[lelio]

Watched 60 minutes last night and they had a story on the shortage of nurses to the tune of 400k needed in a few years. What's the solution? Why go over to South Africa and poach off their top nurses and give them $20/hr to work here in the states.
So the H1b monster extends from the IT sector to nursing.

[The Duke]

I'm as much an "economic doomsayer" as the next guy, but this piece is propaganda. For example the following statement:

Large public companies may have more resources, but some people feel that these employers are concerned first and foremost with the bottom line...

Well, by it's very definition business is concerned "first and foremost" with the bottom line. (In fact, we'd better hope it stays that way, because the alternative is fascism.)

[PatrioticAmerican]

If you've got one..keep it. It really won't be easier this year unless something changes. I now work for a large company, and I am directly responsible for hiring as an engineering manager. Companies are hiring, but at lower wages and with higher requirements, because the market says they can. Many companies are no longer looking for that magic pill in technology, and, instead, are relying on what they alread have being made to work. There is little investment in advanced or new technologies and little investment in new projects.

Also, I have heard that off-shore engineering is happening even more, but I have seen the exact opposite. Many companies want direct and local control, and many companies have been burned by off-shore development.

[Redleg Duke]

Still flipping over rocks to find the doom and gloom, eh Willie?

[VOA]

Happy New Year! Jobs will be harder to get

Because during "The Clinton Decade of Greed", the military was gutted in order
to maintain/expand social programs (with some exceptions).
On a smaller scale we see Democratic lumiaries like Gray Davis blowing a $10 BILLION
state budget SURPLUS...and creating a $35 BILLION state budget DEFICIT.

Thanks to this sort of profligate spending, Dubya didn't have the resources on hand to
simply roll unannounced into Iraq as soon as the Taliban were scattered.

Of course, if Bill Clinton had actually had a pair, 9-11 might never have happened...

(and don't think I couldn't find a few spineless Republicans to rag on with the
topics of budget and national defense...)

[narby]

Hey Willie;

Have you got the world convinced that Geo. Bush has trashed the economy yet?

Got to elect Hillary! in 2004 you know....

For myself, I'm sick of the media trashing the economy in a rather blantant effort to take down Bush. I come to FR to avoid the regular media message, and here you go making it your duty to repeat the Dem message.

[warchild9]

I've been told I'm hiring four new faces in my group in 2003--all at lower start salaries than before (I don't control starting salaries). Why? Because the market allows it! And considering the low quality of recent college grads I've been seeing, I think we're overpaying.

[dfwgator]

Here's the way I see it, and Americans had better get used to it.

For the first twenty years of your life, your parents take care of you.

For the next twenty years being an employee for another company will take care of you.

Once you hit 40, you are on your own, you had better either be an executive in the company, or start your own business.

[Boatlawyer]

Maybe it's just me but I had a job offer last week and a headhunter calling me today. And I'm just a dinky sole practitioner (who's had enough bad experience with law firms to know I prefer it that way).

[Nuke'm Glowing]

The solution? Create your own business. It's what I did after my one and only layoff in my life. And although the first 3 years sucked, I'm doing much better now thank you. Despite this roller coaster economy.

[snopercod]

As one "of the nation's unemployed" (for the first time in my 40 year working life), I'm thinking of turning to a life of crime.

Yup, I may have to work for the gummint...

[RightWinger]

We need to get this Iraqi war on & over.
The uncertainty is driving the markets crazy.
One way or another . . . "let's roll."