Here is a compilation of some recent news on job/employment news from the country.
From CNBC:
Green Jobs Success Will Take Major, Long-Term Commitment
By Trevor Curwin,, Special to CNBC.com 19 Jan 2010
The Obama administration may be tempted to wage a two-front war on climate change and joblessness by pushing for green jobs in the renewable energy sector, but such a strategy will mean committing to a long campaign. Looking for the green equivalent of an atomic bomb to obliterate ten percent unemployment, energy price volatility and carbon emissions all at once may not be the right approach, says Jesse Jenkins, director of energy and climate policy at The Breakthrough Institute, a clean energy research group.
“This looks more like the Cold War than the Manhattan Project,” says Jenkins. “There are no short-term solutions to real problems.”
Jenkins and others in the renewable energy sector see the need for the right mix of long-term technology investment—in a sector where installed power generation capacity and electricity contracts are measured in decades—and short-term job creation to keep the issue at the top of the public’s mind.
On Jan. 8, President Obama announced $2.3 billion in tax credits for 183 different firms working on new energy storage and other renewable energy technologies, claiming the investment would create 17,000 American jobs.
From USNews.com
White House Changes Job-Count Rule
Posted January 12, 2010
WASHINGTON — The White House has abandoned its controversial method of counting jobs under President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus, making it impossible to track the number of jobs saved or created with the $787 billion in recovery money.
Despite mounting a vigorous defense of its earlier count of more than 640,000 jobs credited to the stimulus, even after numerous errors were identified, the Obama administration now is making it easier to give the stimulus credit for hiring. It’s no longer about counting a job as saved or created; now it’s a matter of counting jobs funded by the stimulus.
That means that any stimulus money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs credited to the program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who never were in jeopardy of losing their positions.
The new rules, quietly published last month in a memorandum to federal agencies, mark the White House’s latest response to criticism about the way it counts jobs credited to the stimulus. When The Associated Press first reported flaws in the job counts in October, the White House said errors were being corrected and future counts would provide a full and correct accounting of just how many stimulus jobs were saved or created.
From Yahoo News:
White House says stimulus has saved two million jobs
Wed Jan 13, 1:53 AM
By Alister Bull
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s emergency spending measures last year saved up to 2 million U.S. jobs, the White House said on Wednesday, but it warned that the outlook for the economy remained uncertain.
Obama, anxious to reduce double-digit U.S. unemployment which has dented his popularity, has already called for additional government measures to boost jobs on top of the $787 billion stimulus package he signed in February 2009.
Christina Romer, head of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said she expects positive job creation by the spring, but stressed that there was definitely a need for additional “targeted action” to aid employment.
“There is uncertainty about where the economy is going …when will the private sector come back,” Romer told reporters on a conference call to discuss a quarterly report to Congress on the stimulus package.
From the CAP Times:
Tech: Easing of tech job cuts offers hope of 2010 turnaround, report says
Planned job cuts announced by technology firms rose for the second consecutive year in 2009, reaching the highest level since 2005, but a sharp downward trend in the second half of the year offers hope of a 2010 turnaround, according to a new report.
Employers in the technology sector, which includes computer, electronics, and telecommunications firms, announced 174,629 planned job cuts in 2009, according to a report released Tuesday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the global outplacement consultancy that tracks job-cut announcements daily.
Meanwhile job cuts among firms in the telecommunications industry actually declined; falling 9.4 percent annually from 48,648 to 44,068.
“The recession’s impact on the tech sector was inescapable,” John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in a statement. “Even with the economy showing some nascent signs of recovery beginning the second half of year, many companies are holding off on investments in new technology. And, with it still difficult for small businesses and start-ups to obtain loans, there are few opportunities for tech firms to expand their customer base.
“The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, which is when the overall economy hit rock bottom. It’s going to be a slow climb out of this recession, but computer and electronics firms should be among the first to see the turnaround, as companies try to postpone hiring by achieving productivity gains through technology.”
Spending on information technology is expected to increase by 6.6 percent in 2010, after falling by 8.2 percent in 2009, according to an outlook released last week by industry analysts Forrester Research.
Technology spending and employment should be helped by continued efforts to move the health care industry into the era of electronic health records, according to Challenger. Preliminary data from a 2009 survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics found that while show that about 44 percent of physicians are using electronic medical or health record systems in their offices and practices.