Slump hits white-collar and IT jobs notably hard

His career was in the information technologies field, a niche that a few years back was a veritable guarantee of lifetime employment.

He specialized in computer needs of the cruise-line industry, which was always expanding in South Florida.

But after the Y2K reprogramming binge, the market was flooded with computer programmers, Alberto Arzola says. Then the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent the cruise industry -- and his career -- reeling. He was laid off by Royal Caribbean less than a month after that. He later went to Cunard, taking a job that paid less and had no benefits.

''The IT field in South Florida has diminished,'' he says. ``Companies have moved out, and others downsized the budget.''

He is far from alone. Across South Florida -- and indeed the nation -- highly skilled workers in technical and white-collar fields have been particularly hard hit in the current job recession.

Many of those job losses are occurring in sectors, like tech, finance and trade, that just a few years ago were as secure and reliable as interest payments on government bonds.

In today's market, these fields are being hammered by forces that range from automation to offshore outsourcing and a simple case of the labor supply's outstripping the demand.

Andrew Stettner, policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, co-authored a study this year that found professional workers to be suffering a disproportionate share of long-term unemployment.

''The job losses have come heavier in the professions they found work in'' in the 1990s, Stettner says. ``First, the stock market bubble burst. Then tech companies went into a downturn. And now companies are able to increase productivity without hiring.''

It's a jarring reversal, he added, because tech and white-collar jobs were supposed to be America's ticket to prosperity in the so-called New Economy. But those jobs have proven incredibly mobile in a global world. Tech centers in India, Ireland and other English-speaking parts of the world have attracted jobs once performed in the United States. Some firms are farming out such services as auditing to offshore companies.

''On a deeper level, you do see globalization hitting people at the high end of high-skilled work,'' Stettner says. ``It's being outsourced to foreign countries.''

• Deloitte Research recently concluded that the financial-services industry will move $356 billion in costs to offshore operations over the next several years. ''This translates into the potential movement of up to two million jobs,'' the report stated.

• CIO magazine, a publication for information officers, found that computer programmers in such developing-world hot spots as India earn as little as one-tenth what their American counterparts make.

The Gartner Group, the technology analysis firm, says 500,000 IT jobs have disappeared since 2001 and believes 500,000 more will by year end 2004. Offshore outsourcing is one of the biggest reasons for the decline.

''The movement of ITrelated work from the United States and other developed countries to vendors and offshore sites in emerging markets is an irreversible megatrend,'' says Diane Morello, Gartner's director of research, in a recent report.

• In South Florida, slight job gains overall have helped mask negligible growth or net losses in most white-collar professions over the past year.

''The recession's not over for them,'' says Harriet Spivak, executive director of the board of South Florida Workforce, a public-private agency that assists the unemployed.

South Florida Workforce recently reactivated its Professional Placement Network, a program that went dormant in the boom of the late 1990s and that targets the white-collar unemployed.

''It's emotionally devastating,'' Gizelle Ortiz-Velazquez, who went through PPN's program in the 1990s, says of her job loss back then.

She now works at Seitlin, a large insurance agency, as an account executive, but the memories of what unemployment did to her self-esteem are still fresh.

'You say, `I'm not going to take it personal,' '' she says. ``But when it's your professional life in shambles and your personal life is going to be affected, it's like a death in the family.''

Experts say unemployment can be as emotionally painful as financially taxing for white-collar workers. And the job hunt can be tougher precisely because of the skills and background that got them ahead in the first place.

They are likely to earn more, for instance, which means that replacing their lost salaries can be extremely challenging. They frequently have higher levels of education, causing some firms to dismiss them as overqualified. Finally, they often entered management ranks after years of climbing the corporate ladder, but experience means age, and maturity isn't always valued.

''Older workers are just real expensive, compared to younger ones,'' Stettner says. ``Companies are just trying to cut costs any way they can.''

Carlos Ortiz of Country Walk can testify to that. He spent years in international sales for a number of companies, including Ingersoll-Rand, Stanley Tools and Singer, the sewing-machine manufacturer. He earned an MBA along the way and has a proven track record.

But Latin American economies began to sink a few years back. And the United States' followed suit after Sept. 11.

''My wife of 26 years holds the fort down'' with an accountant's assistant job, he says. ``When unemployment runs out, what do you do? You dig into your 401(k). It's either that or lose your house.''

Ortiz has frequently gotten to second interviews at companies and once made the third round. Still, no offers.

''I get the feeling you're sometimes called in for a sizing up,'' he says. ``You don't want to look too gray or overweight.''

He has been told that he's overqualified so often that he has considered taking some credentials off his résumé.

That's how Gina S. Grandchamp felt after being downsized by Florida Power & Light after 20 years. A Haitian American who holds two college degrees, she was a computer specialist who loved her job.

It gave her flex time, allowing her to split her workday in two and get her kids off to school during her break. Plus, she lived two blocks from the office and the job paid well enough for her to send the kids to private school.

She got one offer, for contract work in Washington, D.C. But that would take her too far from her husband and children.

''Haitian families,'' she explains, ``we get together Sunday mornings and have soup and pastry.''

She's currently nursing a lead for a contract with a Boca Firm. She has a pension and a 401(k) plan and just applied to extend her unemployment benefits. But that's no reason to stop using her talents.

''If I don't find work, I want to do something for society,'' she says. ``I'm willing to take a cut, if it's in Miami.''

For those who have admitted the problem.

In no particular order of importance.

1. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies. OPIC is the first such program which should go but support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of Capital would be another.

2. Use tariffs on those nations which are engaged in unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (China and India for example), those nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (China for example with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers), those nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (airbus for example) and those nations which have slave conditions for their workers.

3. Use tariffs and other means to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense. If necessary take control of the company seeking to export vital technology or industry by means of eminent domain (No I do not like this last option and I will only defend its use as an absolute last resort like say in the case of rare earth magnets essential to smart bomb technology). Provide a hardened, widely distributed infrastructure to supply all that is needed for our military units and civil defense that can be continued to be deployed in the event of any military attack.

4. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.

5 Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones shall be eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown I would like them to be totally implemented immediately but I realize4 that may be overreaching.

6. Scale back unnecessary regulation including the tort system. Institute a cap on punitive damages, limits on class action suits, and limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit shall pay the attorney fees of the winner. There are many other regulatory structures that also need to be included that need to be included such as repealing the Family leave mandate, getting rid of OSHA etc.

7. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.

8. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.

9. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. I will be lenient on the actual perjurer if he/she was ordered to make this false statement and he/she provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury. Just because a person is a CEO does not give them a pass on criminal behavior.

10. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology or funds a R&D project that could be of use to our military overseas except to strong allies of the USA. Make the necessary enhancements to our espionage laws so that continued support or funding of any R&D in a nation whose government has threatened the USA is guilty of espionage. The UK and Australia come to mind as meeting these criteria for being eligible for transfer of technology first. There will be other nations and a gradation of what can be transferred to which specific nation. Under no circumstances may technology be transferred to any nation whose government has threatened the USA within five years without a complete change of government or specific exemption from Congress and the administration.

11. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.

12. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.

13. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay. If one through 13 are enacted # 14 becomes an irrelevancy as no one will be working for that low a wage.

Now since I started posting this plan another idea has come up that in my opinion is a very good policy that stands on its own. Now I give credit to Jim Gibson and Freeper Ed_in_NJ for coming up with the idea, separately to the best of my knowledge. However I can be corrected on that. The tariff phrasing is from Jim Gibson.

“I suggest that the US Customs Department charge a $1,000-per-container inspection fee on every container entering the United States. This fee would be used to completely fund the cost of inspections. If we assumed that a four-man team could fully inspect two containers a day or about 500 per year, it would require 48,000 inspectors. Allowing for at least 2,000 support personnel, we would need at least 50,000 workers. Because these workers would require high intelligence and skill levels they should earn at least $30 per hour. At 40-hour weeks plus benefits, I estimate the cost per worker to be over $75,000 per year, all paid by the foreign manufacturers. Even so, this would still leave over $2.25 billion to cover all other costs. Any revenue not used would be used to compensate American workers displaced by foreign imports. “

I urge and encourage everyone who agrees with this plan and or the terror tariff idea to communicate this to every politician you can think of.

am seeing more and more of these articles. It's causing me to have the thought that perhaps the damned media is up to some lousy tricks, yet again. Lyiing liars.

Of course you are seeing more articles on this. One it is true, and two they hate George Bush. When Bush pére was in office it was all about the homeless and how everyone was "just one paycheck away from being homeless". They have updated the same tactic and now it is "outsourcing, outsourcing, outsourcing". Of course IT took it in the shorts, that is what happens when the Dot Bomb bubble bursts. Millions of graphic artists and ne're do wells with minimal computer skills were given fat paychecks and obscene stock options to craft web sites and fumble around with e-commerce. Those with good people and CYA skills survived lay-offs, those who were good engineers but lousy apple polishers hit the streets. Those unemployed for huge amounts of time either have not impressed hiring managers or their interview and networking skills suck. There are plenty of people I have run across who complain about their unemployment and are overweight, poorly dressed, have roadkill breath, personalities that are depressing and repellent, or some other presentation flaw. During the IT boom, IT managers put up with this crap, but need so no longer.

I believe the liberals have exploited the Dot Bomb Bust and have taken the natural results of that, plus their aggressive campaign to make hiring US labor a costly and risky endeavor to fashion this noose around Bush fils. It will be the first Demoncat candidate that talks about stopping this hemorrhage of jobs to the turd world that will cream our current weak and inept president.

The question really is who will speak the best talk, for I believe that the robber barons have already purchased the politicians so that this practice will continue unabated as a self fulfilling prophecy of being a "megatrend".

"My point is that this article doesn't reflect reality - just whiners."

I disagree, this article certainly reflects the reality of hundreds of thousands of educated, experienced high-tech unemployed Americans in Silicon Valley and the Seattle area where unemployment is particularly high among professionals. There have been a plethora of articles posted here that have explained it in detail and the reasons for drawing attention to the factors causing it.
Those factors include over a million foreign guest workers here on visas and the half million offshored foreigners that are replacing Americans who are first forced to train their younger, less experienced, foreign replacements.
Other factors are the biased trade policies that allow Communist China to dump products made from slave labor while devaluing the Yuan 40%. The WTO is now making decisions for America regarding trade, and we have a gigantic trade deficit. This has contributed to almost 3 million unemployed in 2 years as manufacturing is closed and/or offshored.

[They are likely to earn more, for instance, which means that replacing their lost salaries can be extremely challenging. They frequently have higher levels of education, causing some firms to dismiss them as overqualified. Finally, they often entered management ranks after years of climbing the corporate ladder, but experience means age, and maturity isn't always valued.]

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