Posted on 06/07/2006 9:51:31 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
The Death of U.S. Jobs Paul Craig Roberts Wednesday, June 7, 2006 The May payroll jobs report released June 2 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms the jobs pattern for the 21st century U.S. economy: Employment growth is limited to domestic services.
In May, the economy created only 67,000 private sector jobs. Job estimates for the previous two months were reduced by 37,000.
The new jobs are as follows: Professional and business services, 27,000; education and health services, 41,000; waitresses and bartenders, 10,000.
Manufacturing lost 14,000 jobs.
Total hours worked in the private sector declined in May. Manufacturing hours worked are 6.6 percent less than when the recovery began four-and-one-half years ago.
American economists and policymakers are in denial about the effect of jobs offshoring on U.S. employment. Corporate lobbyists have purchased fraudulent studies from economists that claim offshoring results in more U.S. employment, rather than less.
The same lobbyists have spread disinformation that the United States does not graduate enough engineers and that they must import foreigners on work visas. Lobbyists are currently pushing, as part of the immigration bill, an expansion in annual H-1B work visas from 65,000 to 115,000.
The H-1B is a nonimmigrant classification used by an alien who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation.
A specialty occupation requires specialized knowledge, along with at least a bachelor's degree or its equivalent. Such occupations include architecture or engineering.
The alleged "shortage" of U.S. engineering graduates is inconsistent with reports from Duke University that 30 percent to 40 percent of students in its masters of engineering management program accept jobs outside the profession.
About one-third of engineering graduates from MIT go into careers outside their field.
Job outsourcing and work visas for foreign engineers are reducing career opportunities for American engineering graduates.
They also are reducing salary scales.
When employers allege a shortage of engineers, they mean that there is a shortage of American graduates who will work for the low salaries that foreigners will accept.
Americans are simply being forced out of the engineering professions by jobs outsourcing and the importation of foreigners on work visas. Corporate lobbyists and their hired economists are destroying the American engineering professions.
American engineering is also under pressure because corporations have moved manufacturing offshore. Design, research and development are now following manufacturing offshore. A country that doesn't make things doesn't need engineers and designers.
Corporations that have moved manufacturing offshore fund R&D in the countries where their plants have been relocated.
Engineering curriculums are demanding. The rewards for the effort are being squeezed out by jobs offshoring and work visas. If the current policy continues of substituting foreign engineers for American engineers, the profession will die in the United States.
"Bush is a Terrorist."
PCR can stick his head back into the sand. Newsmax ought to be ashamed to have this buffoon on staff.
That graphic, along with another that I used to have for Fall 2005, has killed every thread where it has been posted. Unfortunately, Mr. Roberts has more staying power.
I am still waiting for the DOW to crash to under 5000 like he promised in 2004.
1956 or 2006 ???
"Manufacturing lost 14,000 jobs. "
Unions ask for more money, management can't give it to them because it will result in a loss. Unions don't care. Management moves business. Union sues. Company eventually shuts down after union milks company for all it is worth. Union bosses make money, Union attorneys make money, Union members get screwed. Owner moves to West Palm and retires with a tax writeoff.
Vote Democrat.. Yeah, that's the ticket.
I have seed that graphic before also, but the perception among parents of youngens is as the article above suggests. Many are advising those going to college to avoid engineering and computer related professions because of the outsourcing/h1b turmoil. To suggest everything is looking up is just as wrong as to say it is all bad.
Manufacturing jobs have been on a down-slope (world-wide) for decades. But, as Dick Armey once said, Demagoguery beats data in making public policy.
Maybe those parents spend too much time reading Paul Craig Roberts. You don't want to send your kids through an Engineering program? Fine. The salaries of those that remain will just go higher . . . until the perception changes.
Civil engineering seems lame for a major, but it will get a career on a silver platter, and when the PE is added a few years later the civil eng will have the world by the short hairs. If there is a pipeline or road or any other civil construction to be built there will be several civil eng present, and pulling overtime. The base salary is no indication of what the civil eng can make.
I think it is due to the fact that the parents are going through the layoffs themselves and are having to settle for short-term contract work, not because of what they read.
I don't know what I'd call him now, he's certainly not a Republican nor Conservative.
The economy is creating new jobs. This is a good thing, unless you are a Democrat Party thug who wants to score cheap political points at the expense of the American worker.
"PCR lost his marbles long ago, as evident of his writing President Bush would nuke a small city to justify a war with Iran."
That is over the edge! He should know we could just send in a small destroyer that takes small arms fire a lot cheaper (Gulf of Tonkin)...hehehe
Hey PCR - 4.6% unemployment. Bite me.
What's a degree worth?
Not much in my book- I earn twice that with no college degree and an electrical contractors license.
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