Posted on 07/27/2005 6:21:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated.
Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services.
Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services.
Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance.
Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses and bartenders.
Membership associations and organizations created 10,000 jobs, and repair and maintenance created 4,000 jobs.
Financial activities created 16,000 jobs.
This most certainly is not the labor market profile of a First World country, much less a superpower.
Where are the jobs for this year’s crop of engineering and science graduates?
U.S. manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs in June. A country that doesn’t manufacture doesn’t need many engineers. And the few engineering jobs available go to foreigners.
Readers have sent me employment listings from U.S. software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle, specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa.
A TN or Trade NAFTA visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians who are willing to work in the United States at below prevailing wages.
Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Neb., specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the United States who have H-1B work visas.
The reason the U.S. firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing U.S. salary.
Gentle reader, when you read allegations that there is a shortage of engineers in America, necessitating the importation of foreigners to do the work, you are reading a bald-faced lie. If there were a shortage of American engineers, employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.
What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates?
What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?
How much longer will parents shell out $100,000 for a college education for a son or daughter who ends up employed as a bartender, waitress or temp?
I was a small businessman almost all my live.
I have NO idea where you're coming from, wierdo!
YOU SAID..."No one is entitled to a job.."
You're supposing or creating a false argument....then declaring yourself the winner of the argument.
No individual is entitled to any given job..that is true...but a government that had most of its citizens in low skilled jobs would not survive as a stable government...unless they were North Korea....or some other third world hellhole.
So lets put aside the dogma for a minute and address the reality of this article....what is your solution to this problem...or is there a problem?
There are lies, bigger lies, and statistics. If Chinese had 150 million workers in primitive Soviet/XIX style factories and now have 125 million in modern facilities relocated from US while creating much more other jobs through multiplying effect it is VERY GOOD for China.
Nothing wrong with free trade if you can compete. I used to think the US was extremely competitive, but since 1980 I think something has gone really wrong.
Some facts from the CIA fact book 2005
Norway:
Agriculture: 2,2%
Industry: 36,2%
Service: 61,6%
USA:
Agriculture:0,9%
Industry: 19,7%
Services: 79,4%
I am from a small town of around 50000. I know that the last years the three main factories have reduced staff and increased productivity. One place have almost cut their staff in half and increased productivity. The other factory has had a productivity gain of around 10% with less workers. All of them are competitive. Our shipyards has full orders.
I agree with you completely. A job should be a result of the ability and initiative of the individual. I believe however that the majority of our economic problems can be attributed to the fact that Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 stopped being followed a long time ago.
I'm leaving. Gonna take my sweet wife out for some fun.
These mind boggling anti-American strange folks are definitely NOT fun! ;-)
"Once you've scrapped a major facility ..."
Newport News and Electric Boat are hardly on the endangered species list. Newport News employs about 19,000 people and Electric Boat about 11,500. They both have excess capacity and are constantly lobbying Congress and the Navy for more contracts. The decline in Navy shipbuilding is the primary reason why we have fewer and smaller domestic shipyards, and that is the result of a *political* decision having nothing to do with free trade. Let the Chinese and the Nordic countries build low-value commercial ships (which have very few complementarities with military shipbuilding) and we'll focus on building the next generation of aircraft carriers and submarines.
"Harder to replace is skilled labor and intellectual capital once that goes away."
Here I agree with you completely. But I am certain that, for example, Newport News would not turn down a contract for another carrier on the grounds that it couldn't hire the requisite skilled labor. They have turned down (or, more correctly, declined to bid on) commercial contracts because they don't think they can make money on them *and* they know from past experience that they wouldn't have beneficial spillovers for their defense work.
I think you are speaking an unfortunate truth in terms of competition.
Would engineering be considered a service job, I wonder?
Woe to those who bring bad news, etc. etc. etc.
I'm in a cab a couple of years ago and the Indian driver starts waving around a xerox of a letter. It was his son's acceptance into CalTech -- he was showing it to all the passenger.
How long you been in America?
Since 1972, I became citizen in 1978!
How you gonna pay for CalTech?
It is very easy, I'll work seven days now driving, and two days at my brother-in-law's store in queens.
You gotta want it.
I dont know. It probably depends on what kind of field you are an engineer in. There are many industrial engineers.
What qualification are you looking for? Please be specific.
Suppose I design a new GPS that fits in a fountain pen. I send the specs to China so they could make it and then sell it through radio shack with their label. Am I in service or manufacturing?
Wow that's amazing. My mother is a robot. I just don't know how she does it. I can work but I won't work for pennies. My mom really loves her job because she loves to take care of old people (two jobs sleeping out). I woke up a cabbie at the dmv yesterday as he was taking a really hard sleep and I thought he'd miss his number. I want things but I don't think I want it bad enough :(
"What qualification are you looking for? Please be specific."
Yes please clue me in too. I deal with consultants and other highly skilled senior technical people....Im anxious to know the skillsets you require.
What exactly are his requirements? Can you list them?
The question is how we can compete in building boats. China is competitive because of the low cost of building. We are competitive because of our great skills in building all kind of vessels including the fastest military boat ever been in production. With probably on of the highest wages in the world.
I learn a lot from cabbies and black car guys. I once had a cabbie who cursed out Rudy using every foul obscene name they teach the first week you hit NYC. Finally I say, "Yo, please. Show some mercy." And he comes back with "This is America. First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Free speech. And that &%^%%^$^% can't do anything to me!" To which I replied, "Yeah, but it's working the nerves and going to seriously impact the tip. Really."
Don't know where the guy was from, probably some place where leaders didn't take kindly to criticism.
"More BS"
You may call it BS, but Ronald Reagan did not when Doctor Roberts was in his administration and neither does Congress whenever they have called on him as a congressional witness.
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