2002-03-01

2002-03-02

2002-03-02
Lester C. Thurow _USA Today_ pg A15
Workers Will Worry in 2002
"Workers will worry that with some 2M more unemployed workers in 2002 than in 2000, finding a new job will be harder.   Consumers will worry that because their disposable income is falling, it will be harder to maintain their standard of living.   In fact, many have stopped saving.   Their debts relative to income are at all-time highs, & they have lost trillions in the stock market."
 

2002-03-03

1865-03-03: battle of Natural Bridge, Florida
 

2002-03-04

2002-03-04 10:45PST (13:45EST) (18:45GMT)
Keith Regan _Tech News World_/_eCommerce Times_
Dot-Com Job Cuts Near 2-Year Low
"The Chicago-based out-placement firm said 670 dot-com positions were eliminated last month, down sharply from the 1,802 lay-offs announced in January.   The February count is the lowest since 2000 April and continues a trend of steadily declining job losses that began in 2001 April.   Last February, Challenger recorded more than 11K dot-com job cuts...   more than 144K dot-com positions have been cut since then [1999 December]."

2002-03-04
Stuart Gascock _TechWeb_
H-1B Visas: Is Enough Enough?
"Is it time to take a hard look at H-1B visas? About 18 months ago, the program designed to allow talented IT workers into the U.S. was expanded to help employers fill positions created in the tech boom.   But the job market is a lot different today.   For congressman Tom Tancredo, R-CO, importing workers during a time of unemployment just doesn't make sense.   He's filed a bill that would roll back H-1B visas to the pre-1998 level of about 65K per year.   Further, the number of visas would be scaled back another 10K for each quarter-point the unemployment rate rises over 6%."
 

2002-03-05

2002-03-05
_USA Today_/_Reuters_
Lay-Off Announcements at US firms fell 40% in February

2002-03-05
Linda Rosencrance _Computer World_/_PC World_
Is the Dot-Com Down-Fall Over?: Fewer on-line workers lost their jobs last month, as economy shows signs of recovery.
"The number of dot-com job cuts fell to 670 in February, the lowest in nearly 2 years, according to Chicago-based out-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas...   The February cuts were the fewest reported since 2000 April, when 327 dot-com job cuts were announced, Challenger says...   Last month's cuts were 62% lower than the 1802 announced in January, Challenger says...   Dot-com job cuts peaked at 17,554 in April 2001, but have declined every month since, except for October.   The number of dot-com job cuts last month was substantially lower than the 11,649 cuts announced in the dot-com sector in February last year...   Since Challenger began tracking the dot-com job cuts in December 1999, 144,912 cuts have been reported, the firm says.   Most of those cuts were announced between 2000 November and 2001 June."
 

2002-03-06

2002-03-06
Sarah Lunday & Rick Rothacker _Charlotte NC Observer_ pg A1
Bank of India Sending Tech Jobs Over-Seas

2002-03-06
Los Angeles mayor Jim Hahn
Entertainment in the LA Economy is the Focus of Next UCLA Anderson Forecast Conference Featured Speaker Mayor Jim Hahn Will Discuss the Unique Role that the Entertainment Industry Plays in the Los Angeles Economy
"According to economists with the UCLA Anderson Forecast, the most distressing blows to the Southern California economy last year did not spur from the watershed 2001 September 11 attacks, but hit after 12% of jobs in the film and television industry were lost, accounting for 18K Southland employees without work.   This 12% decline is 60% of all pay-roll jobs lost in Los Angeles County for 2001."
 

2002-03-07

2002-03-07 05:36PST (08:36EST) (13:36GMT)
Brian Sullivan _CNN_/_ComputerWorld_/_IDG_
February job numbers suggest market hit bottom

2002-03-07 07:01PST (10:01EST) (15:01GMT)
_BBC_
Falun Gong breaks onto Red China's air-waves
"Viewers in Changchun city in the province of Jilin told Reuters news agency the broadcast went out on Tuesday evening on cable TV channels.   The programme, which condemned the Communist state's crackdown on the movement, replaced state television for about 50 minutes...   The broadcast accused the authorities of staging the self-immolation of two alleged Falun Gong members on Beijing's central Tiananmen Square last year.   Potentially 1M viewers saw Li Hongzhi's face on the TV."

2002-03-07
Charles Piller _LA Times_
"U.S. to Curb Computer Access by Foreigners; Government: To boost security, some Defense Department work will be done only by citizens."
"Experts said barring foreign nationals from certain computer projects opens the prospect that key jobs will go unfilled because of a shortage of qualified citizens -- a situation exacerbated by the relatively small number of US students who pursue advanced technology degrees.   Costs may also rise sharply as higher-paid US citizens replace foreign workers.   Relatively few US students are being trained..."
 

2002-03-08

2002-03-08
_ApplesForHealth_
Dot-Com Layoffs Near Two Year Low
"Dot-com businesses cut 670 employees in February, the lowest number since 327 dot-com job losses were announced in April 2000, according Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an international out-placement firm.   The figure is a far cry from the 11,649 Internet-related job cuts announced in February a year ago."

2002-03-08
_San Francisco Business Journal_
Good news for older workers: Job search times for workers over 50 shortened last year...

2002-03-08
_San Francisco Business Journal_
Good news for older workers: Job search times for workers over 50 shortened last year...
"After reaching a 13-year high just 2 years ago, search times for over-50 job seekers fell to 2.96 months in 2001, the lowest annual average ever, according to new data released Friday by Challenger.   Search times for 2001 represent a significant drop from 3.55 months in 2000 & 3.83 months in 1999, which was the longest average search time for over-50 workers since Challenger began tracking such data in 1986."

2002-03-08
_CounterPunch_
Newmarket Company/Intellibridge provides spooky PR punch for Enron
 

2002-03-09

2002-03-09
Bob Weinstein
"High-Tech Hiring Trends: The value of on-line testing sparks debate."
"Karen Osofsky, a principal at the Tiburon Group, a recruiting consulting firm in Chicago, IL, estimates 10%-15% of Fortune 500 companies use on-line testing.   'Employers are getting triple the number of job applications than they did 2 years ago.', says Osofsky.   'Online tests are a good tool for weeding out potential candidates.'"
 

2002-03-10

2002-03-12

2002-03-12

2002-03-13

2002-03-14

2002-03-15

2002-03-16

2002-03-17

2002-03-18

2002-03-18
_USA Today_
Work-Force Shifts to Big Companies
"Big companies employed 49.7% of the 111M US workers in 1999: up from 45.5% in 1988, the latest US Small Business Administration data show."

2002-03-18
Michael Heylin _American Chemical Society_
2001 Starting Salary Survey: So far, new chemistry graduates ride out the current recession in fairly good shape
"Despite the slow-down in the rate of growth of the U.S. economy since mid-2000, the salaries and employment situation for newly graduated chemists held up reasonably well—albeit with some hints of incipient weakening—through the week of October 8 last year.   For master's and Ph.D. graduates, median salaries were, respectively, 7% or 8% higher than they had been for the year-earlier graduating class.   But salaries for bachelor's graduates showed a nominal 1% dip.   As for employment, the percentages of those unemployed but seeking employment remained unchanged and reasonably low at 3% for Ph.D. graduates and 5% for those with master's degrees.   For those with bachelor's degrees, unemployment moved up from 4% to 6%.   At all 3 degree levels, the percentages of those with full-time jobs were still quite high by historical standards but down somewhat from unusually strong year-earlier levels.   This all meant that a slightly higher percentage of chemistry graduates went to graduate school or took post-doc positions in 2001 than they did in 2000...   For all master's graduates, the median moved up to $48K from $45K for the year-earlier survey of 1999–2000 graduates.   For Ph.D. graduates, the gain was from $65K to $70K.   However, the median salary for bachelor's degree graduates dipped slightly to $33,600 from $34K a year earlier...   The number of those unemployed ballooned by more than 2M, from 5.53M in 2000 October, to a still-rising 7.67M one year later.   Over the same period, unemployment among the college educated almost doubled from just over 600K, or 1.7%, to 1.13M, or 3.0%."

Starting earnings of new bachelor's and master's falter

year	Bachelor's	Master's	Ph.D.
1991	$23.0	$32.0	$46.0
1992	$24.0	$31.5	$47.5
1993	$24.0	$34.0	$50.4
1994	$24.0	$30.8	$48.0
1995	$25.0	$36.0	$50.0
1996	$25.0	$34.1	$45.0
1997	$28.0	$37.5	$54.0
1998	$29.5	$38.5	$59.3
1999	$30.0	$42.0	$61.0
2000	$33.5	$44.1	$64.5
2001	$32.2	$43.0	$69.5

 

2002-03-19

2002-03-20

2002-03-21

2002-03-22
 

2002-03-23

2002-03-23
Robert W. Tracinski _Ayn Rand Institute_
Opposition to Immigration is Un-American: Restrictions on "H-1B" Visas Punish Ability and Trample the Rights of Employer and Employee

2002-03-23
Katherine M. Skiba _Milwaukee Journal Sentinel_
Tax money goes to over-seas call centers
"Tax dollars that once meant work in Green Bay today flow 7,898 miles away to Bombay, India...   Until February, eFunds had relied on a 600-employee call center in Green Bay known as APAC Customer Services Inc., part of a national firm.   Salaries in the Green Bay facility reportedly began at $7.50 an hour, compared with wages in India, where industry sources said $2 to $3 is the entry-level rate in that nation's burgeoning call-center sector."

2002-03-23
Thomas Sowell _Capitalism Magazine_
Socialist Insecurity: The Enron that politicians have in the closet
 

2002-03-24

2002-03-24
T. Shawn Taylor _Cape & Islands Work-Force Investment Board_/Chicago Tribune_
The Asset of Age: Healthier than ever, better educated and unwilling - or unable - to retire, older workers may be the solution to a coming labor shortage
"After being on the decline between 1992 and 1999, age discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission went up slightly to 16,008 in 2000 from 14,141 in 1999...   In addition, the recession has resulted in the loss of millions of jobs and could have a lasting impact on the number of people who remain in the labor force.   Older workers are less likely to lose their jobs, but once displaced, they are less likely than younger workers to be re-employed, according to a report examining work-place demographic trends released by the U.S. General Accounting Office in November.   The average time workers 55 to 74 needed to find a job was 3.6 weeks longer than for those 19 to 39 and 1.3 weeks longer than for workers 40 to 54."
 

2002-03-25

2002-03-25
Blake Morrison _USA Today_/_Gannett_
weapons "slip past" airport security (with nary a nod to the right to own and carry arms)

2002-03-26

2002-03-26
_Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)_
Waste Management founder and 5 other top executives sued for massive fraud

2002-03-27

2002-03-28

2002-03-29

2002-03-29 10:45PST (13:45EST) (18:45GMT)
Keith Regan _Tech News World_/_eCommerce Times_
Dot-Com Lay-Offs Jump in March
"A total of 1,549 job cuts were announced in March, up 231% from the 670 tallied in February.   Still, the damage was far less severe than a year ago, when more than 9,500 cuts were made in March...   The March lay-offs bring the total for 2002 to 4,021 job cuts, just a fraction of the 34,010 lay-offs announced in the first quarter of 2001.   Since Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas began tracking Internet lay-offs in 1999 December, 146,461 jobs have been eliminated."
 

2002-03-30

2002-03-31

2002-03-31
_Department of Labor Office of Inspector General_
Semi-Annual Report 2001-10-01 through 2002-03-31 (pdf)
"The permanent, H-2A, and H-2B programs are supposed to ensure that the admission of aliens to work in the United States on a permanent or temporary basis does not adversely affect the job opportunities, wages, and working conditions of American workers or legal resident aliens.   The H-1B Visa Specialty Workers program is intended to allow U.S. businesses to compete in a global market in order to respond to rapid advances in technology.   It requires employers who intend to employ foreign specialty-occupation workers temporarily to file labor condition applications with the Department stating that the required wage rates will be paid and that other requirements will be followed...   OIG audits and investigations have shown that the individuals allowed into the United States under this program often lack the specialized skills necessary for meeting the requirements for H-1B visas."

2005-03-31
_Dice_
Dice Report: 31,777 job ads

2002 March
_La Griffe du Lion_
The Smart Fraction Theory of IQ and the Wealth of Nations
"Notice how GDP is positively correlated to average IQ.   The correlation coefficient is 0.733, IQ explaining 54% of the GDP variance.   Values this large are rare in social science...   The smart fraction, f, of a population is given by f=integral from IQ=0 to IQ=infinity of the IQ distribution function for the population...   using Gaussian functions to do the arithmetic, we find the dependence of per capita GDP on mean IQ to be GDP as a function of mean IQ equals a scale constant/2 times (1 plus the error function of (the mean IQ minus IQ zero divided by the square root of 2)).   We can adjust the scale constant, c, and the IQ threshold, IQ0, to give the best least squares fit of (3) to the data.   One minute, Mentor, I need to set up my lap-top...   OK, here is the result.   The best fit is obtained when c = $69,321 and IQ0 = 0.547 standard deviations or 108 IQ points.   Thus, for a technologically sophisticated society, SFT asserts that a nation's per capita GDP is determined by the population fraction with IQ greater than or equal to some threshold IQ.   Consistent with the data of Lynn and Vanhanen, that threshold IQ is 108, a bit less than the minimum required for what used to be a bachelor's degree.   Figure 3 illustrates the fit of (3) to the data of Lynn and Vanhanen."

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