over the course of the next 15 years, according to a new report released by Forrester Research, Inc...   McCarthy says there will be a wave of jobs moving off-shore over the next 16 months.   He then predicts a 2-year slow-down while corporate executives digest the economies of the move, & then there will be an acceleration in jobs moving to other countries from 2005 through 2015...   McCarthy estimates that about 3.3M American jobs & $136G in wages will move to countries like India, Russia, [Red China] & the Philippines.   The IT industry, however, will be leading the initial exodus.   Just as with the textile, shoe & automotive manufacturing industries, IT work can be had more cheaply outside of the US.   Cheaper labor & more relaxed labor rules mean a huge cost savings...   'They're getting better quality work done...   They've done the most to turn IT development away from a mystical black art to a real business process...'   critical IT work will remain in the U.S.A. but those without high-end skills will suffer...   many companies have being doing this -- possibly in small batches -- for 4, 5 or 6 years.   They've had time to calculate the benefits & expenses and now, battling a down economy, they're ready to move ahead with off-shoring a chunk of their work."

2002-11-19
Benjamin Powell _Ludwig von Mises Institute_
explaining Japan's recession
 

2002-11-20

2002-11-19 21:05PST (2002-11-20 00:05EST) (2002-11-20 05:05GMT)
Mike Tarsala _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
More tech firms talk up dividends
"Another reason is that the current tax law is stacked against dividends.   Corporate profit is typically taxed at about 35%.   Then, when a company wants to distribute those after-tax earnings to its share-holders, it's taxed again as personal income at a rate as high as 40%."

2002-11-19 17:04PST (20:04EST) (2002-11-20 01:04GMT)
Keith Girard _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Many small businesses still catching up on technology
"Small firms -- those with [fewer] than 100 employees -- invest about a quarter of their total capital expenditures on computers & communications equipment.   But companies with more than 500 employees are out-spending them by a 4-to-1 margin on a per-employee basis, according to a recent study by the U.S. Commerce Department...   The latest U.S. Census counted 36,001 towns incorporated within counties across America.   Of those, 90% had fewer than 10K residents and 51% had fewer than 1K residents.   Of those, less than one percent of the residents have access to broadband services, compared with 86% in cities of more than 100K, according to the National Center for Small Communities (NCSC), a non-profit research group in Washington...   Although about 60 percent of small businesses have access to the Internet, only about 11% are connected through some kind of permanent high-speed connection...   The cost of a T-1 line typically runs about $400 a month or more...   high-speed Internet usage beat dial-up Internet access for the first time this past January, according to Nielsen/NetRatings."

2002-11-20 02:07PST (05:07EST) (10:07GMT)
Emily Church _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Jobs move from West Europe to Central & Eastern Europe
"overall business investment slowed dramatically in the European Union in the first half of 2002...   projects in Central and Eastern Europe rose 54% in the first half of the year as overall job creation slowed in the E.U. by 25% to 122K.   The former Eastern bloc represented 34% of total project investments in Europe for the first half of the year.   In manufacturing, the Central and Eastern Europe region now attracts 50% of new projects...   American companies are also moving to the East.   Black & Decker in January announced plans to move manufacturing from the more expensive U.S. and U.K. to Mexico, [Red China] & the Czech Republic...   Unemployment in Germany stands above 4M.   A typical worker in the Czech Republic earns 19% of what a Dutch worker makes, while in Hungary the wage scale drops to 16%, according to Eurostat data from 2000...   There were more projects -- that is, jobs -- going into [Red China] in 2001 than into the whole of Europe..."

2002-11-20 03:36PST (06:36EST) (11:36GMT)
_Yahoo!_/_AP_
Black & Decker Cutting 1300 Jobs
"Most of the Maryland jobs will move to Mexico, others will shift to Brazil & Fayetteville, NC.   The Towson, MD-based company's lay-offs could begin as early as January.   The plant has 750 full-time employees & 550 contract workers.   It produces the company's DeWalt tools & has been in operation since 1974...   The company employs about 1150 at its head-quarters & about 250 workers at a plant in Hampstead.   About half of the tool-maker's nearly 23K employees world-wide are based in the US...   The company announced in January that it would spend $190M to restructure & move manufacturing from higher-cost plants in the US & UK to lower-cost facilities in Mexico, Red China & the Czech Republic, & announced plans to cut 2400 jobs."

2002-11-20
Dmitry Loshinin _ComputerWorld_
The New World of Out-sourcing
"Off-shore out-sourcing is not a new concept.   While some companies are drawn to the qualified specialists abroad, most are convinced by the significant savings attached to an off-shore project.   On average companies report 20% to 50% in net savings by out-sourcing a project off-shore...   When out-sourcing on a case by case basis (we will refer to this as traditional out-sourcing), vendors can easily conceal any weaknesses or inexperience in order to secure a contract.   If a vendor embellishes knowledge in an advanced field, this may affect the productivity and quality of results...   A dedicated center serves as an extension of an organization abroad.   The division is staffed with employees provided by the out-sourcing partner, devoting a qualified talent pool which likely lured the organization off-shore...   Countries best know for having a highly skilled labor pool and out-sourcing capabilities include India, [Red China], Israel and Russia."

2002-11-20
Zachary Coile _San Francisco Chronicle_
300K of state's jobless to lose benefits on December 28: House, Senate couldn't agree on extension
"California has the 4th-highest unemployment rate in the country at 6.4%.   The nation's unemployment rate rose to 5.7% last month...   House Republicans also questioned the cost of the Senate version of the bill.   The Senate bill, which would have helped 2.1M people, has an estimated price tag of $4.9G.   The House bill, which would aid 800K people, would cost about $900M."

2002-11-20
Aldo Svaldi _Denver Post_
Economist's forecast takes down-turn
"The USA economy has a 50-50 chance of slipping into a consumer-driven recession next year, according to US Bank regional economist Tucker Hart Adams...   Last year's recession was driven primarily by a collapse in business spending.   Consumers account for two-thirds of the economy, & they could trigger a more severe recession.   Households need to spend only $100 less this holiday season than they did last year to turn growth negative, Adams said."

2002-11-20
Joel Mowbray _Town Hall_
a defeat for border security
 

2002-11-21

2002-11-20 17:48PST (20:48EST) (2002-11-21 01:48GMT)
Elise Labott _CNN_
US to increase military aid to Israel
"For the 2003 fiscal year the United States is giving Israel $2.04G in military aid.   The proposed $2.16G for fiscal year 2004 is separate from US economic support to Israel, which the countries have agreed will decrease & eventually disappear by 2008, with a commensurate raise in military assistance."

2002-11-21 11:07IST
K. Giriprakash _ReDiff_
US services to lose 3.3M jobs to India, Red China
"Over the next 15 years, 3.3M US services industry jobs & $136G in wages will move off-shore to countries such as India & Red China, a leading research firm, Forrester Research, said.   Forrester research group director John McCarthy said the numbers will easily double when the rest of G7 countries such as Japan, UK, & Germany are included."

2002-11-21
_Times of India_
India has largest technical pool after US: Azim Premji
"it must be ensured that power reliability [in India] went up significantly, that telecomm costs, which were double those of US, should come down to become competitive and that manpower resources for out-sourcing was augmented by setting up adequate vocational training centres...   countries like Ireland, which had been a major out-sourcing centre, had out-priced itself with man-power.   But Red China & the Philippines posed serious competition in the long run because of the cost of their large pool of manpower.   Red China had launched a major drive to upgrade its language skills by introducing English in schools & colleges, set up over 50 technology parks, cut down telecom costs & assured greater than 99.8% power reliability...   Indian software industry had certain distinct advantages in becoming an out-sourcing partner.   India... had the second largest technical resource pool after the US..."

2002-11-21 07:00PST (10:00EST) (15:00GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Leading indicators flat in October
"The index of leading economic indicators was unchanged in October after 4 months of declines, the Conference Board reported Thursday.   The coincident index & the lagging index were also unchanged in October...   the Labor Department said the 4-week average for jobless claims fell to 395,750 from 400,250 in the latest week."
more Conference Board info

2002-11-21 08:49PST (11:49EST) (16:49GMT)
Rachel Koning _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
U.S. jobs market shows improvement: Claims, 4-week average and continuous benefits all fall
"The 4-week average of claims, preferred by most observers because it removes seasonal fluctuations, fell to 395,750 from 400,250.   The last time it was this low was the week ended August 24, when the four-week average clocked in at 394,500.   Jobless claims in the week ended November 16 fell by 25K to stand at 376K, the lowest mark in 4 months & below the level predicted by Wall Street economists...   The results for the week ended November 9 were revised up, to 401K after being first reported as a drop in claims for the week...   The latest jobless claims report also showed that the number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits decreased by 61K to 3.58M...   The insured rate of unemployment fell 0.1% to 2.8%, in line with the range seen since the middle of August, the government's report showed."

2002-11-21 14:05PST (17:05EST) (22:05GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Jobless benefits to expire on December 28: House, Senate couldn't agree on federal program
"Both the House and Senate had approved separate versions of bills last week that would have extended the federal benefits, but no action was taken in the final days of the lame-duck congressional session to bridge the gaps between the Republican & Democratic versions.   House Republican leaders have said their plan, which was approved first, should have been adopted by the Senate.   The House has not officially adjourned; its final session is on Friday...   The new Congress returns to Washington on January 3...   The most recent data show that 3.14M workers were receiving state unemployment benefits and 798K were receiving extended federal benefits.   The unemployment rate was 5.7% in October, with 8.21M Americans officially classified as unemployed, including 1.66M who have been unemployed for longer than 26 weeks...   11.5M in 1983 [were unemployed and] 10M in 1992...   Pay-rolls are down 1.6% from their peak 25 months ago, worse than the 1.5% decline at this stage in the early 1990s recovery & far below the 1.7% increase in pay-roll at this stage of the early 1980s recovery..."

2002-11-21
Jason Jennings _USA Today_
Poor leadership leads to lay-offs
"The Business Roundtable last week announced the results of a survey of its membership -- 150 chief executives of leading US companies -- that had one truly astonishing finding: 60% of these CEOs expect their total employment to decline in 2003.   IOW, the top leaders of 3 out of 5 major firms believe the weak economy will continue, that they must cut costs and that they have no choice but to fire people...   the world's most productive firms almost never lay off workers.   In fact, they make an explicit promise that their books won't be balanced through lay-offs -- not even during deep recessions.   Instead, they cut costs and boost demand in other ways...
  I settled on 80 that topped their peers by every reasonable measure of productivity.   Simply put, these firms sold more, spent less and made more profit per employee than their competition, year after year.   The most striking trait these 80 productivity super-stars shared was their passionate opposition to lay-offs, even when the economy was in the dumps."

2002-11-21
Jason Jennings _USA Today_ pg A11
Poor leadership leads to lay-offs
Yahoo!
"The Business Roundtable... 60% of these CEOs expect their total employment to decline in 2003...   the world's most productive firms almost never lay off workers.   In fact, they make an explicit promise that their books won't be balanced through lay-offs -- not even during deep recessions.   Instead, they cut costs & boost demand in other ways...   The most striking trait these 80 productivity superstars shared was their passionate opposition to lay-offs, even when the economy was in the dumps...
  When lay-offs begin, workers become afraid, distracted & preoccupied with their own financial security.   It's hard for them to focus on doing good work.   Team-work suffers...   Companies that routinely use lay-offs to solve short-term problems risk losing their most valuable workers to more stable environments.
  A great deal of institutional memory also is lost.   Firms that down-size when business is bad face huge recruiting, hiring & training costs to refill jobs when demand recovers.   Add the costs of lay-offs, including severance packages, & savings evaporate."

2002-11-21
_abc_/_AP_
1M to Lose UnEmployment Benefits: Nearly 1M Unemployed Workers to Lose Benefits After Christmas
"Without congressional action, an estimated 820K people will lose benefits that day [2002-12-28], with an additional 95K each week thereafter...   The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 5.7% last month, while in previous recessions, the rate was much higher 10.8% in 1983 & 7.8% in 1992.   On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance fell by a seasonally adjusted 25K to 376K for the work week ending November 16, leaving claims at their lowest level since the week ending July 20...   Some economists argue that the cost isn't a burden on the rest of government because the federal unemployment insurance trust fund contains more than $25G for such purposes.   Such spending also will help boost the economy, they say."
NBER says recession that troughed in 2001 April ended 2001 November.   The stock market crashed 2000-03-10.   The STEM job markets were already diving by 2000 September, and general job markets in mid-2001.   STEM product sales were tanking all through 2001 and 2002.   Job markets still had not fully recovered by the end of 2016.

2002-11-21
Sarita Rani _DataQuest_
Beyond the US
"A majority of Indian IT exports, 61%, ends up in the United States market, though Europe and the Asia-Pacific region offer a bigger opportunity -- a market worth over $200G, lakhs of potential jobs, and fewer players. Here's how Indian companies targeting new geographies can achieve the best business, legal and cultural fit. It's a whole world out there. And it's largely unexplored. Traditionally, nearly 65-70% of Indian IT services exports have been to the United States..."
 

2002-11-22

2002-11-21 17:03PST (20:03EST) (2002-11-22 01:03GMT)
Emily Kaiser & Chris Stetkiewicz _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Thousands Gather for Wal-Mart Protest
"protests in 40 US cities from NY to Hawaii were aimed at calling attention to labor issues at WM...   Just 4.5% of US retail workers belonged to unions last year, compared with 9.1% of the total US working population, according to the Employment Policy Foundation, a Washington-based research group.   The retail sector provided full-time & part-time employment for more than 13.4M people in 2001, making the industry the largest employer in the US economy, the research group said...   In Oregon, where WM is fighting a court battle over wages, protests were planned in Portland & 2 other cities...   WM statements began in Portland this week in the first trial by WM employees against the retail giant, charging it forced them to work overtime without pay.   The case, seeking millions of dollars in back pay, covers more than 400 workers from 24 of WM's 27 Oregon stores.   WM faces similar charges in other states."

2002-11-21 21:01PST (2002-11-22 00:01EST) (2002-11-22 05:01GMT)
Steve Kerch _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stuff yourself, for $3.18 each, and ThanksGiving for 10.9, on the road, winter break
"The price to purchase & prepare a traditional turkey dinner is $3.18 a person, down 2 cents from 2001, according to the Associated Food Dealers of Michigan.   The figures are based on a standard turkey dinner for 10 & includes all the traditional trimmings: stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, green salad, fruit salad, cranberry sauce, rolls & pumpkin pie...   Costs for a 14-pound turkey, stuffing mix & mashed potatoes were higher this year than last, but yams, cranberry sauce, salad & pumpkin pie were all less expensive...   The average Thanksgiving table has 10.9 people stuffed around it, and a quarter of all Americans will share a meal where 15 or more are being fed, a survey from travel site Hotwire found...   Those in the Heartland are the most sociable on Thanksgiving, with an average of 12 holiday revelers & a third of households hosting 15 or more.   33% of those surveyed say someone usually ends up sleeping on the couch or floor...   The majority of Americans, 65%, say their families are not likely to argue this Thanksgiving; instead they are looking forward to the time spent together.   About 36M Americans will take travel 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving, a 2% increase from last year.   Almost 31M will travel by car, about 1% more than in 2001, according to AAA.   Air travel is coming back into vogue, as 5.1 Americans plan to fly compared to 4.8M last Thanksgiving, a 6% jump."

2002-11-22 06:50PST (09:50EST) (14:50GMT)
Leigh Strope _Yahoo!_/_AP_
1M to Lose UnEmployment Benefits December 28
"She's one of nearly 1M unemployed workers across the country who will start losing jobless benefits 3 days after Christmas because Congress failed to grant an extension before leaving for the year...   But the extension benefits start expiring December 28.   Without congressional action, an estimated 820K people will lose benefits that day, with an additional 95K each week thereafter...   The Senate and House passed separate legislation last week providing for another extension.   But each side refused to accept the other's plan, & the Senate adjourned Wednesday for the year...   The nation's unemployment rate climbed to 5.7% last month, while in previous recessions, the rate was much higher -- 10.8% in 1983 and 7.8% in 1992.   On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance fell by a seasonally adjusted 25K to 376K for the work week ending November 16, leaving claims at their lowest level since the week ending July 20."
NBER says recession that troughed in 2001 April ended 2001 November.   The stock market crashed 2000-03-10.   The STEM job markets were already diving by 2000 September, and general job markets in mid-2001.   STEM product sales were tanking all through 2001 and 2002.   Job markets still had not fully recovered by the end of 2016.

2002-11-22
_Sacramento Business Journal_
If stay was short, expect long lay-off
"Frequent job switchers may suffer the greatest casualties in this recession with companies apparently targeting short-tenured employees for job cuts, according to the out-placement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.   According to its analysis of un-employment data, there's been a 42% drop in the average tenure of discharged managers and executives since the recession began.   Making matters worse for these job switchers is that the terrorist attacks and major corporate scandals caused companies to become wary of the unknown and anything suggesting instability, which will make it more difficult for the short-tenured to find new jobs, Challenger says.   Jobless managers and executives surveyed in the third quarter spent an average of five years with their former employers before being discharged.   That level has remained virtually unchanged since the recession began in the first quarter of 2001.   The average tenure in the seven-quarter period, beginning with the first quarter of 2001, is 4.99 years.   The 4.99-year figure is the lowest average tenure on record, according to Challenger, which began tracking these data in 1986.   It is 42% lower than the 8.6-year average tenure recorded in the seven-quarter period before the recession began (second quarter of 1999 through fourth quarter of 2000)."

2002-11-22 02:02PST (05:02EST) (10:02GMT)
_BBC_
US government warns Hong Kong, Red China, over proposed anti-subversion law
"The US Government has warned Hong Kong that its proposed new anti-subversion law must not harm civil liberties in the territory.   The controversial law, designed to protect [Red China's] national security, would mean that anyone found guilty of acts of subversion against [Red China] could be imprisoned for life.   Human rights and pro-democracy groups have said China could use the new laws to suppress freedoms inherited from British rule, as well as to ban groups - such as the religious group Falun Gong - it considers a threat."

2001-11-22 08:27PST (11:27EST) (16:27GMT)
_CNN_/_Reuters_
Economists cut 4Q outlook: Growth estimates cut to 1.3% from 2.6% & 2003 growth views reduced to 2.6% from 3%.

2002-11-22 11:33PST (14:33EST) (19:33GMT)
Alam Fram _Boston Globe_/_AP_
Congress quits for year with finishing homeland security done, no action on unemployment
"The 107th Congress adjourned for the year Friday after sending President Bush legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security but failing to prevent nearly 1M people from losing unemployment benefits right after Christmas...   The Republican-led House and Democratic-run Senate approved extensions of the program last week, the Senate's being more generous, but they could not agree on a compromise version."

2002-11-22 13:35PST (16:35EST) (21:35GMT)
Rex Nutting & William L. Watts _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Jobless benefits to expire on December 28: House adjourns without taking action
"Around 800K workers will lose their unemployment benefits on December 28, after the House adjourned Friday without taking action on a temporary extension.   Out-going House Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, said it would be impossible under the chamber's rules to bring up a Senate-passed extension of unemployment benefits for consideration under 'unanimous consent', a parliamentary term that allows passage of measures so long as no member provides an objection...   Democrats on Friday backed away from a threat to block unanimous consent of the homeland security bill that the House passed last week & cleared the Senate on Tuesday night.   The final version passed Friday contained minor technical corrections to the bill...   The most recent data show that 3.14M workers were receiving state unemployment benefits & 798K were receiving extended federal benefits.   The unemployment rate was 5.7% in October, with 8.21M Americans officially classified as unemployed, including 1.66M who have been unemployed for longer than 26 weeks."

2002-11-22 13:38PST (16:38EST) (21:38GMT)
Julie Rannazzisi _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Blue chips fall back in late action but NASDAQ ekes out gain
"The Dow has stretched its winning streak to 7 straight weeks, a feat not accomplished in over 4 & a half years.   On the week, the Dow rose 2.6%, the Nasdaq just over 4% and the S&P 500 2.3%."

2002-11-22
Jim Gardner _San Francisco Business Times_
Bank Job: You're Fired. Now Go Train Your Replacement
"Spreading some pre-holiday cheer, Bank of America this week announced that it is cutting 900 tech positions—with the twist that some layoff victims have to help train replacements if they want to get severance pay...   The job cuts, 232 of them in the Bay Area, come as BofA is out-sourcing an increasing amount of tech work abroad, particularly to India.   That has earned the Charlotte, NC-based institution the nickname of Bank of India among disgruntled soon-to-be-ex-employees.   Sure enough, dozens of Indian tech workers have been visiting BofA's major tech centers in Concord, CA, Jacksonville, FL, and other cities around the country recently.   They're getting training on work they'll do back at home for about half what departing employees are paid.   The bank confirms that some laid-off workers are being required to help train new ones (and not speak to the media) as a condition of receiving severance."

2002-11-22
Scott Silverman _Shop.org_/_BizRate.com_
2002 On-Line Holiday Mood Study: Retailers Report Strong On-Line Sales During First 2 Weeks of November
"During the first 2 weeks of November, 60% of retailers posted revenue increases of 25% or greater compared to the same period last year...   This year, retailers said, free shipping conditions have been the most successful tool in driving holiday business (47%).   Search engine placement, bestseller lists & early shopper discounts have also been effective marketing methods."

Table 1. Retailer-reported on-line sales 2002/11/03 through 2002/11/16 compared to the same two weeks last year

150% or higher	2%
100% - 149% higher	6%
75% - 99% higher	10%
50% - 74% higher	12%
25% - 49% higher	30%
10% - 24% higher	14%
0% - 9% higher	10%
About the same	4%
0% - 9% lower	4%
10% - 19% lower	2%
20% or lower	6%

 

2002-11-22
Jim Austin _Science_
You've Worked Hard to Get This Far. Don't Blow Your Interview
 
 

2002-11-23

2002-11-22 16:31PST (2002-11-22 19:31EST) (2002-11-23 00:31GMT)
Lou Dobbs _CNN_
Congress had time to vote itself a pay raise, but not to pass an extension of unemployment benefits.
"The Senate and the House did pass separate legislation that would have provided for the extension, but neither would accept the other's plan."
 

2002-11-24

2002-11-24
Susie Steckner _Arizona Republic_
When you're just getting by: State's working poor face maze of obstacles
"Long has gone to school and worked most of her adult life.   But she still lives pay-check to pay-check to support her family, and she still needs help to make ends meet...   Say a woman needs added training or education to advance.   How will she pay for that?   Who will watch her children while she takes classes?   How will she pay for that added child care?   How will she get to classes without a car or accessible bus service?"

2002-11-24
Karl Schoenberger _San Jose Mercury News_
Cheap products' human cost: Red China's success in the PC revolution lies in its mostly young and low-wage workers, who put in stunning amounts of over-time
"Fumes from the lead solder rise past her face...   Now she's used to them -- just as she's used to the marathon shifts, sometimes 18 hours a day...   Pan's base wage of 30 cents an hour is roughly China's minimum wage.   Working at least 130 hours of overtime a month, at up to 50 cents an hour, she earns about $150 a month.   Much of that she sends home to support her parents, who are subsistence farmers, and what is left she spends on her room and board, and she saves for medical emergencies.   With its estimated 100 million migrant workers and its notoriety for low wages and lax enforcement of labor and environmental laws, China is fast becoming the world's premier electronic workshop, analysts say.   Contract manufacturers..."
 

2002-11-25

2002-11-25
Rone Tempest _LA Times_
Red China Tries to Woo Its Tech Talent Back Home; Silicon Valley dot-com casualties can return to a booming economy in their native land.
"Many expect the recruiting push to accelerate now that 59-year- old Hu Jintao, a graduate of the prestigious Qinghua University engineering school, has been chosen as the country's new leader.   In a rare over-seas visit laden with political symbolism, Hu toured the Silicon Valley even before being named general secretary of the ruling Communist Party last week."

2002-11-25 03:38PST (06:38EST) (11:38GMT)
_CNN_/_Money_
More than 60% of employers plan to give bonuses that are the same or larger than last year.
"About 60% of companies plan to give bonuses in 2002 that are larger or the same as last year, USA Today reported, citing a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.   Many companies are also anticipating better times ahead, as 25% plan to give larger bonuses in 2003, while 60% said bonuses will remain the same and only 15% said they will get smaller, the paper reported."

2002-11-25 08:02PST (11:02EST) (16:02GMT)
_USA Today_/_Reuters_
Sales of existing homes jumped in October
"Sales of previously owned homes shot up in October by 6.1% to the third highest monthly level on record...   The big jump pushed sales of existing homes to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.77M, according to the National Association of Realtors.   That tied with April as the third highest monthly level on record...   The national median price of an existing home... rose to $159,600 in October, a 9.8% increase from 2001 October.   That marked the largest increase since 1987 July."

2002-11-25 09:41PST (12:41EST) (17:41GMT)
_Reuters_
Bankruptcy Filings Hit Another Record
"There were nearly 1.55M bankruptcy filings in the 12 months ended September 30, a new record, up 7.7% from the 1.44M filings made in the same period a year ago, according to figures released by the Administrative Office of the US Courts.   Broken down, there were almost 1.51M personal bankruptcies in the latest 12-month period, up 1.5%, and 39,091 business filings, up 1.6% during that time, according to the courts...   In the 3 months through September, the courts reported an 11.6% rise in bankruptcy filings from the same period a year ago, totaling 401,306 filings."

2002-11-25 15:00PST (18:00EST) (23:00GMT)
Jonathan Nicholson _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Long-Term Joblessness on Rise
"According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of the unemployed without work for 27 weeks or more rose to 20.3% in October, the largest proportion since 1994 October.   It stood at 19.5% in September...   The average length of unemployment was 17.5 weeks -- or a bit more than 4 months -- in October.   This was down slightly from September's 17.8 weeks, but still the second-highest level since December 1994, when it was also 17.8 weeks.   The median number of weeks of unemployment -- the middle of the overall distribution -- was 9.6 weeks in October, down from a peak of 11.7 weeks in June.   There have been 4 months in 2002 where the median time of being out of work has been 9 weeks or more, also the first time since 1994.   In October, the number of workers unemployed for 6 months or more totaled 1.66M, barely below a peak seen in June & again the second highest since 1994 May."

2002-11-25
Dan Seligman _Forbes_
government has no evidence that increased education will raise incomes.
graph
"The National Center for Education Statistics tells us that 35.5% of first- & second-year under-graduates report having taken remedial courses -- most often in math but also in reading, writing &, getting to the truly clueless, 'study skills' (taught to 17.4% of those in remedial programs)...   Many employers have used college degrees as a proxy for intelligence.   But if not-so-smart people try to get in on the high-income game by, say, going to college instead of grabbing a job at age 18, they will ultimately find it doesn't pay.   The labor markets are quite sophisticated at sniffing out true mental-ability levels.   Employers not bashful about testing can do it in 12 minutes, which is the time it takes to administer the Wonderlic Personnel Test.   This is now given some 2.5M times a year to job applicants in tens of thousands of companies, not to mention the National Football League, which gives the test to almost every rookie."

2002-11-25
Stephanie Wilkinson _eWeek_
Is It Time to Move On?
"That's when he turned to the law -- not to sue but for a new career.   O'Neal, like many IT professionals in the midst of the economic down-turn in high technology, has decided to move on, leaving his coding days behind & focusing the rest of his working years on a different field.   With a degree in patent law from Suffolk University, in Boston, O'Neal plans to use his 3 decades in computing to guide high-tech innovators through the patent process...   From newly minted computer science graduates who are rethinking their career path in the face of dwindling job offers to midlife IT pros tired of shuffling between jobs in a hurting field, increasing numbers of techies are either contemplating or making the big break...   Research company Meta Group Inc. recently reported that 500K IT jobs disappeared last year alone.   The study also found that IT employee turn-over rates have risen at most companies."

2002-11-25
Peter Coy _Business Week_
What If You Had to Fix the Mess?: There's no free lunch: Cutting taxes without cutting spending creates enormous budget deficits
"Politics aside, the best way to boost consumer spending is to aid families in the lower half or so of the income distribution.   That's because higher-income families save most of their tax cuts, which reduces their stimulative effect.   You might want to temporarily cut rates for the bottom two income brackets...   A quick way to make employees less costly is to cut the employer-paid portion of Social Security & Medicare pay-roll taxes."

2002-11-25
Daren Fonda/Dallas _Time_
As U.S. firms went global in the '90s, most failed to prosper.
"U.S. foreign direct investment was down 55% in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 1999, when it peaked at $175G for the year...   Rames Root, a global strategist with Bain Consulting in New York City, surveyed the 1996-2000 financial results of 7,500 publicly traded companies and shared his findings exclusively with Time...   companies that increase foreign sales & profit at a sustained and healthy clip (at least 8% annually) yielded superior share-holder rewards."

2002-11-25
Janice R. Long _Chemical & Engineering News_/_ACS_
2003 Employment Outlook
"The employment market for chemists has deteriorated sharply over the past year.   Unemployment among American Chemical Society members who wanted to work hit a 30-plus-year high of 3.3% in March of this year.   It had been just 1.5% a year earlier.   And since chemical employment is a lagging rather than a leading indicator of U.S. economic health, it may be a while before the situation turns around.   On the plus side were the salary gains posted by chemists already in or just entering the workforce.   The median base salaries of ACS members who were full-time employees in March of this year were almost 5% higher than they had been a year earlier.   The 2001 class of newly minted Ph.D. graduates was getting 8% more than had been offered a year earlier, and master's recipients earned 7% more.   However, B.S. graduates -- perhaps a harbinger of things to come -- saw their median salaries drop slightly, from $34K to $33,600."
index
 

2002-11-26

2002-11-25 16:59PST (19:59EST) (2002-11-26 00:59GMT)
_CNN_/_Money_
USA floats end of tariffs
Edward Alden: Global Aging
Financial Times/West Chester U of PA
"The USA Tuesday will reportedly propose to eliminate tariffs on manufactured goods, calling for countries in the World Trade Organization [WTO] to sweep away all duties no later than 2015...   Under the plan, developing countries would have to make the biggest cuts because their average tariffs are much higher than in advanced economies, the FT said.   On industrial machinery, for example, tariffs are 1.2% in the US and 1.8% in the European Union but 35% in Argentina & 36% in India, the FT said.   Under the US proposal, the US and EU would have to scrap those tariffs by 2010 while other countries would have to cut tariffs to about 6.5% by that time.   The US hopes to entice developing countries by promising rapid cuts in its own remaining high tariffs.   The average U.S. tariff of 17.5% on clothing would be cut to 5.5% by 2010."

2002-11-25 19:08PST (22:08EST) (2002-11-26 03:08GMT)
Christine Dugas _USA Today_
Debt woes nearing record
"Personal bankruptcy filings in the third quarter jumped to 391,873, up 12% from a year ago.   That puts filings on track to surpass last year's record high of 1.45M.   The surge continues a trend that started in the mid-'90s...   Medical debt also weighs on consumers, playing a role in about half of all filings."

2002-11-26 00:00PST (03:00EST) (08:00GMT)
_Seattle Times_/_AP_
New bankruptcy filings set record in 3rd quarter
"Bankruptcy filings by individuals and businesses jumped 12% in the 3 months ending in September to a record 401,306, according to data released yesterday.   New bankruptcy filings in the 12 months ended September 30 totaled 1,547,669, up 7.7% from the year-earlier period and exceeding the record high of 1,492,129 in 2001, a year in which the economy slid into recession, data compiled by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show... filings surged 30% from the third quarter 2 years earlier."

2002-11-26
K. Yatish Rajawat _Times of India_
US version of globalisation: Throw India out of business process out-sourcing
alternate link
"A back-lash seems to be brewing in the US against business process out-sourcing jobs moving to India.   A member of the New Jersey state senate has introduced a bill, which could prevent [government] BPO contracts being out-sourced to India.   The bill has been introduced by senator Shirley K Tuner, but has not yet been passed, & is, therefore, not yet law...   According to Forrester Research, around 3.3M US jobs in the services sector and $136G in wages are expected to move off-shore to countries like India, Russia, Red China & the Philippines by 2015."

2002-11-26 08:37PST (11:37EST) (16:37GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Consumer confidence bounces back
"Consumers view of their current job prospects deteriorated, with the number saying jobs were plentiful falling to 14.1% from 14.7% and more than 21% 6 months ago.   The number who said the economy was "bad" also rose to 16% from 15.6%.   Meanwhile, consumers' view of the economy in 6 months improved.   The percentage expecting fewer jobs fell to 18.9% from 22.1%, while the percentage expecting more jobs held steady at 15.3%.   Consumers were also more optimistic about income growth, with 19% expecting higher incomes in 6 months.   Buying attitudes softened, despite low interest rates...   In other reports, the Commerce Department said new home sales fell about 4% in October to an annual rate of 1.01M, the third highest level ever.   Also, the government revised its estimates of third-quarter gross domestic product growth to 4% from 3.1% earlier, mostly because inventory building was much higher than previously estimated."

2002-11-26
Shihoko Goto _UPI_
US pushes for aggressive tariff scrapping
"Trade barriers for manufactured goods should be completely eliminated by 2015, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Tuesday.   Accompanied by Commerce Secretary Don Evans at a news briefing to unveil the latest proposal, Zoellick emphasized the need for breaking down trade barriers, 'which are effectively taxes', pointing out that eliminating tariffs would benefit $670G worth of US industrial & consumer goods...   US tariffs average about 4% under WTO rules, compared to an average of 40% among developing nations..."

2002-11-26
_Amnesty International_
Red China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture & even execution
"Amnesty International records the cases of at least 33 people who have been detained or imprisoned for offences related to their use of the Internet.   They range from political activists and writers to members of unofficial organizations, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
  One of the longest sentences has been passed against a former police officer, Li Dawei, (see: "People's Republic of China: State control of the Internet in China: appeal cases" ASA17/046/2002), who has been sentenced [to] 11 years in prison for down-loading articles from Chinese democracy web sites abroad.   All his appeals have been turned down.
  Two of those detained for Internet-related offences have died in custody, apparently as a result of torture or ill-treatment at the hands of the police.   Both are members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which was banned as a 'heretical organization' in 1999 July...
  In late August [Red China] blocked access to the Google Internet search engine for a brief period, diverting users to local [Red Chinese] search engines instead.   In recent weeks, Beijing has shifted tactics again, opening up some previously blocked Web sites, but making it impossible for users to open documents on those sites that relate to China.
  The Ministry of State Security has reportedly installed tracking devices on Internet service providers to monitor individual e-mail accounts and all Internet cafes are required to register and inform the police about their customers...   'As [Red China's] role as an economic & trading partner grows, multi-national companies have a particular responsibility to ensure that their technology is not used to violate fundamental human rights.', Amnesty International said."

2002-11-26
_Silicon India_
Indian Business Process Out-Sourcers Unfazed by New Jersey's Anti-Out-Sourcing Law
"Initially, eye-brows were raised in the IT industry following reports that senator Shirley K. Turner has introduced the bill in New Jersey to prevent out-sourcing of government contracts to citizens outside the US in a bid to prevent loss of jobs to foreign countries...   Industry officials quote the example of ["dirt-bag"] Nike, which out-sourced manufacturing of its shoes to Asia & reaped the benefits to record sales of $2G...   Premji quoted the NASSCOM-McKinsey report 2002, which predicts 2M jobs that out-sourcing centres in India will provide in 6 years.   By 2008, the revenue predicted is around $24G, which will be 3% of India's gross domestic product (GDP).   The growth rate achieved by the sector was 71% last year making it the fastest growing industry.   In the last 5 years, more than 336 centres have come up in India."
 

2002-11-27

2002-11-26 18:56PST (21:56EST) (2002-11-27 02:56GMT)
Jonathan Ansfield _Yahoo!_/_Reuters_
Red China Jails 30 People for Internet Use
News about Red China
"Human rights group Amnesty International urged Red China on Wednesday to free at least 30 people jailed for using the Internet to share information or express their views.   Red China had detained or imprisoned at least 33 people for offences related to Internet use, but two adherents of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned in 1999 and declared an 'evil cult', had died in custody, the group said in a statement...   The government had gone so far as to filter foreign sites, create a special Internet police & even shut down Web pages posting politically incorrect fare, the rights group said.   In late August, Red China blocked access to Internet searchengine Google in a media clampdown ahead of the watershed 16th Party Congress earlier this month...   It had 45.9M Internet users at the end of October & is expected to become the largest Internet market in the world in 4 years."

2002-11-27 06:23PST (09:23EST) (14:23GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Initial unemployment insurance claims plunge: Weekly filings lowest since before recession began
"The 4-week seasonally average for first-time claims for state jobless benefits fell by 11,250 to 385,750, the lowest in 15 weeks, the Labor Department said Wednesday.   Initial claims in the latest week fell by 17K to a seasonally adjusted 364K, the lowest since just before the recession started in early 2001...   unadjusted claims actually rose by nearly 60K last week...   Meanwhile, those already receiving unemployment benefits are having a harder time finding a job.   The number of workers receiving state benefits rose by 91K to 3.65M, the most in 6 weeks.   The moving average for continuing claims rose by 17,500 to 3.60M.   The continuing claims numbers do not include about 770K workers receiving extended federal benefits, which are available to those who exhaust the typical 26 weeks of state benefits.   The federal program will expire on December 28...   about 830K workers will lose their federal benefits on December 28.   About 95K workers exhaust their state benefits each week & begin to receive federal checks."

2002-11-27 01:45PST (04:45EST) (09:45GMT)
_BBC_
Hi-tech work-place no better than factories
"Staff in technology jobs work in the white collar equivalent of a 19th century factory, suffering from isolation, job insecurity and long hours, research has found.   Much needs to be done to ease the intense pressure, inequality and exclusion in technology jobs, said the study by Sean O'Riain, Professor of Sociology at the University of California...   The image of the socially excluded geek working long and frustrating hours seems to be a hard one to shake off, despite efforts to change perceptions of the technology sector, the hi-tech worker has become a product to be bought and sold, despite having much-sought after skills.   They are under constant pressure to update skills.   And social relationships among the technical communities are defined by common technical interests rather than a common employer."

2002-11-27 07:47PST (10:47EST) (15:47GMT)
_USA Today_/_Reuters_
Computer company's outlook suggests weaker tech spending
"November [tech] spending was weakening & contrasts with reports from competitors only a few weeks ago that business had stabilized."

2002-11-27 07:55PST (10:55EST) (15:55GMT)
Allen Wan _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Stocks surge on economic data: Jobless claims fall, incomes and spending improve
"Personal spending recovered with a 0.4% gain in October after falling an unrevised 0.4% a month earlier.   Personal income measured in current dollars increased 0.1%.   Incomes were up an unrevised 0.4% in September.   Economists had predicted incomes would rise 0.2% & spending would pick up 0.3%.   Meanwhile, claims for first time unemployment insurance fell 17K in the latest week to 364K, the lowest level seen since before the recession in early 2001.   Consumer sentiment edged higher in November from nine-year lows in October, researchers at the University of Michigan said.   The consumer sentiment index rose to 84.2 in November, up from the 80.6 in October but down from the preliminary reading of 85.0 released 2 weeks ago.   Economists were looking for the main index to rise a bit to 85.4.   Durable goods orders rose a higher-than-expected 2.8% in October -- the first increase in the last 3 months."

2002-11-27
_Economic Times of India_
TCS to hire 1700 professionals in the next 4 months
"Keeping its hiring plans for the current fiscal on track despite slowdown, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a division of Tata Sons, has plans to hire 1,700 more professionals in the next 4 months.   'We will hire another 1,700 people by the end of 2003 March 31, as part of our earlier plans to recruit 3,500 people in the current fiscal', a company spokesperson said...   The company has so far recruited 1,800 people during the current financial year.   The company in the last fiscal hired 3,420 people.   Out of the 1,700 people to be recruited, about 800 would be the number of freshers and rest would be people with experience..."

2002-11-27 14:49PST (17:49EST) (22:49GMT)
Nicolas Mokhoff _EE Times_
High cost of bugs ignites quest for exterminators
"Bugs and glitches cost the US economy about $59.5G a year, according to a study released in June by the National Institute of Standards and Technology...   Better testing could expose the bugs and remove them early in development, knocking more than a third \xd1 or $22.2G \xd1 off that cost, said the study, which was conducted by the Research Triangle Institute in North Carolina with input from the software industry...   The NIST study estimated that about 80% of the cost of developing software goes into identifying & correcting defects."
 

2002-11-28

2002-11-27 21:07PST (2002-11-28 00:07EST) (2002-11-28 05:07GMT)
Ray Martin _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
holiday budget
"The average budget for gifts, entertaining, decorations & travel this holiday season is $1,656, up 5% over last year, according to the 2002 American Express Retail Index.   Shoppers said this year's budget includes $1,073 for gifts & $238 for entertainment.   Women say they will spend $911, or about $100 more than men on gifts for the holidays, according to the International Mass Retail Association survey of holiday shoppers...   Most holiday shoppers still say they will pay with cash for all or most of their holiday gifts, but this has slipped from 90% in 2001 to 80% in 2002.   63% say they will use credit cards, more than last year.   Using checks to pay for holiday purchases is much less popular this year, at 39% from 59% last year."

2002-11-27 22:49PST (2002-11-28 01:49EST) (2002-11-28 06:49GMT)
BBC: Labor laws prompt Sony to leave Indonesia
"Industry & Trade Minister Rini Suwandi believed the country's employment legislation allowed workers too much freedom [to] hold demonstrations & voice protests...   Indonesia has raised its minimum wages by 30% per year in recent years & this has made it tougher for the company to compete with countries where labour is cheaper, such as [Red China]."
 

2002-11-29

2002-11-29
Prasenjit Bhattacharya _Economic Times of India_
Forget slump, IT majors big on India R&D
"India is coming of age as an R&D hub for the global software industry.   At a time when global IT giants are reeling from a slowdown-bitten 2002, multi-national (MNC) software companies are making major investment commitments and hiring aggressively in their Indian development centres.   Name the software company, and they have talked big bucks and three-figure recruitments this year.   M$, SAP, Oracle, Adobe, Invensys... are all aggressively expanding their software development capabilities in India...   Oracle too has been on a hiring spree, picking up 100 employees every month.   This year alone, Oracle has seen its India staff grow by more than 1K.   Oracle plans to take its staff strength from 2,370 to 4K by the end of 2003.   Oracle has bought 16K square feet of land in Hyderabad to expand its development centre."

2002-11-29 13:50PST (16:50EST) (21:50GMT)
Rex Nutting _CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Economy wallowing at bottom
"The US economy isn't getting any worse, but it's not getting a lot better, either..."
 

2002-11-30

2002-11-30
Gurbir Singh _Times of India_
Jobless & American? Blame H-1B
"The study will be ready by next year, & will form a significant input to the 2003 September debate in the US Congress on letting the H-1B visa cap shrink from 195K to 65K in 2004...   Voices in the US are rising about the unemployment impact of H-1B visa programme, with associations like the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers opposing the role played by H-1B visa workers in increasing unemployment of US engineers."

2002-11-30
NE India to be next IT hub
"In West Bengal alone, 10K engineering graduates are churned out every year, while 2,500K graduates stream into the employable talent-pool.   Many of these are trained in IT -- with NIIT running more training centres here than in Bangalore, Hyderabad or Chennai...   Moreover, a fresh graduate, who commands a monthly salary of Rs 9K in Mumbai or Bangalore, is available for Rs 5,500 in Kolkata.   [9K rupees a month = $186.26 & 5,500 rupees a month = $113.82]   The same can be said of north-eastern states where the salary costs are 40-50% lower due to the sheer lack of alternatives as well as lower cost of living."

2002-11-30
_Economic Times of India_
EU anti-dumping laws targetting Indian exports
"A day after EU won a case against India on bed linen at the WTO, New Delhi on Saturday accused Brussels of targetting and singling out Indian exports...   A WTO panel had on Friday ruled that the EU had fully complied with the recommendations of a WTO Dispute Settlement Body in March 2001 concerning EU's anti-dumping measures on imports of cotton bed linen.   The implementation panel rejected all claims made by India against the EU's implementation measures...   Shourie said the annual reports of the WTO & the IMF had also highlighted India as the single largest user of anti-dumping measures, with a total of around 141 cases initiated against various countries since 1992, 30 cases last year and around 20 this year."

2002-11-29 21:18PST (2002-11-30 00:18EST) (2002-11-30 05:18GMT)
Jennifer Loven _Yahoo!_/_AP_
Bush Cuts Pay Raises for Federal Workers
"Citing a state of national emergency brought on by last year's terrorist attacks, President Bush on Friday slashed the pay raises most civilian federal workers were to receive starting in January.   Under a law passed in 1990, federal employees covered by the government's general schedule pay system would receive a 2-part pay increase with the new year -- a 3.1% across-the-board increase plus a pay hike based on private-sector wages in the areas where they work.   But Bush is freezing that second increase, referred to as locality pay.   Military personnel still will receive a 4.1% increase & aren't affected...   Earlier this month, the administration announced it wants to let private companies compete for up to half of the 1.8M federal jobs.   Also, in the new Homeland Security Department, Bush won the broad powers he sought to hire, fire & move workers in the 22 agencies that will be merged...   The White House estimated that the overall pay gap between private & government workers is about 18.6%...   the raises still amount to more than the current inflation rate of 2.1%."

2002-11-30 14:42PST (17:42EST) (22:42GMT)
_CBS.MarketWatch.com_
Double-digit jump in sales indicators
"ShopperTrak RCT estimated that sales were up 12.3% Friday compared with the day after Thanksgiving a year earlier.   Last year's comparable sales were up 2.7% from the 2000...   the biggest gain was in the South, with a 14% rise.   The Midwest and West each registered 12% gains from a year ago and the Northeast showed 10% growth...   Retailers could be competing for slices of a smaller pie this year.   A Gallup poll of 3K consumers found plans to spend an average of $769 on holiday presents, down $51 from 2001.   Gallup said 25% of respondents plan to spend less this year...   An NRF survey predicts total holiday retail sales will increase by 4% to about $209G this year.   Last year, retailers had $201.2G in sales, up 5.6% from 2000.   Ira Kalish, chief economist for researcher firm Retail Forward, said he expects harder economic times to show up in fourth-quarter retail sales with growth of just 3.3% this year."

2002-11-30
_AP_/_Arizona Republic_
Homelessness hits record in NYC; rates rise sharply in rest of US
"On average, more than 37K people spend their nights in New York shelters, the highest level on record.   In 1998, city statistics show, the average was about 21K.   The number of homeless families sleeping in shelters has more than doubled over the same period, from 4,429 at the beginning of 1998 to 8,925 last month."
 

2002 November

2002 November
Kim Berry
The Compelling Interests of the United States and U.S. Technology Workers Demand Immediate Suspension of the H-1B Visa Program

2002 November
_Chicago Business_
400K lay-off announcements since September
"The holiday season begins with the announcement of over 400K planned job cuts in the past 3 months, including 157,508 in November.   Heavy down-sizing in the high-tech sector accounted for 34.4% of the planned November job cuts.   Since 2001 January, an extraordinary 3.3M job cuts have been announced, more than in the previous five years combined.   The November job-cut report, released Tuesday, Dec. 3 by international out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., shows that November job cuts were 11% lower than October's 176,010 and 13% lower than the 181,412 job cuts announced in 2001 November.   So far this year, U.S. employers have announced 1,338,135 job cuts, 25% fewer than at this point a year ago (1,795,292)."

2002 November
top 500 fastest super computers LinPack bench-mark

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