Wednesday, March 08, 2006

I hope a lot of you are prepared to flip burgers some day:

That, or sweep floors, or work in a Hotel.

America's Bleak Jobs Future By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Some interesting highlights:

(This one of particular interest to me)
Information technology workers and computer software engineers have been especially heavily hit by offshore jobs outsourcing. During the past five years (Jan 01 - Jan 06), the information sector of the US economy lost 645,000 jobs or 17.4% of its work force. Computer systems design and related lost 116,000 jobs or 8.7% of its work force.

Among the fastest growing occupations (in terms of rate of growth), seven of the ten are in health care and social assistance. The three remaining fields are: network systems and data analysis with 126,000 jobs projected or 12,600 per year; computer software engineering applications with 222,000 jobs projected or 22,200 per year, and computer software engineering systems software with 146,000 jobs projected or 14,600 per year.

Assuming these projections are realized, how many of the computer engineering and network systems jobs will go to Americans? Not many, considering the 65,000 H-1B visas each year (650,000 over the decade) and the loss during the past five years of 761,000 jobs in the information sector and computer systems design and related.

On February 16 the New York Times reported on a new study presented to the National Academies that concludes that outsourcing is climbing the skills ladder. A survey of 200 multinational corporations representing 15 industries in the US and Europe found that 38 percent planned to change substantially the worldwide distribution of their research and development work, sending it to India and China. According to the New York Times, "More companies in the survey said they planned to decrease research and development employment in the United States and Europe than planned to increase employment."


What bothers me is that you have a good number of working Americans that really don't care that this is happening. Until it happens to them.
People get laid off in the factories that make products that we sell and other WORKING PEOPLE will say that it's the workers' fault, the union's fault, etc.. They'll scream that those people were getting overpaid.

Ah, what short memories that we all have.

Just ask some people around you something. Especially those in their 30's or 40's.
Ask them what their parents and grandparents did for a living. Ask them if they were in a union, receive (or plan to receive) a pension or a combination of the two.
How do we all think that the middle class grew the way it did?
Through good jobs with good benefits and working conditions throughout this country.
This is what made us the "superpower" we are now.

NOW, these same companies are throwing any kind of loyalty to employees, customers and to America and sending our jobs and money overseas so only a handful of stockholders can benefit.
In the last 25 years, we have seen CEO "wages" go from about 25 times the average non-manager to 1000 TIMES today.

I have a friend who is a DBA. Her company is going to lay off everyone in her department when they go to SAP. Then they are going to bring in contractors.
In the interim, guess who's going to be milked for info and training their own replacements??


The American middle class is being squeezed from all sides right now. HARD.
Those of us that have managed to do OK all this time, you never know when you number might be up.



4 comments:

SheaNC said...

I hate to say it, but I find job security in social work because there will be no shortage of human misery in the forseeable future.

But at least, the Bush regime reclassified fast-food work as manufacturing...

tobymarx said...

All right, gentlemen, time to clean the
toilets -- with your tongues.

'Sup, Mike? Ain't life in these here United States a gas?

Let me know how you're doing.

Mark

Tom Harper said...

We might as well cut to the chase. E Pluribus Unum will be replaced with "would you like fries with that?"

Mike V. said...

White House Uber Alles?