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May. 31st, 2008
As Iowa Job Surplus Grows, Workers Call the Shots
By JOHN LELAND
By JOHN LELAND
DES MOINES — On a recent evening here, Greg Tew, 28, considered the question: What is it like to work in a state that is creating more jobs than workers? He was sitting in the lobby of a new hotel in downtown Des Moines, part of an extensive redevelopment investment to attract workers to Iowa.
“It is noticeable,” Mr. Tew, a computer programmer at EMC Insurance Companies, said of the jobs surplus. “You’re a hot commodity. Salaries go up just because companies are fighting to retain the talent they have.”
His friend Stacy Berenguel, 28, a financial advisor at Citi Smith Barney, said that while she was very conscious of talk of a national recession, some of her friends in Iowa were switching jobs over company amenities, like fitness centers. “Even when I’ve had friends laid off, they had no problem finding jobs,” she said. “So I’m willing to take financial risks, like splurging. Last weekend I went to Chicago and shopped for clothes and shoes. It was great. There were sales everywhere.”
Are these the voices of a nation looking at recession?
As rising unemployment and layoffs beset workers around the country, Iowa faces a different problem: a surplus of jobs. Or to put it another way: a shortage of workers. A survey of companies by Iowa Workforce Development, a state agency, found as many as 48,000 job vacancies, in industries including financial services — Des Moines trails only Hartford as the nation’s insurance capital — health care and skilled manufacturing. One estimate projects the job surplus to reach 198,000 by 2014, with vacancies increasingly in professional positions. Greater Des Moines alone faces a shortfall of 60,000 workers in the next decade.
The state provides a small, advance view of what some economists predict will be a broader shortage of skilled workers in the next 20 or 30 years, as tens of millions of baby boomers retire from the workplace, and the economy produces more new jobs than workers. Potential consequences include slower economic growth and competitiveness, as well as higher wages for skilled workers and greater inequality.
Estimates of the national shortage run as high as 14 million skilled workers by 2020, according to widely cited projections by the labor economists Anthony P. Carnevale and Donna M. Desrochers. More
Now who do I know...
May. 31st, 2008 07:17 am
Journeys | Venice
On Venice’s Grand Canal in a Kayak
THEY helped fleeing Romans evade Attila the Hun and held a glittering city aloft for more than 1,500 years. But the wooden pilings rising out of the Grand Canal in Venice are so decayed that as we clung to them one afternoon it wasn’t at all clear whether they would be sturdy enough to prevent us from capsizing into its murky waters. More
NARAL is looking for volunteers
May. 31st, 2008 07:25 amVolunteer at Pride!
NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota is looking for volunteers to help out at our booth at the Twin Cities Pride Festival.
If you’re interested or would like more information on volunteering at Pride or other events, please contact Dan <mailto:danb@prochoiceminnesota.org> .
When: Saturday, June 28, 10 a.m. - 10. p.m.
Sunday, June 29, 12 - 6 p.m.
Where: Loring Park, 1382 Willow Street, Minneapolis
NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota will be at Pride to talk with festival-goers about reproductive rights, the importance of the 2008 elections, and what they can do to help.
So come out to Loring Park to enjoy the entertainment, grab something to eat, and drop by our booth! Pick up some pro-choice swag and learn what you can do to support reproductive rights in Minnesota!
Time to put on some clothes...
May. 31st, 2008 07:49 amAnd take the boat back to the rental place and pick up my baby carTM.
Why, o why didn't I have a boat when I went to Madison?
Why, o why didn't I have a boat when I went to Madison?
