Posted on 08/24/2003 3:55:38 AM PDT by sarcasm
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.
Now that contract is expired. And Arzola is again looking for work.
''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.''
Recent research bears out his observations. For instance:
• 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.
''I can put any product into Latin America,'' he says.
But Latin American economies began to sink a few years back. And the United States' followed suit after Sept. 11.
Ortiz has been looking for work since last November.
''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.
It has made him a bit paranoid.
''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.
''It kind of hurts,'' he admits.
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.
''The company was great,'' she says.
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.
Then, 10 months ago, she was nudged out the door.
'FPL said, `You're ready for retirement,' '' she recalls.
Except that she isn't.
''I refuse to retire,'' she says.
Problem is, the market isn't exactly wide open for a 61-year-old computer tech.
''I work 12 hours a day,'' she says, ``looking for a job.''
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.''
In general, the government policies that are most likely to have a large impact on the deficit are not trade policies but budget policy and any other policies that substantially influence saving and investment in the economy. Such are the things the current administration is implementing.
Take heart (if you are able) - the middle class is still there and it's numbers increase and decrease as per usual. Besides, the greater impact on middle class status is not employment, but rather it is family stability factors such as divorce.
Lots of people like that. They were good workers too, smart, put in extra time, most of them were good company men who sacrificed to help out the company when the company needed help or something extra. They even bought the companies products, and invested in the companies stock.
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