October 17, 2003

Recovery of jobs lost in state seen taking years
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 9:00 AM -

This morning's Globe reports on a New England Economic Project study which says it will take years for hiring to fully rebound.

The long, slow climb ahead -- job growth next year is projected at an anemic 1 percent -- is a product of how far, and how fast, the state's economy fell during the recent recession. The state's concentration of technology and financial services firms, the hardest hit by the bursting of the Internet and stock market bubbles, made the recession here far more severe than the nation as a whole.

...

Belly up
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 8:47 AM -

All good things must end. With heavy hearts and heavy eyelids, we now return you to your regularly-scheduled Job Blog.

...

 

October 16, 2003

An important day at the office
Posted by deisenhart@bostonworks.com">Douglas Eisenhart at 2:03 PM -

OK, here's your typical workday: You show up to the office and go to your accustomed place. As you find your place, 50,000 people settle into their seats to watch you while you work. Countless millions more tune in to watch you on television, while millions more track your performance on the radio in multiple languages around the globe. And tonight you have a very important meeting, on the road. And you and your colleagues are out to prove once again that you're the best in the business.

Your job? Throwing a ball to another man, getting it past a guy with a stick so he can't hit it.

Sound tough? Maybe so, maybe not. But are you up to the task?

If you're Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, you most certainly are. Importantly, your management has great confidence in you and is behind you 100%:

Sox pitching coach Dave Wallace is looking for Martinez to pitch like the Hall of Famer he likely will become.

"We're very comfortable with him going out there, and we'll see what happens," Wallace said. "Pedro is pretty much under control. How can you not be excited about what is going to happen here tomorrow night? These two teams with these two pitchers in this park. Goodness gracious. It can't get any better."

Meanwhile, if you're one of the rest of us workers out here and you’re having trouble concentrating on your work today, you're not alone. An unprecedented Red Sox-Yankees Game 7 for the American League pennant and a trip to the World Series. Tonight. This is big. This is exciting. Go Pedro. Go Sox. Time to go to work.

...

 

October 14, 2003

Early birds and night owls
Posted by dwong@bostonworks.com">Dean Wong at 10:19 AM -

Jason is an early bird. To sleep by 10 p.m. most nights, he's up by 5:15 a.m. and is ready to roll. As for myself, I rarely get to sleep by 1:30 a.m. and the thought of rising before sunrise is sheer heresy.

Having worked late and overnight shifts at newspapers and restaurants for much of my life, I believe I'm hard-wired to stay up into the wee hours and can if called upon, go without sleep for 24-48 hours without batting an eye.

Now researchers at the University of Surrey say they have found a link between people's preference for mornings or evenings.

...

Long-term unemployed say networking has run dry
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 8:51 AM -

A somewhat depressing article from the New York Times about employed friends of job-seekers who suffer network fatigue.

"It's a lot like spam," said Diane DiResta, president of DiResta Communications, which assists in career development. "People keep hitting up the same contacts over and over again. But people have a lot more to do these days and are less benevolent than they were in the past. There's no time for all the requests."

...

The unwritten rules of job-search email
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 8:48 AM -

CareerJournal takes a look at mistakes to avoid in email job-hunting.

Writing effective e-mail is critical to your job-search success and isn't difficult, but many candidates get flunking grades. Consider whether you're among them by putting yourself in the position of your e-mail recipients. Why would they read your message? How will they react if they do read it?

...

 

October 13, 2003

Productivity helps profits, not jobs
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 10:09 AM -

Yesterday's Globe reports on how banner years for profits no longer lead to new spurts of hiring.

Cranston Print Works Co., which has printed textiles here since 1936, recently posted its biggest profits in a decade, handed out generous profit-sharing bonuses to its 500 employees, and invested nearly $2 million to further modernize its operations in this old Central Massachusetts mill town.

So what will the Rhode Island-based firm do to follow up on this success? Cut 24 jobs.

Productivity improvements grow the economy, but don't always create jobs.

...

McKinsey to America: "Suck it up"
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 10:08 AM -

Globe columnist Charles Stein discusses a new report from the McKinsey Global Institute, a think tank associated with the high-end consulting firm, in which McKinsey tells Americans to have faith in capitalism, that the long-term gains of off-shoring justify the short term suffering.

McKinsey starts with the obvious: that Americans whose jobs disappear will suffer and that they will need substantial help -- far more than we currently provide -- to make an adjustment to new careers. The pain of free trade is always easy to see. The gains are tougher to identify, but no less real, according to McKinsey.

If you're interested, go to McKinsey's website and read for yourself.

...

WSJ: Casualties of a changing job market
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 10:07 AM -

The Wall Street Journal Online has collected many of its recent articles on the changing job market into a special section called Left Behind.

You need to be an online subscriber to view these articles, but if you are, this section is quite compelling.

...

Marathon Woman
Posted by jbutler@bostonworks.com">Jason Butler at 10:07 AM -

Hearty congratulations to our own Sarah Hubbell, who ran the Chicago Marathon Saturday! Sarah finished in a speedy four hours and fifteen minutes. In a related story, sales of Advil along Lake Shore Drive have gone through the roof.

Also, a hearty "Grr" to whoever put together the marathon's website. They know that people will want to link directly to their favorite runner's results. Why then, do they do the results page as a post instead of a get? Grr. Argh.

...