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China appeals for skilled foreign workers By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 12:34am GMT 01/12/2007 China has appealed for 150,000 skilled foreign workers to help boost its economy. While the West may regard China’s educational achievements with awe, many Chinese see their universities as a disaster, prone to turn out graduates who can pass exams but lack any creative or entrepreneurial skills. A study by McKinsey, the international management consultancy firm, suggested that many Chinese degrees do not equip students for working in well-run companies. Of the 1.6 million young engineers in China, it reckoned only 10 per cent...

LOS ANGELES Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told the California GOP convention Saturday that the United States should encourage foreigners with skills to immigrate, while discouraging those who come here illegally and without skills. "It is wrong for us to build an absolute concrete wall against those with skills and enterprise," he said, referring to foreign students who come here for advanced study, "and have a wide open door for people with no education and no skills." His remarks were greeted with enthusiastic applause from this conservative crowd, for whom illegal immigration is a hot issue. Romney, a Republican governor in...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate-passed measure to add more visas for foreign workers in high-tech and specialty fields was dropped from a budget bill that passed the House early Monday, disappointing high-tech and manufacturing firms in search of skilled workers. The Senate plan would have allowed 30,000 more of the popular H1-B visas each year, and increased fees for those visas to help trim the budget deficit. Congress capped the six-year H-1B visas at 65,000 per year in 2004, and that cap has already been reached for the 2006 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The Senate language also would...

As Gov. Rendell and state legislators consider a proposal for a $7 an hour minimum wage, they should also bear in mind Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's warning that such a move "prevents people who are at the early stages of their careers... from getting a foothold in the ladder of promotions." Wage-hike proponents often argue that minimum-wage employees haven't had a raise since Congress last increased the national rate. But few entering the workforce at the minimum wage stay there for long. Nearly two-thirds get a raise within one to 12 months. Most low-wage earners simply don't need...