[sarcasm]

ping

[MNJohnnie]

Ah yes, You do realize that most of those "trade" workers make anywhere from $15-50 an hour??????? As an ex-construction worker, I find your nose in the air, elites posturing hysterically funny. I made a LOT more money working in "trade" jobs then I do in my nice clean office job. A lot less when you consider the OT. Guess what, life it tough. Quit whining and get a job.

[Happy2BMe]

"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.)

Sounds about right ping.

[valkyrieanne]

"Only labor involved in non-traded goods and services is safe from foreign substitution."

Wrong, wrong, wrong. President Bush has been pushing for "amnesty" for illegals. Illegals can give massages and manicures cheaper than native workers.

[RFEngineer]

Do not be afraid of knowledge. Life is tough. Carpe Diem.

[Ramius]

It's good to see that the fixes are so simple. All we need to do is enact taxes err... tariffs that are high enough to make sure that shirts cost $200, a Ford Escort costs $75,000 and a little color TV costs $10,000. May as well raise to the minimum wage to $100k/year.

That'll fix it. Dang, and I thought it was more complicated than that.

[Lizavetta]

If you want to know where the future lies in my opinion it's education law and education consulting. With an estimated 6 million children considered DISABLED in some form - physically, emotionally, learning, whatever - thanks to very fast and loose definitions of the word DISABLED, you can become an education consultant or advocate to testify for the lawyers who are suing to force school districts to provide students - ANY STUDENT no matter how rotten or stupid - what's called a FAPE - a Free and Appropriate Public Education. I'll leave it to you to imagine how 'appropriate' will be abused by both parents and lawyers.

This is a huge industry and as more and more screw-ups in the classroom get transformed - with the stroke of a pen - from reform school candidates to 'disabled' and 'in need of treatment' that the schools MUST BY LAW provide, you will see America's education budget go into the stratosphere.

[FreeReign]

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.

WorldNetDaily mistakenly(I'm sure) left out this surging sector:

[From their link to the Houseold Survey]:Professional and business services added 42,000 jobs in March.

[Porterville]

Yeah, if they're engineers maybe they'll make something good with their free time, like a cheeseburger for me at McDonalds... I don't give a damn.... I'm getting my licensing and job security taken care of right now. Financial Aid and loans are a must. I will do what it take to get what I need. Punks think because they were good at differential equations make them qualified to work... most can't communicate worth dirt, and most can't even climb a flight of stairs.

[Wolfie]

ping

[VOA]

bump

[XBob]

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.

[A. Pole]

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

Engineering is a buggy whip thing bump.

[arielb]

I read through this whole thread and while there's a lot of debating on economics....not one person mentioned that perhaps the educational system in asian countries is simply better than ours??? The culture is also different -parents really want their kids to succeed vs American parents who have no problem with kids watching TV for hours and hours every day instead of working on even harder problems that what they are required from school.
For reference see
http://www.mathematicallycorrect.com/