Unemployment Drops in New York

The NY Post reports that unemployment dropped to 7.9%. According to a report from the National Association of Purchasing Managers, 4800 jobs were created last month and a total of 34,500 over the past 12 months

Undo The "Curses" Of Negative Predictions

The "Kindness" Route
The author wishes to remain anonymous
Edited by Shmuel Greenbaum
Printed with Permission of http://www.PartnersInKindness.org

My wife, in her medical condition, was treated like trash in our home state of West Virginia.

Instead of being bitter, I decided to go the "kindness" route -- I became a nurse. Now I know that everyone under my care, no matter what their condition is, will be treated with kindness and will maintain their dignity.

Thank you for sharing your story with the world, I'm sure that it will be an inspiration to everyone that reads it. It's people like you that give me hope for mankind.

Ed. - See this link for my story: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PartnersInKindness/


Undo the "Curses" Of Negative Predictions
From: Kindness: Making a Difference in People's Lives: Formulas, stories, and insights
By: Zelig Pliskin
Printed with Permission of Shaar Press

"You’ll never amount to anything."

"You won’t be able to cope with such a difficult situation."

"You’re too stupid to understand."

"No one will marry you, and if some unlucky person does, your marriage will be a disaster."

Many people carry an invisible burden. This is the weight of unfavorable predictions about their abilities and future. These "curses" are usually a product of someone’s frustration, anger, resentment, or spite. At times well-meaning parents, teachers, or friends will deliver their negative prognosis in the form of giving advice.

You have the ability to undo these curses. You can point out the limitations of the people who gave those negative forecasts. Some of the things you can say are:

* "No human being has the right to limit another person. Whoever tries to limit you is wrong."

* "You already have learned so much. Keep it up and this trend will take you much further than anyone could foresee."

* "This person was just speaking out of anger. An ang! ry person makes mistakes and spouts untruths. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about."

* "There are others with far less natural intelligence, talents, and skills who have coped well and accomplished much."

* "Don’t give up. If you quit, you will be defeating yourself. By devoting all your inner resources, I guarantee you that you will succeed in the end."

Experts in a field can have the experience to make positive predictions:

* "I’ve been teaching for thirty years and I tell you that you have the intelligence to do well."

* "You have what it takes to cope well. I’ve seen people who couldn’t and I know that you can."

* "I’ve met people with greater handicaps who have put in the effort and have accomplished greatly."

When you meet people who aren’t doing well in some area, interview them for potential negative predictions. "What were the messages your parents and teach! ers gave you about your abilities and future?" "Has anyone ever told you that you wouldn’t be able to succeed?" Use your knowledge, experience, and creativity to help transcend and transform counterproductive predictions to ones that are helpful and beneficial.

It’s easy to issue limiting predictions. It can be difficult to undo their effects. If someone has internalized a negative picture, it can take a lot of effort on your part to counteract it. Be persistent. Your success will help transform this person’s life.

Coping With Tragedy

Fighting Terror With Kindness


By Shmuel Greenbaum

Shmuel@TraditionOfKindness.org


Kindness has been my personal response to terror. My wife, Shoshana, was murdered by a suicide bomber. She was one of over 100 victims that were killed or injured on August 9, 2001 at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

Sometimes I wonder whether telling my story can really help others. Since, the way I am coping with tragedy is so different than the norm, would anyone else understand it?

Many of the rabbis that came to visit me told me a story about a carpet. "Sometimes you only see the knots on the back," they said; "Only later do you see the beautiful design on the front." I thanked them for coming and explained that I see the beautiful design now. I see the "big picture."

I have always been interested in the "big picture" – in how to make the world better. Since I was a kid, I always liked to tackle these big problems by assembling a group of experts to solve them. As a teenager I designed a system to tap hydroelectric power from the wastewater of apartment buildings. I contacted a local engineering school and assembled a team of academicians to prepare the plan for the US Department of Energy.

After my wife’s violent murder, I began a project to teach people how to be kinder. The project has just started to take off. At the moment, we have more than 10,000 subscribers on six continents to our "Daily Dose of Kindness" e-mail. Everyone who signs up for this e-mail list is also automatically signed up as an advisor. As I said before, I like having many advisors. Right now, I have over 10,000 "Kindness advisors".

Last week, one of my Kindness advisors sent me an e-mail link to an article in the New York Times about how medical researches have found that acts of kindness stimulate the brain in the same place that physical pleasures do. So now medical researchers have shown that doing kindness causes enjoyment. From this you can see one way that I cope with tragedy – I receive tremendous pleasure by promoting kindness.

My favorite author on kindness is Zelig Pliskin. In his book Kindness, he presents eighty-five techniques to find new opportunities to do kindness by improving yourself and improving the world around you. In one chapter he explains how you can feel the thrill of an international sports victory every day if you visualize 100,000 people applauding for you and cheering you on when you do an act of kindness. Studies have shown that our hormonal system has actual biochemical responses even though the victory is totally a figment of our imagination.

Shortly after my wife’s death, I prayed with great intensity to G-d to help me to make the world better. From the feedback I am getting from my kindness projects, it is clear that my prayers are being answered and that I am helping to make the world a little kinder – one person at a time. This feeling of Divine assistance combined with the biochemical responses to my imagined victory has given me tremendous emotional strength.

Mistakes

KIND WORDS
Mistakes


Confessions of a Kindness Addict
The author wishes to remain anonymous
Edited by Shmuel Greenbaum
Printed with Permission of http://www.TraditionOfKindness.org

Doing kindness is addictive. If we really want to do kindness, the opportunities will always arise.

One day I had an irresistible urge to do kindness the whole day. As I was walking to the supermarket during my lunch hour, I hoped the whole time that I would have an opportunity to do an act of kindness.

When I left the supermarket, on the way back to my office, I was walking behind an elderly lady who was holding a handful of groceries. I was afraid to approach her and ask if she! needed help, because I did not want her to think I was a mugger.

But since my urge to do kindness was burning in me, G-d allowed me to do it by having the elderly lady turn around and ask me to help her. Wow! I could not believe it.

I took her groceries all the way to her apartment. Then she invited me in and we spoke for close to half-an-hour. She told me that she recently lost her husband and needed someone to talk to.

You can’t imagine how great I felt.

Although I did a small act of kindness, I think she did a greater one – by allowing me to help her, she allowed me to experience the true joy of doing kindness.


Mistakes
From: Kindness: Making a Difference in People's Lives: Formulas, stories, and insights
By: Zelig Pliskin
Printed with Permission of Shaar Press
One of my students told me the following:

I’ve tried to help people in various ways. But unfortunately I’ve made mistakes. I’ve introduced people to each other and in the end they didn’t get along. I’ve tried to give people advice and things didn’t work out as well as I thought they would. I’ve tried to get people jobs, but in the end they were dissatisfied. I feel like leaving well enough alone. Why should I try to help people if it will cause them suffering and they will have complaints against me?

The only way you will avoid all mistakes is by not doing anything. But then you won’t accomplish anything. "There is no one wiser than a person with experience," goes a well-known saying. Learn from your mistakes. They are an integral part of your course on becoming an expert at helping people.

If we would wait for a surgeon with a perf! ect record, many lives would be lost because highly competent physicians wouldn’t operate since they were imperfect. If only perfect teachers were allowed to teach, there wouldn’t be very many schools. If only financial advisers whose advice has proven infallible were allowed to practice even the most brilliant financial analysts would have to look for another job. Expertise is within reach, perfection isn’t.

If someone asks you for advice and there are other people who are more qualified to give it, defer to those people. But when you are qualified, don’t allow lack of infallibility to stop you from helping others.

View your mistakes as the price you pay for preventing future mistakes. Be honest about your mistakes. Some people fear mistakes to such a degree that they always claim they were really right. They are so afraid of mistakes that they defend whatever they do as having been the best plan of action. This is a normal reaction, and it takes integrity and co! urage to transcend it. Let the knowledge that you are developing your character make it easier for you to acknowledge mistakes.

Another student explained:

I used to be totally devastated when I made a mistake when trying to help another person. I truly wanted to alleviate the suffering of as many people as possible and to help people improve their lives. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt and embarrassment if what I said or did was counterproductive. The turning point for me was when I needed the help of others. When someone sincerely wanted to help me and did all they could, I didn’t expect them to be omniscient and omnipotent. I accepted the outcome as a matter of Divine Providence. This realization gave me the inner strength to learn from my mistakes and to continue being there for others.

Nw York Post reports unemploymt drops

The New York Post reported that unemployment in NYC ferll to 6% during a period covering March 2003 and March 2004. this matched the US level of unemployment. In the New York-New Jersey area, including Long Island, non-farm employment showed a gain of 59,800 jobs, or 0.6 percent. On Long Island, unemployment edged higher to 4.6 percent.

U.S. payrolls up 288,000 in April
Market sees Fed raising rates in June

By Rex Nutting, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 11:16 AM ET May 7, 2004



WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - U.S. job growth continued at a rapid pace in April, as 288,000 new jobs were created and the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, the Labor Department estimated Friday.


The report was much stronger than expected.

Economists surveyed by CBS MarketWatch expected 172,000 new jobs and a jobless rate of 5.7 percent. See Economic Calendar.

The bond market sold off, driving the yield on the 10-year note to 4.75 percent, the highest since the summer of 2002. See Bond Report. Stocks were mixed at the open, with the Nasdaq gaining 0.5 percent, while the broader S&P 500 was down 0.3 percent on fears about higher interest rates. See Market Snapshot.

The market now expects the first rate hike in June.

March's payroll gains were revised higher from 308,000 to 337,000. February's job gains were also revised higher. Job growth, up eight months in a row, has averaged 217,000 a month so far in 2004. Since August, payrolls are up 1.1 million. Read the full report.

"It was a long time coming, but once the floodgates opened, the jobs have come rushing out," said Steve Stanley, chief economist for RBS Greenwich Capital.

The report could bolster President Bush's campaign, diverting attention from Iraq toward the improving domestic economy. "Our economy has turned the corner," Treasury Secretary John Snow said in speech in Chicago. "That tax bill put oxygen in the economy."

In February, the administration predicted about growth of about 330,000 jobs a month this year.

Democrats continued to pound the president's record. "America is still in the worst job recovery since the Great Depression," said Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. "The facts remains that under this president more jobs have been lost than created -- by far. 8.1 million Americans are still looking for work and long-term unemployment is at its highest in twenty years.

The report could also nudge the Federal Reserve toward raising rates at its June meeting. The Federal Open Market Committee said Tuesday it could raise rates at a "measured" pace.

Prices on federal funds futures at the Chicago Board of Trade indicate an 86 percent chance of a rate hike in June, up from 48 percent Thursday. The market now sees the fed funds rate rising from 1 percent currently to 2 percent by the end of the year.

"In my mind, we've seen enough on the jobs front (and the inflation front as well) to justify the beginning of the tightening cycle, so, barring a dramatic softening in May, our call of a June rate hike looks very solid," Stanley said.

"Bear in mind though, the labor force participation rate remained at a 1988 low of 65.9 percent, suggesting very significant potential labor force additions, which could be fuel for a longer period of above-trend growth in employment without stretching deep into potential labor resources," said Steve Wieting, senior economist for Citigroup.

Job growth was widespread in April, with 61.7 percent of industries adding workers in the month. Services added 246,000 while goods-producing industries added 42,000, according to the survey of business establishments.

Manufacturing employment increased by 21,000, the third, straight increase following revisions. Manufacturing employment had not risen for 42 months before February's 7,000 gain. The gains came in durable-goods manufacturing, such as fabricated metals and machinery.

Half of the gains in service jobs came in professional and business services. Temporary help jobs increased by 35,000. Retail added 23,000 jobs. Health care added 30,000 jobs.

The average workweek was steady at 33.7 hours, but total hours worked in the economy increased by 0.3 percent. The factory workweek fell by 0.3 hours to 40.6 hours.

Average hourly wages rose 0.3 percent to $15.59. Hourly wages are up 2.2 percent year-over-year after sinking as low as 1.6 percent year-over-year in February.

A separate survey of households showed employment rose by 278,000 during the month, with 188,000 fewer unemployed workers. The household and establishment surveys had diverged noticeably throughout 2003, with the household survey showing stronger job growth. The payroll figures come from the establishment survey, while the unemployment rate comes from the household survey.

The number of unemployed workers who've been out of work longer than six months plunged by 188,000 to 1.8 million, accounting for 22.1 percent of the 8.2 million jobless workers.

"We still have a long way to go before workers begin to feel the effects of this recovery," said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. "The share of the unemployed who have been jobless for more than six months has remained at or above 20 percent for 19 consecutive months, the longest period since the Labor Department has been collecting these data."

The median duration of unemployment fell to 9.5 weeks from 10.3 weeks in March.

Things are improving. More firms are entering the market and trying to hire more people. I had a firm meet someone on Wednesday for a developer role and make an offer that Friday--and it wasn't for a paycut. Consulting firms are hiring. Financial services firms are back in heavily (who among them isn't hiring); you'd think an organization like JPMorganChase that is dealing with a lunch of BankOne would suspend hiring. NOT!

People in my networking group are reporting more interviews, although some can't get going becauise they have been out too long.

Clients are inviting me in to meet again after two years where it was hard to find someone worth spending that kind of time with.

Off-shoring? Yeah it's here and it will become even bigger in this area soon. The issue of off-shoring kills developers and offers certain types of opportunities for veteran staff who know the application and know the industry (how many developers in Bangalore are going to recognize an error in the spec for a portion of an equities or credit derivatives system? They will need seniors to work with the user and who can translate requirements AND who are willing to get on a plane.

Project Offices have been back for a while. The market for senior professionals has returned and that bodes well for the balance of this year into 2005 . . . unless something bad happens on our shores.