The headlines told a positive jobs story today. Ok, I’m discounting the weekly unemployment insurance report, but that’s looking backwards. Let’s look forward (or at least into the present) with today’s headlines:
Obama Stimulus May Get a Timely Boost From U.S. Census Hiring — This will create 1.4 million jobs over the next year. I have to share a funny story: The 2000 census had a phone survey component. The government went to three firms to provide the service. One of those firms was located in Illinois. The owner of the firm didn’t really want to take the job, so he provided what he thought was an outrageously expensive bid. The government awarded him the contract. He hired a high school student to write the phone menu system. It was a pretty cool (and lucrative) summer programming project. One of the other firms failed to produce the software, so they quit their project and bought the software from the Illinois firm. That’s the short version of how a high school student wrote the software responsible for 2/3 of the phone survey portion of the 2000 census. Incidentally, the other 1/3 was plagued with technical difficulties. Good times!
Saab Axes 750 Jobs as Demand Sags After Bankruptcy — Swedish auto jobs.
PPG Will Cut 2,500 More Jobs Because of Weak Demand — These are mostly French jobs. PPG is the world’s second largest paint maker and has their headquarters in Pittsburgh.
Russian Metals Companies May Cut 60,000 Jobs in 2009 — This is based on the industry’s own worst case analysis.
Wow. The 2010 census will be the largest peacetime government jobs program ever.
