Posted on 08/10/2003 8:00:24 AM PDT by Willie Green
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:10:37 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
In August 2000 the American economy lost manufacturing jobs. It lost more in September and October. For the next 33 months, right up until today, the same thing happened. Raise your hand if you detect a pattern here.
If you want to know why the job market is so weak, manufacturing is a good place to start looking. While service employment has roughly held its own over the past 18 months, manufacturing jobs have disappeared at a rate of about 75,000 per month. And then there is the bad news. Some forecasters think the decline will continue, even if the overall economy gets better. ''It is not clear to me why this should end right away,'' said Anirvan Banerji, director of research at Economic Cycle Research Institute in New York.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
It’s really funny, sort of.
In the Old Days we had woodshop classes.
Our first project was to make a block of wood 3” X 3” X 5 “ long. The instructor would have a square and would check for square and size… He’d break anything that wasn’t square or proper size.
It got me thinking…
In the Old Days they had secret societies and unions and similar things.
Now they don’t know enough to blow their noses.
At one time, if you were in a union, it meant that you had knowledge that other people couldn’t have unless they joined. (Masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers, etc.)
Now it’s just a labor-racket.
Not that it means anything WRT the article, I’m just venting… I guess.
,6792 jobs a DAY being lost in America
They are starting to import those workers into the US. Want to see a sight ? Go into a VA hostpial and look for an English speaker.
Further if this is the only avenue open for good paying jobs one might expect an overwhelming movement of talented students into these fields further depressing the compensation. I have not even gone into the effects of medicare regulations etc.
But, as I've said many times,
That's nothing new.
Foreign born doctors have been in VA hospitals for decades.
Foreign doctors have been getting Visas for 3 decades, or more.
After 3 decades, we still have newly-minted American-born doctors.
As I've written before, Americans don't have to worry so much about foreign competition if they work in fields with a high demand for workers in the US.
Of course, the other option is to stick their heads in the sand, (raising their heads, now and then, to complain about the foreigners).
But I don't think that is really true.
There is plenty of flexibility for people who chose their medical specialties well. And anybody's job choice has some risks.
I see an awful lot of doctors, dentists, medical techs, etc. here, that are young Americans, even though I'm in an area that had a huge influx of foreign born medical workers beginning 3 decades ago.
People can chose to go to doctors of almost any nationality around here.
My mother's nephrologist is foreign born and has been here for decades. Her GP is a young US-born woman. Her podiatrist is a US-born male. Her dentist is a young US born male. My daughter's dentist is a young US born woman. One daughter had an American born obstetrician, but found a foreign born one she likes much more.
As for the qualifications of foreign born doctors, you can check their qualifications and educational backgrounds online. You can see if they are board certified (like my mother's foreign and American born born doctors) or not board certified (like my American born male doctor).
Medical recordkeeping would have changed anyway, even if it had stayed in the US---the computer has changed that field greatly.
Nothing wrong with any of those professions, but with the possible exception of the doctors (who are increasingly getting muscled out by insane malpractice insurance) and, indirectly, teachers, none of those professions will see the U.S. remain a world leader. Yes, we can all become welders and pipe-fitters -- perfectly respectable trades -- but you will not remain a superpower in this day and age if that is all you've got going for you.
I agree.
Meanwhile, restrictions on health care workers who are not physician seem to be tightening....
DHS rule requires new certification for overseas health professionals, August 01, 2003
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a final rule requiring nurses and certain other health care workers from overseas to obtain a certificate from an approved credentialing organization verifying their education, training, licensure and experience before they can enter the U.S.The long anticipated rule, published in the July 25 Federal Register and effective Sept. 23, pertains to foreign-born nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, medical technologists, medical technicians and physician assistants, whether they trained in the U.S. or overseas.
Immigration attorneys expect the requirement to increase the time it takes to hire and employ such workers, for example delaying the process by three to six months for foreign-born nurses.
Nurses who already have a temporary visa to work in the U.S. and are seeking admission, readmission, or an extension or adjustment of their stay will not be subject to the requirement if their applications are approved by July 26, 2004. After that, a waiver of the requirement may be granted on a case-by-case basis.
You're right. Medical careers are not immune to problems. But right now the field looks pretty good.
Monday July 1, 2002
The American Hospital Association's Commission on Workforce for Hospitals and Health Systems recently issued a report with specific recommendations to help hospitals deal with current and future health care workforce shortages.
Personnel shortages are being reported in nearly every type of hospital job, what the commission labeled a potential "major national health care crisis."
The report's authors state that the current staffing crisisis a prelude to a longer-term shortage created by four major societal trends: the aging of the U.S. labor force; fewer potential workers replacing the aging "baby boomer" generation; the reduced appeal of health care careers; and high levels of job dissatisfaction among current health care workers. [excerpt]
Too Many Workers? Not for Long,By Aaron Bernstein in Washington
Employers face a wrenching manpower and skills shortagePeg Brubaker can't get relief--not from the spike in unemployment that began last year or even from the many layoffs in New York after September 11. She still can't find enough workers for the 15,000-employee New York Presbyterian Hospital, where she's vice-president for human resources. Skilled jobs are the toughest to fill. To hold on to $50,000-a-year ultrasound and X-ray technicians, she has hiked pay twice in the past year, a total of 7%, on top of annual merit-pay increases. Histotechnologists, who are paid about $43,000 to do tissue exams, got three extra salary adjustments totaling 13%.
So scarce are employees who can do such jobs that Brubaker recently threw in $10,000 in employee tuition assistance, up from $2,000, for anyone who will go back to college in these fields. Her hope: that even laundry and other low-skilled hospital workers will switch careers. "All the hospitals and pharmacies were stealing employees from each other, even in a recession, so I'm hoping this will stimulate the supply," says Brubaker.[excerpt]
Workforce Problems and Strategies
By Kimberly E. Applegate MD, Carol M. Rumack MD
[excerpt]
According to the American Hospital Association,[3] US hospitals in 2001 had vacancy rates of 21% for pharmacists, 18% for radiologic technologists, 18% for billing personnel and coders, 12% for laboratory technicians, 11% for registered nurses, and 9% for housekeeping and maintenance personnel.
Those jobs are going too. There are already legal firms doing work in India. After all the paper shoffling is completed, the package is sent back to a U.S. lawyer who has passed the bar exam to review and present in court if necessary. The high cost, labor intensive, time intensive grunt work of the legal profession is being outsourced.
I think it is good to have manufacturing jobs within the US.
But, meanwhile, people who lose those jobs can look to a brighter future. There will be openings even in unskilled jobs, as many workers will be stepping up into skilled jobs.
This was posted on FR Aug. 20, and just now (Sept. 8) is appearing on Netscape's home page.
THE COMING JOB BOOM: "The long-term tragedy is that offshoring can't snatch ENOUGH skilled US jobs."
I think it is good to have manufacturing jobs within the US.
But, meanwhile, people who might lose those jobs can look to a brighter future. There will be openings even in unskilled jobs, as many workers will be stepping up into skilled jobs.
This was posted on FR Aug. 20, and just now (Sept. 8) is appearing on Netscape's home page.
THE COMING JOB BOOM: "The long-term tragedy is that offshoring can't snatch ENOUGH skilled US jobs."
Executives at Cigna, Intel, SAS, Sprint, Whirlpool, WPP, and Adecco... have told Business 2.0 that they, too, worry that the supply of labor is about to fall seriously short of demand.Former Treasury Secretary and current Harvard University president Larry Summers regards a skilled labor shortage as all but inevitable.
Economists... have issued warnings to the same effect. And in April, the country's largest and most influential trade group, the National Association of Manufacturers, added its voice to the chorus. The association released a white paper based on research by labor economist Anthony Carnevale, former chairman of President Clinton's National Commission for Employment Policy, that forecast a "skilled worker gap" that will start to appear the year after next and grow to 5.3 million workers by 2010 and 14 million 10 years later... "By comparison, what employers experienced in 1999 and 2000 was a minor irritation," Carnevale says. "The shortage won't just be about having to cut an extra shift. It'll be about not being able to fill the first and second shift, too
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