4.11.2004
Information You Might Find Helpful
The Nightshade Fairy has a new section - it's a series on "The Poker Game that is Our Career". She draws analogies from Mike Caro's theories on poker and applies them from a Job Fairy perspective. Reading these articles are a real eye opener. I've found that when you let your thinking get too emotional, it gets in the way of good decision making...
Scam Du Jour -  here's the latest scam from Bernard Haldane. Since job.com is aiding and abetting them, guess they're now on the "to avoid" list. BHA will take your money and not help you. You can do everything here at jobfairy.com for free that you could do with BHA for thousands of dollars. And probably more, since we get results. DO NOT RESPOND TO SCAMS LIKE THIS. JSN Career Alert is always pushing things like resume blaster services and other useless stuff. Fuhgeddaboudit!
"U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a shortfall of about 10 million workers within the next seven years. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 will jump 47.2 percent, while those aged 25 to 34 will increase only 2.8 percent. The number of workers aged 35 to 45 will actually drop 13.7 percent."
<Note from JobFairy.com: This is why we're not as concerned about outsourcing as others are. Yes, it's crappy, and hurts people in the short term. But the sheer numbers indicate that they'd have to outsource over 30 million jobs just to make up for all the boomers who are retiring. So they're going to be able to get away with quite a lot of outsourcing before it's a problem. I would like to see more data before we raise heck about this - are there really 30 million transferable jobs in the U.S.? I don't think that many are that portable. I will have to do more research and see.>
Lou Dobbs' list of companies that are outsourcing jobs. Interesting to read.
U.S. job growth soars, Gain of 308,000 jobs far better than Wall Street's forecasts; unemployment rate up to 5.7 percent.
Welfare anyone?A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says, "Hi... You know, I just HATE drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job." The social worker behind the counter says, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur/bodyguard for his nymphomaniac daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, but he'll supply all of your clothes. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll be expected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips. You will have to satisfy her sexual urges. You'll have a two-bedroom apartment above the garage. The starting salary is $200,000 a year". The guy says, "You're b**********g me!" The social worker says, "Yeah, well, you started it."
Even more of a loser resume than the Job Fairy Official Resume! NSFW, bad language
"ADDING UP THE JOB LOSSES
Many jobs were lost between 2000 and 2002 in Silicon Valley, and the vast majority disappeared due to the technology market crash rather than offshoring. However, a UC Berkeley research team has noted that the 37 job classifications it identified as most likely to be offshored suffered, as a group, greater declines than other jobs. The economists say offshoring may have contributed to greater losses in these jobs than in overall employment.
All jobs -18%
At-risk jobs -22.7%
-- At-risk jobs that lost the most:
Percentage change, 2000-02
Occupation
Computer and math professionals -35.2%
Brokerage clerks -34%
Insurance claims and policy processing clerks -33.8%
Paralegals and legal assistants -29.6%
Computer operators -24.2%
Human resources assistants -21%
Accountants and auditors -14.6%.
-- BAY AREA AT RISK
The San Jose and San Francisco metro areas have more jobs at-risk to offshoring than other U.S. cities.
San Jose 15.7%
San Francisco 14.4%
Boston 14.3%
New York 12.4%
Los Angeles 11.6%
Entire U.S. 11% -
-- What qualities put a job in danger?
As part of the research, the UC Berkeley economists identified the
following characteristics that put a job at risk of being shipped overseas:
- No face-to-face customer service requirement
- The product created is mainly information
- Work is done via telephone and Internet
- Low barriers to setting up new facilities
- Little social networking required
- Large differences in wages between locations
Source: UC Berkeley analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, 2002"
<Note from JobFairy.com: It's the transferability, the portability of the job that makes it so vulnerable. It's not just IT. They're even outsourcing tax return work these days (I do mine myself; good decision, that). So what to do about it? Figure out what has to be done here. Car repair can't be sent overseas. Healthcare can't be sent overseas. Maybe they can bring in foreign people to do it more cheaply, but what makes you, an English-speaking native, valuable? And for goodness' sake, don't document what it is that you do or how you do it. If you're in a vulnerable industry segment, they'll just use it to train your replacement and then cut you loose.>
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