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Labor Shortage Edition:
Australia: Nuke industry reveals skills shortage
AUSTRALIA may have to import skilled workers to operate a home-grown nuclear
power industry. A Federal Government review into the nuclear energy is expected
to reveal a shortage of skilled nuclear scientists and technicians. News Ltd
reports the review - headed by former Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski - is
expected to produce a draft report by November 21 identifying skills and
education in nuclear science as key issues in need of attention. Industry
Minister Ian Macfarlane said yesterday an Australian nuclear industry could act
as a magnet to highly skilled scientists and technicians who went overseas to
pursue their careers. (Australian)
China: Skilled labor shortage in China
U.S. companies in China continue to make some nice profits, but they are
increasingly finding that it's difficult to staff their operations there with
qualified workers. Ruth Kirchner reports.
SCOTT JAGOW: U.S. companies in China have a staffing problem: They can't find
the right people to work for them. Ruth Kirchner reports from Beijing.
RUTH KIRCHNER: For the first time in five years, the skills shortage has emerged
as the No. 1 headache for companies doing business in China. (Marketplace)
Web Site Breaks New Ground for China's Migrant Workers - RFA
A new Web portal that aims to help China's 150 million migrant workers find
jobs, training, legal help and social activities is winning backing from
officials anxious about social stability in a breakneck economy. (Radio
Free Asia)
China sees soaring migrant population China's migrant population has reached 150 million, 11.5 percent of the
total, according to the State Population and Family Planning Commission.
China has been experiencing the world's largest population flow, with the number
of migrants doubled in the past 10 years, said Wang Guoqiang, deputy director of
the commission. More than 80 percent of migrants are rural people seeking jobs
in cities, Wang told a national conference, noting that migrant workers would
remain the majority of floating population for a long time. (MSDNChina)
Global:
The Coming Labor Shortage Deloitte, the consulting group, recognizes that employee-retention
strategy consulting will be a growth industry during the second half of
this decade and well into the next one, so
Deloitte commissioned a survey of HR execs that dissects companies'
fears of the nationwide retirement time bomb and what Business 2.0
called
"The Coming Job Boom" in its September, 2003 cover story. What's
interesting about Deloitte's prediction of a "critical talent" shortage
is that they're onto the fact this isn't about bosses alone. The biggest
skills gap will be smack in the middle of the so-called creative class
workforce. "Critical talent represents those individuals who possess
highly developed skills and deep knowledge of not just the work itself
but how to make things happen within a company," says the head of the
consultancy's Human Capital practice. Utlimately, Retiring Workforce,
Widening Skills Gap, Exodus of 'Critical Talent' Threaten U.S. Companies
is a brochure for Deloittte's services but it's a very insightful one. (Next.net)
India:
Report: Skills Shortage, Labor Costs Challenge India Design
The rising cost of compensation for India's
engineering workforce could deter companies from
setting up more design centers in the country over
the next two years, says a study.
An inadequate number of skilled engineers due to
lack of specialized institutes and advanced
technical courses poses a big barrier to the growth
of India's VLSI design business for the next two
years, according to a study by the India
Semiconductor Association (ISA). The rising cost of
compensation for India's engineering workforce could
deter companies from setting up more design centers
in the country over the next two years, forcing them
to look elsewhere, the study found. But this
situation should be resolved in three years, as
India's engineering workforce grows, the study
concluded. (Information
Week)
Japan:
Japan threatened with labor shortage
Intensifying competition from nearby China and a
declining birth rate are threatening Japan with a
worker shortage that could chip away at its
craftsmanship tradition, reports the Associated
Press. In addition, Japanese companies struggle to
attract younger Japanese because the group tends to
look down upon production work as dirty, dangerous
and tough. According to the Japanese government
Statistics Bureau, the number of people employed in
manufacturing has dwindled from about 15 million in
1990 down to 12 million. Conversely, jobs in retail
and services grew. Politicians, intellectuals and
educators say the younger Japanese are growing more
like their Western counterparts in job-hopping and
seeking dot-com riches. Workmanship that comes from
years of on-the-job experience is being lost as more
youngsters opt for white-collar work, says an
official from a Japanese government training program
focusing on manufacturing. (American
Machinist)
Romania:
Romania Labor Woes on Verge of Crisis
A labor shortage in Romania is on the verge of
becoming of a crisis, two months before it joins the
European Union, President Traian Basescu said
Monday. Basescu said that while some EU countries
moved to limit the migration of Romanian workers,
Romania itself was feeling the effects of a labor
crisis, with employers unable to fill positions in
construction, banking or public administration. "We
believe that discussions in some countries (about
migration) have more to do with domestic problems
there and less with realities," he said, referring
to Britain. "Romania no longer has an excess of
labor available." (MSN
Money)
South Africa:
Skills shortage must be addressed ‘sooner rather than later'
South Africa needs to address the skills shortage
now, and not when things fall apart, says South
African Institute of Measurement and Control (SAIMC)
president Vivian MacFadyen. He notes that, although
the skills level of those involved in
instrumentation in the mining industry is high, he
is concerned for the future because there is a gap
in the age of those currently maintaining the
equipment and their successors. This could result in
a situation in which potentially dangerous processes
are left in the care of people without sufficient
on-site experience. He feels that the current
situation, in which young people go to university
for about eighteen months and consider themselves
qualified technicians, needs investigation, as it
could result in damage to process plants. (Creamer
Media)
US:
Slow road ahead : America's long-term potential rate of growth is
falling, perhaps to its lowest pace in over a
century EVERYONE knows that America's economy is
slowing. Thanks to the bursting of the housing
bubble, overall GDP growth has fallen back sharply.
The biggest short-term uncertainty for the world
economy is whether American consumers stop spending
and drag the country into recession. But beyond the
business cycle, another slowdown has received scant
attention. America's potential rate of growth—that
is, the pace at which annual output can expand
without pushing up inflation—is also falling. By
some estimates, it could drop to 2.5% over the next
few years, which would be the slowest pace in over a
century.If that happens, the consequences will be
serious. Tax revenues will grow more slowly than
expected. Monetary policy will become harder to
manage: as the 1970s showed, inflation can get out
of control if central bankers do not realise that an
economy's speed limit has fallen. Financial markets
will be disturbed as conventional wisdom adjusts
from an assumption of 3-3.5% potential output
growth, and investors downgrade their expectations.
(Economist)
Guest Workers Seek Global Horizons: U.S. Company Exploits Migrant Labor
About 170 Thai migrants paid thousands of dollars to
recruiters in Bangkok for the opportunity to work in
the bountiful orchards of Washington state. Their
tale illustrates the pitfalls of the H-2A guest
worker program which is a mainstay - along with
undocumented labor - of the U.S. agricultural
system. The migrant workers paid up to $8,000 each
to Thai recruiters working for Global Horizons, a
California-based company, which then obtained H-2A
agricultural guest worker visas for them, flew them
to Washington and set them up in housing, as
required by the federal program. Before taking the
jobs, the workers had been told they would live in
apartments, eat meals catered by a Mexican
restaurant and be able to send significant amounts
of money home to their families, according to the
Seattle Times. (CorpWatch)
Immigration difference between a Speaker
Pelosi & a Speaker Hastert?
DEAR REPUBLICAN FAXERS,
Disillusioned Republicans wondering whether to waste
another vote on a Republican candidate for U.S.
Representative may want to focus on what this
election means for immigration in terms of who
becomes Speaker of the House. Most likely if the
Democrats win, the nation will have Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA). If the Republicans hang on to their
majority, we'll probably continue to have Speaker
Hastert (R-IL). (NumbersUSA)
Remind me again...
Why we are putting ourselves through this torture
known as university? Every 13 weeks it's the same
stress - end of semester essays, exams, projects -
all for what? A flimsy bit of paper and a photo
opportunity that says, "yay, I made it"? It's kind
of ironic when we're suffering a skills shortage in
plumbing and other sorts of apprenticeships.
Tradespeople earn stacks more than uni grads these
days. But of course it's about more than the money -
I don't think I could get away will telling my
parents "hey, I want to be a hairdresser". Although
of course they'd say, "that's ok sweetie, it's up to
you". (currently
under review)
Work, Poverty, Labor, Unions - Professionals -
an endangered species?
The law of supply and demand suggests that when
supply falls below demand, prices rise. A new survey
suggests that professional workers are in short
supply, and as a result their wages are rising. I
report on the survey results below, but one question
I have is whether this situation could be the result
of problems I have repeatedly reported on access to
higher education. Here and here and here and here.
And more reports and stories here and here on this
crisis. The press release on the Manpower survey
finds shortages in many areas. (unbossed)
Power firms
look to stem labor shortage Raymond Miller
doesn‘t want to flip a light switch on one night and find out he‘s in the dark
because there weren‘t enough workers to keep the country‘s power industry going.
Figures vary among companies, but industry officials estimate that about half of
the approximately 400,000 employees in the work force will be eligible for
retirement over the next five to 10 years. These include workers who operate
power plant equipment and repair the lines carrying electricity to homes and
businesses. The companies also are offering grants and scholarships and helping
develop curriculums that include algebra and calculus as well as courses on
environmental regulations, combustion engines and electrical circuits. (Leading
The Charge)
Labor shortage, costs easing; prices expected to
rise
A shortage of experienced mine labor is still the biggest cost issue facing
Massey Energy, Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship told analysts in a Friday
conference call. But relief may be in sight. Massey is going to be able to
hire more "black hat" experienced miners in the near future than the relatively
green "red hats." because cutbacks in Central Appalachian production, with some
mines idled recently, will help stabilize the labor market, he explained.
"The labor shortage in Central Appalachia has caused a widespread productivity
decline that has impacted all of the region's coal producers, including Massey,"
Blankenship said in the company's October 26 earnings release. "This decline
followed two decades of improved productivity." (Platts)
The demographic makeup of Rhode Island is changing, and employers are
trying to figure out what the change will mean for them. Part of a larger national trend, the number of foreign-born Rhode Islanders,
as well as the number of Rhode Islanders who speak English as a second language,
is approaching a level not seen since the early decades of the last century. The
majority of this growth, according to numbers provided by the U.S. Census
Bureau, is the result of the rapidly increasing number of Rhode Islanders who
come from Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas or descend from families
from these countries. The state has seen this group, often referred to as
Hispanics or Latinos, grow by more than 24 percent in the last five years.
Between 1980 and 2000, the number of Latinos in Rhode Island quadrupled, jumping
to about 9 percent of the state's population. Among the host of business issues
that have grown out of this historic immigration are language barriers,
documentation problems and questions of skill transfer between countries. (Rhode
Island News)
Signs of the Times — Inside Helena's labor crunch
By most accounts, Taco Del Sol is one of the most popular restaurants downtown,
with a noontime line often stretching up the steps and onto the Walking Mall, as
customers await their fish tacos and mission burritos. Yet owner Shalon Hastings
said that more than once this fall, she's come close to not opening the
restaurant for lunch. The reason? Not enough staff to run the business. Hastings
enjoys "working the line," making tacos and burritos, but she'd rather not do it
as frequently as she's forced to these days. Eighty percent of her time, she
said, is devoted to workforce issues — time she feels could be better spent
improving her own business or opening a second location. (Independent
Record)
Heavy on degrees, short on sweat
Perhaps the most consistent trend within the U.S. labor force is the continually
rising level of educated, skilled workers. The Census Bureau released its
Current Population Survey last week, and the numbers show that Americans have
received more education than ever before. Of course, it's easy to question the
quality of the education they've received. But in terms of years spent in
classrooms, the nation never has been so well-schooled. (Palm
Beach Post)
Labor shortage could lead restaurants to short-order robot cooks
George Jetson would feel at home. Today, there's enough restaurant equipment on
the market or awaiting patent to take a customer's order and payment and cook
and package the food — all with little or no human labor. No one's predicting
that robot maid Rosie will grill burgers outside of Orbit City anytime soon.
Still, as the restaurant industry scrambles to cope with a labor crunch, many
players are looking to automation. (STLToday)
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