GE Jobs
Labels: Georgia DC, hiring, New York, Schenectady
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
LSI announces layoffs in Wichita
WICHITA, Kansas, July 25, 2007 – Today, LSI announced a massive layoff with 225 line production workers losing their jobs sometime in the next 12 months. Those employees whose jobs are eliminated will be notified six weeks before hand.
All affected employees will receive a full severance package, which includes severance payment, health insurance and job transition assistance.
Apparently, LSI will be outsourcing to a third party to manufacture its goods, which is definitely a trend in the industry.
But for now, the other 500 jobs appear to be safe.
LSI is making drastic changes across the world -- closing its plant in Singapore and selling the plant in Thailand.
All affected employees will receive a full severance package, which includes severance payment, health insurance and job transition assistance.
Apparently, LSI will be outsourcing to a third party to manufacture its goods, which is definitely a trend in the industry.
But for now, the other 500 jobs appear to be safe.
LSI is making drastic changes across the world -- closing its plant in Singapore and selling the plant in Thailand.
China Hiring And Employment By The Graphs
The Talent in China blog has an interesting post up on China hiring issues. The post is entitled, "Graphs, Graphs, and More Graphs," and that is exactly what it is. It is a collection of graphs, graphically illustrating the following:
• China employee turnover, by industry
• Top 10 departments for turnover
• Foreign employers in China
• Employee expectations
• Motivations for changing jobs
It is a very easy to read and understand compilation of China employment data and I urge you to check it out.
• China employee turnover, by industry
• Top 10 departments for turnover
• Foreign employers in China
• Employee expectations
• Motivations for changing jobs
It is a very easy to read and understand compilation of China employment data and I urge you to check it out.
Labels: China, hiring data
Canadian Employment Climbs by 35,000 Jobs in June
Alex Carrick -- July 24, 2007
After two relatively quiet months in April and May, total employment in Canada picked up again in June 2007, with an increase of 35,000 jobs. This was approximately double the long-term monthly average. Through the first half of this year, 197,000 new jobs have been created in Canada and the year-over-year increase has been 336,000. The long-term annual average increase is 200,000. Clearly the current strength in job creation is both an indication of overall strength in the economy and one of the main drivers propelling the economy forward.
Some noteworthy regional developments include the following. The four western provinces continue to have the lowest unemployment rates in the country, all below 5.0%. In all of the eastern provinces, the jobless rate is 6.5% or higher. Alberta has the nation’s lowest unemployment rate (3.8%) and has also accounted for the greatest year-over-year increase in jobs (4.6%).
However, there are some interesting stories in eastern Canada as well. In absolute terms, Québec (+89,000) has provided the greatest year-over-year increase in jobs among all the provinces (even higher than Alberta’s +86,000). This has pushed Québec’s unemployment rate down to 6.9%, a 33-year low. The largest job gains in Québec have come in accommodation/food services, retail/wholesale trade and construction, while manufacturing employment has been in decline.
New Brunswick has also achieved a high year-over-year increase in employment (+2.4%). The strength in New Brunswick has come in the information sector. The province has had considerable success in attracting call centre and data processing work to the region, partly due to the bilingual nature of much of its work force. New Brunswick also has large construction projects underway (liquefied natural gas and nuclear power refurbishing) that are providing employment.
Ontario’s employment growth has been anemic (+0.9% year over year), due mainly to job losses in manufacturing. This has a significant impact on the total Canada figure, as Ontario accounts for nearly 40% of all jobs in the country.
On the wage front, average hourly wages rose by 3.2% in Canada in the second quarter of 2007 compared with the same three months in 2006. By way of comparison, the general inflation rate in the country −the year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index − has been 2.2% in each of April, May and June.
After two relatively quiet months in April and May, total employment in Canada picked up again in June 2007, with an increase of 35,000 jobs. This was approximately double the long-term monthly average. Through the first half of this year, 197,000 new jobs have been created in Canada and the year-over-year increase has been 336,000. The long-term annual average increase is 200,000. Clearly the current strength in job creation is both an indication of overall strength in the economy and one of the main drivers propelling the economy forward.
Some noteworthy regional developments include the following. The four western provinces continue to have the lowest unemployment rates in the country, all below 5.0%. In all of the eastern provinces, the jobless rate is 6.5% or higher. Alberta has the nation’s lowest unemployment rate (3.8%) and has also accounted for the greatest year-over-year increase in jobs (4.6%).
However, there are some interesting stories in eastern Canada as well. In absolute terms, Québec (+89,000) has provided the greatest year-over-year increase in jobs among all the provinces (even higher than Alberta’s +86,000). This has pushed Québec’s unemployment rate down to 6.9%, a 33-year low. The largest job gains in Québec have come in accommodation/food services, retail/wholesale trade and construction, while manufacturing employment has been in decline.
New Brunswick has also achieved a high year-over-year increase in employment (+2.4%). The strength in New Brunswick has come in the information sector. The province has had considerable success in attracting call centre and data processing work to the region, partly due to the bilingual nature of much of its work force. New Brunswick also has large construction projects underway (liquefied natural gas and nuclear power refurbishing) that are providing employment.
Ontario’s employment growth has been anemic (+0.9% year over year), due mainly to job losses in manufacturing. This has a significant impact on the total Canada figure, as Ontario accounts for nearly 40% of all jobs in the country.
On the wage front, average hourly wages rose by 3.2% in Canada in the second quarter of 2007 compared with the same three months in 2006. By way of comparison, the general inflation rate in the country −the year-over-year increase in the Consumer Price Index − has been 2.2% in each of April, May and June.
Labels: Canada, employment
Less Collecting EI Benefits
Stats Canada is saying that 1.3% less people are collecting Employment Insurance benefits as compared to May 2006 (from May 2007), and the biggest drops were in Quebec and Ontario, so that is a good thing (living in Ontario).
More interestingly is that the amount of money being paid out by the scheme dropped a great deal, so the government is saving money in this area as well. So far in my working career I have not claimed EI benefits (I state that not as a boast, more as the fact that I am just lucky).
The Citizen had an article about how Ottawa in specific suffered a great deal of exodus during the High Tech Melt down with many people moving away from the Nation's Capital? Can't find the article on line, but will be researching that further. It is interesting to me because Ottawa keeps growing in size every year, so where are all these people working? Hope not the Government.
More interestingly is that the amount of money being paid out by the scheme dropped a great deal, so the government is saving money in this area as well. So far in my working career I have not claimed EI benefits (I state that not as a boast, more as the fact that I am just lucky).
The Citizen had an article about how Ottawa in specific suffered a great deal of exodus during the High Tech Melt down with many people moving away from the Nation's Capital? Can't find the article on line, but will be researching that further. It is interesting to me because Ottawa keeps growing in size every year, so where are all these people working? Hope not the Government.
Labels: Canada, unemployment
Less Collecting EI Benefits
Stats Canada is saying that 1.3% less people are collecting Employment Insurance benefits as compared to May 2006 (from May 2007), and the biggest drops were in Quebec and Ontario, so that is a good thing (living in Ontario).
More interestingly is that the amount of money being paid out by the scheme dropped a great deal, so the government is saving money in this area as well. So far in my working career I have not claimed EI benefits (I state that not as a boast, more as the fact that I am just lucky).
The Citizen had an article about how Ottawa in specific suffered a great deal of exodus during the High Tech Melt down with many people moving away from the Nation's Capital? Can't find the article on line, but will be researching that further. It is interesting to me because Ottawa keeps growing in size every year, so where are all these people working? Hope not the Government.
More interestingly is that the amount of money being paid out by the scheme dropped a great deal, so the government is saving money in this area as well. So far in my working career I have not claimed EI benefits (I state that not as a boast, more as the fact that I am just lucky).
The Citizen had an article about how Ottawa in specific suffered a great deal of exodus during the High Tech Melt down with many people moving away from the Nation's Capital? Can't find the article on line, but will be researching that further. It is interesting to me because Ottawa keeps growing in size every year, so where are all these people working? Hope not the Government.
Labels: Canada, unemployment
Monster Local Employment Index Reports Online Recruitment Activity
City of Industry, CA --(www.FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 07/23/2007 - Advertising industry news provided by Financial News USA (OTC: FNWU). Online job availability declined in 18 of the top 28 U.S. metro markets in June, reflecting a mild seasonal summer slowdown in online recruitment and job posting activity across all major markets, according to the latest findings of the Monster Local Employment Index (Nasdaq:MNST). The Index is based on a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities culled from more than 1,500 different Web sites, including Monster®.
Labels: Monster Employment Index
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Jobless! Unemployed citizens all across Ohio County.
|  | WSYX ABC Columbus - (WSYX) Jul. 24, 2007. 05:00 PM EST Unemployed citizens all across Ohio County. |
Labels: Ohio, unemployment
Half Of Tech Employers Looking To Fill Jobs By End Of 2007, Survey Finds
Nearly half of the IT employers queried said they currently have open job positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates.
By Marianne Kolbasuk McGeeInformationWeek
Specifically, 47% of the 183 IT employers who participated in the online survey said they currently have open job positions for which they cannot find qualified candidates. That's up from 40% in December 2006. Twenty-eight percent of IT employers said they plan to increase hiring in the second half of the year, and 40% say they're planning to hire about the same number of employees in the second half as they did in the first six months of the year. To attract the new employees, half of the employers said they'd be willing to increase salary for the positions, compared with last year. And to keep existing staff from leaving their jobs, 74% of the employers say they're as likely to give raises this year as compared to 2006, and 18% are more willing to give raises this year than they were last year. Meanwhile, based on a CareerBuilder.com survey of 253 IT workers, only 14% of employees admit they're actively looking for new jobs, although 56% say they're passively looking, meaning they're willing to consider a new job if they came across an opportunity . CareerBuilder.com did not ask IT employers what jobs they're trying to fill, says a company spokeswoman. However, IT employers posting job openings on the site are looking to fill positions for computer As of last count on July 24, CareerBuilder.com had 73,085 IT jobs listed on its site by employers looking to fill positions, says the spokeswoman. Looking for an IT job? You may be in luck. Nearly half of IT employers say they have open positions that they've had trouble filling during the first half of 2007, according to a new survey released on Wednesday by online job site, CareerBuilder.com. 
Labels: IT hiring
SHRM/Rutgers LINE(R) Index Forecasts Manufacturing- and Service-Sector Hiring Trends for August 2007
Labels: employment, manufacturing, SHRM
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Engine plant closing Dec.1
Job losses almost offset by retirements, union leader says
Dave Hall, Windsor Star
Ford Motor Company's Essex Engine Plant is scheduled for closure Dec. 1 throwing 500 employees out of work and reducing the once-mighty automakers' local workforce to less than 2,000, according to the president of CAW Local 200.
Mike Vince said "that date is pretty much etched in stone right now according to the company.
"We just found out in the past week and while it could change, it doesn't seem likely at this point," said Vince. "Our members have to retire on the first of the month so that means Sept. 1, Oct. 1, Nov. 1 or Dec. 1."
But Ford spokeswoman Lauren More said Tuesday that "it's too early to say with any certainty when the closure will occur because we are always trying to align production with demand but it's safe to say the closure will come in the latter stages of the fourth quarter."
The closure, which the company said last year would come in the final quarter of this year, is part of a massive Ford restructuring effort which will see it reduce its workforce by between 25,000 and 30,000 employees through plant closures and layoffs. The plant was opened more than 25 years ago.
As part of that plan, the Windsor Casting Plant produced its final casting in late May, eliminating 450 jobs. Its final day of paid operation was July 1.
Once these latest job losses finally take effect more than half of Ford's 4,100 local employees will be on layoff or permanently displaced.
Vince said when the closure was first announced, the company wasn't fully aware of the demand for the plant's products but "as time goes on, it gets a little easier to assess the demand and settle on a final date."
Opened in 1981, the engine plant had more than 1,000 employees as recently as two years ago but is now down to about 550, including 500 members of CAW Local 200.
Vince said that 420 local Ford workers have filed their retirement papers so far which almost offsets the amount of job losses caused by the closure "except that we also have 549 others on layoff right now."
Vince also said there's been no word on a new product "but if I had a buck for every rumour, I'd be doing OK. Back in June we did what we thought was necessary to entice new investment and I guess I can say we remain hopeful."
In June, production and skilled trades workers unanimously endorsed a new cost-saving agreement which reduces the number of job classifications but it only takes effect if Ford makes new investments here. Over its numerous production cycles, the plant has produced V6 and V8 engines, cylinder heads, crankshafts and cylinder blocks for a variety of Ford vehicles.
Palm Tran operator may layoff 150 employees
One of two companies that runs Palm Tran's paratransit vans may cease operations and layoff more than 150 employees on Sept. 23.
Fairfield, Calif.-based MV Transportation has been negotiating with the county on a fee hike and filed the notice as a precaution in case an agreement can't be reached, company spokeswoman Nikki Freeney said.
"We want to work with the county, but it's not good business for us to stay there and continue to take losses," Freeney said.
MV Transportation received a seven-year, $84 million contract from the county in December 2004.
Palm Tran is working on a contingency plan to cover MV Transportation's trips in the event the company shuts down, Executive Director Chuck Cohen said.
"I don't know how it will play out," Cohen said. "We're still working with them. We're still talking with them."
Labels: Florida, layoffs, MV Transportation, Palm Tran
US Mass Layoffs in June
Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment; the number of workers involved totaled 127,897, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of mass layoff events increased by 37 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims rose by 9,483. During June, 340 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 39,273 initial claims. Compared with the prior month, mass layoff activity in manufacturing decreased by 25 events, and initial claims decreased by 9,599.
From January through June 2007, the total number of events (seasonally adjusted) at 7,433, and initial claims (seasonally adjusted) at 773,537, were higher than in January-June 2006 (6,685 and 701,254, respectively).
The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June, unchanged from the prior month and essentially unchanged from 4.6 percent a year earlier. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 132,000 over the month and by 2.0 million over the year.
Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The 10 industries reporting the highest numbers of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 48 percent of the total initial claims in June. The industry with the highest number of initial claims was school and employee bus transportation with 21,611, followed by food service contractors with 14,527 and elementary and secondary schools with 12,870. Together, these three industries accounted for 28 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs during the month.
The manufacturing sector accounted for 20 percent of all mass layoff events and 21 percent of all related initial claims filed in June; a year
earlier, manufacturing made up 21 percent of events and 25 percent of initial claims. In June 2007, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (9,438, largely in automobile manufacturing and in travel trailer and camper manufacturing), followed by food manufacturing (5,901) and machinery manufacturing (4,268).
Transportation and warehousing accounted for 11 percent of mass layoff events and 14 percent of initial claims in June, primarily from school and employee bus transportation. Government comprised 14 percent of events and 12 percent of initial claims filed over the month, with the majority of layoffs in elementary and secondary schools. Seven percent of all mass layoff events and 10 percent of related initial claims filed were from accommodation and food services, mainly from food service contractors. Health care and social assistance made up 10 percent of events and 9 percent of initial claims, mostly from child day care services.
On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the number of mass layoff events in June, at 1,599, was up by 110 from a year earlier, and the number of
associated initial claims increased by 8,049 to 172,810. The largest over-the-year increases in initial claims were reported in administrative and support services (+3,772), food services and drinking places (+2,650), and transit and ground passenger transportation (+1,653). The largest over-the-year decreases in mass layoff initial claims were reported in transportation equipment manufacturing (-6,384) and in motion picture and sound recording industries (-2,723).
Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Among the four census regions, the highest number of initial claims in June due to mass layoffs was in the West, with 51,847. Administrative and support services, educational services, and motion picture and sound recording industries together accounted for 38 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The Midwest had the second largest number of initial claims among the regions with 44,703, followed by the South with 39,627 and the Northeast with 36,633.
The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs increased over the year in three of the four regions. The largest increase was in the West (+5,402), followed by the South (+2,887). The Northeast (-743) reported an over-the-year decrease in initial claims. Five of the 9 geographic divisions had over-the-year increases in the numbers of initial claims associated with mass layoffs, with the largest increases in the Pacific (+5,156), the East South Central (+2,249), and the West South Central (+2,138). The division with the largest over-the-year decrease was the South Atlantic (-1,500).
Among the states, California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in June (40,833), followed by Pennsylvania (12,997), New Jersey (12,720), Florida (9,348), and Michigan (9,041). These five states accounted for 51 percent of all mass layoff events and 49 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance.
California had the largest over-the-year increase in the number of initial claims (+5,563); this was due to more mass layoff activity in
administrative and support services. States having the next largest increases in initial claims were Kentucky (+2,042), Florida (+1,767),
Iowa (+1,686), and Ohio (+1,398). The largest over-the-year decreases in claims occurred in Indiana (-2,438) and Delaware (-1,490).
From January through June 2007, the total number of events (seasonally adjusted) at 7,433, and initial claims (seasonally adjusted) at 773,537, were higher than in January-June 2006 (6,685 and 701,254, respectively).
The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June, unchanged from the prior month and essentially unchanged from 4.6 percent a year earlier. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 132,000 over the month and by 2.0 million over the year.
Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The 10 industries reporting the highest numbers of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 48 percent of the total initial claims in June. The industry with the highest number of initial claims was school and employee bus transportation with 21,611, followed by food service contractors with 14,527 and elementary and secondary schools with 12,870. Together, these three industries accounted for 28 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs during the month.
The manufacturing sector accounted for 20 percent of all mass layoff events and 21 percent of all related initial claims filed in June; a year
earlier, manufacturing made up 21 percent of events and 25 percent of initial claims. In June 2007, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (9,438, largely in automobile manufacturing and in travel trailer and camper manufacturing), followed by food manufacturing (5,901) and machinery manufacturing (4,268).
Transportation and warehousing accounted for 11 percent of mass layoff events and 14 percent of initial claims in June, primarily from school and employee bus transportation. Government comprised 14 percent of events and 12 percent of initial claims filed over the month, with the majority of layoffs in elementary and secondary schools. Seven percent of all mass layoff events and 10 percent of related initial claims filed were from accommodation and food services, mainly from food service contractors. Health care and social assistance made up 10 percent of events and 9 percent of initial claims, mostly from child day care services.
On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the number of mass layoff events in June, at 1,599, was up by 110 from a year earlier, and the number of
associated initial claims increased by 8,049 to 172,810. The largest over-the-year increases in initial claims were reported in administrative and support services (+3,772), food services and drinking places (+2,650), and transit and ground passenger transportation (+1,653). The largest over-the-year decreases in mass layoff initial claims were reported in transportation equipment manufacturing (-6,384) and in motion picture and sound recording industries (-2,723).
Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Among the four census regions, the highest number of initial claims in June due to mass layoffs was in the West, with 51,847. Administrative and support services, educational services, and motion picture and sound recording industries together accounted for 38 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The Midwest had the second largest number of initial claims among the regions with 44,703, followed by the South with 39,627 and the Northeast with 36,633.
The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs increased over the year in three of the four regions. The largest increase was in the West (+5,402), followed by the South (+2,887). The Northeast (-743) reported an over-the-year decrease in initial claims. Five of the 9 geographic divisions had over-the-year increases in the numbers of initial claims associated with mass layoffs, with the largest increases in the Pacific (+5,156), the East South Central (+2,249), and the West South Central (+2,138). The division with the largest over-the-year decrease was the South Atlantic (-1,500).
Among the states, California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in June (40,833), followed by Pennsylvania (12,997), New Jersey (12,720), Florida (9,348), and Michigan (9,041). These five states accounted for 51 percent of all mass layoff events and 49 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance.
California had the largest over-the-year increase in the number of initial claims (+5,563); this was due to more mass layoff activity in
administrative and support services. States having the next largest increases in initial claims were Kentucky (+2,042), Florida (+1,767),
Iowa (+1,686), and Ohio (+1,398). The largest over-the-year decreases in claims occurred in Indiana (-2,438) and Delaware (-1,490).
Labels: layoffs
Manufacturing mass layoffs affected 39K workers in June
In June, employers took 1,219 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported July 20. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment; the number of workers involved totaled 127,897, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of mass layoff events increased by 37 from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims rose by 9,483.
During June, 340 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 39,273 initial claims. Compared with the prior month, mass layoff activity in manufacturing decreased by 25 events, and initial claims decreased by 9,599.
From January through June 2007, the total number of events (seasonally adjusted) at 7,433, and initial claims (seasonally adjusted) at 773,537, were higher than in January-June 2006 (6,685 and 701,254, respectively).
The national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in June, unchanged from the prior month and essentially unchanged from 4.6 percent a year earlier. Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 132,000 over the month and by 2.0 million over the year.
Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The 10 industries reporting the highest numbers of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 48 percent of the total initial claims in June. The industry with the highest number of initial claims was school and employee bus transportation with 21,611, followed by food service contractors with 14,527 and elementary and secondary schools with 12,870. Together, these three industries accounted for 28 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs during the month.
The manufacturing sector accounted for 20 percent of all mass layoff events and 21 percent of all related initial claims filed in June; a year earlier, manufacturing made up 21 percent of events and 25 percent of initial claims. In June 2007, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (9,438, largely in automobile manufacturing and in travel trailer and camper manufacturing), followed by food manufacturing (5,901) and machinery manufacturing (4,268).
Transportation and warehousing accounted for 11 percent of mass layoff events and 14 percent of initial claims in June, primarily from school and employee bus transportation. Government comprised 14 percent of events and 12 percent of initial claims filed over the month, with the majority of layoffs in elementary and secondary schools. Seven percent of all mass layoff events and 10 percent of related initial claims filed were from accommodation and food services, mainly from food service contractors. Health care and social assistance made up 10 percent of events and 9 percent of initial claims, mostly from child day care services.
On a not seasonally adjusted basis, the number of mass layoff events in June, at 1,599, was up by 110 from a year earlier, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 8,049 to 172,810. The largest over-the-year increases in initial claims were reported in administrative and support services (+3,772), food services and drinking places (+2,650), and transit and ground passenger transportation (+1,653). The largest over-the-year decreases in mass layoff initial claims were reported in transportation equipment manufacturing (-6,384) and in motion picture and sound recording industries (-2,723).
Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
Among the four census regions, the highest number of initial claims in June due to mass layoffs was in the West, with 51,847. Administrative and support services, educational services, and motion picture and sound recording industries together accounted for 38 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The
The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs increased over the year in three of the four regions. The largest increase was in the West (+5,402), followed by the South (+2,887). The Northeast (-743) reported an over-the-year decrease in initial claims. Five of the nine geographic divisions had over-the-year increases in the numbers of initial claims associated with mass layoffs, with the largest increases in the Pacific (+5,156), the East South Central (+2,249), and the West South Central (+2,138). The division with the largest over-the-year decrease was the
Among the states, California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in June (40,833), followed by Pennsylvania (12,997), New Jersey (12,720), Florida (9,348) and Michigan (9,041). These five states accounted for 51 percent of all mass layoff events and 49 percent of all initial claims for unemployment insurance.
Labels: layoffs, manufacturing
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Real estate, construction woes slow Calif. job growth to a crawl
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 21, 2007
Hiring in California was hit by a bad case of June gloom last month as the effects of the real estate slowdown seeped into the job market, according to data released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department.
Statewide, employers added only 400 jobs in June, after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, compared with a jump of 29,700 in June 2006. Sharp declines in home construction and financial activity – such as mortgage lending – put a crimp in last month's job growth.
San Diego County reported the slowest year-over-year job growth since January 1994, when the county was crawling out of a recession.
In the past year, local employers added 1,600 jobs to their payrolls – one-tenth of the growth rate from June 2005-06. If government jobs are taken out of the equation, the county has lost 1,500 jobs since June 2006.
“Things are looking pretty bad,” said Alan Gin, an economist at the University of San Diego. “It's conceivable in the next couple months that we might see negative job growth – a fall in jobs.”
Unemployment in San Diego jumped from 4.2 percent in May to 4.6 percent in June, just a fraction below the unadjusted national rate of 4.7 percent, but still well below California's unadjusted rate of 5.2 percent. It was San Diego's highest unemployment rate in two years.
Economists pinned the blame for slow job growth on the local housing market. In the past year, home sales declined 24 percent, meaning less work for mortgage and real estate brokers. And applications for residential-construction permits have declined in nine of the past 10 months, meaning less work for builders.
“It really is the real estate market that's causing this,” said Kelly Cunningham, an economist at the San Diego Institute for Policy Research. “Even though job growth in the visitors industry and the professional business sector is still positive, we're losing as many jobs as we are adding.”
For the past year, Cunningham and Gin have been predicting that San Diego would be able to survive the real estate slowdown without falling into a recession. Now they say they are not sure.
“If this trend keeps going on for the next couple months, it would suggest that we might have a recession before the end of the year,” Cunningham said. “Not a big recession, but a slight one.”
Cunningham added that if the number of real estate foreclosures begins to increase substantially – which he doesn't think will happen – a recession could be more severe.
For both the county and California, many of the job losses over the past year were involved in real estate.
Statewide, construction companies shed 5,300 workers last month, contributing to a loss of 12,000 jobs since June 2006. Financial activities – including mortgage and real estate brokerages – lost 5,700 jobs in June, or 7,000 from year to year.
Those job losses were countered by hiring at hotels and restaurants, educational and health services, and professional and business services, resulting in a net increase of 400 jobs.
Economists note that the total may be revised upward, which has happened several times in recent months. And they say it is impossible to judge the strength of the economy by a month's worth of hiring.
“Any one month is not worrisome,” said Steve Levy, who heads the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. “But if we kept losing jobs at this rate, it would be worrisome. For one thing, slower job growth could play havoc with the state budget next year and the year after, with fewer taxes coming in.”
Kei Matsuda, an economist for Union Bank of California, said some areas in the state are doing better than others.
“For annual job growth, Northern California is accelerating noticeably because of the tech comeback,” Matsuda said. “Tech-related consulting and research and development is very strong, which is why Silicon Valley and the San Francisco metropolitan area have been gaining jobs.”
On the other hand, San Diego, Los Angeles and the Central Valley are all slowing sharply, he said. Locally, the job growth rate slowed from 1.4 percent during the first half of 2006 to 0.6 percent during the first half of this year.
“The San Diego numbers don't look very attractive,” Matsuda said.
In San Diego County, building firms added 900 workers over the past month – largely specialty trade contractors engaged in seasonal renovations. Since June 2006, however, construction firms shed 7,400 jobs. Data for the county are not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations.
Financial and real estate companies shed 400 workers last month, contributing to a decline of 3,500 since the previous June. As was the case statewide, the largest growth area locally was in leisure and hospitality, thanks to the creation of summer jobs. The industry added 3,200 jobs last month for a gain of 6,500 from year to year.
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 21, 2007
Hiring in California was hit by a bad case of June gloom last month as the effects of the real estate slowdown seeped into the job market, according to data released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department.
Statewide, employers added only 400 jobs in June, after adjusting for seasonal fluctuations, compared with a jump of 29,700 in June 2006. Sharp declines in home construction and financial activity – such as mortgage lending – put a crimp in last month's job growth.
San Diego County reported the slowest year-over-year job growth since January 1994, when the county was crawling out of a recession.
In the past year, local employers added 1,600 jobs to their payrolls – one-tenth of the growth rate from June 2005-06. If government jobs are taken out of the equation, the county has lost 1,500 jobs since June 2006.
“Things are looking pretty bad,” said Alan Gin, an economist at the University of San Diego. “It's conceivable in the next couple months that we might see negative job growth – a fall in jobs.”
Unemployment in San Diego jumped from 4.2 percent in May to 4.6 percent in June, just a fraction below the unadjusted national rate of 4.7 percent, but still well below California's unadjusted rate of 5.2 percent. It was San Diego's highest unemployment rate in two years.
Economists pinned the blame for slow job growth on the local housing market. In the past year, home sales declined 24 percent, meaning less work for mortgage and real estate brokers. And applications for residential-construction permits have declined in nine of the past 10 months, meaning less work for builders.
“It really is the real estate market that's causing this,” said Kelly Cunningham, an economist at the San Diego Institute for Policy Research. “Even though job growth in the visitors industry and the professional business sector is still positive, we're losing as many jobs as we are adding.”
For the past year, Cunningham and Gin have been predicting that San Diego would be able to survive the real estate slowdown without falling into a recession. Now they say they are not sure.
“If this trend keeps going on for the next couple months, it would suggest that we might have a recession before the end of the year,” Cunningham said. “Not a big recession, but a slight one.”
Cunningham added that if the number of real estate foreclosures begins to increase substantially – which he doesn't think will happen – a recession could be more severe.
For both the county and California, many of the job losses over the past year were involved in real estate.
Statewide, construction companies shed 5,300 workers last month, contributing to a loss of 12,000 jobs since June 2006. Financial activities – including mortgage and real estate brokerages – lost 5,700 jobs in June, or 7,000 from year to year.
Those job losses were countered by hiring at hotels and restaurants, educational and health services, and professional and business services, resulting in a net increase of 400 jobs.
Economists note that the total may be revised upward, which has happened several times in recent months. And they say it is impossible to judge the strength of the economy by a month's worth of hiring.
“Any one month is not worrisome,” said Steve Levy, who heads the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto. “But if we kept losing jobs at this rate, it would be worrisome. For one thing, slower job growth could play havoc with the state budget next year and the year after, with fewer taxes coming in.”
Kei Matsuda, an economist for Union Bank of California, said some areas in the state are doing better than others.
“For annual job growth, Northern California is accelerating noticeably because of the tech comeback,” Matsuda said. “Tech-related consulting and research and development is very strong, which is why Silicon Valley and the San Francisco metropolitan area have been gaining jobs.”
On the other hand, San Diego, Los Angeles and the Central Valley are all slowing sharply, he said. Locally, the job growth rate slowed from 1.4 percent during the first half of 2006 to 0.6 percent during the first half of this year.
“The San Diego numbers don't look very attractive,” Matsuda said.
In San Diego County, building firms added 900 workers over the past month – largely specialty trade contractors engaged in seasonal renovations. Since June 2006, however, construction firms shed 7,400 jobs. Data for the county are not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations.
Financial and real estate companies shed 400 workers last month, contributing to a decline of 3,500 since the previous June. As was the case statewide, the largest growth area locally was in leisure and hospitality, thanks to the creation of summer jobs. The industry added 3,200 jobs last month for a gain of 6,500 from year to year.
Labels: California, employment
N.C. unemployment rate 4.9% in June
North Carolina's unemployment rate in June was 4.9 percent, up from 4.8 in May, according to data released by the state Employment Security Commission on Friday.
The state rate was nearly half a percentage point higher than the national rate, which stayed steady at 4.5 percent in June.
"Historically, the North Carolina labor force experiences an increase this time of year as high school students look for summer work," said Harry Payne Jr., chairman of the ESC.
The number of people employed in North Carolina in June was nearly 4.31 million, up about 52,000 from a year ago.
A county-by-county breakdown of unemployment rates is scheduled to be released July 27.
The state rate was nearly half a percentage point higher than the national rate, which stayed steady at 4.5 percent in June.
"Historically, the North Carolina labor force experiences an increase this time of year as high school students look for summer work," said Harry Payne Jr., chairman of the ESC.
The number of people employed in North Carolina in June was nearly 4.31 million, up about 52,000 from a year ago.
A county-by-county breakdown of unemployment rates is scheduled to be released July 27.
Labels: North Carolina, unemployment
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Looking for Oil Workers
| | KXMC CBS Bismarck North - (KXMC ) Jul. 18, 2007. 09:21 AM EST They were hoping to hire 50 people to work in oil fields of Wyoming and Utah. But an employment company that held an oil job fair in Minot today is more likely to get only about five new workers. Teresa Douthitt of SOS Staffing was disappointed more pot |
Labels: employment, hiring data, oil workers
Diablo Canyon Prepares for Layoffs
| | KXMC CBS Bismarck North - (KXMC ) Jul. 18, 2007. 09:21 AM EST They were hoping to hire 50 people to work in oil fields of Wyoming and Utah. But an employment company that held an oil job fair in Minot today is more likely to get only about five new workers. Teresa Douthitt of SOS Staffing was disappointed more pot |
Labels: Diablo Canyon, layoffs
CPI Numbers Released, Bernahnke's Testimony
| | KXMC CBS Bismarck North - (KXMC ) Jul. 18, 2007. 09:21 AM EST They were hoping to hire 50 people to work in oil fields of Wyoming and Utah. But an employment company that held an oil job fair in Minot today is more likely to get only about five new workers. Teresa Douthitt of SOS Staffing was disappointed more pot |
Labels: employment
Special Report: Wall Street Looks to a Younger Crowd
| | KXMC CBS Bismarck North - (KXMC ) Jul. 18, 2007. 09:21 AM EST They were hoping to hire 50 people to work in oil fields of Wyoming and Utah. But an employment company that held an oil job fair in Minot today is more likely to get only about five new workers. Teresa Douthitt of SOS Staffing was disappointed more pot |
Labels: employment, Wall Street
Kellogg To Layoff Or Relocate 300 Employees In Reorganization; To Book $75-$85 Mln In Costs - Update
RTTNews) - Thursday, packaged food maker Kellogg Co. (K charts news PowerRating) said in a SEC filing that it may eliminate or relocate 300 employee positions, as part of its plan to reorganize its direct store-door delivery operations in the southeastern U.S. The company said it began notifying the affected employees on July 19, 2007. '
The reorganization plan is to integrate the company's southeastern sales and distribution regions with the rest of its U.S. direct store-door operations. Under the plan, Kellogg said it extended offers to exit 517 distribution route franchise agreements with independent contractors and the offers were substantially accepted.
In connection with route franchise settlements and severance payments, the company plans to book $75-$85 million in total project costs. About $38 million of these charges will be recorded in the second quarter, the company said in its filing. The company currently expects to complete the reorganization by this year-end.
K closed Thursday's regular trade at $52.19.
The reorganization plan is to integrate the company's southeastern sales and distribution regions with the rest of its U.S. direct store-door operations. Under the plan, Kellogg said it extended offers to exit 517 distribution route franchise agreements with independent contractors and the offers were substantially accepted.
In connection with route franchise settlements and severance payments, the company plans to book $75-$85 million in total project costs. About $38 million of these charges will be recorded in the second quarter, the company said in its filing. The company currently expects to complete the reorganization by this year-end.
K closed Thursday's regular trade at $52.19.
Closures of Crossings Come at a Cost
Friday, 20 July 2007, 12:44 pm
Press Release: United Nations Gaza: UN Agencies Say Closures of Crossings Come at a Humanitarian Cost
New York, Jul 19 2007 7:00PM
The United Nations today said that the closures of crossing points into Gaza are coming at a terrible cost to people living there. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that the layoff of 65,000 workers by companies in Gaza, following the lack of supplies there, could affect as many as 450,000 dependents. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has identified $30 million worth of emergency projects for Gaza, said that it will provide employment projects worth some 640,000 days of work for unemployed refugees there.
UNRWA further endorsed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for Karni crossing to be open to Palestinian commercial imports and exports.
Press Release: United Nations Gaza: UN Agencies Say Closures of Crossings Come at a Humanitarian Cost
New York, Jul 19 2007 7:00PM
The United Nations today said that the closures of crossing points into Gaza are coming at a terrible cost to people living there. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that the layoff of 65,000 workers by companies in Gaza, following the lack of supplies there, could affect as many as 450,000 dependents. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has identified $30 million worth of emergency projects for Gaza, said that it will provide employment projects worth some 640,000 days of work for unemployed refugees there.
UNRWA further endorsed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for Karni crossing to be open to Palestinian commercial imports and exports.
Unemployment in Ohio
July 20th, 2007 · 1 Comment
The latest numbers, released this morning:
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in June, up from 5.7 percent in May, according to data released this morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 9,600 over the month, from 5,429,900 in May to 5,439,500 in June.
“While there was an increase in employment, the rise in the unemployment rate in June indicates more Ohioans were looking for work than jobs were available,” ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelley said.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in June was 363,000, up from 342,000 in May. The number of unemployed has increased by 40,000 in the past 12 months from 323,000. The June unemployment rate for Ohio was up from 5.4 percent in June 2006.
The U.S. unemployment rate for June was 4.5 percent, unchanged from the May rate.
Total Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)
Ohio’s nonfarm payroll employment, at 5,439,500 in June, was up 9,600 from May, according to the latest business establishment survey conducted by ODJFS.
Service-providing industries rose 8,500 to 4,416,000. Professional and business services advanced 3,100, while leisure and hospitality increased 3,000. Also up were other services (+2,200), government (+1,900), and educational and health services (+1,200). Employment dropped in trade, transportation and utilities (-1,900), financial activities (-800), and information (-200). Goods-producing industries rose 1,100 to 1,023,500. Gains in nondurable goods boosted manufacturing 1,500, while natural resources and mining added 100 jobs. Construction was down 500 over the month.
Over the past 12 months, nonagricultural wage and salary employment was down 7,900. Goods-producing industries had a loss of 18,300 jobs. A decline of 15,000 in durable goods helped lower manufacturing 18,000. Natural resources and mining slipped 300, while construction was little changed. Service-providing industries rose 10,400 from June 2006. Educational and health services advanced 12,100. Smaller increases occurred in professional and business services (+4,600), leisure and hospitality (+1,300), and other services (+600). Financial activities dropped 4,000 over the year. Also down were government (-3,000), information ( 900), and trade, transportation and utilities ( 300).
The latest numbers, released this morning:
Ohio’s unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in June, up from 5.7 percent in May, according to data released this morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 9,600 over the month, from 5,429,900 in May to 5,439,500 in June.
“While there was an increase in employment, the rise in the unemployment rate in June indicates more Ohioans were looking for work than jobs were available,” ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelley said.
The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in June was 363,000, up from 342,000 in May. The number of unemployed has increased by 40,000 in the past 12 months from 323,000. The June unemployment rate for Ohio was up from 5.4 percent in June 2006.
The U.S. unemployment rate for June was 4.5 percent, unchanged from the May rate.
Total Nonagricultural Wage and Salary Employment (Seasonally Adjusted)
Ohio’s nonfarm payroll employment, at 5,439,500 in June, was up 9,600 from May, according to the latest business establishment survey conducted by ODJFS.
Service-providing industries rose 8,500 to 4,416,000. Professional and business services advanced 3,100, while leisure and hospitality increased 3,000. Also up were other services (+2,200), government (+1,900), and educational and health services (+1,200). Employment dropped in trade, transportation and utilities (-1,900), financial activities (-800), and information (-200). Goods-producing industries rose 1,100 to 1,023,500. Gains in nondurable goods boosted manufacturing 1,500, while natural resources and mining added 100 jobs. Construction was down 500 over the month.
Over the past 12 months, nonagricultural wage and salary employment was down 7,900. Goods-producing industries had a loss of 18,300 jobs. A decline of 15,000 in durable goods helped lower manufacturing 18,000. Natural resources and mining slipped 300, while construction was little changed. Service-providing industries rose 10,400 from June 2006. Educational and health services advanced 12,100. Smaller increases occurred in professional and business services (+4,600), leisure and hospitality (+1,300), and other services (+600). Financial activities dropped 4,000 over the year. Also down were government (-3,000), information ( 900), and trade, transportation and utilities ( 300).
Labels: employment, Ohio
Low Salaries For Low Skills: Wages And Skill Levels For H-1B Computer Workers, 2005
by John Miano for the Center for Immigration Studies
SummaryTechnology sector employers, who represent the largest share of H-1B visa users, tell the public that the H-1B program is vital to their ability to find the highly skilled workers they need. Yet Department of Labor data tell a different story. Previous studies have found that the H-1B program is primarily used to import low-wage workers.1
This report examines the most recently available wage data on the H-1B program and finds that the trend of low prevailing wage claims and low wages continues. In addition, while industry spokesmen say these workers bring needed skills to our economy, on the H-1B Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) filed with the Department of Labor, employers classify most of their H-1B workers as being relatively low-skilled for the jobs they are filling. This report compares prevailing wage claims and wages employers reported for H-1B workers in computer programming occupations in FY 2005 to wages for U.S. workers in the same occupation.
Although the H-1B program stipulates that employers must pay H-1B workers at least the prevailing wage for their occupation and location, the results of this report clearly demonstrate that the regulation does not produce that result. The findings in this report clearly demonstrate that the legal definition of the prevailing wage requirement does not ensure H-1B workers are paid the actual market prevailing wage.
Employer prevailing wage claims and reported wages for H-1B workers are significantly less than those for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location. This suggests that, regardless of the program’s original intent, the H-1B program now operates mainly to supply U.S. employers with cheap workers, rather than with essential skilled workers.
Key Findings
Very few H-1B workers are "highly-skilled." Employers who used the Department of Labor’s skill-based prevailing wage system classified most workers (56 percent) as being at the lowest skill level (Level I) as did most State Employment Security Agency (SESA) wage determinations (57 percent). This suggests that most H-1B computer workers are low-skilled workers who make no special contribution to the American economy, or that employers are deliberately understating workers’ skills in order to justify paying them lower salaries.
According to the applications filed in 2005, it appears that employers may be significantly understating what U.S. computer workers are earning in order to justify paying low wages to H-1B guestworkers in those occupations. In FY 2005, H-1B employer prevailing wage claims averaged $16,000 below the median wage for U.S. computer workers in the same location and occupation.
90 percent of H-1B employer prevailing wage claims for programming occupations were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation and location, with 62 percent of the wage claims in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
While higher than the prevailing wage claims, the actual wages reported for H-1B workers were significantly less than those of their American counterparts. Wages for H-1B workers averaged $12,000 below the median wage for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location.
The reported wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the median U.S. wage; 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
Many employers make prevailing wage claims using wage sources that are not valid under the law. The Department of Labor routinely approves prevailing wage claims based on these invalid sources.
PurposeThe purpose of this report is to examine the effectiveness of the prevailing wage requirements in the H-1B program and to determine whether there is a difference between wages for H-1B workers in computer programming fields and wages for U.S. workers in the same fields. This report uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) as the measurement of U.S. wages and the H-1B Labor Condition Application disclosure data to measure H-1B wages.
This report updates a December 2005 Backgrounder, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers."2 The previous report examined Labor Condition Applications filed in FY 2004. The procedures used in this report are nearly identical to those used in its predecessor.
There were three reasons for producing a new report based on the same type of data. First, this new report confirms that the results from 2004 were not a fluke. Repeating the same measurement on the subsequent year’s data produced nearly identical results. Another reason for a new report is that new data became available. Last year, for the first time, the Department of Labor made available the skill-based wage data. This makes it possible to examine how employers classify the skills of the H-1B workers they are seeking. Finally, a second look allowed investigation in more detail on exactly how employers produce the extremely low prevailing wage claims.
The H-1B Visa ProgramThis H-1B visa was created in 1990 to provide a separate guestworker program for certain specialty occupations. A specialty occupation is one that requires a college degree or equivalent professional experience. There is no specific skill requirement for an H-1B visa.
The H-1B program is, in theory, a non-immigrant program, although it is widely used as a stepping stone to permanent residency. H-1B visas are valid for up to three years and can be renewed once for an additional three years. H-1B visas also are tied to employment, so an H-1B visa becomes invalid if a worker loses his or her job. While employed, it is relatively easy for a worker on an H-1B visa to transfer the visa to another employer. However, H-1B workers seeking permanent residency are effectively bound to their employer because changing jobs requires restarting the application process, making it unlikely that it will be completed before the visa expires. Transfers do not extend the time limit on the original visa.
The first step in the H-1B visa process is the filing of a Labor Condition Application (LCA) by the employer with the Department of Labor. The employer attests that workers will be paid the prevailing wage and that there is no strike or lockout in progress. The LCA shows the number of workers covered, the prevailing wage, and the wage to be paid. The statutes specifically limit the Labor Department review process to checking for "completeness and obvious inaccuracies," making this step effectively a rubber stamp process. After the LCA is approved (less than 1 percent are rejected), the employer can file an H-1B petition (I-129) with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
In FY 2005, over 300,000 LCAs were filed, covering about 700,000 workers. USCIS approved 117,000 visas in FY 2005. While the law does not constrain the petition review process in the same manner as the LCA approval process, the approval rate for visa petitions (99.5 percent)3 is nearly as high as the approval rate for LCAs (99.7 percent). If the petition is approved, the employee can then apply for the H-1B visa, either in the country of residence, if living overseas, or at a USCIS office, if already living in the United States. The State Department has a slightly higher rate of H-1B refusals; its consulates refused between 5 and 10 percent of all H-1B applications in 2005.4
MethodologyThis report compares prevailing wage claims and wages for H-1B workers to U.S. wages in computer programming-related occupations. The source for H-1B wages was the FY 2005 LCA disclosure data available at www.flcdatacenter.com . This report only used approved LCAs in its calculations. However, the number of rejected LCAs is so few (<1 percent) that including them would have made no measurable difference in the results.
The disclosure data are divided into two databases, one representing electronic filings, the other representing fax filings, with the electronic filing database containing the bulk of the records. These two databases have different structures so integrating them is not as simple a process as it might be. For completeness, this report includes the data from both sources. However, other researchers could legitimately ignore the fax data as they increase the average H-1B wage by only $2.
The reason for using the disclosure data as a measure of H-1B wages is that they are the best data available on wages for H-1B workers. This is the data Congress mandates be made available to monitor the H-1B program. In the future the author hopes to be able to repeat this analysis using the data from visa applications. So far, USCIS has responded to requests for this data by stating it cannot find the information. The disclosure data provide the best possible source for employer prevailing wage claims. Unlike the measurements of H-1B wages, all the prevailing wage comparisons to U.S. wages are direct comparisons. As such, they leave no doubt that employer prevailing wage claims do not reflect the actual prevailing wage.
The source for U.S. wages was the May 2004 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/2004/may/oes_nat.htm. The May 2004 data were the last released before the start of FY 2005. Therefore, they were the last published before any of the LCAs examined were submitted.
This study also uses the 2005 FLC wage data (available at www.flcdatacenter.com) to match specific employer prevailing wage claims to their sources. These data were used to identify the job title used for prevailing wage claims and to analyze the nature of specific claims. They were not used for H-1B/U.S wage comparisons.
The biggest challenge in analyzing the LCA data is to match employer job titles to the Standard Occupation Codes (SOC) used to classify jobs in the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rather than using SOCs, LCAs use broad numeric classifications in which managers of programmers get lumped in with programmers. Analysis of these data is made even more difficult because the job code entered by employers is frequently wrong. In assigning SOC codes to LCAs, this study tries to be conservative and take the path that would minimize the difference between H-1B and U.S. wages.
The first step in this process was to select all records with computer-related job codes ("030" to "039") on the LCA.
The next step was to match LCAs using OES as the prevailing wage source to the actual OES data to get an SOC code. The job title in each matching record was verified using pattern matching (e.g. using "*soft*eng*" for "software engineer"). For those records where pattern matching failed, they were individually checked to ensure that the SOC code actually reflected the job title.
Pattern matching was used both to eliminate LCAs that were not programming related and to assign job codes. For example a pattern like "*vice president*" would be used to eliminate records for certain managerial employees and "*database admin*" to assign the SOC for "database administrator" to other LCAs.
Some job titles created special difficulties. There are separate SOC codes for "Software Engineers, Applications" and "Software Engineers, Systems," with wages for the latter tending to be higher. In this study, all software engineers were classified as "Applications" unless "Systems" was specified in the job title or the prevailing wage claim had been matched to an OES record specifying systems software engineer.
The most common job title was "Programmer/Analyst" (44 percent of programming workers). That could be either a "programmer" or a "systems analyst." This study chose to treat "Programmer/Analysts" as programmers except for the few cases (4 percent of "Programmers/Analysts") where the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title. Classifying "Programmer/Analysts" as "Programmers" rather than "Systems Analysts" reduces the average H-1B to U.S. wage difference by about $4,000.
LCAs with the job title "Consultant" were treated as systems analysts unless the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title. While classifying "Consultants" as programmers would have given a smaller H-1B/U.S. wage difference, the SOC definition of a programmer is not applicable to consultants.
Many LCA job titles were variations of "Developer." This could mean a software engineer, systems analyst, or programmer. In order to minimize the H-1B/U.S. Wage difference, "Developers" were classified as "Computer programmers" unless the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title.
A number of LCAs could not be matched to any job code because of unusual job titles that are not common in the industry. Together, these LCAs had a slightly higher average wage than the average wage of those that could be classified. These LCAs were arbitrarily assigned the SOC code for "Computer programmers" because this choice gave the lowest H-1B-to-U.S. wage difference.
LCAs where the annual wage was less than $10,000 or greater than $300,000 were treated as errors and were excluded. The 130 records (out of 300,000 filed) excluded had an average wage of $11.5 million with the highest value $454 million. In addition, LCAs for part-time work were excluded.
Universities
The statutes governing the H-1B program allow universities to pay the prevailing wage in academia rather than in the technology industry at large (See below). Academic H-1B wages averaged about $6,000 a year less than overall H-1B wages. In order to give a better comparison of what employers should be paying under the law to what they actually are paying, LCAs filed by universities are not included in the results.
The Special Case of InfosysOne company, Infosys, submitted 1,145 LCAs covering over 110,000 workers (up from 13,000 for FY 2004). This company’s low wages combined with its unusually large number of workers significantly lowers the average H-1B wage. Rather than come up with an arbitrary scaling factor, LCAs from Infosys were excluded from the combined results. This choice decreases the H-1B/U.S wage difference by $2,000. It should be noted that Infosys is a large user of H-1B visas and claims to have received 4 percent of the 85,000 visas available under the annual quota.5
Employer Prevailing Wage ClaimsThe requirements for prevailing wage claims are defined by statute and regulation. The statute (8 U.S.C. § 1182(n) (1)(A)(i)) specifies that H-1B workers must be paid the higher of either 1) wages page by the employer to similar employees, or 2) the prevailing wage.
This section also specifies that when the Department of Labor provides a prevailing wage source, it must include at least four pay levels, "commensurate with experience, education, and the level of supervision."
The regulations (20 C.F.R. § 655.731(a)(2)) specify how the employer determines the prevailing wage. As an illustration of how loosely defined the process is, the first section says "...the employer is not required to use any specific methodology to determine the prevailing wage…." One specific the regulations do give is that the prevailing wage is to be based on either the mean or median depending on the circumstances.
Despite the complexity of the requirements, the statute provides no mechanism for DOL to verify employer claims; the LCA process is essentially an honor system. DOL adjudicators may only check that the form is filled out correctly — they may not investigate whether the LCA data contain bogus prevailing wage claims. There is insufficient information within the LCAs to cross-reference most LCA claims to the source of a prevailing wage claim, so there is insufficient information to determine the possible extent of a bogus prevailing wage problem. The fact that employer claims are not verified does not necessarily mean that the claims are wrong or bogus. The more important question is: How do employer prevailing wage claims compare to actual U.S. wages? What is the result of our reliance on an attestation system to protect U.S. workers?
Table 1 shows how employer prevailing wage claims compare to actual U.S. wages. Employer prevailing wage claims on LCAs for computer programming workers averaged $16,000 below the median U.S. wage based on occupation and location. The median difference between employer prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage was $18,000. For employer prevailing wage claims, 90 percent were below the U.S. median wage and 62 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S wages. Figure 1 compares the distribution of U.S. wages to H-1B prevailing wage claims.
H-1B Wages
Prevailing wage claims are one thing — actual wages are another. Reported wages for H-1B workers tend to be higher than employer prevailing wage claims. However, due to the fact that prevailing wage claims are extremely low, H-1B wages remain significantly lower than overall U.S. wages. Table 2 shows how wages listed for H-1B workers on LCAs compare to those for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location. H-1B wages averaged $12,000 below the median U.S. wage based on occupation and location. The median difference between employer prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage was $15,000. Wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the U.S. median wage and 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S wages. The distribution of H-1B wages on LCAs is shown in Figure 2.
H-1B Worker Skills
As described previously, at the end of 2004 Congress amended the H-1B statutes to require the Department of Labor to make available at least four prevailing wage levels based on skills. The Department of Labor defines the skill levels as:
Level I (entry) wage rates are assigned to job offers for beginning level employees who have only a basic understanding of the occupation. These employees perform routine tasks that require limited, if any, exercise of judgment. The tasks provide experience and familiarization with the employer’s methods, practices, and programs. . . . Statements that the job offer is for a research fellow, a worker in training, or an internship are indicators that a Level I wage should be considered.
Level II (qualified) wage rates are assigned to job offers for qualified employees who have attained, either through education or experience, a good understanding of the occupation....
Level III (experienced) wage rates are assigned to job offers for experienced employees who have a sound understanding of the occupation and have attained, either through education or experience, special skills or knowledge. . . . Words such as ‘lead’ (lead analyst), ‘senior’ (senior programmer), ‘head’ (head nurse), ‘chief’ (crew chief), or ‘journeyman’ (journeyman plumber) would be indicators that a Level III wage should be considered.
Level IV (fully competent) wage rates are assigned to job offers for competent employees who have sufficient experience in the occupation to plan and conduct work requiring judgment and the independent evaluation, selection, modification, and application of standard procedures and techniques....
These skill levels only apply when the Department of Labor is used as the prevailing wage source.
In FY 2005, along with defining prevailing wages with four skill levels, the Department of Labor made its skill-based data available in table form for the first time. This allows one to match prevailing wage claims using this data to the specific source record used to make the claim. From a matching record, one can identify the skill level the employer claimed. About two thirds of the computer programming LCAs using this wage source could be matched back to the source record.
An examination of the skill levels reported on the LCAs reveals that employers claim that the majority of their H-1B workers are entry level. In stark contrast to claims that the H-1B program is used for "highly-skilled" workers, employers claim the majority are less-skilled workers. Figure 3 shows the distribution of employer skill claims on LCAs.
Prevailing Wage Sources
This report and its predecessor both found employer prevailing wage claims on LCAs were much lower than actual U.S. wages. This section examines how employers calculate such low prevailing wage claims. Appendix B provides an overall picture of prevailing wage claims, and shows how wage claims are calculated using the most commonly used prevailing wage sources compare to actual U.S. wages.
If one weights the difference between U.S. wages and the claimed prevailing wage for each wage source by the number of workers requested, three wage sources account for about $14,000 of the $15,000 median difference between prevailing wages and the median U.S. wage: Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), State Employment Security Agencies (SESA), and Watson-Wyatt. Together, these wage sources are represented on 87 percent of the LCAs, covering 93 percent of the workers requested.
Occupational Employment Statistics
OES is the most commonly used source for prevailing wage claims. It is used on 70 percent of the LCAs representing 50 percent of the workers. LCAs using OES account for about $8,000 of the total wage difference.
Since OES is the wage source this report uses to measure actual U.S. wages, it might appear contradictory that LCAs using OES as the prevailing wage source contribute the most to the difference between U.S. wages and employer prevailing wage claims. This apparent discrepancy is easy to explain.
When the H-1B program was created, it required employers to pay workers the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation and location, or the wage paid to similar employees. By requiring H-1B workers to be paid the overall prevailing wage, in theory it would prevent employers from using the H-1B program to import young, lower-paid workers to displace older U.S. workers.
As discussed, in 2004 Congress added a new prevailing-wage option for employers. It mandated that the Department of Labor provide employers with four skill-based prevailing wages. To comply with this change, the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center took the OES data produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and used them to create four skill-based prevailing wages. This created a mechanism for employers to justify low wages. Regardless of the actual skills of an H-1B worker, employers need only assert that a worker is in the Level I category for entry level, trainee, or intern employees, and pay according to that prevailing wage.
The findings described above show that, according to employers’ LCA claims, the majority of H-1B computer programming workers are indeed at the lowest skill level (Level I). The difference between the Level I wage and the OES median wage averages about $14,000. While the use of Level I wages as the prevailing wage is by far the most significant reason for low prevailing wage claims using the OES data, the LCA data also contain a number of completely bogus prevailing wage claims that purport to use OES as the wage source. Because most LCAs do not contain the information necessary to match a prevailing wage claim back to its source, it is impractical to determine the extent of these bogus claims.
Table 3 shows some examples of OES-based prevailing wage claims that are lower than the Level I wage for the occupation and location. A small number of these low wage claims are the result of employers improperly using the prevailing wage for higher education, as in the last claim. The fact that these erroneous applications were processed at all illustrates that LCAs are not checked for accuracy, much less fraud. This should be a routine aspect of any government benefit issuing process, and is often automated. Clearly, maintaining the integrity of H-1B processing is a low priority for the Department of Labor.
SESA
One alternative H-1B employers have for determining the prevailing wage is to apply to a State Employment Security Agency (SESA)/State Workforce Agency (SWA) for a prevailing wage determination. The procedure for getting a SESA determination varies from state to state. Usually, the employer submits a form describing the job and SESA determines the Standard Occupational Code and the skill level to find the corresponding skill-based OES wage. The disadvantage of getting a SESA wage determination is that the employer has to wait for the state agency to process the application. The advantage is that a SESA prevailing wage determination is incontestable.
Of LCAs, 9 percent used SESA as the prevailing wage source, representing about 13 percent of the workers requested. The LCAs using SESA account for about $3,000 of the average difference between prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage.
Like employer-made, skill level-based OES prevailing wage claims, SESA determinations overwhelmingly tend to be based on low skill levels. Figure 5 shows how SESA determinations classify skill levels.
Watson-WyattWatson-Wyatt was the most commonly used private source for prevailing wage claims. Wage claims using Watson-Wyatt account for about $3,000 of the median difference between the average claimed prevailing wage and the OES median wage. Citing confidentiality, Watson-Wyatt would not provide any information about the nature of their wage survey.
Verifying Wage ClaimsSalary.com was the wage source giving the highest prevailing wage claims (averaging about $2,000 below the U.S. median). The 755 LCAs using Salary.com as the prevailing wage illustrate some of the problems in verifying prevailing wage claims. About half of these LCAs list the job title as some variant of "Programmer/Analyst." Due to the fact that this is not a job title listed on Salary.com, one can only guess what job title employers used to determine the prevailing wage.
Salary.com’s prevailing wages are based on three levels for each job title (e.g., Programmer I, Programmer II, and Programmer III). Because most LCAs using Salary.com as the prevailing wage source do not include the level, it is impractical to match large numbers of these wage claims to their sources.
Even LCAs that match the Salary.com job title and level exactly are difficult to match to their source, because Salary.com does not maintain historical data. To illustrate, one LCA is for a "Programmer I" in Edison, N.J. The claimed prevailing wage is $56,500. Unfortunately, that LCA claims to use 2005 data. For August 2006, Salary.com says the median is $58,784. The discrepancy here is probably due to wage variations over time.
Another LCA is for a "Software Engineer I" in Greensboro, N.C., and claims the prevailing wage is $44,497. The August 2006 data from Salary.com give $51,372 as the median wage and $45,129 as the 25th percentile wage. In this case it looks like the employer has improperly given an artificially low prevailing wage by claiming the 25th percentile as the prevailing wage.
On nearly every LCA using Salary.com as the wage source and where the job title could be matched exactly, the claimed wage appeared to come from the 25th percentile rather than the median. Prevailing wage claims based on the 25th percentile are invalid under the regulations. Table 4 shows some typical examples.
Sources of Extremely Low Prevailing Wage ClaimsDuring the LCA approval process, the Department of Labor does not evaluate the validity of the prevailing wage source. Many LCAs use wage sources that are invalid under the law. For example, the law requires the prevailing wage source to be a local measurement of wages. However, many LCAs use national surveys as the wage source. Applications citing such prevailing wage sources tend to be among the lowest prevailing wage claims.
NACEThe wage source used for the lowest prevailing wage claims is National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACA). Their wage survey covers offers made to new university graduates nationwide. As such, it does not meet the requirements of a valid prevailing wage source for H-1B applications.
MITThe second-lowest prevailing wage source is the MIT Wage Survey, which reports offers made to MIT graduates nationwide. It, too, is a national survey and does not meet the requirements of a valid prevailing wage source.
Employer SurveyThe third-lowest prevailing wage source on LCAs is wage surveys conducted by employers themselves. Not surprisingly, when employers determine the prevailing wage on their own, the resulting prevailing wage claims tend to be among the lowest submitted. Of employers using their own surveys, 38 percent had all of their prevailing wage claims below the 10th percentile of U.S. wages, raising reasonable doubts as to their legitimacy.Extremely low wages are not the only sign that employer surveys are subject to abuse. The median number of workers requested by employers using employer wage surveys was one, with 90 percent requesting three or fewer. It is difficult to explain how so many employers could conduct legitimate salary surveys for one, two, or three employees.
ComputerWorld
ComputerWorld magazine’s wage survey was listed as the source of the fourth-lowest prevailing wage claims. However, ComputerWorld could not verify any of the prevailing wage claims on the LCAs in the database that listed them as the source. They also observed that the wages reported in their survey were "consistently higher" than wage claims made on LCAs. This suggests that DOL should make some effort to verify employer claims, as some may be deliberately providing bogus information on LCAs.
Observations
The preparation of this report involved many weeks of examining LCA data. While outside the scope of this report, a number of questionable patterns were found. Some of those patterns involving computer occupations are listed here in the hope that other researchers might investigate them.
Many employer addresses listed on LCAs are not bona fide business addresses. These include residences and mail drops.
The number of LCAs filed for certain states suggests that the number of H-1B workers exceeds the number of jobs. For example, the number of LCAs filed for New Jersey suggests that the number of H-1B programmers that are supposed to be working in the state greatly exceeds the number of programming jobs created in the state.
Some groups of LCAs contain identical data except for the employer contact information. One such group had five employers, three of which listed a residence as the business address.
Wages for computer programming managers were also significantly below the median for U.S. workers in those occupations.
Conclusion
These findings indicate that if there is any correlation between wages and skills, it is clear that the H-1B program is rarely being used to import "highly skilled" computer programming workers. The newly available data on skills suggest one of two things is happening, neither of which is consistent with the claims of employers pushing for the expansion of the program. Either the H-1B program is used primarily to import relatively less-skilled, entry-level, or trainee workers (and thus is of dubious value to the American economy), or employers are lying about these workers’ skills in order to suppress their wages.
While the wage data suggest that a few employers use the H-1B program to import a small number of highly skilled workers, these are exceptional cases. Overwhelmingly, the H-1B program is used to import workers at the very bottom of the computer programming wage scale.
Many in the information technology industry have called for an increase in the number of H-1B visas available. However, given the very few H-1B workers earning salaries that highly skilled workers in their profession would make and the fact that employers classify most H-1B workers at low skill levels, this report concludes that the existing number of visas is more than ample for the nation’s needs. Contrary to industry claims, the perennial exhaustion of the H-1B visas due to the cap more likely reflects widespread preference for lower-paid workers and lax enforcement of program rules, not an insufficient supply of visas to meet a deficit of highly-skilled U.S. workers.
Policy RecommendationsThe following specific reforms are needed to correct the flawed prevailing wage provisions of the H-1B program:
Limit the number of H-1B visas that an employer can obtain each year based on the size of its U.S. workforce.
Require employers to have a bona fide business office. Applications from residences and drop boxes should not be not be approved.
Compel employers to use a standard wage source produced by the federal government when making prevailing wage claims for LCAs. This report has shown that employer prevailing wage claims are much lower than the actual prevailing wages, and that some employers make mistakes or deliberately provide bogus prevailing wage claims.
Oblige employers to pay H-1B workers at the 75th percentile of the pay scale, rather than at the prevailing wage. This would provide a strong incentive for employers to use the H-1B program for highly-skilled and needed workers.
Require employers to enter a Standard Occupation Code (SOC) for each employee on the application. Most employers are already looking this information up in order to get OES prevailing wages, so it would require little effort to put this information on the LCA.
In order to better monitor the H-1B program, USCIS should make wage and employer information available for those H-1B visas actually issued.
Remove the restrictions on the LCA approval process to allow the DoL to verify the content of LCAs.
Remove all restrictions on enforcement. Specifically, eliminate the requirement that the Secreatary of Labor approve investigations and allow random audits of employers.
Appendices
The appendices to this report contain more detailed breakdowns of the LCA disclosure data. The following appendices are available at www.cis.org/articles/2007/back407data.pdf :
Appendix A — H-1B Computer Programming Prevailing Wage Claims Compared to National Wages by Occupation FY 2005
Appendix B — H-1B Computer Programming Prevailing Wage Claims Compared to National Wages by Wage Source FY 2005
Appendix C — H-1B Computer Programming Wages Compared to National Wages by Occupation FY 2005
Appendix D — H-1B Computer Programming Wages Compared to U.S. Wages by Employer FY 2005
Appendix E — Geographic Distribution of H-1B Computer Programming Workers FY 2005
Appendix F — Top Employers of H-1B Computer Programming Workers FY 2005
End Notes
1 See for example Norman Matloff, "On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Non-Immigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related occupations," University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Fall 2003.
2 John Miano, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers," Center for Immigration Studies, December 2005, http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1305.html
3 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B), FY 2005, November 2006.
4 U.S. State Department, Office of Visa Services, Non-Immigrant Visa Workload, 2005, at http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/fy%202005%20niv%20workload%20by%20category.pdf .
5 Raghu, K., "Infosys net soars 49.2 per cent, guidance thrills Street," Daily News and Analysis (India), July 12, 2006.
About The Author
John Miano is an author and expert on the software industry. He may be contacted at miano@colosseumbuilders.com
SummaryTechnology sector employers, who represent the largest share of H-1B visa users, tell the public that the H-1B program is vital to their ability to find the highly skilled workers they need. Yet Department of Labor data tell a different story. Previous studies have found that the H-1B program is primarily used to import low-wage workers.1
This report examines the most recently available wage data on the H-1B program and finds that the trend of low prevailing wage claims and low wages continues. In addition, while industry spokesmen say these workers bring needed skills to our economy, on the H-1B Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) filed with the Department of Labor, employers classify most of their H-1B workers as being relatively low-skilled for the jobs they are filling. This report compares prevailing wage claims and wages employers reported for H-1B workers in computer programming occupations in FY 2005 to wages for U.S. workers in the same occupation.
Although the H-1B program stipulates that employers must pay H-1B workers at least the prevailing wage for their occupation and location, the results of this report clearly demonstrate that the regulation does not produce that result. The findings in this report clearly demonstrate that the legal definition of the prevailing wage requirement does not ensure H-1B workers are paid the actual market prevailing wage.
Employer prevailing wage claims and reported wages for H-1B workers are significantly less than those for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location. This suggests that, regardless of the program’s original intent, the H-1B program now operates mainly to supply U.S. employers with cheap workers, rather than with essential skilled workers.
Key Findings
Very few H-1B workers are "highly-skilled." Employers who used the Department of Labor’s skill-based prevailing wage system classified most workers (56 percent) as being at the lowest skill level (Level I) as did most State Employment Security Agency (SESA) wage determinations (57 percent). This suggests that most H-1B computer workers are low-skilled workers who make no special contribution to the American economy, or that employers are deliberately understating workers’ skills in order to justify paying them lower salaries.
According to the applications filed in 2005, it appears that employers may be significantly understating what U.S. computer workers are earning in order to justify paying low wages to H-1B guestworkers in those occupations. In FY 2005, H-1B employer prevailing wage claims averaged $16,000 below the median wage for U.S. computer workers in the same location and occupation.
90 percent of H-1B employer prevailing wage claims for programming occupations were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation and location, with 62 percent of the wage claims in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
While higher than the prevailing wage claims, the actual wages reported for H-1B workers were significantly less than those of their American counterparts. Wages for H-1B workers averaged $12,000 below the median wage for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location.
The reported wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the median U.S. wage; 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
Many employers make prevailing wage claims using wage sources that are not valid under the law. The Department of Labor routinely approves prevailing wage claims based on these invalid sources.
PurposeThe purpose of this report is to examine the effectiveness of the prevailing wage requirements in the H-1B program and to determine whether there is a difference between wages for H-1B workers in computer programming fields and wages for U.S. workers in the same fields. This report uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) as the measurement of U.S. wages and the H-1B Labor Condition Application disclosure data to measure H-1B wages.
This report updates a December 2005 Backgrounder, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers."2 The previous report examined Labor Condition Applications filed in FY 2004. The procedures used in this report are nearly identical to those used in its predecessor.
There were three reasons for producing a new report based on the same type of data. First, this new report confirms that the results from 2004 were not a fluke. Repeating the same measurement on the subsequent year’s data produced nearly identical results. Another reason for a new report is that new data became available. Last year, for the first time, the Department of Labor made available the skill-based wage data. This makes it possible to examine how employers classify the skills of the H-1B workers they are seeking. Finally, a second look allowed investigation in more detail on exactly how employers produce the extremely low prevailing wage claims.
The H-1B Visa ProgramThis H-1B visa was created in 1990 to provide a separate guestworker program for certain specialty occupations. A specialty occupation is one that requires a college degree or equivalent professional experience. There is no specific skill requirement for an H-1B visa.
The H-1B program is, in theory, a non-immigrant program, although it is widely used as a stepping stone to permanent residency. H-1B visas are valid for up to three years and can be renewed once for an additional three years. H-1B visas also are tied to employment, so an H-1B visa becomes invalid if a worker loses his or her job. While employed, it is relatively easy for a worker on an H-1B visa to transfer the visa to another employer. However, H-1B workers seeking permanent residency are effectively bound to their employer because changing jobs requires restarting the application process, making it unlikely that it will be completed before the visa expires. Transfers do not extend the time limit on the original visa.
The first step in the H-1B visa process is the filing of a Labor Condition Application (LCA) by the employer with the Department of Labor. The employer attests that workers will be paid the prevailing wage and that there is no strike or lockout in progress. The LCA shows the number of workers covered, the prevailing wage, and the wage to be paid. The statutes specifically limit the Labor Department review process to checking for "completeness and obvious inaccuracies," making this step effectively a rubber stamp process. After the LCA is approved (less than 1 percent are rejected), the employer can file an H-1B petition (I-129) with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
In FY 2005, over 300,000 LCAs were filed, covering about 700,000 workers. USCIS approved 117,000 visas in FY 2005. While the law does not constrain the petition review process in the same manner as the LCA approval process, the approval rate for visa petitions (99.5 percent)3 is nearly as high as the approval rate for LCAs (99.7 percent). If the petition is approved, the employee can then apply for the H-1B visa, either in the country of residence, if living overseas, or at a USCIS office, if already living in the United States. The State Department has a slightly higher rate of H-1B refusals; its consulates refused between 5 and 10 percent of all H-1B applications in 2005.4
MethodologyThis report compares prevailing wage claims and wages for H-1B workers to U.S. wages in computer programming-related occupations. The source for H-1B wages was the FY 2005 LCA disclosure data available at www.flcdatacenter.com . This report only used approved LCAs in its calculations. However, the number of rejected LCAs is so few (<1 percent) that including them would have made no measurable difference in the results.
The disclosure data are divided into two databases, one representing electronic filings, the other representing fax filings, with the electronic filing database containing the bulk of the records. These two databases have different structures so integrating them is not as simple a process as it might be. For completeness, this report includes the data from both sources. However, other researchers could legitimately ignore the fax data as they increase the average H-1B wage by only $2.
The reason for using the disclosure data as a measure of H-1B wages is that they are the best data available on wages for H-1B workers. This is the data Congress mandates be made available to monitor the H-1B program. In the future the author hopes to be able to repeat this analysis using the data from visa applications. So far, USCIS has responded to requests for this data by stating it cannot find the information. The disclosure data provide the best possible source for employer prevailing wage claims. Unlike the measurements of H-1B wages, all the prevailing wage comparisons to U.S. wages are direct comparisons. As such, they leave no doubt that employer prevailing wage claims do not reflect the actual prevailing wage.
The source for U.S. wages was the May 2004 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates available at http://www.bls.gov/oes/2004/may/oes_nat.htm. The May 2004 data were the last released before the start of FY 2005. Therefore, they were the last published before any of the LCAs examined were submitted.
This study also uses the 2005 FLC wage data (available at www.flcdatacenter.com) to match specific employer prevailing wage claims to their sources. These data were used to identify the job title used for prevailing wage claims and to analyze the nature of specific claims. They were not used for H-1B/U.S wage comparisons.
The biggest challenge in analyzing the LCA data is to match employer job titles to the Standard Occupation Codes (SOC) used to classify jobs in the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rather than using SOCs, LCAs use broad numeric classifications in which managers of programmers get lumped in with programmers. Analysis of these data is made even more difficult because the job code entered by employers is frequently wrong. In assigning SOC codes to LCAs, this study tries to be conservative and take the path that would minimize the difference between H-1B and U.S. wages.
The first step in this process was to select all records with computer-related job codes ("030" to "039") on the LCA.
The next step was to match LCAs using OES as the prevailing wage source to the actual OES data to get an SOC code. The job title in each matching record was verified using pattern matching (e.g. using "*soft*eng*" for "software engineer"). For those records where pattern matching failed, they were individually checked to ensure that the SOC code actually reflected the job title.
Pattern matching was used both to eliminate LCAs that were not programming related and to assign job codes. For example a pattern like "*vice president*" would be used to eliminate records for certain managerial employees and "*database admin*" to assign the SOC for "database administrator" to other LCAs.
Some job titles created special difficulties. There are separate SOC codes for "Software Engineers, Applications" and "Software Engineers, Systems," with wages for the latter tending to be higher. In this study, all software engineers were classified as "Applications" unless "Systems" was specified in the job title or the prevailing wage claim had been matched to an OES record specifying systems software engineer.
The most common job title was "Programmer/Analyst" (44 percent of programming workers). That could be either a "programmer" or a "systems analyst." This study chose to treat "Programmer/Analysts" as programmers except for the few cases (4 percent of "Programmers/Analysts") where the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title. Classifying "Programmer/Analysts" as "Programmers" rather than "Systems Analysts" reduces the average H-1B to U.S. wage difference by about $4,000.
LCAs with the job title "Consultant" were treated as systems analysts unless the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title. While classifying "Consultants" as programmers would have given a smaller H-1B/U.S. wage difference, the SOC definition of a programmer is not applicable to consultants.
Many LCA job titles were variations of "Developer." This could mean a software engineer, systems analyst, or programmer. In order to minimize the H-1B/U.S. Wage difference, "Developers" were classified as "Computer programmers" unless the LCA’s prevailing wage claim had been matched to a specific OES record with a different job title.
A number of LCAs could not be matched to any job code because of unusual job titles that are not common in the industry. Together, these LCAs had a slightly higher average wage than the average wage of those that could be classified. These LCAs were arbitrarily assigned the SOC code for "Computer programmers" because this choice gave the lowest H-1B-to-U.S. wage difference.
LCAs where the annual wage was less than $10,000 or greater than $300,000 were treated as errors and were excluded. The 130 records (out of 300,000 filed) excluded had an average wage of $11.5 million with the highest value $454 million. In addition, LCAs for part-time work were excluded.
Universities
The statutes governing the H-1B program allow universities to pay the prevailing wage in academia rather than in the technology industry at large (See below). Academic H-1B wages averaged about $6,000 a year less than overall H-1B wages. In order to give a better comparison of what employers should be paying under the law to what they actually are paying, LCAs filed by universities are not included in the results.
The Special Case of InfosysOne company, Infosys, submitted 1,145 LCAs covering over 110,000 workers (up from 13,000 for FY 2004). This company’s low wages combined with its unusually large number of workers significantly lowers the average H-1B wage. Rather than come up with an arbitrary scaling factor, LCAs from Infosys were excluded from the combined results. This choice decreases the H-1B/U.S wage difference by $2,000. It should be noted that Infosys is a large user of H-1B visas and claims to have received 4 percent of the 85,000 visas available under the annual quota.5
Employer Prevailing Wage ClaimsThe requirements for prevailing wage claims are defined by statute and regulation. The statute (8 U.S.C. § 1182(n) (1)(A)(i)) specifies that H-1B workers must be paid the higher of either 1) wages page by the employer to similar employees, or 2) the prevailing wage.
This section also specifies that when the Department of Labor provides a prevailing wage source, it must include at least four pay levels, "commensurate with experience, education, and the level of supervision."
The regulations (20 C.F.R. § 655.731(a)(2)) specify how the employer determines the prevailing wage. As an illustration of how loosely defined the process is, the first section says "...the employer is not required to use any specific methodology to determine the prevailing wage…." One specific the regulations do give is that the prevailing wage is to be based on either the mean or median depending on the circumstances.
Despite the complexity of the requirements, the statute provides no mechanism for DOL to verify employer claims; the LCA process is essentially an honor system. DOL adjudicators may only check that the form is filled out correctly — they may not investigate whether the LCA data contain bogus prevailing wage claims. There is insufficient information within the LCAs to cross-reference most LCA claims to the source of a prevailing wage claim, so there is insufficient information to determine the possible extent of a bogus prevailing wage problem. The fact that employer claims are not verified does not necessarily mean that the claims are wrong or bogus. The more important question is: How do employer prevailing wage claims compare to actual U.S. wages? What is the result of our reliance on an attestation system to protect U.S. workers?
Table 1 shows how employer prevailing wage claims compare to actual U.S. wages. Employer prevailing wage claims on LCAs for computer programming workers averaged $16,000 below the median U.S. wage based on occupation and location. The median difference between employer prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage was $18,000. For employer prevailing wage claims, 90 percent were below the U.S. median wage and 62 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S wages. Figure 1 compares the distribution of U.S. wages to H-1B prevailing wage claims.
H-1B Wages
Prevailing wage claims are one thing — actual wages are another. Reported wages for H-1B workers tend to be higher than employer prevailing wage claims. However, due to the fact that prevailing wage claims are extremely low, H-1B wages remain significantly lower than overall U.S. wages. Table 2 shows how wages listed for H-1B workers on LCAs compare to those for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location. H-1B wages averaged $12,000 below the median U.S. wage based on occupation and location. The median difference between employer prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage was $15,000. Wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the U.S. median wage and 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S wages. The distribution of H-1B wages on LCAs is shown in Figure 2.
H-1B Worker Skills
As described previously, at the end of 2004 Congress amended the H-1B statutes to require the Department of Labor to make available at least four prevailing wage levels based on skills. The Department of Labor defines the skill levels as:
Level I (entry) wage rates are assigned to job offers for beginning level employees who have only a basic understanding of the occupation. These employees perform routine tasks that require limited, if any, exercise of judgment. The tasks provide experience and familiarization with the employer’s methods, practices, and programs. . . . Statements that the job offer is for a research fellow, a worker in training, or an internship are indicators that a Level I wage should be considered.
Level II (qualified) wage rates are assigned to job offers for qualified employees who have attained, either through education or experience, a good understanding of the occupation....
Level III (experienced) wage rates are assigned to job offers for experienced employees who have a sound understanding of the occupation and have attained, either through education or experience, special skills or knowledge. . . . Words such as ‘lead’ (lead analyst), ‘senior’ (senior programmer), ‘head’ (head nurse), ‘chief’ (crew chief), or ‘journeyman’ (journeyman plumber) would be indicators that a Level III wage should be considered.
Level IV (fully competent) wage rates are assigned to job offers for competent employees who have sufficient experience in the occupation to plan and conduct work requiring judgment and the independent evaluation, selection, modification, and application of standard procedures and techniques....
These skill levels only apply when the Department of Labor is used as the prevailing wage source.
In FY 2005, along with defining prevailing wages with four skill levels, the Department of Labor made its skill-based data available in table form for the first time. This allows one to match prevailing wage claims using this data to the specific source record used to make the claim. From a matching record, one can identify the skill level the employer claimed. About two thirds of the computer programming LCAs using this wage source could be matched back to the source record.
An examination of the skill levels reported on the LCAs reveals that employers claim that the majority of their H-1B workers are entry level. In stark contrast to claims that the H-1B program is used for "highly-skilled" workers, employers claim the majority are less-skilled workers. Figure 3 shows the distribution of employer skill claims on LCAs.
Prevailing Wage Sources
This report and its predecessor both found employer prevailing wage claims on LCAs were much lower than actual U.S. wages. This section examines how employers calculate such low prevailing wage claims. Appendix B provides an overall picture of prevailing wage claims, and shows how wage claims are calculated using the most commonly used prevailing wage sources compare to actual U.S. wages.
If one weights the difference between U.S. wages and the claimed prevailing wage for each wage source by the number of workers requested, three wage sources account for about $14,000 of the $15,000 median difference between prevailing wages and the median U.S. wage: Occupational Employment Statistics (OES), State Employment Security Agencies (SESA), and Watson-Wyatt. Together, these wage sources are represented on 87 percent of the LCAs, covering 93 percent of the workers requested.
Occupational Employment Statistics
OES is the most commonly used source for prevailing wage claims. It is used on 70 percent of the LCAs representing 50 percent of the workers. LCAs using OES account for about $8,000 of the total wage difference.
Since OES is the wage source this report uses to measure actual U.S. wages, it might appear contradictory that LCAs using OES as the prevailing wage source contribute the most to the difference between U.S. wages and employer prevailing wage claims. This apparent discrepancy is easy to explain.
When the H-1B program was created, it required employers to pay workers the higher of the prevailing wage for the occupation and location, or the wage paid to similar employees. By requiring H-1B workers to be paid the overall prevailing wage, in theory it would prevent employers from using the H-1B program to import young, lower-paid workers to displace older U.S. workers.
As discussed, in 2004 Congress added a new prevailing-wage option for employers. It mandated that the Department of Labor provide employers with four skill-based prevailing wages. To comply with this change, the Foreign Labor Certification Data Center took the OES data produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and used them to create four skill-based prevailing wages. This created a mechanism for employers to justify low wages. Regardless of the actual skills of an H-1B worker, employers need only assert that a worker is in the Level I category for entry level, trainee, or intern employees, and pay according to that prevailing wage.
The findings described above show that, according to employers’ LCA claims, the majority of H-1B computer programming workers are indeed at the lowest skill level (Level I). The difference between the Level I wage and the OES median wage averages about $14,000. While the use of Level I wages as the prevailing wage is by far the most significant reason for low prevailing wage claims using the OES data, the LCA data also contain a number of completely bogus prevailing wage claims that purport to use OES as the wage source. Because most LCAs do not contain the information necessary to match a prevailing wage claim back to its source, it is impractical to determine the extent of these bogus claims.
Table 3 shows some examples of OES-based prevailing wage claims that are lower than the Level I wage for the occupation and location. A small number of these low wage claims are the result of employers improperly using the prevailing wage for higher education, as in the last claim. The fact that these erroneous applications were processed at all illustrates that LCAs are not checked for accuracy, much less fraud. This should be a routine aspect of any government benefit issuing process, and is often automated. Clearly, maintaining the integrity of H-1B processing is a low priority for the Department of Labor.
SESA
One alternative H-1B employers have for determining the prevailing wage is to apply to a State Employment Security Agency (SESA)/State Workforce Agency (SWA) for a prevailing wage determination. The procedure for getting a SESA determination varies from state to state. Usually, the employer submits a form describing the job and SESA determines the Standard Occupational Code and the skill level to find the corresponding skill-based OES wage. The disadvantage of getting a SESA wage determination is that the employer has to wait for the state agency to process the application. The advantage is that a SESA prevailing wage determination is incontestable.
Of LCAs, 9 percent used SESA as the prevailing wage source, representing about 13 percent of the workers requested. The LCAs using SESA account for about $3,000 of the average difference between prevailing wage claims and the median U.S. wage.
Like employer-made, skill level-based OES prevailing wage claims, SESA determinations overwhelmingly tend to be based on low skill levels. Figure 5 shows how SESA determinations classify skill levels.
Watson-WyattWatson-Wyatt was the most commonly used private source for prevailing wage claims. Wage claims using Watson-Wyatt account for about $3,000 of the median difference between the average claimed prevailing wage and the OES median wage. Citing confidentiality, Watson-Wyatt would not provide any information about the nature of their wage survey.
Verifying Wage ClaimsSalary.com was the wage source giving the highest prevailing wage claims (averaging about $2,000 below the U.S. median). The 755 LCAs using Salary.com as the prevailing wage illustrate some of the problems in verifying prevailing wage claims. About half of these LCAs list the job title as some variant of "Programmer/Analyst." Due to the fact that this is not a job title listed on Salary.com, one can only guess what job title employers used to determine the prevailing wage.
Salary.com’s prevailing wages are based on three levels for each job title (e.g., Programmer I, Programmer II, and Programmer III). Because most LCAs using Salary.com as the prevailing wage source do not include the level, it is impractical to match large numbers of these wage claims to their sources.
Even LCAs that match the Salary.com job title and level exactly are difficult to match to their source, because Salary.com does not maintain historical data. To illustrate, one LCA is for a "Programmer I" in Edison, N.J. The claimed prevailing wage is $56,500. Unfortunately, that LCA claims to use 2005 data. For August 2006, Salary.com says the median is $58,784. The discrepancy here is probably due to wage variations over time.
Another LCA is for a "Software Engineer I" in Greensboro, N.C., and claims the prevailing wage is $44,497. The August 2006 data from Salary.com give $51,372 as the median wage and $45,129 as the 25th percentile wage. In this case it looks like the employer has improperly given an artificially low prevailing wage by claiming the 25th percentile as the prevailing wage.
On nearly every LCA using Salary.com as the wage source and where the job title could be matched exactly, the claimed wage appeared to come from the 25th percentile rather than the median. Prevailing wage claims based on the 25th percentile are invalid under the regulations. Table 4 shows some typical examples.
Sources of Extremely Low Prevailing Wage ClaimsDuring the LCA approval process, the Department of Labor does not evaluate the validity of the prevailing wage source. Many LCAs use wage sources that are invalid under the law. For example, the law requires the prevailing wage source to be a local measurement of wages. However, many LCAs use national surveys as the wage source. Applications citing such prevailing wage sources tend to be among the lowest prevailing wage claims.
NACEThe wage source used for the lowest prevailing wage claims is National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACA). Their wage survey covers offers made to new university graduates nationwide. As such, it does not meet the requirements of a valid prevailing wage source for H-1B applications.
MITThe second-lowest prevailing wage source is the MIT Wage Survey, which reports offers made to MIT graduates nationwide. It, too, is a national survey and does not meet the requirements of a valid prevailing wage source.
Employer SurveyThe third-lowest prevailing wage source on LCAs is wage surveys conducted by employers themselves. Not surprisingly, when employers determine the prevailing wage on their own, the resulting prevailing wage claims tend to be among the lowest submitted. Of employers using their own surveys, 38 percent had all of their prevailing wage claims below the 10th percentile of U.S. wages, raising reasonable doubts as to their legitimacy.Extremely low wages are not the only sign that employer surveys are subject to abuse. The median number of workers requested by employers using employer wage surveys was one, with 90 percent requesting three or fewer. It is difficult to explain how so many employers could conduct legitimate salary surveys for one, two, or three employees.
ComputerWorld
ComputerWorld magazine’s wage survey was listed as the source of the fourth-lowest prevailing wage claims. However, ComputerWorld could not verify any of the prevailing wage claims on the LCAs in the database that listed them as the source. They also observed that the wages reported in their survey were "consistently higher" than wage claims made on LCAs. This suggests that DOL should make some effort to verify employer claims, as some may be deliberately providing bogus information on LCAs.
Observations
The preparation of this report involved many weeks of examining LCA data. While outside the scope of this report, a number of questionable patterns were found. Some of those patterns involving computer occupations are listed here in the hope that other researchers might investigate them.
Many employer addresses listed on LCAs are not bona fide business addresses. These include residences and mail drops.
The number of LCAs filed for certain states suggests that the number of H-1B workers exceeds the number of jobs. For example, the number of LCAs filed for New Jersey suggests that the number of H-1B programmers that are supposed to be working in the state greatly exceeds the number of programming jobs created in the state.
Some groups of LCAs contain identical data except for the employer contact information. One such group had five employers, three of which listed a residence as the business address.
Wages for computer programming managers were also significantly below the median for U.S. workers in those occupations.
Conclusion
These findings indicate that if there is any correlation between wages and skills, it is clear that the H-1B program is rarely being used to import "highly skilled" computer programming workers. The newly available data on skills suggest one of two things is happening, neither of which is consistent with the claims of employers pushing for the expansion of the program. Either the H-1B program is used primarily to import relatively less-skilled, entry-level, or trainee workers (and thus is of dubious value to the American economy), or employers are lying about these workers’ skills in order to suppress their wages.
While the wage data suggest that a few employers use the H-1B program to import a small number of highly skilled workers, these are exceptional cases. Overwhelmingly, the H-1B program is used to import workers at the very bottom of the computer programming wage scale.
Many in the information technology industry have called for an increase in the number of H-1B visas available. However, given the very few H-1B workers earning salaries that highly skilled workers in their profession would make and the fact that employers classify most H-1B workers at low skill levels, this report concludes that the existing number of visas is more than ample for the nation’s needs. Contrary to industry claims, the perennial exhaustion of the H-1B visas due to the cap more likely reflects widespread preference for lower-paid workers and lax enforcement of program rules, not an insufficient supply of visas to meet a deficit of highly-skilled U.S. workers.
Policy RecommendationsThe following specific reforms are needed to correct the flawed prevailing wage provisions of the H-1B program:
Limit the number of H-1B visas that an employer can obtain each year based on the size of its U.S. workforce.
Require employers to have a bona fide business office. Applications from residences and drop boxes should not be not be approved.
Compel employers to use a standard wage source produced by the federal government when making prevailing wage claims for LCAs. This report has shown that employer prevailing wage claims are much lower than the actual prevailing wages, and that some employers make mistakes or deliberately provide bogus prevailing wage claims.
Oblige employers to pay H-1B workers at the 75th percentile of the pay scale, rather than at the prevailing wage. This would provide a strong incentive for employers to use the H-1B program for highly-skilled and needed workers.
Require employers to enter a Standard Occupation Code (SOC) for each employee on the application. Most employers are already looking this information up in order to get OES prevailing wages, so it would require little effort to put this information on the LCA.
In order to better monitor the H-1B program, USCIS should make wage and employer information available for those H-1B visas actually issued.
Remove the restrictions on the LCA approval process to allow the DoL to verify the content of LCAs.
Remove all restrictions on enforcement. Specifically, eliminate the requirement that the Secreatary of Labor approve investigations and allow random audits of employers.
Appendices
The appendices to this report contain more detailed breakdowns of the LCA disclosure data. The following appendices are available at www.cis.org/articles/2007/back407data.pdf :
Appendix A — H-1B Computer Programming Prevailing Wage Claims Compared to National Wages by Occupation FY 2005
Appendix B — H-1B Computer Programming Prevailing Wage Claims Compared to National Wages by Wage Source FY 2005
Appendix C — H-1B Computer Programming Wages Compared to National Wages by Occupation FY 2005
Appendix D — H-1B Computer Programming Wages Compared to U.S. Wages by Employer FY 2005
Appendix E — Geographic Distribution of H-1B Computer Programming Workers FY 2005
Appendix F — Top Employers of H-1B Computer Programming Workers FY 2005
End Notes
1 See for example Norman Matloff, "On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Non-Immigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related occupations," University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, Fall 2003.
2 John Miano, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers," Center for Immigration Studies, December 2005, http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back1305.html
3 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Characteristics of Specialty Occupation Workers (H-1B), FY 2005, November 2006.
4 U.S. State Department, Office of Visa Services, Non-Immigrant Visa Workload, 2005, at http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/fy%202005%20niv%20workload%20by%20category.pdf .
5 Raghu, K., "Infosys net soars 49.2 per cent, guidance thrills Street," Daily News and Analysis (India), July 12, 2006.
About The Author
John Miano is an author and expert on the software industry. He may be contacted at miano@colosseumbuilders.com
Labels: employment, H-1b
Powerhouse secret behind Scotland's success
TANYA THOMPSON
THE number of people in work in Scotland has reached a record high, with women and immigrants the catalysts for economic prosperity.
New figures show the number of people in employment rose to 2.54 million over the quarter, an increase of 25,000. At 76 per cent, it is the highest employment rate on record, and exceeds that of the UK and almost all European Union countries.
Economists suggest the increasing number of women in the labour market and the introduction of flexible hours has had a significant impact on Scotland's productivity and rate of employment.
Data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also shows the number of unemployed people claiming jobseekers' allowance in June fell by 1,700 on the previous month to 76,200 - close to its record low of 2.8 per cent.
Martin Ellis, chief economist with the Bank of Scotland, believes working women have boosted the economy, as family-friendly employers have allowed women to work part-time. He said: "Flexible working patterns make it easier for women to work. In the past, a lot of women were ruled out of a job once they had children."
In the past century there has been a seismic shift in Britain's labour market, with women currently making up almost half the workforce, compared with less than a third in 1911. Four out of five clerical jobs were taken by men at that time, but today that position is almost reversed.
The ageing population has also played its part, with more people of pensionable age choosing to keep working.
Mr Ellis pointed to immigration as another key factor explaining Scotland's renewed prosperity, especially with the influx of "new Scots" from eastern Europe.
He said: "The number of households is increasing, and part of that is down to immigration. We've seen the expansion of the European Union, with Poland and, more recently, Romania. Immigration boosts the pool of people we can draw upon for employment in Scotland."
Although Scotland has suffered a sharp decline in heavy industries, demand for products manufactured here is at its highest level for 40 years, according to figures from the Scottish Industrial Trends Survey.
Fraser McLean, a business manager with the employment agency Manpower, said Scotland's highly skilled labour force and its ability to adapt quickly to a changing market had been crucial for long-term growth.
"Scotland has always been quick to diversify. OK, we've lost heavy industries like shipbuilding but we've diversified into other areas. Scotland has a very strong financial services sector, construction is booming and call centres are a massive growth area," he said.
Call centres have become an increasingly important source of employment. Scottish Enterprise says the industry employs about 18,000 people in Glasgow alone, and it is estimated 105,000 people in Scotland work in call centres, an industry that is worth £2.2 billion a year.
Commenting on the labour market statistics, Ian Brinkley, chief economist at the Work Foundation, said: "At last, we can start to see some evidence of a recovery in the labour market as the economic growth feeds into jobs. The private sector seems finally to be rediscovering a role it had previously abandoned - that of creating jobs."
TYPICAL EMPLOYEE 50 YEARS AGO
FIFTY years ago Scotland's economic landscape was very different from today.
Heavy industries such as shipbuilding and mining were the male-dominated core, with generations of men following their fathers into the same jobs.
In the immediate postwar boom, British shipyards expanded, and employment in the industry rose to 300,000 workers.
However, the steady decline in heavy industries gradually began to take hold.
While working patterns had changed little since the turn of the century, the Scottish working man would soon see a huge shift in employment in the key areas of shipbuilding and mining.
In the early twentieth century the Clyde was the main centre of shipbuilding in the world.
But employment in both shipbuilding and total manufacturing began to shrink dramatically from the 1950s, a shift that was also reflected in Scotland's declining population as many left Scotland to work abroad.
By the early 1970s there were around 8,500 men working in only five shipyards on the river organised into the Lower and Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. Shipbuilding became the symbol of British industrial decline in the 20th century.
CHANGING SHAPE OF SCOTTISH ECONOMY
SCOTLAND'S workforce has re-invented itself in recent years, with a move away from heavy industries. There has been a remarkable shift towards a technology and services-based economy.
The 1980s saw an economic boom in the Silicon Glen corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with many large technology firms relocating to Scotland. But boom turned to bust, and by the start of this century little of it was left.
By 1996, the shipbuilding industry employed just 10,100 people, accounting for 4 per cent of manufacturing employment in Scotland. Thousands of Scots have now found employment in the new boom industries of banking and financial services, education, entertainment and biotechnology.
Figures from the Institute for Employment Research show that in 1981 490,000 people in Scotland, nearly a quarter of the workforce, worked in manufacturing. By 1999, employment in the area fell to 320,000.
The services sector, including banking and professional services such as lawyers and accountants, has seen huge growth. In 1981, it is estimates that the sector accounted for 300,000 jobs. By 1999, that had risen to 480,000 jobs.
By the numbers - where we work and what we produce
2.2 billion
Call centres are a booming industry, with about 300 centres across Scotland generating an estimated £2.2 billion a year to the economy. Scottish Enterprise estimates that the industry employs about 18,000 people in Glasgow alone.
500
Café society is a massive phenomenon in Britain which has transformed the high streets. One of the bigger chains, Starbucks, now employs more than 6,000 stores across the globe, 500 of which are in the UK and Ireland.
629,000
The UK's five biggest supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Safeway and Morrisons - employ a total of 629,000 people.
These "one-stop shops" - 2,050 are run by the market leaders - have overtaken many small traditional bakers, butchers and fishmongers once at the heart of local communities. However, many customers faced with longer working hours value the 24-hour supermarket culture and free parking.
A number of supermarkets also have own-label clothing brands and petrol stations.
3,548
The nation's love of quick "food on the hoof" has driven demand for the 3,548 fast-food outlets run by the UK's 11 largest chains. While previous generations may have enjoyed an occasional fish supper or hot pie, nowadays the range is endless, from kebabs to sushi. But fast-food outlets have come in for criticism for contributing to obesity and creating a litter problem as customers discard cartons and wrappings in the street.
1.9 million
While traditional betting shops are still popular - there are around 8,000 in the nation's high streets - the way we place a bet is being rapidly overtaken by online gambling.
However, 1.9 million people are employed in more than 180,000 gambling establishments across the UK. The sector is booming and is becoming popular with women who may have once been reluctant to enter a betting shop. Under-age online gambling is an increasing concern.
40,000
At least 40,000 Poles now work in Scotland as migrant employees, according to Aleksander Dietkow, Poland's consul-general in Edinburgh.
Officials say that as many as 8,000 of them face harassment, discrimination and unlawful employment practice at their place of work.
572,900
The public sector employs 572,900 people in Scotland, part of a contingent of 5.85 million people across the UK.
According to the latest figures released last year, the fastest-growing area is the NHS. Other areas which are expanding include health and social work, public administration and education.
Graduates entering the public sector are earning more than those starting work in the private sector for the first time, according research by the management consultancy Hay Group. It said university leavers taking jobs in the civil service or the NHS are expected to earn average salaries of £21,445 - £1,100 more than the overall average.
£2 billion
Scotland has 20,000 farmers who, with crofters and small producers, contribute more than £2 billion to the economy. If whisky is included, this figure rises to £2.4 billion. In total, farming provides employment for more than 70,000 people north of the Border - making it the country's third-largest employer after the service and public sectors.
18.4
There has been an 18.4 per cent increase in Scottish Executive staff since 1999.
THE number of people in work in Scotland has reached a record high, with women and immigrants the catalysts for economic prosperity.
New figures show the number of people in employment rose to 2.54 million over the quarter, an increase of 25,000. At 76 per cent, it is the highest employment rate on record, and exceeds that of the UK and almost all European Union countries.
Economists suggest the increasing number of women in the labour market and the introduction of flexible hours has had a significant impact on Scotland's productivity and rate of employment.
Data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also shows the number of unemployed people claiming jobseekers' allowance in June fell by 1,700 on the previous month to 76,200 - close to its record low of 2.8 per cent.
Martin Ellis, chief economist with the Bank of Scotland, believes working women have boosted the economy, as family-friendly employers have allowed women to work part-time. He said: "Flexible working patterns make it easier for women to work. In the past, a lot of women were ruled out of a job once they had children."
In the past century there has been a seismic shift in Britain's labour market, with women currently making up almost half the workforce, compared with less than a third in 1911. Four out of five clerical jobs were taken by men at that time, but today that position is almost reversed.
The ageing population has also played its part, with more people of pensionable age choosing to keep working.
Mr Ellis pointed to immigration as another key factor explaining Scotland's renewed prosperity, especially with the influx of "new Scots" from eastern Europe.
He said: "The number of households is increasing, and part of that is down to immigration. We've seen the expansion of the European Union, with Poland and, more recently, Romania. Immigration boosts the pool of people we can draw upon for employment in Scotland."
Although Scotland has suffered a sharp decline in heavy industries, demand for products manufactured here is at its highest level for 40 years, according to figures from the Scottish Industrial Trends Survey.
Fraser McLean, a business manager with the employment agency Manpower, said Scotland's highly skilled labour force and its ability to adapt quickly to a changing market had been crucial for long-term growth.
"Scotland has always been quick to diversify. OK, we've lost heavy industries like shipbuilding but we've diversified into other areas. Scotland has a very strong financial services sector, construction is booming and call centres are a massive growth area," he said.
Call centres have become an increasingly important source of employment. Scottish Enterprise says the industry employs about 18,000 people in Glasgow alone, and it is estimated 105,000 people in Scotland work in call centres, an industry that is worth £2.2 billion a year.
Commenting on the labour market statistics, Ian Brinkley, chief economist at the Work Foundation, said: "At last, we can start to see some evidence of a recovery in the labour market as the economic growth feeds into jobs. The private sector seems finally to be rediscovering a role it had previously abandoned - that of creating jobs."
TYPICAL EMPLOYEE 50 YEARS AGO
FIFTY years ago Scotland's economic landscape was very different from today.
Heavy industries such as shipbuilding and mining were the male-dominated core, with generations of men following their fathers into the same jobs.
In the immediate postwar boom, British shipyards expanded, and employment in the industry rose to 300,000 workers.
However, the steady decline in heavy industries gradually began to take hold.
While working patterns had changed little since the turn of the century, the Scottish working man would soon see a huge shift in employment in the key areas of shipbuilding and mining.
In the early twentieth century the Clyde was the main centre of shipbuilding in the world.
But employment in both shipbuilding and total manufacturing began to shrink dramatically from the 1950s, a shift that was also reflected in Scotland's declining population as many left Scotland to work abroad.
By the early 1970s there were around 8,500 men working in only five shipyards on the river organised into the Lower and Upper Clyde Shipbuilders. Shipbuilding became the symbol of British industrial decline in the 20th century.
CHANGING SHAPE OF SCOTTISH ECONOMY
SCOTLAND'S workforce has re-invented itself in recent years, with a move away from heavy industries. There has been a remarkable shift towards a technology and services-based economy.
The 1980s saw an economic boom in the Silicon Glen corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh, with many large technology firms relocating to Scotland. But boom turned to bust, and by the start of this century little of it was left.
By 1996, the shipbuilding industry employed just 10,100 people, accounting for 4 per cent of manufacturing employment in Scotland. Thousands of Scots have now found employment in the new boom industries of banking and financial services, education, entertainment and biotechnology.
Figures from the Institute for Employment Research show that in 1981 490,000 people in Scotland, nearly a quarter of the workforce, worked in manufacturing. By 1999, employment in the area fell to 320,000.
The services sector, including banking and professional services such as lawyers and accountants, has seen huge growth. In 1981, it is estimates that the sector accounted for 300,000 jobs. By 1999, that had risen to 480,000 jobs.
By the numbers - where we work and what we produce
2.2 billion
Call centres are a booming industry, with about 300 centres across Scotland generating an estimated £2.2 billion a year to the economy. Scottish Enterprise estimates that the industry employs about 18,000 people in Glasgow alone.
500
Café society is a massive phenomenon in Britain which has transformed the high streets. One of the bigger chains, Starbucks, now employs more than 6,000 stores across the globe, 500 of which are in the UK and Ireland.
629,000
The UK's five biggest supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Safeway and Morrisons - employ a total of 629,000 people.
These "one-stop shops" - 2,050 are run by the market leaders - have overtaken many small traditional bakers, butchers and fishmongers once at the heart of local communities. However, many customers faced with longer working hours value the 24-hour supermarket culture and free parking.
A number of supermarkets also have own-label clothing brands and petrol stations.
3,548
The nation's love of quick "food on the hoof" has driven demand for the 3,548 fast-food outlets run by the UK's 11 largest chains. While previous generations may have enjoyed an occasional fish supper or hot pie, nowadays the range is endless, from kebabs to sushi. But fast-food outlets have come in for criticism for contributing to obesity and creating a litter problem as customers discard cartons and wrappings in the street.
1.9 million
While traditional betting shops are still popular - there are around 8,000 in the nation's high streets - the way we place a bet is being rapidly overtaken by online gambling.
However, 1.9 million people are employed in more than 180,000 gambling establishments across the UK. The sector is booming and is becoming popular with women who may have once been reluctant to enter a betting shop. Under-age online gambling is an increasing concern.
40,000
At least 40,000 Poles now work in Scotland as migrant employees, according to Aleksander Dietkow, Poland's consul-general in Edinburgh.
Officials say that as many as 8,000 of them face harassment, discrimination and unlawful employment practice at their place of work.
572,900
The public sector employs 572,900 people in Scotland, part of a contingent of 5.85 million people across the UK.
According to the latest figures released last year, the fastest-growing area is the NHS. Other areas which are expanding include health and social work, public administration and education.
Graduates entering the public sector are earning more than those starting work in the private sector for the first time, according research by the management consultancy Hay Group. It said university leavers taking jobs in the civil service or the NHS are expected to earn average salaries of £21,445 - £1,100 more than the overall average.
£2 billion
Scotland has 20,000 farmers who, with crofters and small producers, contribute more than £2 billion to the economy. If whisky is included, this figure rises to £2.4 billion. In total, farming provides employment for more than 70,000 people north of the Border - making it the country's third-largest employer after the service and public sectors.
18.4
There has been an 18.4 per cent increase in Scottish Executive staff since 1999.
Labels: employment, Scotland
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- 09/01/2008 - 10/01/2008
- 10/01/2008 - 11/01/2008
- 11/01/2008 - 12/01/2008
- 12/01/2008 - 01/01/2009
- 01/01/2009 - 02/01/2009
- 02/01/2009 - 03/01/2009
- 03/01/2009 - 04/01/2009
- 04/01/2009 - 05/01/2009
- 10/01/2012 - 11/01/2012
