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Hitachi has decided (Friday, 8/31/01)
Several days ago, Japan's largest electronics manufacturer indicated that it hadn't yet decided whether it would cut jobs, as Toshiba is doing. The suspense has ended. An expected loss will result in the slicing of nearly 15,000 jobs, but that's still less than 5 percent of the company's global workforce. Toshiba and Hitachi aren't the only ones, though, and James Brooke says that Japan's mature manufacturing economy in a changing global market is facing some of the same realities that afflicted America's "Rust Belt" a generation ago.

More online woes (Friday, 8/31/01)
Charles Schwab is the top online broker and enjoyed very good times when the market was hot and people were doing a lot of trading on the Internet. Now, though, conditions are quite different, and Schwab announced yesterday that it will cut an additional 2,400 jobs following the 3,400 job cuts announced several months ago.

Congress has made President Bush less ambitious on immigration changes (Friday, 8/31/01)
The President has moved from the fast track to the slow track on making illegal immigrants into legal ones.

Consumers begin to get the jitters (Friday, 8/31/01)
Investors have been showing little confidence in the economy lately, but consumers have been willing to continue spending, and that's kept the U.S. out of recession. Consumer spending amounts to two-thirds of the American economy. However, consumers can take only so many layoffs and only so much bad economic news in the press each day before they begin to get more cautious with their money. This caution has been kicking in at about the same time that tax rebate checks have been arriving, so the immediate part of the tax cut isn't having the stimulative effects that the Administration had hoped for. Much of the cut will come years from now, of course, and was not intended as an effort to stimulate the economy immediately, but, instead, has been part of a Republican administration's longer-term strategy for reducing the size of government. Less taxes means less money for government to spend and, as a consequence, reduced governmental operations and less governmental participation in the economy, leaving a greater share for the private sector.

Assessing American labor for Labor Day (Friday, 8/31/01)
Elaine Chao, U.S. Secretary of Labor, says there is much to celebrate this Labor Day, including the condition of the American workforce. Labor leaders, on the other hand, disagree. For one thing, a new survey finds that workers are unhappy and that they're not trusting their employers as much as they used to. For many Americans, it will be a Labor Day in more says than one. They'll just go to work as usual.

Nickelodeon is picketed (Friday, 8/31/01)
The children's-oriented cable TV network doesn't have a contract with writers on six of its animated shows, so the Writers Guild of America picketed their Burbank studios yesterday.

Russians and Germans warm to each other again (Friday, 8/31/01)
The relationship between Russia and Germany hasn't always been cordial. Take the Second World War as a conspicuous example. However, some Russians are feeling very good about Germany at the moment, and, as Michael Wines reports, economic efficiency and effectiveness have something to do with it.

Nice to hear that everybody won (Friday, 8/31/01)
This Agence France-Presse article from Johannesburg says that both unions and the South African government are claiming victory now that the two-day strike over privatization has ended.

A decade of stagnation for the middle class? (Friday, 8/31/01)
An analysis of 2000 Census Data suggest that, while the gap between the poor and the rich widened during the 1990s, the economic situation of the middle-class, at least in New York and California, didn't change much.

What the erosion of sovereignty means for American farmers (Friday, 8/31/01)
Just as when an individual signs a contract, s/he loses a little freedom, a nation relinquishes a little sovereignty each time it enters into an internataional treaty or alliance. This time, as Elizabeth Becker reports from Washington for the New York Times, farm subsidies may be limited by WTO obligations.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Japan Economic Update (Friday, 8/31/01)
The Japan Economic Update is prepared by three leading Japanese economic magazines.

First-time jobless claims decline last week (Thursday, 8/30/01)
However, the dip was only slight, and the number of people continuing to file claims is at its highest level since September 1992. Louis Uchitelle of the New York Times says that, while many expected that the second quarter would be the start of a recession, there was growth instead, although it was barely perceptible. One suggestion that the economy may have bottomed out comes from the National Association of Manufacturers, which anticipates a recovery of the U.S. manufacturing sector. While the President has acknowledged that a pickup of the American economy has been taking longer than many expected, he still seems to think it's coming soon, because he has reaffirmed his commitment to spending more on defense and education. Here's more from David Sanger in San Antonio.

Agreement at VW in Germany (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Volkswagen will create several thousand new jobs as part of a new deal with IG Metall, the big labor union.

Being qualified helps (Thursday, 8/30/01)
According to new studies conducted by the Australian Council for Education Research, it pays to graduate. Completing school greatly increases one's chances of employment, according to research results.

Teaching in glitter city (Thursday, 8/30/01)
To most people, Las Vegas is best-known as America's gambling and live entertainment capital. However, to some, it's known as a city with a very rapidly growing school district and a tremendous need for new teachers. Nanci Hellmich of USA Today tells how they're being recruited.

Lousy jobs that people love (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Rosanne Wickman tells how it is to be an aide to an elected official. Often, it's a matter of long hours, low pay, and pressure you wouldn't believe. Still, it's exactly the kind of job that many will do nearly anything to get into.

Reflections as Labor Day approaches (Thursday, 8/30/01)
The best of times and the worst of times, Dickens might say. Columnist Diane Stafford discusses the big contrasts one can easily find among working Americans.

Ford cancels executive bonuses (Thursday, 8/30/01)
It's not been a good year for Ford, which has had its first losing quarter in nearly a decade. As a consequence, 6,000 executives will not receive bonuses this time.

A new kind of recession may be on the horizon (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Poor countries tend to have high birth rates. Rich countries tend to have low birth rates. The Commission on Global Aging says that aging populations in developed countries amount to a time bomb that eventually will drag down their economies unless action is taken.

The "new economy" loses its romance (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Jeff Madrick says that indications are that those assertions that the economy now plays by entirely different rules were highly premature. However, it depends upon what the term "new economy" means to you, and there are alternative interpretations. It's not necessarily just about dot-com's and the direct effects of hi-tech.

More elderly to be dropped by HMOs (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Despite Administration efforts so far, government officials expect that several hundred thousand additional Medicare patients will be dropped by HMOs this winter.

Back to reality in Saudi Arabia (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Saudi Arabia's oil wealth has limits after all. Many young Saudis who never expected anything other than lives of privilege are having to find real jobs, if they can.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Military.com (Thursday, 8/30/01)
Military.com offers news, information, and resources, including a personnel locator, for persons serving in the American armed services.

One thing sure: there won't be an official recession for a while yet (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
According to the official definition, a recession is when the American economy has had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, which is an odd and euphemistic but commonly accepted way of saying "shrinkage" (Does that mean that "growth" is negative shrinkage?). So far, there hasn't been a first quarter's shrinkage of the economy, so the earliest point at which a recession could be declared would be after the end of this year. Growth was minimal during the second quarter, though. According to the new numbers, the American economy grew at its least impressive rate in eight years. Still, according to columnist Jerry Heater, it just might be that the worst is over.

Gateway's layoffs will hurt Asia in particular (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Gateway, which, during the boom, was a major player in the global personal computer market, is cutting 25 percent of its global work force and shutting down Asian operations entirely, with Japan and Malaysia to be hurt most.

How tech can help the poor (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Narayanan Madhavan reports from Bangalore that the Asian Development Bank has decided to make technology a significant component of all of its development programs. Incidentally, India is one of the world's hi-tech leaders, and, while Bangalore is its "Silicon Valley," Rosemary Arackaparambil and Robin Elsham report from Bombay that the global technology slowdown is hurting many Indian IT training companies, and thousands of firms may not be able to survive until the slump ends.

NRLB says Twin Cities hospitals violated labor law (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
The National labor Relations Board has agreed with some of the charges made by the Minnesota Nurses Association in relation to the recent nurses strike. The NRLB says that at least seven hospitals were in violation when they refused to hire nurses who were on strike at two metropolitan hospitals.

Summer intern organizers (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Kathryn Masterson writes from Hartford, Connecticut about some student interns are who spending their summer trying to persuade workers to unionize. Similarly the Association of Flight Attendants is requesting a unionization vote for Delta Airline's 20,000 flight attendants.

Deluxe accused of discrimination (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
A racial discrimination suit has been filed against the world's largest check-printing company in Lenexa, Kansas. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court has decided that the University of Georgia cannot allow race to influence admissions, and, as Jacques Steinberg of the New York Times writes, this may require a rethinking of defintions of "diversity" at colleges and universities across the country.

Going down (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Otis Elevator Company will cut 350 jobs at its plant in Bloomington, Indiana.

Labor Secretary urges emphasis on prevention (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao would like to see less emphasis on governmental enforcement in the effort to reduce workplace injuries and more on prevention and education. At its present rate, it would require 167 years for OSHA to inspect every American workplace just once, she said.

Freshly minted MBAs find new jobs are on hold (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Many newly graduated MBAs who had accepted jobs with consulting firms will have to wait awhile. Here's more from Justin Pope reporting from Boston.

What does "reparations" mean to you? (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Kurt Schmoke responds to a recent essay documenting the benefits that Yale University enjoyed as a consequence of the slavery institution and addresses the larger issue of what should be done at this point across American society.

Hired, fired, and re-hired (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Some workers who are laid off don't remain laid off for long. USA Today's Stephanie Armour reports that some employers are laying off workers and, then, hiring them right back again. Also, Ron Scherer of the Christian Science Monitor says that, despite widely publicized layoffs, a lot of hiring is still going on overall. One of the defining attributes of the new economy is a lot of churning and dynamism. A lot of that was going on during the boom period too.

Clever signs aid recruitment for the priesthood (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Those who have been waiting for a sign won't have to wait any longer if they spend any time on some Texas highways. The Diocese of Galveston-Houston is using billboards to attract the attention of young men who might be candidates for the Catholic priesthood, even if they haven't really been aware of it.

Stop worrying so much about Social Security (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
It's all a tempest in a teapot, not a teapot dome. Dipping into the Social Security trust fund may be symbolically or politically significant, but not economically, according to experts, so stop your worrying. Think nice thoughts.

Benefits for same-sex couples (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Benefits for same-sex domestic partners will become available to employees beginning in January, according to Gannett, publisher of USA Today.

The perils of keeping your nest egg in one basket (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Many people who formerly worked for Lucent and lost their jobs in the big round of layoffs have also seen the value of their Lucent stock decline.

Good news and bad news about faculty retirement (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Indiana University's retirement program for faculty is very generous, and that's the good and the bad of it. The bills associated with a plan for attracting faculty decades ago are beginning to come due, and the University is scrambling to find ways to pay them.

Another reason to maintain family harmony (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Disharmony in families is painful in any case, but it can be extra painful if it leads to the destruction of a business. Here's more from today's New York Times.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Inflation Conversion Factors (Wednesday, 8/29/01)
Robert Sahr of Oregon State University uses Consumer Price Index and other data to help you determine the changing value of the dollar from 1700 to (estimated) 2010. Here are his Inflation Conversion Factors.

Record unemployment in Japan (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
Japanese unemployment has reached 5 percent, the highest level in nearly a half-century, and, among other things, this has scared Japan's stock market. Incidentally, a half-century ago, Japan was still trying to rebuild after being devastated by the loss of history's biggest war, and any possibility of the Japanese economic "miracle" that was to come hadn't even occurred to most outsiders. Also, in case you're thinking that a 5 percent unemployment rate isn't all that bad, you'll have to stop thinking in terms of American and European definitions of "unemployment." There are no consistent criteria for measuring unemployment across nations. In Europe or the U.S., a 5 percent rate would seem moderate or even set off celebration in some countries. However, in Japan, with its measurement criteria, it is a very high rate indeed and represents a high degree of painful joblessness.

Food shortage in Central America (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
A severe summer drought has left 1.5 million farmers across several Central American countries with no products to sell and nothing to eat. Here's more from David Gonzallez in Honduras.

Forget the campaign rhetoric (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
It was fairly straight-forward Senator Fred Thompson who, during the campaign in what was an otherwise partisan argument on one of the TV talk shows, who said that we should understand that what "neither of these guys is saying is going to be enacted." Candidates Bush and Gore were making their promises, most of which would turn out to be fairly empty, if for no other reason than most things aren't up the president alone. It isn't easy to get things through Congress under the best of circumstances, given that no two politicians, whether or not of the same party, have exactly the same personal, career, or ideological agendas.

Remember all that stuff the candidates were saying about putting Social Security in a "lock box?" Well, if you haven't forgotten it already, you probably can go ahead and forget it now. The new CBO report indicates that accumulated Social Security funds are no more sacred than any other and that the Administration almost surely will have to dip deeply into the Social Security surplus in order to keep the government going. Meanwhile, leading members of the party that used to be highly Keynesian and known for advocating fiscal policies (i.e., deficit spending) as a solution for a sluggish economy are now getting the upper hand in the word war by blaming the vanishing federal budget surplus on the Bush administration. How frequently to the Democrats become Republicans and the Republicans Democrats on many issues?

Consumer confidence at its lowest level in four months (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
The Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence finds that the American consumer, who has been keeping the U.S. economy out of recession, is getting less confident about spending his/her money.

Social Security not necessarily sick-a-bed (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
Editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune say that, despite all you hear almost daily, the Social Security system really isn't in all that bad a shape.

The ghosts of "Chainsaw Al" (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
Before everything blew sky-high for Al Dunlap, he was known as a savior of almost dead companies who would roar on in like a chainsaw and simply cut away large portions of a sick company's workforce. When cutting jobs, it doesn't pay to be bashful, he thought. Al's gone from the front page of the business section now, but his legacy remains, it appears. According to a new study, CEO's are rewarded for cutting jobs, and many continue to do quite handsomely themselves during a time of troubled corporations and a troubled overall economy.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: SmartForce (Tuesday, 8/28/01)
Smart Force says that it is the, or perhaps THE e-learning company and claims to have more than 2,500 corporate customers. Peter Drucker doesn't expect the Internet to replace most K-12 schools or the college as an institution, although, far fewer colleges may be needed in a few years. However, he believes that online continuing education for the new economy's professional and technical workforce will become one of the world's largest industries. Not so long ago, in most American towns, the local doctor, dentist, and lawyer towered over nearly everybody else in terms of occupational technical knowledge and skill. Now that a large proportion of the people working on the front lines in most fields are professionals of one sort or another, that skill gap has narrowed considerably. Moreover, in most fields, skills become obsolete at near-blinding speed. Thus, the market for work-related continuing education and training for persons who are already educated is likely to become increasingly huge.

Hitachi not yet sure about cuts (Monday, 8/27/01)
Japan's largest electronics manufacturer and third-largest chipmaker isn't yet sure whether it will follow Toshiba, the largest maker of computer chips, which, because of big losses, has decided to cut nearly 19,000 jobs. Japan's economy has had its own special problems during the past decade, but, as Regan Morris reports, Asian economies in general are struggling again. The new economy is largely tech-driven, and technology has driven it up as well as down during recent years, but it's not the only sector making cuts. For instance, Deere & Company has decided to cut almost 2,000 additional jobs, bringing total layoffs to 3,225. Moreover, President Bush would like to see a reduction in the number of civilian federal workers, and he has a plan for bringing that about, including buyouts and early retirement incentives. In both private and public sectors, hiring has been put on hold, according to USA Today. In fact, as Brad Dorfman reports from Chicago, some sectors of the American economy are hiring at levels typical of those during the last recession. Nonetheless, while full-time jobs are harder to come by, college students can still find internships, according to a study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Finally, what if you've kept your job while, all around you, your colleagues are losing theirs? You may not expect it, but you'll probably need your own set of coping skills, and here's some advice from the Detroit Free Press.

Some of the new economy's grimmer aspects (Monday, 8/27/01)
Allison Smale of the New York Times writes about some of the darker attributes of the new global economy, including sexual slavery and the international drug trade. Along similar lines, David Finkel of the Washington Post the huge international smuggling industry that deals in human beings, and, of course, exploits them. You may have learned in school that slavery has been left behind during the modern period. However, indications are that, in part because of the much larger global population now, there are more people living and working under conditions of slavery in the world than ever before in history.

Two dangerous labor shortages (Monday, 8/27/01)
The consequences of too few pharmacists and too few teachers can be devastating, although the destructive effects may be more immediate in the first case than in the second. So, if they need you and you're available, it should be easy to get together, right? Not necessarily. Abbey Goodnough tells about the frustrations of a man who wants to be a teacher in a system that needs teachers with his background, and he's not the only one who's frustrated, she says.

Stock slump hurts retirement assets (Monday, 8/27/01)
Older workers' 401(k) accounts lost value last year, according to a new study by the Investment Company Institute and the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and some workers are filing suit.

Talking on the cell phone and driving don't mix, employers are deciding (Monday, 8/27/01)
An increasing number of employers have been talking to their lawyers and haven't liked what they've heard about potential liabilities when their employees talk on the phone while driving.

The President gets around to telling steelworkers what they wanted to hear (Monday, 8/27/01)
President Bush attended a steelworkers' picnic yesterday, telling them how great he thinks hard work and ingenuity are. However, they were more anxious to hear him say that he would help protect their jobs. Meanwhile, one of the President's advisors may be trying to prepare Americans for the inevitable, saying that, given the circumstances, it might not be all that bad to dip into the Social Security surplus.

Surgeon General reports on mental health services (Monday, 8/27/01)
Surgeon General David Satcher released a new report indicating that minorities in the United States suffer disproportionately from mental illness, in part because of their having far less access to quality care.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Contingent Worker (Monday, 8/27/01)
Here are excerpts and a complete table of contents from The Contingent Worker, a book by W. Gilmore McKie & Laurence Lipset and published by the Society for Human Resource Management.

The talk shows' next obsession (Sunday, 8/26/01)
One of the remarkable phenomena of nature is that there is always exactly the same amount of news each day. One might expect that some days would be so news rich that Dan Rather would need several hours for his report, while there would be other days when he would come on and say, "Sorry, nothing of significance happened today, so 'bye." What may be even more remarkable is that with so many 24-hour news channels and so many talk shows, there always seems to be something to talk about for hours on end. The late Senator Morris Udall once said about Congress, that while everything had been said, not everybody had said it. On radio and TV talk shows, though, everybody HAS said it and has said it repeatedly. Some panelists have appeared on Larry King's show almost as often as he has saying more or less the same things about the same topics. What's next? Well, if it were not for the fact that the topic of Gary Condit has not yet been fully exhausted, apparently, we expect that we would be hearing about little else other than the disappearing surplus and who is to blame. Plenty of politicians want to talk about it, but, given all the Gary Condit shows, it's still hard to get air time.

Has a recession begun? Has the recovery begun? Yes, no, and maybe (Sunday, 8/26/01)
Louis Uchitelle of the New York Times says it's anybody's guess, and there are plenty of conflicting indicators to support your favorite speculation.

The reincarnation of Herbert Hoover? (Sunday, 8/26/01)
Jerry Heaster is puzzled by the support for maintaining a big budget surplus during a time that the economy appears to require stimulation. He's also puzzled by the relative positions of Democrats and Republicans on this issue. Haven't things shifted around a bit? Well, this isn't the first time. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a "progressive," and Republican President Abraham Lincoln was regarded by many as a "radical." Moreover, the party of Lincoln attracted less than ten percent of the African American vote last time, while more than 90 percent of American black voters voted for Democratic candidates. Recall that it was the Democrats during the 19th century who were trying to preserve slavery, and it was the Southern Democrats, for the most part, who were the segregationists during much of the 20th century.

Talks resume at VW in Mexico (Sunday, 8/26/01)
Workers remain on strike at Volkswagen in Mexico, but the sides are talking again.

Malaysia changes its immigration rules (Sunday, 8/26/01)
Malaysia will change the law in order to eliminate gender bias in its immigration policies. Here's more from Kuala Lumpur.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Archive for the History of Economic Thought (Sunday, 8/26/01)
Ontario's McMaster University has gathered in one place major texts dealing with the history of economic ideas. Here's their Archive for the History of Economic Thought.

The tech wreck probably isn't over (Saturday, 8/25/01)
Not all the air has escaped from the dot-com speculative bubble, apparently, and the slowed overall economy hasn't helped the survivors continue surviving. Nearly 500 additional companies appear to be in deep trouble. Among the companies that don't appear to be in danger of folding, but are nonetheless hurting because of the downturn, is Toshiba, which makes more computer chips than anybody else. They intend to cut 10 percent of their work force, which, given their size, means a loss of about 20,000 jobs. Business borrowing and spending in the U.S. has slowed to a crawl, and, according to Neil Irwin of the Washington Post, this particularly applies to spending on technology. Is this because each generation of hi-tech quickly saturates its markets? Maybe it will take a new generation of technology to get businesses to buying again. It's hard to sell somebody something s/he already has more than enough of. If this is the case, it helps explain why the Fed's interest rate cuts haven't gotten businesses to borrowing and spending much more yet as many had expected, and it may also mean that the hi-tech sector will have its own boom-bust cycle from now on, which, in an economy becoming increasingly driven by technology, may produce fairly regular booms and busts again, but for somewhat new reasons.

Forecast or expression of hope? (Saturday, 8/25/01)
The President certainly has a special vested political interest in a return of growth to the American economy, given the disappearance of the surplus, budgetary issues, and the big tax cut. He feels that the downtime we're in is only a "correction." The economy should take off again soon, so stand back and watch out!

Is the Fed passing the torch? (Saturday, 8/25/01)
Glenn Somerville says that many experts think that the Fed feels it has done about all it can do and that ignition of renewed growth will depend on consumers.

Record bankruptcies (Saturday, 8/25/01)
People are rushing to declare bankruptcy in very large numbers, in part because of the economy's woes, but also because it may become harder to walk away from debts if the law is changed, as now appears fairly likely.

The privatization of higher ed (Saturday, 8/25/01)
The University of Phoenix is a for-profit institution. It's already very big and quickly getting bigger. Here's more from Christine Romero of the Arizona Republic.

Australia is doing better than many other countries (Saturday, 8/25/01)
The huge American economy's slowdown gets lots of attention, because most things that happen in America tend to produce waves affecting a large region. However, the U.S. isn't the only industrial economy that is suffering at the moment. One that remains in better shape than you might expect is Australia, according to Becky Gaylord in Sidney.

Pilots union will say "no" to binding arbitration (Saturday, 8/25/01)
Pilots at American Airlines will turn down the company's "fast track" proposal, according to union officials.

Life expectancy declines in Russia (Saturday, 8/25/01)
The lives of Russian men are getting shorter, according to Sharon LaFraniere. The stresses of living in a troubled society have exacerbated already unhealthy lifestyles, and the unprecedented high rate of death of men in the 40's and 50's is turning into a disaster for Russian society as a whole.

Doggy bag business booms (Saturday, 8/25/01)
If you're in the business of manufacturing doggy bags for restaurants, times should be pretty good for you. People are still visiting restaurants, but, given the economic slump, they're more frequently asking to take the leftovers home.

A Native American success story (Saturday, 8/25/01)
Will Edwards reports that the Choctaws are now a major economic force in Mississippi.

Survivor stress (Saturday, 8/25/01)
Being laid off is stressful, of course, but what if you're one of the survivors who get to keep your job? Casey Selix of New Jersey's Bergen Record tells why the people who remain employed are finding that their stress levels are increasing as well. In related news, in the Washington, D. C. area, at least, but probably in other regions as well, the loss of full-time jobs is meaning gains for temps, according to the Washington Post.

Outdated employment law? (Saturday, 8/25/01)
James DeLong feels that regulations born of the Great Depression are inappropriate for the new economy in which flexibility is needed.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: New Deal Network (Saturday, 8/25/01)
The New Deal Network is an educational guide to the Great Depression of the 1930s and comes to you from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Big cuts at Lucent (Friday, 8/24/01)
Lucent Technologies' management would rather head a much smaller company that is healthy than a large one that is in danger of going out of business. The major corporate reorganization that's going on includes the slicing of half the workforce it had in January. Twenty-two-hundred workers were given the bad news yesterday. Another formerly high-flying tech company is also restructuring for survival. Duncan Martell reports from San Francisco on the changes at Cisco Systems.

One auto strike begins, while another continues (Friday, 8/24/01)
Workers at Mitsubishi's Normal, Illinois plant have gone on strike, although talks have started up again. The auto workers strike in South Africa continues at the completion of its third week, even though tentative agreement has been reached on a 9 percent pay increase. Finally, in other automobile industry news, DaimlerChrysler will pay a big fine for safety violations following the death last year of a machine repairman at the Toledo, Ohio plant.

Dallas Fed official not optimistic about quick recovery (Friday, 8/24/01)
The president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank expects unemployment to rise, which is likely to wipe out some of the gains made during recent years by persons working in lower-paid occupations. Still, even with all the layoffs so far, the job market has held fairly steady, on average, according to this Washington Post article. There's firing, but also hiring going on.

Who really will be able to protect Social Security? (Friday, 8/24/01)
Both Democrats and Republicans have promised to make Social Security secure for future generations of retiring Americans. Richard Stevenson explains why it's going to be hard for anybody to keep those promises, and Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post tells why that much-talked-out-in-stump-speeches "lock box" idea is a very imperfect metaphor for what can really happen.

"Time zone" differences (Friday, 8/24/01)
When it's getting dark in the U.S., things are bright in India, or something like that. Anshuman Daga reports from Bangalore on the boom in demand for the services of Indian tech experts, who tend to be far less expensive than Americans with the same skills. Meanwhile, Microsoft will invest $60 million to train 20,000 software developers in Mexico, perhaps for some of the same reasons. Also, L. M. Sixel tells about the positive economic impact in the U.S. of its army of illegal immigrant workers.

Quick! Lock up your children. There are going to be even more lawyers (Friday, 8/24/01)
There are twice as many lawyers in the United States as a few years ago when the population was a large proportion of its present size, and it brings to mind that old thing about how, if there's one lawyer in town, s/he may starve, but, if there are two, both may get rich. Jonathan Glater of the New York Times says that the slowed American economy is encouraging quite a lot of people to find something else to do with their time, like going back to school. American law schools are particularly attractive destinations for the young and ambitious.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: A Berkeley Compendium of Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence (Friday, 8/24/01)
Barbara Gross Davis, Lynn Wood, and Robert C. Wilson offer the Berkeley Compendium of Suggestions for Teaching with Excellence for professionals working on the front lines in higher education. The ideas presented have been expanded into a book, Tools for Teaching, published by Josey-Bass.

Tight budget forecast (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Glen Kessler writes that the budget forecast released by the White House yesterday won't leave much for new spending, given the quick vanishing act done by that big surplus you've heard so much about. Caren Bohan reports from Washington that the Administration's forecast of next year's surplus assumes a rapid recovery of the American economy, which, according to Detroit Free Press columnist, isn't likely to happen, despite seven interest rate cuts so far this year. Experts expect the Fed to cut rates one more time in October, but that's likely to be the end of the credit-easing effort. Using a popular perversion of a Freudian concept that might have Sigmund spinning in his grave, editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune claim that the White House is "in denial" over the shrinking surplus, but Matthew Miller says it's all a sideshow and efforts on the part of the Democrats to hang the whole thing on Bush administration policy aren't going to fly. Meanwhile, Bush's Social Security commission's recommendations won't be affected by the diminished surplus, according to them, but Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports that a new indexing plan may be in the works.

Partisan ideology and rhetoric are one thing; realities are another (Thursday, 8/23/01)
The Bush administration might like to be less interventionist and let economic nature take its course, but, as Joseph Kahn reports, it's not necessarily easy to retreat from Clinton-era policies where the rubber meets the road. Argentina will be bailed out after all.

More trouble in techland (Thursday, 8/23/01)
America's Silicon Valley isn't the only hi-tech corridor in the world, and it's certainly not the only one that is having troubles at the moment. Ireland's economy has been benefiting greatly from a technology boom there, but troubles have been brewing. Here's Brian Lavery's report from Dublin.

America depends on its youth (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Consumer spending makes up about 2/3 of the American economy, and it has been the continuing willingness of consumers to spend, despite all the bad news, that has kept the American economy out of recession so far. And who does the most spending? Americans under 35, that's who. Here's more from Robert Manor who reports from Chicago.

A milestone for joblessness (Thursday, 8/23/01)
First-time jobless claims were up last week, and the total number of unemployed has hits its highest level in nine years when the American economy was beginning its recovery from the last recession.

Union protests their American employer in South Korea (Thursday, 8/23/01)
And, in this case, the employer is the American military. Here's more from Seoul about the demands being made by the Korean Employees Union of the U.S. Forces Korea.

Employee benefits in large vs. small companies (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Diane Stafford says most surveys identifying the best companies to work for concentrate on large employers, but an increasing number of people work for small businesses. She thinks she's found the best new source of information for comparing benefit plans in small companies.

EEOC sues Home Depot (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Home Depot hasn't responded to two previous consent decrees, so the Equal Economic Opportunity Commission is suing in federal court in Texas over alleged sexual discrimination in hiring and promotion.

Stay home and save the environment (Thursday, 8/23/01)
The Commerce Department is going to try offering economic incentives to companies who will let their employees "e-commute" in cities with poor air quality.

Big productivity gains may lie just ahead (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Researchers at MIT are developing hardware and software that could increase productivity by 300 percent, according a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Michael Dertouzos, director at the MIT Computer Science Laboratory, is preparing a book on the so-called "Oxygen Project," meaning that computer capabilities will be as readily available as oxygen and as easy to use as breathing.

Overcoming stereotypes (Thursday, 8/23/01)
Popular stereotypes, long reinforced by the popular media, are hard to overcome, even if they no longer have any relationship to reality. Even if they never did. John Fountain reports on efforts to change the image of librarians in order to attract more young people to the field.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Social Security Privatization (Thursday, 8/23/01)
A leading conservative "think tank," the Cato Institute, has provided many of the ideas behind President Bush's plans for the partial privatization of the American Social Security system. Here's information about Cato's Social Security Privatization program.

IMF may have arrived on the scene just in time (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
The International Monetary Fund will release $5 billion to Argentina immediately, easing fears of the Big Default.

Think on the bright side: we no longer have to argue about what to do with the surplus (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
Even before many people have received their tax rebate checks, it appears that the formerly huge surplus is essentially gone, according to new government figures. Among other things, we probably can expect the same panel of experts to appear on Larry King night after night arguing about who is to blame. Joanne Morrison says you can also expect many key Democrats to talk about it publicly quite a lot, given that the scent of blood is in the air and that another election is coming up very soon. Will the surplus reappear? Mitch Daniels, the White House budget director, says it will depend on economic growth.

More bad news for aging boomers (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
The huge boomer demographic group hasn't been saving for retirement all that much, given their persistent myth of eternal youth, and now it appears that they may have to get along on smaller Social Security checks as well, even if there is partial privatization, as the President would like. The White House commission on Social Security meets again today, and, as Adam Entous reports, they're hearing a growing chorus of criticism.

Do the layoffs mean that there will be a labor surplus? (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
That's all temporary, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Get set for one of the most severe labor shortages in American history.

Twin Cities work-force centers not greatly helpful, according to a new study (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
A new report indicates that job seekers haven't been very satisfied with assistance from government-run work-force centers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Here's more from Jean Hopfensperger of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

What are "worker rights?" (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
The old Communist ideal was that everybody was aboard the same ship and that everybody was entitled to a job as well as cradle-to-grave security. Then, the ship began to sink, and vast numbers of people were thrown overboard to fend for themselves in shark-infested waters. Many have managed to crawl aboard very different vessels under very different management where they've found work, but, well, here's more of the story from Erik Eckholm in China.

What's more stressful than having the kids grow up and leave home? (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
Maybe not having them leave at all. Peggy Orenstein writes in Melbourne's The Age that more than half of Japanese women are unmarried by the time they reach 30, and nearly all of them still live with their parents. Many are "parasite singles."

Bull traffic? (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
When you hear somebody say that "the traffic's a real bear," it usually means that it's slow, so, for those in think in terms of Wall Street speak, fast traffic must be "a bull." Traffic in Silicon Valley has gotten more bullish, according to Michael Kahn in San Francisco, and it's because other things have gotten more bearish.

Technically, there's no recession yet, but the reality may be different (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson says that nobody wants to utter that dirty "R" word in public, but look at what appears to be happening.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Recession 101 (Wednesday, 8/22/01)
Recession 101 is primer, starting with a definition of recession, and also including historical information, as well as information about policy options, and more.

Fed makes cut number 7 (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
As expected, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates today for the seventh time this year by a quarter percent. Is it too late to head off a recession? Jim Barlow of the Houston Chronicle has been thinking about that. Jim Weiner writes from Mexico City that the slumping American economy is frustrating Mexico's president, because his nation is being affected and so are President Fox's plans.

Living in what may be the worst place on earth (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
There's always lots of competition, of course, but Afghanistan may be the world's worst place to live right now, for a variety of reasons, and, unsurprisingly, mental health is suffering as a consequence.

Has Washington held up its side of the bargain? (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
The Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial writers say that welfare reform has resulted in more families working, but many are still going hungry. In a related story from the Philadelphia Daily News, a former welfare mother loved being self-sufficient, and it all worked nicely...for a few weeks until her child got sick.

A modern circuit rider (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
During the 19th century, clergy often had to travel a lot in order to serve their parishioners, who were scattered thinly over large areas. Farther Jerry Hogan still does that in order to serve the approximately 10,000 circus workers in his flock, but they travel quite a lot too.

Laid off recruiters (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
Korn/Ferry is the world's largest executive recruiter, but the slowed economy has resulted in its laying off 20 percent of its own staff.

The globalization of Japanese industry (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
More and more, Japanese companies are bringing outsiders in to help run things. Here's more from Tokyo's Asahi Shimbun.

Shhhhhh...here's more about being overheard at work, and watched and read (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
Snooping is big business in business. In fact, your boss may know a good deal more about you and what you've been doing that you would like to believe. Here's more from Kelly Hearn in the Christian Science Monitor.

If you play baseball, you may be going bare-headed by now (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
Steven Greenhouse reports on how things are going with the strike at that baseball cap factory in New York state.

Another example of "your good thing is my bad thing and may be your bad thing too" (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
The "living wage" movement is based on the assumption that people should be able to make a living if they work. Opponents say that letting anything other than market mechanisms establish prices will be counterproductive in the long-run, even for the workers. Mandate what labor has to cost in an environment in which the market determines what everything else costs, and you'll soon be out of business. Mandate what everything has to cost, and you will be trying to emulate the great economic success of North Korea or the failed Soviet Union. On the other hand, if all competitors have to pay the same thing for labor, it's no longer a variable in the competition. But, then, it's a global economy now, which means that many people in other parts of the world will be happy to work for far less than it costs to live in the United States. Then, on the other hand, well...you know. Martin Kasindorf reports for USA Today from Santa Monica on how this argument is playing out in the tourist industry there.

Why are so many employers still struggling to find workers despite a multitude of layoffs? (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
Jim Hopkins reports that a lot of people aren't quite ready to reduce their expectations, so, for the time being, at least, would rather remain unemployed than work for less than they're used to. John Boudreau of Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury News offers some examples in an area of large layoffs where nonprofits are having a terrible time attracting the people they need.

Bush says progress is being made on the military and veterans (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
During the presidential campaign, President Bush vowed to strengthen the military as well as veteran benefits and services, and he says that his administration has been making progress. However, there are been obstacles, not the least of which are sudden budgetary constraints. The once-mighty surplus may not even be a surplus anymore. Among other things, it's giving the Democrats an issue. Christopher Newton caught a glimpse of the President in Kansas City as he zips around the country to defend his tax cut.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Department of Veteran's Affairs (Tuesday, 8/21/01)
The Department of Veteran's Affairs is the federal agency that takes care of most issues involving veterans of the U.S. armed services.

White House optimism persists (Monday, 8/20/01)
Our older readers or those with fairly long attention spans may remember something called a "surplus." Suddenly, though, there's talk about having to cut spending so as to preserve surpluses in Social Security and Medicare, although Lawrence Lindsey says that he thinks it unlikely that the Bush administration will have to dip into Social Security. The Los Angeles Times reports that new rules will cut Medicare payments for some procedures beginning during the next few days. If that news doesn't make you a bit less happy about your stage of life, Lee Bowman reports on the rapidly increasing cost of medication for seniors. Meanwhile, the Administration stands by its growth forecast for next year, even though many leading Democrats are saying that it is excessively optimistic. The leading indicators are up for the fourth month in a row, though.

Consequences of global integration (Monday, 8/20/01)
Flash! The "global economy" means that the economy is global. It has become increasingly difficult to isolate events in one region from other regions. Joseph Kahn and Edmund Andrews report that the whole global system has been slowing.

Sickout at Cathay Pacific (Monday, 8/20/01)
More flights are canceled by the Hong Kong airline as pilots call in sick.

Little hope for trapped miners (Monday, 8/20/01)
Dozens of miners were killed in an explosion in a coal mine in Ukraine. Others have been trapped, and hope for them is nearly gone, according to Lina Kushch reporting from Donetsk.

HBR contradicts (Monday, 8/20/01)
If you want to read a scholarly article on the importance of fostering employee loyalty, read the one in the current edition of Harvard Business Review . On the other hand, if you want to read a scholarly article on how to fire people, simply move on to the next one. Louis Uchitelle has more on the new economy's contradictions.

Employer-sponsored health coverage: read the fine print (Monday, 8/20/01)
All health plans are not created equal, to put it mildly. Here's more from Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times.

Job training often includes language skills now (Monday, 8/20/01)
General Patton's remark during the Second World War about the U.S. and Britain being "separated by a common language" might be applied to the American workplace. Jan Norman of the Orange County Register reports that 100 languages are spoken in California, and, nationally, about as many people speak something other than English as the total American population during the Civil War. Still, it is very convenient to share a common language on the job, to say the very least.

Poverty vs. dependency as risk factors (Monday, 8/20/01)
Editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune examine new data relating to poverty and welfare reform in the United States.

Asking for money (Monday, 8/20/01)
You feel you deserve a raise, but you'd rather face oral surgery than ask for it. Candace Goforth has some advice on how to turn it into a positive experience. Honest.

The un-retired (Monday, 8/20/01)
Seasoned executives are being called out of retirement to help with companies facing hard times. Linda Johnson tells about ex-CEOs who are becoming CEOs again.

Bush taps the brakes on his amnesty plans (Monday, 8/20/01)
Resistance from the Congress is causing the President to go slow on plans to which he called a lot of attention very recently.

Sleeping on the job (Monday, 8/20/01)
David Kaplan tells what small companies are doing to please their workers and hang on to them. As Kitty Kallen sang in the 1950s, little things mean a lot...sometimes.

How to raise the temperature of a college president (Monday, 8/20/01)
Alex Kuczynski reports that many higher education leaders aren't happy about a leading news magazine's latest ranking of American colleges.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Validity of the U.S. News and World Report Ranking of ABA Law Schools (Monday, 8/20/01)
A few years ago, Doctors Stephen Klein and Laura Hamilton conducted a study of the methods used by U.S. News in ranking American law schools and found those methods wanting.

Fujitsu makes big job cuts, but only a fifth of them in Japan (Sunday, 8/19/01)
The big tech slowdown has affected chipmaker Fujitsu, which intends to cut about 10 percent of its global workforce. This amounts to approximately 15,000 jobs, 3,000 of which will be cut in Japan.

Latin American leaders put in a frantic call to the "the fire department" (Sunday, 8/19/01)
There is widespread fear throughout Latin America that Argentina is about to default on $128 billion worth of debt, and, if this happens, other Latin American economies may feel as though they've been swept over by a Tsunami. Political leaders throughout the region believe that, whether or not President Bush is "fire chief," he can have a great deal of influence on the IMF. Neighboring Brazil's economy is also fumbling a bit, but here's different news from Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian Congress has passed legislation giving women equal legal status.

Wellstone vows to do battle over Social Security (Sunday, 8/19/01)
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota says he will fight to prevent the partial privatization of Social Security that is favored by the President. The Senator and President Bush probably agree on little more than the location of Washington, D. C. On most issues, the Senator is regarded as one of the most "liberal" in the Congress, with the possible exception of Senators Kennedy and Rodham-Clinton, although over the decades that Kennedy has been in the Senate, he has developed a reputation as a superbly competent legislator who is able to work with both Democrats and Republicans when the need arises, so he hasn't been as predictable on all issues as the other two might be. Wellstone has decided to run again next year, despite an earlier promise to limit himself to two terms in the Senate. Ostensibly because of a back ailment, he chose to remove himself from the list of possible presidential candidates last time, and, presumably, has no presidential ambitions from here on. Kennedy's presidential ambitions probably ended many years ago, while it's widely suspected that Senator Clinton hopes to live in the White House again someday, but in a different role than before. Kennedy and Clinton, among others, are likely to be allies of Wellstone on the Social Security issue, although no one should take that for granted, given that the three Senators don't have identical interests, including ones relating to their careers. Former Democratic Senator Moynihan, whom Clinton succeeded, is a member of the Bush administration commission that has been studying the overhaul of Social Security and has favored partial privatization.

More optimism from the Administration (Sunday, 8/19/01)
Bush's economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey says that he expects the American economy to accelerate over the next two quarters. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lower interest rates for the seventh time this year on Tuesday. Meanwhile, severance plans are getting less generous as increasing numbers of people are laid off, and people with hi-tech skills are losing some of their resistance to relocating in order to obtain employment, according to this Boston Globe story.

Bankruptcies on the rise (Sunday, 8/19/01)
Bankruptcy attorneys are doing well nationally, including in Minnesota, whose economy tends to be better in many respects than the national economy. Here's more form Rob Hotakainen on the increase in the rate at which people are going broke.

Thousands of Minnesota state workers may be heading for a strike (Sunday, 8/19/01)
A union representing 19,000 state workers in Minnesota has recommended that they strike next month. In Mexico, 12,500 VW workers are already on strike.

Mine explosion in Ukraine (Sunday, 8/19/01)
At least 33 miners are dead. Many have been injured and more are missing.

Retirement nest eggs shrink (Sunday, 8/19/01)
According to a new study, the stock market's decline has resulted in a decrease in the retirement assets of many.

Another thing an employer can know about you (Sunday, 8/19/01)
Syndicated columnist Carol Kleiman of the Chicago Tribune says that your financial history really isn't all that private. You may want to take a look at William Hubbartt's new book, The New Battle over Workplace Privacy.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Privacy International (Sunday, 8/19/01)
Privacy International is a nonprofit international organization that sees itself as a watchdog on surveillance, not only by governments, but also by corporations. The organization is centered in London but also has offices in Washington, D. C.

IMF frustrating Argentine leaders (Saturday, 8/18/01)
The government has been scrambling to secure a big aid package from the International Monetary Fund, and that might happen, but not immediately, necessarily, and probably not as fast as the officials say they need it. They believe their long-struggling economy is now in an emergency situation, because big loan defaults could be imminent.

Not an exception to the trend (Saturday, 8/18/01)
The American auto industry isn't an exception to the job-cutting rule in big-time corporate America, and the big layoffs at Ford confirm what the Chrysler chief had to say late last year. Alenjandro Bodipo-Memba of the Detroit Free Press reports that many Ford employees had seen the cuts coming, and James Butters reports from Detroit that the big cuts just announced may not be the last at Ford.

More funding for affordable housing (Saturday, 8/18/01)
According to Governor Gray Davis and others, California is in an affordable housing crisis, and it's not the only region of the country with that problem. The governor has signed legislation that will allow an increase in the California Housing Financing Agency bond debt to provide additional financing to ease the affordable housing shortage.

Another interest rate cut may be imminent (Saturday, 8/18/01)
July's Consumer Price Index fell more than at any time since 1986, and, as the St. Petersburg Times reports, this has heightened expectations that the Fed will cut interest rates a seventh time in 2001 and do it soon. Reason: the sluggish American economy might benefit from yet another shot in the arm, and inflation risk seems minimal at the moment.

Pickier employers (Saturday, 8/18/01)
For those with job skills to sell, it's not so much a seller's market anymore. There are more job applicants for employers to choose from in many sectors, so employers are putting applicants under the microscope and through the mill again, to mix metaphors a bit.

Sad loss (Saturday, 8/18/01)
After 25 years, Working Woman magazine will cease publication following its September issue. It's sister magazine, Working Mother, will survive, for the time-being at least, and, following a sale, the new company will be called Working Mother Media.

Boston paper editorializes on "living wage" (Saturday, 8/18/01)
Boston has a living wage ordinance, and the Boston Globe's editorial writers say it is a work in progress.

Australian employers say maternity provisions too generous (Saturday, 8/18/01)
The Australian Catholic University is offering a level of maternity leave that many employers throughout the country say would cost too much for them. Here's more about the current argument over who should be responsible for the cost of these kinds of entitlements.

Black professionals make less (Saturday, 8/18/01)
Quynh-Giang Tran writes from Chicago for the San Jose Mercury News that, even in highly paid, prestigious professions, blacks tend to make less than whites.

Not everything in the new economy is new (Saturday, 8/18/01)
Susan Reed writes about the same old sexual harassment.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Military Women (Saturday, 8/18/01)
Military Women is a site by military women for working military women as well as those who are considering the military as a career.

Big cuts at Ford (Friday, 8/17/01)
Ford is one of two of the oldest and most familiar automotive brand names to become battered by bad publicity recently, as well as the cost of huge recalls. Earnings forecasts have been cut back, and about 10 percent of Ford's salaried North American workforce will be cut. That will amount to as many as 5,000 white-collar jobs.

Three signs of hope (Friday, 8/17/01)
National numbers representing inflation, housing starts, and unemployment offer signs that the American economy might be preparing for a rebound. However, these are national averages, so local conditions can vary considerably. For instance, Arizona's unemployment rate declined in July, but it appears to be a fluke. Here's more on that from Hal Mattern of the Arizona Republic. Nationally, though, there may be reason for genuine optimism, at least in the judgment of the White House. Frank Bruni says that the Administration is forecasting a doubling of the growth rate next year, but Democrats say the Bush White House's optimism may be tainted a bit by political considerations.

Flight attendants at American expected to ratify new agreement (Friday, 8/17/01)
The latest proposed agreement has been well-received, according to members of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants.

Hispanic business people form an alliance (Friday, 8/17/01)
Among other things, the new Southwest Hispanic Economic Alliance is intended to help politicians get into better touch with reality on business and social issues relating to Hispanic populations as well as the border region.

Who are the real estate agents? (Friday, 8/17/01)
A new survey has taken a look, and, among other things, finds that 60 percent of them are women, but that male agents tend to make more money.

Bill would provide protection at work (Friday, 8/17/01)
Battered women can't necessarily expect to be safe from abusive domestic partners, even at their places of work. Jessica Thompson reports on a bill in Congress that would provide protection. Meanwhile, the EEOC has accused a Texas company of firing two workers because they became pregnant.

Heatstroke as an occupational hazard (Friday, 8/17/01)
The death of a well-known football player has called attention to risks of heatstroke in other lines of work. Railroad engineers are among those who are particularly vulnerable, according to columnist L. M. Sixel.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: CertPortal (Friday, 8/17/01)
IT certification is quickly becoming a major credential of choice in the hi-tech sector, even more so than some kinds of college tech degrees, in fact. CertPortal claims to offer access to many of the resources you're likely to be searching for if you are interested in obtaining knowledge and skills in information technology which can become officially certified.

Consumer prices down in July (Thursday, 8/16/01)
If you've still been worrying about inflation, it may be safe to worry about something else for a while. The consumer price index declined by 0.3 percent in July, more than most experts had expected. Here's more from USA Today.

Somebody forgot to secure the lock on the box (Thursday, 8/16/01)
Remember the rhetoric about putting Social Security in a lock box? Jonathan Weisman reports from Washington that the Bush administration and Congress are going to be using Social Security reserves to pay other government bills this fiscal year.

School year will begin with many teacher vacancies (Thursday, 8/16/01)
School districts across the country are scrambling to hire the teachers they will need when the student arrive soon, and thousands of positions are still vacant.

Bush speaks on behalf of Mexican truckers (Thursday, 8/16/01)
The President says that attempts to remove Mexican trucks from American roads amounts to discrimination. Meanwhile, many Mexican truckers are unenthusiastic about NAFTA, and Chris Kraul of the Los Angeles Times explains.

White House holds off on Clinton-era rules (Thursday, 8/16/01)
Rules set up by the Clinton White House to protect millions of Medicaid patients will not be implemented as-is by the Bush administration. Here are details from Sue Pleming in Washington.

USDA says "no" to foreclosures (Thursday, 8/16/01)
More than 100 farmers are suing because they say they're being forced by the United States Department of Agriculture to pay money they do not owe. The USDA has told lenders not to foreclose on loans while the suits are in progress.

A good time for outsourcing? (Thursday, 8/16/01)
Small business operators know that, of all the routine management functions that can consume precious time and enlarge one's bad-word vocabulary, payroll, even with the help of modern software, may be the champion. Yvette Armendariz writes in the Arizona Republic that the tax cut and changed withholding levels offer an opportune time to start letting somebody else do it. Outsourcing payroll can be a good idea for very small firms, in particular.

A challenge to faith (Thursday, 8/16/01)
Suggesting to many Americans that their children might be better off not going to college is a bit like trying to tell them that their religion is a bunch of hogwash. Richard Rothstein reports that even many professional counselors and career experts will say that one size certainly doesn't fit all, even in the new economy. Parents of young people tend to be caught in a time warp. In the old economy, a four-year college degree was like a union card entitling the bearer to economic security, a station wagon, and a mortgage in the suburbs, no matter what the major, because it was seen by employers as evidence of trainability and also the ability to complete something.

However, in the new economy, employers are much more skills-oriented and less credentials-oriented. That is, they want specific things done and they want to hire people who can do them shortly after arriving on-site. For instance, as PBS' NewsHour reported recently, at least two million young people are seeking IT certification as a means for obtaining some of the really GOOD hi-tech jobs. During the past few years, this employer-driven program has gained momentum, leaving conventional four-year colleges out of the picture in many cases. To many employers, IT certification is seen as far more important than a college degree. So, stay tuned.

Another who is a lawyer's ears (Thursday, 8/16/01)
Marci Alboher Nusbaum tells about an attorney whose deafness is not a barrier.

If rats tend to win rat races... (Thursday, 8/16/01)
...Maybe it's time to drop out. Columnist Amy Joyce says an increasing number of people are making a major change during mid-life, particularly after being laid off. Meanwhile, Stephanie Armour reports that many laid-off boomers are finding that age is getting in the way of finding a new job.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: National Association of Business Economics (Thursday, 8/16/01)
The National Association of Business Economics publishes a quarterly journal, Business Economics. Most articles are available online free to NABE members. Selected articles are available free to non-members and others can be ordered for a fee.

BOJ tries again (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
The Bank of Japan says it will loosen credit, and this surprises analysts and investors. The effort to inject liquidity into the economy is an effort to fight deflation and get things moving. The once-mighty Japanese economy has been struggling for a decade and government actions so far haven't had much effect. A speculative real estate bubble burst years ago and left Japanese banks with a lot of bad loans which have not yet been disposed of. Not far away to the west, the South Korean government has decided to liquidate 49 companies that have been insolvent and putting a drag on the country's economy.

The American workplace gets less deadly (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
Overall, workplace deaths declined last year, according to Labor Department numbers, but deaths among Hispanic workers increased. Moreover, work-related deaths were up 22 percent for the year in Texas.

The 1990s were good...for many individuals (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
The boom period of the 1990s meant strong overall economic statistics, but the benefits were distributed very unevenly. Moreover, according to editorial writers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, public investment was neglected, meaning that a precious opportunity to advance the society as a whole may have been squandered. Of course, an article of faith among economic conservatives is that the public good is best served by individuals pursuing their own ends without undo interference by government. There is something to this, but isn't that also the ideology of the street thief? Doesn't he want to maximize his own gains without interference from the community? The ideal might be to encourage the profit motive, while also teaching society's big financial winners about the emptiness of personal excess.

While recovery from the tech wreck may take a while (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
During the 1990s, the American economy was largely driven by a tech boom, but some of it was speculative and inflated in ways that could not be sustained. Now, even fundamentally strong technology companies are undergoing a painful retrenchment in order to get their financial houses back in order. That's going to take a while. Also, as Intel's brilliant Andy Grove has pointed out, the tech sector will come back, but not with current technology, of which there's already a glut, and this helps explain why interest rate cuts haven't spurred greater spending business borrowing and spending. We'll all have to wait for the next round of irresistible technological stuff, among other things. Susan Tompor says that an increasing number of economists seem to be lowering their forecasts of economic growth for the remainder of this year. However, in the good news column, the depression in American manufacturing may be easing. Industrial production declined less than expected in July. But, on the other hand, while consumer spending has kept the U.S. economy out of recession recently, that may not continue. Consumer confidence is beginning to dip, according to new data. Here's more from David Francis of the Christian Science Monitor.

Self-service hospitals? (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
Self-sufficiency can be a good thing, but it may be a bit much to ask if you're sick and in a hospital. William Borden reports on the continuing staff shortages at hospitals across the United States, including the shortage of nurses. Meanwhile, Randolph Heaster writes from Kansas City about the victory achieved recently by Nurses United for Improved Patient Care. And, speaking of unions, Laura Parker of USA Today reports that Hispanic immigrants are strengthening the American organized labor movement after a long period of decline, and (as a consequence?) the AFL-CIO has changed its attitude about illegal immigrants. Finally in labor news, workers at a Nissan plant in Tennessee are requesting a union organization vote. It could become the first foreign-owned auto assembly plant organized by the UAW.

You can bring your children to work, and not just for a single day per year (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
Jilian Mincer tells about a company that feels it's in its own enlightened self-interest to be "kid-friendly."

What to do about disabling credit card debt? (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
Eric Tyson answers a correspondent who always seems to owe more than $5,000 to a well-known credit card company, which means that a depressingly large proportion of his/her income has to go simply to pay rent on somebody else's money. Feelings of liberation can come from cutting away that debt, even if the surgery seems painful.

We have not yet BEGUN to procrastinate (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
Lisa Belkin discusses why some jobs are so unsavory to us that he can't get around to doing them until they get much worse.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Depression News (Wednesday, 8/15/01)
The Depression News comes to you from the Michigan Historical Museum. Of course, we're well-advised not to forget history if we don't want to repeat it, as the great Spanish philosopher pointed out. However, large segments of the world's current population live under conditions that make the American Great Depression seem like a period of prosperity, so a little empathy training might be in order for most of the world's privileged.

Bush signs $5.5 billion farm bill (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
It's the fourth farm bailout in four years, suggesting that the "Freedom to Farm" act of the 1990s that was supposed to "free" farmers from government regulation and intervention hasn't worked quite as planned. Bloomberg News reports that farm income is expected to be quite good this year, compared to the past five years, in part because of federal aid, but also because some prices have improved somewhat. The Christian Science Monitor tells about one farm family that has been kept in business by government subsidies. Also, Noel Paul tells about the problem of family succession on American farms. Retirement isn't easy when you try to sell either. Finally, Mr. Paul tells about the army of adolescents deployed each summer to "detassel" corn, and he explains why anyone would want to do that.

Incidentally, why aren't failing farmers simply allowed to fail, particularly by a free-market Republican administration, or by the "new Democrat" administration that preceded it? It's partly nostalgia and partly very practical. Not so long ago, a large proportion of the American population lived on its farms, rather than the microscopic proportion now. Also, it's the kind of America that Thomas Jefferson wanted to see develop, but he had in mind subsistence farming, or simply living off the land, not farming as a business, which so far, despite individual successes, hasn't yet proven its long-term viability. In fact, many economists believe that farming is inherently unprofitable; that, left to him/herself, any farmer eventually will go out of business if he/she stays in it long enough. So, given that most people like to eat, it isn't quite the same as letting the buggy whip manufacturing plants fail when they were no longer viable.

More unkind cuts (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
Citigroup will cut an additional 3,000 jobs, and the Wall Street Journal reports that America Online intends to cut more jobs as well. Gateway Computer Corporation has been struggling lately, and their layoffs aren't affecting Americans alone. In fact, as Bruce Stanley reports from Dublin, individuals as well as the economy as a whole are being hurt in Ireland. A slower economy has meant less business travel, which is hurting many airlines, but some more than others. Midway Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and laid off half of its employees. The travel industry is hurting, not only because of the decline in business travel, although that's its bread and butter, but also because of declining tourism. Here's more on that from Mark Sappenfield in San Francisco.

Executive search firms hurt by economic deceleration (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
For a time, executive search firms enjoyed a boom similar to that of the dot-coms, but, to the chagrin of their managers and investors, the similarity didn't end with the boom. Speaking of executives--mostly retired rather than displaced, we think--the International Executive Service Corps is joining forces with the Geekcorps to help poor countries join the global economy by narrowing the digital divide.

Silicon Valley beats the national economy (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
It isn't a contest anyone wants to win. Jennifer Bjorhus of the San Jose Mercury News reports that Santa Clara County has a higher unemployment rate than that of the nation as a whole for the first time in six years.

Another Internet experiment (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
Michigan's unemployment agency will try out the Internet as a means whereby people will be able to apply for first-time jobless benefits. The experimental program will begin next month. As we've claimed repeatedly, while the Internet may or may not prove to be a viable or popular way to buy groceries or books, even if e-commerce sites aimed at consumers turn out to be a bust in the long-run--this certainly hasn't been the case so far, despite a lot of conspicuous dot-com failures--the Internet will continue to change everything on the planet anyway.

For instance, if you'd like to read more than 5,000 of Lincoln's law cases, no problem. No charge either. If you'd like to read any one of hundreds if not thousands of literary classics but aren't near either a bookstore or a library, no problem. And, of course, there are dozens of other examples.

One other experiment which has been in the news lot lately was one conducted by the Pentagon last November, which spent $6.2 million to see how well it would work for 72 Americans overseas to vote via the Internet. As a measure of how even the non-tabloid press can make you crazy, Dan Rather, in reporting the story, emphasized how much that amounted to per vote. We don't know if $6.2 million is a reasonable cost for that kind of research or not, but it was an EXPERIMENT, Dan. If you report on a laboratory study which could possibly lead to an effective treatment for cancer affecting millions of people, you don't become obsessed with how much the experiment cost per rat.

Incidentally, Lisa Gill may be right about the voting study: that it raises more questions than answers, but that's usually the way it is with research. Almost never does a guy in a white lab coat run out of the laboratory shouting "Eureka!" upon the completion of a single experiment. Genuine scientific progress usually is the result of many studies, which may take tiny forward steps if we're lucky, but may take several steps ahead and as well as several backward. It can seem slow if you watch a clock, but the cumulative result can occur with lightning speed, relatively speaking, if, instead, you keep your eye on the calendar. Modern humans have been on the planet for at least tens of thousands of years, but most genuine verifiable knowledge is a product of very recent years; i.e., since we finally learned how to do it.

In principal, is there really any apparent reason why voting on the Internet can't become at least as precise an activity as banking? When's the last time you were in disagreement with your banker over the amount of a deposit because of a "hanging chad?"

You don't have to be an illegal to be abused (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
Illegal immigrants are very vulnerable to exploitation or abuse by employers and others because of their illegal status and fear of deportation. However, as Deborah Kong reports many of those already working in the U.S. legally are often mistreated as well, and some organizations are trying to encourage changes.

Better no commute at all when a commute would be too long (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
Farmers and ranchers often work very close to home, of course, but you may be surprised to learn that South Dakota and Montana lead in other types of home workers too. Here's more from Bob Anez in Helena, Montana.

The changing face of China (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
For most of the time since 1949, "Chinese public opinion" has been an oxymoron, or, at least, any expression of it certainly has been. However, that seems to be changing. Here's another example of a workers openly expressing their discontent with their economic situation and government policy without getting beat up, arrested, or shot, and that's news.

Music lessons, ballet lessons, why not budgeting lessons? (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
As we've reported, experts are becoming increasingly alarmed at the level of financial illiteracy in the United States. Steve Rosen suggests two books that may help a little like the shots almost all American kids get now that can protect them from miseries later. Along these lines, columnist Susan Tompor of the Detroit Free Press tells how to shop for school this fall without getting a second mortgage on the house.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Canadian Employment Trends (Tuesday, 8/14/01)
Here are Canadian Employment Trends as viewed from the perspective of British Columbia.

Try not to think about it, Rumsfeld tells Russian leaders (Monday, 8/13/01)
Don't think about American plans for developing a missile defense system. Instead, think about your own economy. That's basically the message left in Moscow by American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Actors finalize contract (Monday, 8/13/01)
Members of the two big Hollywood actors' unions have ratified their new contract with a vote of 96.7 percent. If you've been hoping for a lot of re-runs and more "reality" shows not requiring actors, at least not professional ones, it looks like you'll have to settle for all the ordinary stuff this season.

America still thinks in terms of "black" and "white" (Monday, 8/13/01)
Psychologists and other social scientists have long emphasized that perception IS reality for people, so, despite overwhelming evidence that the concept of "race" is more in people's heads than in the realities of biology, America has a long history of categorizing people in terms of their skin tone and other superficial characteristics, and the concept of "race" continues to cast a very long shadow.

Christina Ling reports that data from the 2000 Census show that the black-white division remains in American society, although there has been an increase in the number of so-called "mixed race" children.

Secretary of State Colin Powell is often referred to as "black" or "African American," but he claims that is an over-simplification. He says that he is African, Caribbean, Native American, and Irish, among other things, which seems to underscore the senselessness of trying to put individuals into simple categories. Why not just call him "Colin Powell" and not try to categorize him based on his skin tone anymore than on his shoe size?

However, given the sordid history of America's race-based thinking, we are still near in time to a period when, even if it could be "demonstrated" to somebody's satisfaction that as little as 1/32 of the person's "blood" were black, this would mean that the individual was "black" and, therefore, eligible to be a slave and not eligible to marry a "white" person. Never mind that heredity has nothing whatever to do with blood, and that everybody's blood is the same color.

It's all an indication of how goofy things can get and how an entire society can reach a point where it resembles some sort of hospital, and also why, in the construction of comfortable "subjective realities," people should be encouraged to make a special effort to take genuine verifiable facts into consideration.

Incidentally, we believe that there is some chance that America's increasing diversity will help erode the notion that human beings come in two basic "colors" or types. There aren't just two anymore--as if there ever were--but many. In reality, human beings do not occupy simple discrete categories, but, instead, each is best described as the unique intersection of a very large number of continuous dimensions.

Lingering discrimination in home ownership (Monday, 8/13/01)
African Americans have made economic gains since the last recession, but still lag in home ownership. When "nuisance variables," as researchers call them, are controlled, the bias persists, and much of it seems attributable to cumulative discrimination. Meanwhile, speaking of discrimination, Stephanie Armour of USA Today reports that employers are coming under increasing pressure to adopt policies that will protect gays from bias in the workplace.

Which state appears to have the highest rate of employment among persons with disabilities? (Monday, 8/13/01)
It's Minnesota, according to 2000 Census data. More than two-thirds of persons with disabilities are employed in the land of 14,000-plus lakes, compared to a national average of 52 percent.

The end of temp nursing home workers? (Monday, 8/13/01)
Temp agencies in Minnesota that supply workers to the state's 422 nursing homes fear that a new law will put them out of business and also leave many nursing homes without the personnel they desperately need.

Whom workers compensation protects (Monday, 8/13/01)
Not just the workers, according to Sally MacDonald in the Kansas City Star.

Why spending continues (Monday, 8/13/01)
Two-thirds of the American economy is consumer spending, and it is the continuing willingness of consumers to spend that has kept the economy out of recession. Scott Burns tells why Americans continue to spend, despite increasing unemployment, slumping stock values, and more. For many people, it has to do with the equity in their homes which makes a lot of money available for buying. Can this go on forever? Is the Pope Baptist? Is the United States located in the Red Sea? Does the sun revolve around the earth?

The need for basic financial education (Monday, 8/13/01)
What Americans don't know about their money might be enough to make you cry. It's a time-bomb that we can expect to blow sky-high sometime, according to experts. Pamela Yip of the Detroit Free Press has more about the desperate need for financial literacy initiatives. It may be that Americans know more about geography, but, then, there was that national poll some years ago that found that one of six or seven American adults were unable to locate the United States on a world map. A lot of people simply don't know where on earth they are. In fact, overall, the huge gap between our best available knowledge about nature, including human nature, and what most people seem to believe about either seems to have grown tremendously in recent years. Part of the reason is the knowledge explosion. Are there other parts of the reason?

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: Consumers' Checkbook (Monday, 8/13/01)
Consumers' Checkbook wants to help you make more intelligent use of your money.

Hopeful Europeans look west (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Eastern European countries that were once part of the old Soviet block lust after European Union membership. Peter Finn reports from Fulga, Romania and explains some of the reasons.

Settlement at Air Wisconsin (Sunday, 8/12/01)
A strike of 700 pilots has been averted at Air Wisconsin, a major regional carrier, as a tentative agreement is reached.

Update on welfare reform (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Barbara Ehrenreich says that welfare reform is regarded by many as a resounding success, at least according to conventional measures. But, what do these measures cover, keeping in mind that "cover" can mean either "include" or "conceal." For all practical purposes, poverty persists, she says, and there are good reasons to be concerned with its effects on children, echoes the Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial writers, particularly in families that remain "understaffed." Blaine Harden of the New York Times says that there are similar reasons to take statistics showing an increase in the number of two-parent families with a grain of salt. What about the well-being of children in those households? Is it necessarily better?

Senators agree on House farm subsidy bill (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Two leading Senators, one Democrat, one Republican, agree that they don't like the House's approach to helping American farmers. They want to see a change of direction.

Unions want illegal immigrants made legal (Sunday, 8/12/01)
American organized labor isn't satisfied with the Bush plan for defining a "guest worker" category. Leigh Strope explains why they want amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

Japanese population increases during the past year (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Japan's Ministry of Public Management says that Japan's population now stands at about 126 million, with more people moving into the large cities. Japan's land area is smaller than that of California, even though Japan has about forty-five percent as many people as the entire United States.

Some of the benefits of being a healthy worker (Sunday, 8/12/01)
A study conducted at Xerox Corporation finds that healthy employees not only miss less work because of illness, but also have fewer accidents on the job as well, resulting in reduced workers' compensation costs.

Consumers become more price-conscious (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Consumer spending makes up two-thirds of the American economy, and the fact that consumers have continued to buy seems to be the principal reason that a recession has been averted so far. But, as Anne d'Innocenzio reports from New York, patterns of consumer spending have changed, with discount stores, and people employed by them, presumably, benefiting. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, but that represents an average of economic activity overall, and a given average can be produced by a variety of very different patterns of conditions.

As it happens, while the overall economy has not yet become recessionary, there is great variability among particular sectors. Agriculture, for the most part, has been in a depression during recent years, increasingly dependent on federal bail-outs,, while manufacturing has been in a recession for several months. Average pain may not be as great as it has been during times past, but some pain seems particularly acute. Meanwhile, Argentina would gladly trade its economic problems for those in the U.S. Still, as Clifford Krauss reports from Catamarca Province, President Fernando de la Rua finds some people expressing a bit more hope than he's accustomed to.

The best of bad times (Sunday, 8/12/01)
The lives of coal miners are usually hard and sometimes horrible. Given alternatives, young people tend not to be attracted to the work. Times are fairly good for those already in the mines, though, according to Charlie LeDuff. As the miners say, "The only thing worse than this work is not having it."

Americans don't feel they're getting their share of UN jobs (Sunday, 8/12/01)
The number of United Nations jobs held by Americans has been diminishing, and has become even less commensurate with U.S. contributions to UN agency budgets.

Free advice may be worth what it costs (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Michelle Singletary says that it can be a good idea to purchase professional financial advice.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The Irascible Professor (Sunday, 8/12/01)
Mark Shapiro has been an academic for about thirty years and offers satirical commentary on the higher educational establishment in The Irascible Professor.

Bush disappoints conservatives...again (Saturday, 8/11/01)
In a nation of 280 million unique individuals, a great many voters end up voting for a particular presidential candidate because they don't feel they have anyplace else to go, not because they're particularly happy with the choices. Thus, both major parties are complex coalitions of people who don't necessarily have a great deal in common when a campaign isn't going on, and any president or presidential hopeful has the delicate task of pleasing a lot of people with very different sensibilities, or, at least, not displeasing them too much. President Bush's political base includes the Republican party's right wing, which includes religious conservatives. Many are unhappy with his stem cell research decision, and many are also unhappy with his administration's decision to defend affirmative action. Whether any of them will be unhappy enough to withdraw their support in the next presidential election will depend on who the Democratic candidate is, but, probably not.

Threat of protests changes meeting plans (Saturday, 8/11/01)
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will meet in Washington next month, but have decided to cut their meeting time back to two days because of planned protests.

Fee increases proposed by the INS (Saturday, 8/11/01)
The Immigration and Naturalization Service would like to boost fees for green cards and naturalization, and this concerns many people. Here's more from Kimberly Hayes Taylor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Columnist says that the ghost of Taylor watches over the new economy workplace (Saturday, 8/11/01)
F. W. Taylor was the industrial age's first "efficiency expert" who tried to make the worker part of the machinery, but much subsequent research by industrial psychologists found that "industrial engineering" time-and-motion approaches tend to be counterproductive, given the very great differences between human workers and machines. Molly Ivins writes that hi-tech has brought back "Taylorism." There's a fairly good chance that your every keystroke is being monitored on the job, but if you're wondering if you're being watched as you use your computer elsewhere, here's software that may be able to help you find out.

Why the new productivity numbers matter (Saturday, 8/11/01)
Jerry Heaster says second-quarter productivity was better than expected, and he explains why it is so important.

Older Americans may remember something called "vacations" (Saturday, 8/11/01)
Marilyn Gardner reports that many Americans fantasize about taking some time off, and, with similar conclusions, Anupama Chandrasekaran writes that many Americans are not only spending less time on vacations but less money as well.

What if a Martian says, "Take me to your leader?" (Saturday, 8/11/01)
Many American workers might lead their visitor to somebody other than the boss. Here's more from the Christian Science Monitor. Diane Stafford says that an increasing number of companies are trying to do something about the situation by establishing leadership development programs.

Today's NewWork News Web Tip: The International Society of Malthus (Saturday, 8/11/01)
If you feel that Malthus' ideas are so out of date that an organization in his name would be like "The Flat Earth Society," members of The International Society of Malthus might disagree.

Still no recovery in sight (Friday, 8/10/01)
According to a panel of experts, the Japanese economy is getting worse, not better. Among the casualties will be people work