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Bye-bye engineering, hello massage therapy
WorldNetDaily ^ | April 16, 2004 | Ilana Mercer

Posted on 04/16/2004 1:24:31 AM PDT by sarcasm

Last week, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao announced her Skills to Build America's Future" initiative. This is a "nationwide outreach and education effort designed to attract young people and transitioning workers to" the "key" occupations of the [near] future: "skilled trades."

This initiative, understandably, was proclaimed with little fanfare. While President Bush looks toward Mars, Ms. Chao can hardly be proud of her decidedly pedestrian prophecy that "construction laborers, operating engineers, carpenters, iron workers, cement masons, bricklayers, truck drivers and many other construction related crafts are among the trades expected to see the greatest demand in workers over the next 6 years." (This demand will be filled, I predict, by "guest workers," i.e., illegal aliens awarded shiny new government permits.)

Telling America's young people that the best they can hope for is careers as tradesmen certainly casts a pall over an administration given to grandiose planning and posturing. Essentially, the mathematically precocious – youngsters with aptitudes for science, engineering or accounting – must be yanked down to earth. Reaching for the stars in the America of the future will be the exclusive province of "American Idol" participants.

And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest Employment Situation Summary, Ms. Chao's future is now. For all the din sounded over the addition of 308,000 jobs to the economy in March, the government-fed news filters failed to mention which job sectors were surging. Sure enough, it transpires that employment opportunities are optimal in construction, retail trade, food services, social assistance, and (naturally) in government.

As economist Paul Craig Roberts – a rare independent thinker on the issue – observes: "Only labor involved in non-traded goods and services is safe from foreign substitution." In other words, young Americans had better learn to live by their hands lest their livelihoods be outsourced.

If President Bush intends to revive America's space program, engineers will be at a premium. Yet the IEEE-USA, the world's largest technical professional society – representing more than 225,000 electrical electronics, computer, and software engineers – reports that "American high-tech firms shed 560,000 jobs between 2001 and 2003, and expect to lose another 234,000 in 2004." This contraction cannot be dismissed as the nadir of the dot-com correction. The jobless rate for electrical and electronics engineers was in fact lower in 2002 (4.2 percent) than in 2003 (6.2 percent).

Meanwhile, the Computing Research Association's Taulbee's Survey found that total enrollment in bachelor-degree programs in computer science and computer engineering fell 19 percent in 2003, a factor it attributes to "the decline in the technology industry and the moving of jobs offshore." (Curiously omitted are the impacts of the H-1B and L-1 work visas.)

College administrators are already hip to Ms. Chao's future. For example, San Francisco State University is considering the closure of its engineering school.

Indeed, today's college graduate cannot even expect to find entry-level jobs in the hi-tech industry, warns entrepreneur Rosen Sharma. Sharma heads a Silicon Valley start-up that "could not survive without outsourcing." Nevertheless, he fears for America's future. "As a father my reaction is different than my reaction as a CEO," he admitted to Time.

Pay no attention to such Chicken Littles, high-tech-industry lobbyists counter. Outsourcing is good for America, they claim. Their studies employ the "impregnable" science of econometrics to prove that outsourcing high-tech jobs creates more jobs than it kills. One such study, commissioned by the Information Technology Association of America, predicts 317,387 such jobs will materialize by 2008. The study's premise, however, begs the question, as it assumes the new jobs are and will be as good as the old (vanished) ones.

Why, they'll be even better, brags economist and outsourcing enthusiast, Catherine Mann. Dr. Mann, who also labors under the illusion that only bottom-rung jobs are vanishing, plays Pollyanna to a doubting Thomas, Ron Hira of IEEE-USA. Professor Hira confessed to Washington Post readers that he, an industry insider, had no idea what shape the "new" putative high-value jobs would take. "Is it nanotech, biotech, bioinformatics?" Of one thing he is certain, however: "Other developing and developed countries are targeting those very same industries and jobs."

Thankfully, author Virginia Postrel has located America's burgeoning (and indubitably "dynamist") occupations. She faults the Bureau of Labor Statistics for failing to recognize the rise of spa-related personal services – e.g., manicure and massage therapy – for the powerhouse growth industries they are. Of course, if Ms. Postrel is to remain faithful to the central thesis of her first book – that all change is always good – she is obligated to remain, like Ms. Mann, a Pollyanna, despite the new employment reality. Ms. Postrel's second book, the sum of which is that all that glitters is gold, even better encapsulates her enthusiasm for the role eyebrow waxing and other crafts will play in an economic recovery.

Although preliminary – even tentative – the Bureau's Employment Situation Summary suggests that high-value knowledge jobs are being replaced with low-value service and manual-labor jobs. The ensuing loss of income to American workers will surely outweigh the lower prices outsourcing engenders.

If I refuse to genuflect to this brave new world, it's because the idea of living in communities where applied scientists are unemployed while colonic hydrotherapists thrive isn't particularly enthralling. I'll leave it to the motion obsessed, ever-evolving Ms. Postrel to celebrate that kind of future.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: education; elainechao; immigrantlist; labor; outsourcing; trade; tradeschools
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To: XBob
XBob seems to think going from $20 to $100 is an increase of 500%.
141 posted on 04/17/2004 7:31:33 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Quit yer whining)
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To: sarcasm
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

In March, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons
increased to 4.7 million, about the same level as in January. These indivi-
duals indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part
time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to
find full-time jobs. (See table A-5.)


Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The number of persons who were marginally attached to the labor force
totaled 1.6 million in March, about the same as a year earlier. (Data are not
seasonally adjusted.) These individuals wanted and were available to work and
had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted
as unemployed, however, because they did not actively search for work in the
4 weeks preceding the survey. There were 514,000 discouraged workers in March,
also about the same as a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a subset of the
marginally attached, were not currently looking for work specifically because
they believed no jobs were available for them. The other 1.1 million margin-
ally attached had not searched for work for reasons such as school or family
responsibilities. (See table A-13.)

Within the leisure and hospitality sector, employment in food services and
drinking places increased by 27,000 over the month and by 186,000 over the
year.

Manufacturing employment was unchanged in March at 14.3 million. Declines
in manufacturing employment began moderating late last summer. Employment in
both durable and nondurable goods manufacturing was little changed in March.

Employment in a number of other industries edged up in March, including
transportation and warehousing (13,000), utilities (2,000), and government
(31,000). Within government, the March job gain was concentrated in state
and local education.

142 posted on 04/17/2004 7:59:59 PM PDT by XBob ( po)
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To: Porterville; sarcasm
142 - Ah yes, the government industry, particularly education:

"Employment in a number of other industries edged up in March, including
transportation and warehousing (13,000), utilities (2,000), and government
(31,000). Within government, the March job gain was concentrated in state
and local education. "

143 posted on 04/17/2004 8:05:24 PM PDT by XBob ( po)
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To: nopardons
So who is, or would you think is the best Conservative candidate, then, for the present and the future? Not being nearly as well versed as you in history, and having read your posts, I assume you promote George W. Bush as the next president of the United States of America. Have I got that right?
144 posted on 04/17/2004 8:36:28 PM PDT by Dec31,1999 (Capital punishment saves lives.)
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To: Steel and Fire and Stone
Thank you for your thoughtful post.

It seems to me the entertainment business is also filling kids head with fluff. Every little girl wants to be a Brittany Spears now. They don't want to be nurses, doctors, engineers. Everyone has to have the latest fad clothes and accessories.

Our hi-tech and manufacturing jobs have all but disappeared. And those construction jobs are going to the illegal workers. I think some people have rose colored glasses on. This country is being sold out by the big corporations.

People used to be loyal to the companies they worked for. In the last 10 years, it's the hi-tech companies who have sold their employees. There's some sort of shell game going on. One compnay buys another so that their bottom dollar can include the new company's revenue. Then it is sold again and again. When the purchase goes through, layoffs follow.
145 posted on 04/17/2004 8:54:28 PM PDT by FR_addict
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To: FR_addict
145 - "There's some sort of shell game going on. "

Boy you got that right, and it's the free-traitors who are the complicit idiots in free-raping corporations destroying the future of our country
146 posted on 04/17/2004 8:59:38 PM PDT by XBob ( po)
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To: FR_addict
One compnay buys another so that their bottom dollar can include the new company's revenue. Then it is sold again and again. When the purchase goes through, layoffs follow.

So, you would stop the owner of a company from firing employees?

147 posted on 04/17/2004 9:00:11 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Quit yer whining)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
So, you would stop the owner of a company from firing employees?

The owner(s) of a public company are the shareholders. Unfortunately, many of the true owners - the people who's money is invested and at risk, don't get to vote!.

A great many shares are owned through mutual funds and pension funds - and all they care about is the next quarter's earnings.

By all means, let the owners start making decisions - instead of the high-flying CEO's who claim to act in their name while robbing the actual owners blind.

148 posted on 04/17/2004 9:05:55 PM PDT by neutrino (Oderint dum metuant: Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.)
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To: neutrino
The owner(s) of a public company are the shareholders. Unfortunately, many of the true owners - the people who's money is invested and at risk, don't get to vote!.

That's a great idea to create jobs in America. Make all hiring decisions thru the vote. How long would that take? It would create lots of jobs in the paper industry!!

149 posted on 04/17/2004 9:10:06 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (Quit yer whining)
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To: sarcasm
Ah, are you finding out that you are a communist? You know, denial is the first step, eventually you will accept your red-ways.... are you sure you want to vote Republican with your leftist belief system about jobs?....It seems you'd favor Kerry.... I mean, with your beliefs and all.
150 posted on 04/17/2004 11:20:56 PM PDT by Porterville (I will enter the liberal land with the Gramsci torch and burn down their house of cards.)
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To: XBob

"Communism... for the jobs, and the worker"

151 posted on 04/17/2004 11:33:55 PM PDT by Porterville (I will enter the liberal land with the Gramsci torch and burn down their house of cards.)
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To: Porterville
Who should I contact to buy your job and then fire you, the good old capitalist way?
152 posted on 04/18/2004 1:16:48 AM PDT by XBob
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To: XBob; All
http://mentalmumblings.blogspot.com/
I found a good article about the origins of outsourcing.
153 posted on 04/18/2004 1:48:32 AM PDT by cyborg
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To: Porterville
Seems that your knowledge of history is as poor as your spelling. The "free trade" policy which you support was traditionally the dogma of the left. Why am I not surprised that a self-acknowledged leech has aligned himself with the policies of FDR and LBJ.
154 posted on 04/18/2004 2:31:18 AM PDT by sarcasm (Tancredo 2004)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
I don't see anyplace where I said that companies couldn't fire employees.

I mentioned the trend where companies are swallowing up other companies to prop up their real numbers. By adding the revenue from the new companies into the total revenue, it makes the company look a lot better. The amount paid for these companies are listed elsewhere in the financial statements. Shell games are going on in many of these large companies. One company whose stock went from 125 to 13 just before 9/11 is still at 13. They bought a company for $400,000,000 million before 9/11 and touted how great the addition would be to the company. Within a year after buying this company, they threw the whole product line away and laid off everyone connected with it. During this time, they sent a big chunk of the software development to India while telling the stockholders how well the company would do. Three years later and many shell games later, the company is still at 13. But never fear the CEO and other top guys got their huge bonuses and then some, while most of the employees haven't had a raise in three years. Everyone is keeping their head down, so it doesn't get chopped. Problems are going unreported to make unrealistic schedules in the tech industry. Managers don't want to hear about problems, only that the schedule is met. The managers are trying to protect their jobs too. The quality is non- existent in many of the highly touted new products.

It's time for the shareholders to wake up and "fire" these good for nothing CEOs. They are not going after long term solutions to problems, but short term solutions so that they can continue to receive their huge bonuses long enough to retire as multi-millionaires.
155 posted on 04/18/2004 6:45:37 AM PDT by FR_addict
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To: Toddsterpatriot
That's a great idea to create jobs in America. Make all hiring decisions thru the vote.

That's a nice misdirection. I'd rate it a 5.3 on a scale of 1 to 10. Make it less obvious and you might even make it to a 6.0!

156 posted on 04/18/2004 6:59:22 AM PDT by neutrino (Oderint dum metuant: Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.)
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To: sarcasm
I know, you are a self proclaimed genius speller and historian... and you try to side step issues by being a grammar-marm.... no big deal, just shows how little truth is contained in the base of your fractured argument. And then, a communist like yourself, attacks a person for using financial aid, but rallies for the right of the laborer, the right of the people, the right of Mother Russia!!! I know, communism is a state of heart, not of mind... you genius speller-historian, you..
157 posted on 04/18/2004 8:55:28 AM PDT by Porterville (I will enter the liberal land with the Gramsci torch and burn down their house of cards.)
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To: Porterville
attacks a person for using financial aid,

Welfare for the leeches.

158 posted on 04/18/2004 9:08:15 AM PDT by sarcasm (Tancredo 2004)
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To: sarcasm

159 posted on 04/18/2004 9:09:52 AM PDT by Porterville (I will enter the liberal land with the Gramsci torch and burn down their house of cards.)
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To: sarcasm
It is alright, call me whatever you want, I am use to liberals being elitist...
160 posted on 04/18/2004 9:12:18 AM PDT by Porterville (I will enter the liberal land with the Gramsci torch and burn down their house of cards.)
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