Unemployment is on the rise.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New jobless claims rose more than expected last week and the number of Americans continuing to receive unemployment benefits has topped 5.1 million, fresh evidence the recession is increasingly forcing employers to shed jobs.
Yet, there's still a huge market for bringing tech workers in to the US on employer visas.
http://seeker.dice.com/...
http://www.indeed.com/...
http://classifieds.benchfolks.com/...
http://www.prgjobs.com/...
- AP article continued -
The Labor Department said Thursday that first-time requests for unemployment benefits jumped to 667,000 from the previous week's figure of 631,000. Analysts had expected a slight drop in claims.
The 667,000 new claims are the most since October 1982, though the labor force has grown by about half since then. The four-week average of initial claims, which smooths out fluctuations, rose to 639,000, the highest in more than 26 years.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. added to the bad news Thursday, saying that it would eliminate about 12,000 jobs as it folds in the operations of failed savings and loan Washington Mutual Inc.
Microsoft has already announced layoffs, and is continuing to lay off US citizens, green card holders, and H-1B workers.
This is contra-intuitive thinking on the part of our elected representation in Congress and our business leaders. Wasn't the last Depression finally put to rest by full employment in the US? Every able-bodied man, woman and child had a job. Rosy the Riveter dominated the workplace in the US. What happened to the full employment paradigm? Are we to believe that a new day has dawned? Is the solution to this economic apocalypse in putting US workers on the bench and replacing them with inexperienced workers who were brought in from overseas? The fact that explorers such as Columbus were able to reach the opposite side of the globe by circumnavigation is hardly proof that this tactic is worthy of consideration as a viable approach to the current economic crisis.
In the meantime, there's no evidence that the bailout is having any effect on the auto industry.
DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp posted a loss of nearly $31 billion on Thursday for 2008 and said its auditors were likely to cast doubt on its viability as it seeks an expanded federal bailout to stay afloat.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is one politician who does not support the use of unlimited numbers of employer visas. He sponsored legislation to limit the numbers of visas available to banks receiving TARP funds. SA 306 was passed into law as an amendment to H.R.1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Durbin (D-IL) sponsored SB 1035, greatly limiting the numbers of H-1B visas available, and limiting the usages of the L-1 visa.
Can Kossacks also support the concept of employing Americans and green card holders, while putting the employer visas on hold?