Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Stocks Crossing The 13 Week Moving Average <$10.01 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tsigprofit who wrote (9623)	9/3/2001 8:46:54 PM
From: Sergio H	Respond to of 13094

Thanks Matt. I respect your opinion. According to the Economic Policy Institute your state is included in the area that has been experiencing greater unemployment and wage depreciation: epinet.org <The Midwest (Indiana, Michigan, and North Dakota) and several Southern and border states (Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland, Mississippi, and Alabama), plus Maine and Idaho have been hardest hit in terms of job and wage declines. > The EPI site offers information and insight on the IT sector: epinet.org - <We also explore the role of the IT sector on labor market trends. We conclude that investments in information technology—hardware and software and the high productivity of sectors producing information technology—are a major reason for the higher productivity growth. But, we note that the IT sector has not contributed significantly to job growth, nor has it demonstrated any wage leadership. In fact, IT wages have failed to rise any more quickly than those of other sectors with similarly skilled workers. Technological change, and particularly the increased use of information technology equipment and software, has been a major reason for the recent acceleration of productivity growth, accounting for between a third and a half of the faster productivity growth in the late 1990s, relative to that of the 1974-90 period (see Appendix C). Why there was a surge in IT investment starting in 1996 is something our analysis cannot answer and remains to be addressed by other researchers. It is our opinion that the 1995-99 IT surge was driven more by technological developments rather than any proximate economic policy (budget or tax policy, interest rates, deregulation). Other factors that help explain the recent productivity acceleration include: fast demand growth at low unemployment forcing greater efficiency; faster improvements in the organization of work; and, a faster growth of workforce skills. Contrary to the popular perception, the IT sector has not played a leadership role in the labor market. Although IT-producing industries generated jobs at a substantially faster rate than other industries in the 1990s and in the 1992-99 recovery, IT industries contributed a small share of total job growth—about 7.5% of all new jobs. IT occupations, such as programmers, systems analysts, and so on, made up 2.0% of all employment in 1999, up from just 1.3% in 1989. Thus, the IT sector contributed disproportionately to job growth, but was still not a major job generator. Another common misperception regarding IT workers is that their wages are skyrocketing, reflecting the high demand for their skills (see Chapter 2). Yet a comparison of the wage growth among IT workers relative to comparable workers—those with similar education, experience, and occupation—finds that IT sectors were not wage leaders: among men, IT wages were stable relative to those of comparable workers since the mid-1980s; among women, IT wages fell relative to similar workers. Thus, the IT sector apparently is not experiencing any labor shortage and has not contributed directly (except through the overall productivity effect) to wage acceleration.> Another perspective on the IT field, citing the same theme in 1997 as Wart's in 2001 (from the same site): epinet.org <...the entry-level wages for new college graduates in 1997 were 7 percent below the wages earned by their peers in the late 1980s. Even college-educated workers in the IT field haven't fared particularly well. In 1997, for example, young engineers and scientists were earning 11 percent and 8 percent, respectively, less than their counterparts in 1989, despite notable wage growth over the 1996-97 period. And young college graduates working in the computer and mathematics fields earned only 5 percent more in 1997 than in 1989, with the bulk of that gain coming only in the last year, after seven years of wage stagnation.> Sergio

To: tsigprofit who wrote (9623)	9/3/2001 9:09:29 PM
From: Catfish	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13094

tsig, You are right on. As an ERP/process improvement consultant, I was laid off from a permanent job over 2 years ago. I am on the call list of a contract consultant company, but they say that there is little going on. Guess what, they are waiting for the stock market to come back to drive the economy higher. We are now paying the price of a manipulated market of the 90s thanks to the economic conditions and Bill Clinton's desire to be re-elected. Here is a link to an article that gives some unusual insight to the situation. It was posted up by one of the contributors to this thread. It is very long, but worth the time to read it: Message 16206331 Message 16206338