Google to invest over $7B in US, create 10,000 jobs – CEO

Washington, United States — Google will invest more than $7 billion in the United States this year and create thousands of jobs, the tech giant’s CEO said Thursday.

“We plan to invest over $7 billion in offices and data centers across the US and create at least 10,000 new full-time Google jobs in the US this year,” Sundar Pichai said in a statement.

Pichai said Google “wants to be a part” of America’s economic recovery from the pandemic and is investing in some communities that are new to the company, as well as expanding in others across 19 states.

The announcement comes as Google faces pressure from dozens of US states that accuse the internet giant of abusing its search dominance to eliminate competition.

Google will spend $1 billion in its home state of California.

Outside of the San Fransisco Bay Area, Google said it would add thousands of jobs in Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, and New York.

“This will help bring more jobs and investment to diverse communities as part of our previously announced racial equity commitments,” Pichai said.

Google’s parent company Alphabet last month reported a 50-percent jump in quarterly profit to $15.2 billion as its digital ad business thrived.

Agence France-Presse

The end of offices? New York's business districts face uncertain future

NEW YORK - Boarded-up stores, shuttered restaurants and empty office towers: Covid-19 has turned New York's famous business districts into ghost towns, with companies scrambling to come up with ways to entice workers to return post-pandemic. 

"If they don't come back, we're sunk," said Kenneth McClure, vice president of Hospitality Holdings, whose Midtown bistro pre-coronavirus would buzz with the sound of financiers striking deals at lunch and sharing cocktails after a hard day at the office.

The group has closed its six restaurants and bars in Manhattan, two of them permanently, due to lockdown restrictions that have paused office culture - a culture as intrinsic to the Big Apple as a Broadway show, a yellow taxi or a slice of cheese pizza.

"Customers that you saw three, four, five times a week just virtually disappeared," McClure told AFP, recalling March of last year when the pandemic first swept New York, where it has killed more than 26,000 people.

According to data collected by security firm Kastle Systems, only 14 percent of New York's more than one million office workers had returned to their desks by the middle of January, putting the countless sandwich shops and small businesses in Midtown and Wall Street at risk.

With vaccines now rolling out, corporations and business leaders are grappling with how to attract employees back after spending the best part of a year working from home, and in turn maintaining the character of business districts.

Seventy-nine percent of employees questioned in a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey published this month said that working remotely had been a success, but the report also found that offices are not about to be consigned to history.

Some 87 percent of employees said the office was important to them for collaborating with team members and building relationships, aspects of working life they felt was easier and more rewarding in person than over Zoom.

"Being here, seeing my colleagues and getting out of the house, it changes my mood for the whole week," said Jessica Lappin, speaking to AFP from her office at the Alliance for Downtown New York, where she is president.

Few workers plan on being in offices Monday to Friday, nine to five, though.

"The vast majority of employees say a hybrid system of two-to-three days working from home and two-to-three days working in the office is their preferred approach," said Deniz Caglar, co-author of the PwC report.

Experts say companies should transform their offices away from places where employees come to send emails or make phone calls, which they can do at home, towards more appealing spaces suited for mentoring, camaraderie and fostering creativity.

- 'New future' -

That could mean larger, more flexible conference rooms rather than cubicles, something as simple as better decor, outdoor space like a balcony or terrace and "hoteling," where workers schedule use of a workspace as opposed to every employee having their own desk.

"Think of it as a theater, where you have different sets for different scenes," David Smith, co-author of a Cushman & Wakefield report about workplaces of the future, told AFP.

It may also mean offices becoming more multipurpose -- facilities such as gyms, cafes, launderettes and concierge services that make employees feel their commute is worthwhile -- accelerating a trend that was growing before coronavirus, experts say.

While offering staff flexibility, several major employers are doubling-down on their commitment to offices, betting big on New York's business districts despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic.

In August, Facebook signed a lease on a 730,000-square-foot space in Midtown, while a Google spokesperson told AFP the technology giant is continuing to expand its campus in the Chelsea neighborhood.

Greenberg Traurig, a law firm that employs 400 people in New York, has installed sneeze guards, touchless faucets, hand sanitizer machines, increased ventilation and distanced work stations.

It has staff coming in on "a rotational basis," and the firm plans to proceed with its move into a new state-of-the-art building near Grand Central Station this year, vice-chairman Robert Ivanhoe told AFP.

In late December, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo cut the ribbon on a new $1.6 billion train concourse servicing Penn Station, highlighting local politicians' hopes of reviving Midtown.

Business district leaders say they are looking to add green spaces to the neighborhoods, while outdoor dining -- extremely rare in New York before the pandemic -- is expected to become a permanent feature.

"There is definitely an opportunity for everyone to be looking at the new future," Alfred Cerullo, president of the Grand Central Partnership business improvement group, told AFP.

Agence France-Presse

Rolls-Royce cuts 9,000 jobs as airlines turn off engines

Rolls-Royce, the British maker of plane engines, said Wednesday it will cut at least 9,000 jobs and slash costs elsewhere, as the coronavirus hammers the aviation sector.

"This is not a crisis of our making. But it is the crisis that we face and we must deal with it," chief executive Warren East said in a statement announcing that Rolls would cut nearly one-fifth of its global workforce.

"Our airline customers and airframe partners are having to adapt and so must we."

Unions said they expected most of the cuts to occur in the UK, while analysts said the knock-on effect for supply chains meant many more people working across the aerospace industry were set to lose their jobs.

- 17% of staff -

Rolls said it expected "the loss of at least 9,000 roles" from a global workforce of 52,000 and would also cut "expenditure across plant and property, capital and other indirect cost areas".

The measures is expected to hand the company annual savings of more than £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion, 1.4 billion euros).

The restructuring will cost Rolls about £800 million.

Rolls said the restructuring would predominantly affect its civil aerospace business.

"Our defence business, based in the UK and US, has been robust during the pandemic, with an unchanged outlook, and does not need to reduce headcount," it added.

Rolls has already spent the past two years cutting thousands of management roles following weak demand for its power systems used by the marine industry.

"The restructuring announced... (in) June 2018 will transition into this wider proposed reorganisation," Rolls said Wednesday.

"Focused predominantly on reducing the complexity of our support and management functions, the programme has substantially delivered on its objectives."

- 'Terrible prospect' -

The new cull comes as global air travel remains virtually non-existent, even though governments have begun to ease their lockdowns.

With planes grounded worldwide, airlines are slashing thousands of jobs and Rolls has followed suit.

"Being told that there is no longer a job for you is a terrible prospect," East added on Wednesday.

"But we must take difficult decisions to see our business through these unprecedented times."

Steve Turner, a senior official at British union Unite, accused Rolls of "shameful opportunism".

"The news that Rolls Royce is preparing to throw thousands of skilled, loyal, world-class workers, their families and communities under the bus during the worst public health crisis since 1918 is shameful opportunism," he said in a statement.

Paul Everitt, chief executive of UK aerospace trade body ADS, meanwhile said that Britain's government needed to take "urgent action" to "minimise the impact on jobs and manufacturing capability in the long-term".

Following its announcement, Rolls-Royce saw its share price slide by 2.5 percent to 261 pence in morning deals.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.1 percent overall.

"In a positive economy job layoffs will often send shares higher since it lowers wage costs," said Jasper Lawler, head of research at London Capital Group.

"In such a hard economy for air travel to which Rolls Royce is closely tied, the job losses just spell out the difficulties."

Agence France-Presse

Standard Chartered axes 15,000 jobs, announces $5.1B capital raise

Hong Kong, China - Asia-focused British bank Standard Chartered said Tuesday it would axe 15,000 jobs and raise $5.1 billion in capital after posting a "disappointing" third-quarter loss as it struggles to return to growth.

The job losses are part of a major restructuring that will cost around $3 billion, the bank said.

A Standard Chartered spokeswoman said she could not give any further details of the job cuts.

More than half of the restructuring costs would come from potential losses on liquidating assets and businesses, the bank said in a statement.

The remaining charges would be from "potential redundancy costs" of a planned headcount reduction of 15,000, as well as goodwill write-downs, it added.

The bank reported an unexpected pre-tax quarterly loss of $139 million compared with a $1.53 billion profit a year earlier, in a performance described as "disappointing" by group chief executive Bill Winters.

Revenue was down 18.4 percent to $3.68 billion and impairment losses increased from $536 million to $1.23 billion for the quarter.

Shares in the bank plunged as much as 6.2 percent on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the wake of the results – its stock value has fallen 32 percent in the past year.

"I know a lot of people losing their jobs is not good, (but) from a business point of view, that's what they have to do," Hong Kong-based financial analyst Jackson Wong told AFP.

Wong said loan losses were the main reason the bank swung to a pre-tax loss, adding that it needed to "control costs and try to remodel (its) business".

source: interaksyon.com

Ashton Kutcher’s Steve Jobs biopic set for April release

SAN FRANCISCO – The first film based on the life of legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs will be released in April, according to a distribution deal for “jOBS” announced on Thursday.

The biopic starring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs, who died in 2011, will premiere later this month on the closing night of the Sundance Film Festival, according to independent distributor Open Road Films.

Written by Matthew Whitely and directed by Joshua Michael Stern, “jOBS” focuses on the Apple co-founder’s life from 1971 through 2000.

A deal was announced for the film to be distributed in North America by Open Road, which is owned by major cinema chains AMC Entertainment and Regal Entertainment.

“jOBS is certain to resonate with audiences and we are thrilled to partner with Five Star Films to bring this film to theaters,” said Open Road chief executive Tom Ortenberg.

Sony Pictures is backing a its own Jobs film based on the biography of the Apple co-founder’s life written by Walter Isaacson.

The screenplay is being written by Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin, whose works include “The Social Network,” a play on the birth of Facebook.

source: interaksyon.com

Workers Expect Higher Pay, Job Growth in 2013

The unemployment rate may still be sitting at elevated levels, but workers are optimistic about their paychecks and employment opportunities in the new year.

According to a new survey conducted by human resources services firm Randstad, more than half of respondents (57%) expect to get a raise in the New Year--a 10% increase from last year. What’s more, 59% of employees think the job market will improve in 2013.

“The outlook for next year certainly looks brighter for most employees,” says Jim Link, managing director of human resources for Randstad US in a press release. “Today we see employees are very positive about their future prospects and are hopeful to regain any economic momentum lost.”

The labor market improved slightly in 2012, but uncertainty brought on by the election and economic growth forced many employers to hold back on increasingly payroll, training and development and expanding.

“Optimism is indeed becoming prevalent,” says Link in an interview. However, all of that hope and optimism could evaporate if politicians aren’t able to reach a deal on the fiscal cliff before Jan. 1. Without a deal, experts warn the economy could fall into a recession which will impact job growth and employment.

Survey respondents were also more upbeat about their positions within their current companies with 47% expecting their employer to more people, an increase of 7% from last year. Thirty percent think they will get a promotion in 2013, up from 6% in last year’s survey.

Despite almost half of respondents reporting that the weak economy has negatively impacted their careers, only 15% are worried they could lose their jobs and 78% think the companies they work for have a good future.

When it comes to employee benefits and compensation, optimism is also improving heading into the new year. According to the survey, 16% worry they will experience a pay cut, down 8% from last year, while 41% think companies will scale back on benefits in 2013, 6% lower than 2012.

Although 47% plan to explore their job options next year, more than two-thirds (68%) say their companies made an effort to keep them engaged while 62% expect to continue their careers with their current employers. While employees are going into the New Year happy and loyal, that doesn’t mean the sentiment will hold steady if employers fail to offer fair compensation, job growth and development, promotional opportunities and a flexible work schedule, says Link, noting companies have to stay focused and committed to keeping workers engaged.  “As optimism increases, employee engagement will be increasingly important for companies’ retention efforts. This is why it is so valuable for employers to analyze and understand what motivates their most important asset--talent.”

source: foxbusiness.com

Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 jobs worldwide to reduce costs

NEW YORK — Texas Instruments is eliminating 1,700 jobs or almost 5 percent of its global workforce to cut costs in its wireless business as it moves away from making smartphone application chips, sending its shares up almost one percent in late trade.

The Dallas, Texas based chipmaker had said in September that it would halt costly investments in its OMAP mobile application chip business, which supports features like video, for tablet computers and smartphones.

TI has been under pressure in wireless, where it has lost ground to rival Qualcomm Inc and the world’s biggest smartphone makers Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd who have been developing their own chips instead of buying them from a supplier like TI.

Instead of pursuing the phone market TI is trying to sell OMAP in a broader market that requires less investments and includes industrial clients like carmakers.

TI said on it expects to take charges of about $325 million related to the job cuts and other cost reduction measures, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. Its previously announced financial targets for the fourth quarter do not include these costs, TI said.

The company, which has 35,000 employees around the world, expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013 from the action.

source: interaksyon.com

How Steve Jobs' legacy has changed

(CNN) -- When Apple co-founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer in his California home a year ago today, the world rushed to eulogize him in glowing terms: Genius. Visionary. A modern-day Thomas Edison.

Obituaries and video clips focused on how he led a mobile-computing revolution, upended the music industry with iTunes and, at Pixar, changed the way movies are made. Pundits marveled at his brilliance in creating a mystique about Apple products and knowing which unborn electronic gadgets consumers would most desire.

Fans lit candles outside Apple stores around the world, and more than a million people left thanks or tributes to Jobs on Apple's website.

But in the 12 months since, as high-profile books have probed Jobs' life and career, that reputation has evolved somewhat. Nobody has questioned Jobs' seismic impact on computing and our communication culture. But as writers have documented Jobs' often callous, controlling personality, a fuller portrait of the mercurial Apple CEO has emerged.

"Everyone knows that Steve had his 'rough' side. That's partially because he really did have a rough side and partially because the rough Steve was a better news story than the human Steve," said Ken Segall, author of "Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success."

"Since Apple is the most-watched company on Earth, there are a ton of writers always looking for the new angle," Segall added. "After all the glowing tributes to Steve ran their course, it's not surprising that the more negative articles would start to pop up."

The book

Nineteen days after Jobs' death, Walter Isaacson's much-awaited biography of the Apple leader hit stores and immediately became the top-selling book in the country. In "Steve Jobs," Isaacson crafted a compelling narrative of how Jobs' co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak, got pushed out of the struggling company a decade later and then returned in the late 1990s to begin one of the most triumphant second acts in the annals of American business.

But he also spent many pages chronicling the arrogant, cruel behavior of a complicated figure who could inspire people one minute and demean them the next. According to the book, Jobs would often berate employees whose work he didn't like. He was notoriously difficult to please and viewed people and products in black and white terms. They were either brilliant or "sh-t."

As a young man Jobs abandoned his pregnant girlfriend and was later a cold, distant father to his daughter, Lisa. And in one especially callous episode, Jobs refused to give founding stock options to one of Apple's earliest employees, even after a fellow employee intervened and offered to match whatever Jobs was willing to spare.

"What Isaacson's book did was puncture a hole in the image the rest of the world had of Steve Jobs," said Adam Lashinsky, a senior editor at Fortune and author of "Inside Apple: How America's Most Admired -- and Secretive -- Company Really Works." Thanks to Isaacson, "the population at large has gotten a much fuller picture of who he really was," Lashinsky added. "I don't think that really changes anyone's opinion of his accomplishments. It just may change their opinion of him."

The Isaacson book, and other accounts of Jobs' life and work, have reinforced parallel images of the late executive as an ingenious innovator but a demanding, unpleasant person.

"His stature is greater than ever. No one denies his brilliance and his legacy," said Leander Kahney, editor and publisher of Cult of Mac and author of "Inside Steve's Brain," a book about Jobs.

"However, his personality, his methods, have been thrown into a harsh new light by Isaacson's biography," Kahney told CNN. "Everyone knew he was a taskmaster, but his cruelty -- his relentless, humorless pursuit of corporate perfection -- wasn't so widely acknowledged. It's certainly put some people off. Some see his life as a warning. It's a lesson in how not to devote your life to your work."

This dichotomy was reinforced in July when Wired magazine published a cover story, "Do you really want to be like Steve Jobs?" and a cover image of Jobs wearing both a halo and devil horns. The article argued that Jobs' example has created two camps of people: those who want to emulate his ruthless, idiosyncratic business style, and those who are turned off by his failings as a father and a human.

"Indeed, his life story has emerged as an odd sort of holy scripture for entrepreneurs, a gospel and an anti-gospel at the same time," said the article, by Ben Austen. "To some, Jobs' life has revealed the importance of sticking firmly to one's vision and goals, no matter the psychic toll on employees or business associates. To others, Jobs serves as a cautionary tale, a man who changed the world but at the price of alienating almost everyone around him."

Apple since Steve

Some observers say that Apple's mighty financial performance over the past year, its stock price is almost $300 higher now than it was when Jobs died and Apple is now the world's most valuable company, diminishes Jobs' legacy. If he was so crucial to the company, why are they doing better without him?

Others say Apple's ongoing success cements Jobs' business reputation because the company is being run by a team that he handpicked and is still releasing products, most notably the third-generation iPad and the iPhone 5, that he helped design.

"It's hard to argue that Apple's great financial performance in the last year diminishes Steve's importance at all. It's safe to say that everything we've seen so far has had Steve's mark on it," Segall said. "From this point forward, not as much. The next year or two should be interesting times for Apple watchers, as Steve's direct influence slips further into the past."

Then there's the issue of the much-maligned new Apple maps, which replaced Google Maps as the default mapping system on iOS 6, Apple's new mobile operating system. Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a rare public apology last month for the maps, which have misplaced or mislabeled multiple streets and landmarks.

A few pundits grumbled that Jobs the perfectionist, with his obsessive attention to detail, never would have allowed Apple to release such a flawed product. Others pointed out that Jobs presided over such Apple flops as MobileMe, a subscription service for owners of Apple products, and Ping, a social network centered around music.

Segall doesn't think the maps fiasco will have much impact on Jobs' legacy either way.

"I don't think anyone can conclude that Steve would have made a different decision about releasing Apple Maps," he said in an e-mail to CNN. "But I also don't think Steve would have been as apologetic as Tim Cook was in his open letter. I imagine he would have done something similar to what he did when dealing with the backlash against Apple's ban on Flash. Of course there is a big difference here, in that Flash had a lot of enemies and Google Maps has a lot of fans."

In the long term, however, Apple's fluctuating stock price and flaps over maps probably won't do much to change consumers' opinions of the man who birthed their beloved phones and tablets. And if Steve Jobs is remembered decades from now, it'll likely be as the man who invented the iPod, iPhone and iPad, not as the executive who was sometimes a tyrant. Does anybody really care whether Alexander Graham Bell was cranky?

"Among Apple employees, I'd say his reputation hasn't changed one bit. If anything, it's probably grown because they've realized how central his contributions were," Lashinsky said.

"History tends to forgive people's foibles and recognize their accomplishments. When Jobs died, he was compared to Edison and Henry Ford and to Disney. I don't know what his place will be in history 30, 40, 50 years from now. And one year is certainly not enough time (to judge)."

source: CNN

Workers beg Romney to stop latest Bain outsourcing

FREEPORT - Being told to train his replacement was humiliating and surreal, but Tom Gaulrapp said the worst part was when the plant's US flag was taken down before the Chinese engineers arrived.

Gaulrapp decided it was time to take a stand against outsourcing and the man he blames for the loss of his job: Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, who founded the private equity firm that owns the Freeport, Illinois auto parts plant.

Romney's ties to Bain Capital have burdened the Republican nominee's hopes of winning the November 6 election as Democrats unfavorably paint him as a corporate raider who pioneered the outsourcing of US jobs to countries with lower labor costs.

Romney denies the charge, but his claim to be a man who could revive the economy and boost the prospects of American workers rings hollow here.

Gaulrapp thinks it would only take a phone call from the candidate who's vowed to create 12 million jobs in the United States to save the 170 jobs at Sensata Technologies that are about to leave this already economically depressed town of 26,000.

"What we'd like is a miracle," Gaulrapp, who has worked at the plant for 33 years, said with a sigh that acknowledged how unlikely it is that his wish will be granted.

"We'd like Mitt Romney to come to Freeport, see what this is doing to this community, and contact his friends that run Bain Capital and say 'this is absolutely the wrong thing to do' and save our jobs."

The Romney campaign declined to comment on the situation at Sensata, but a spokeswoman contacted by AFP noted that the former Massachusetts governor retired from Bain in 1999 and his investments there are controlled by a blind trust, effectively nullifying his links to the firm.

Romney's campaign recently set up a website -- business.mittromney.com -- defending his record at Bain and the "thousands" of jobs he saved or created by "fixing companies that were broken and giving new companies a shot at success."

'A Taste of the Romney Economy'

But the situation in Freeport is a classic example of how what's best for a company is not always what's best for American workers, said Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp, who is no relation to Tom.

"You can't keep sending your jobs offshore and still have a middle class," said the mayor.

Plant worker Pam Lampros, 53, is worried she's going to lose her home so investors like Romney can make a bigger profit.

"It just hurts after so many years of hard work and dedication," said Lampros, a 34-year veteran at the non-unionized plant who had hoped to retire from there.

"It's for corporate greed, more or less."

Sensata, which is majority-owned by Bain Capital, purchased the automotive sensors unit from Honeywell for $140 million in cash in January 2011.

With annual revenues of $130 million and valuable patents, the unit was a good buy. But with 75 percent of the revenue generated in Asia, it made sense to ship production to Sensata's facilities in China, the Netherlands-based company said.

"It's better to be closer to one's customers," Sensata spokesman Jacob Sayer told AFP, citing transportation and other logistical advantages.

Sayer acknowledged that the decision to shift production to China is "an unfortunately event" for Freeport and said he understands why it could be "difficult" for the workers to train their replacements.

He has no idea why -- or if -- the US flag was removed before the Chinese engineers and technicians arrived.

"We didn't request it. I can tell you that," Sayer said, adding that the company has been leasing the facility from Honeywell and has no involvement in grounds maintenance.

The workers have had nearly two years to prepare for the plant closure. Some have found new jobs and those who remained were given retention bonuses to help keep operations going until the last pieces of equipment are shipped elsewhere.

They got riled up in June when Romney visited nearby Janesville, Wisconsin and talked about how jobs were his top priority -- at the same time they were being told to train their Chinese replacements.

After months of pursuing Romney's campaign with protests and petitions, the Sensata workers set up camp in the fairgrounds across the road from the plant on September 12 in hopes of drawing more attention to their cause.

In a nod to both the "Hoovervilles" of unemployed workers that sprung up during the Great Depression and the Occupy Wall Street movement, about a dozen people have since been sleeping in tents staked into the cold, hard ground.

Mark Schreck, 36, a registered Republican, even brought his children a couple of times.

"This isn't a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, this is an American issue," he said, noting it is the second time his job has been outsourced to China, despite both operations being profitable -- just not profitable enough.

"We're in trouble. I'm not that old and when I grew up American industry and technology was huge. My folks and my uncles all worked in good jobs and retired from them," Schreck said as he sat by a smoking campfire on the windy fairgrounds.

"It's hard to grasp how bleak it is out there. I've been looking for work since last January and I'm not finding any."

source: interaksyon.com

Eurozone jobless numbers hit record 18 million

BRUSSELS - Jobless numbers across the 17-nation eurozone hit a record 18 million in July, the EU statistics agency said Friday.

An additional 88,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed throughout July, although upwardly-revised June data meant that the unemployment rate was unchanged at 11.3 percent, Eurostat said.

The 18,002,000 headline jobless figure was the highest since records began in 1995, it added.

With an estimated 25.254 million unemployed across the full European Union, which also includes non-euro heavyweights Britain and Poland, the figures add to concerns over a plunge back into recession for the eurozone and its nearest neighbours.

At 5.5 percent, the unemployment rate was much lower in powerhouse Germany, as well as the neighbouring economies of Austria and the Netherlands, but more than one in four are still out of work in Spain.

Annual increases in Spain and Greece were easily the highest, and both countries, labouring under sovereign and banking debt crises, logged jobless rates among the key under-25s age-group of more than 50 percent.

source: interaksyon.com

PWDs Wanted In Online Jobs

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Several agencies in this province working hand-in-hand in sourcing out employment and livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities (PWD) announced recently that there are promising careers for the physically-challenged in home-based online jobs.

Speaking at the “Employers and PESO (Provincial Employment and Services Office) Managers Disability Forum” at Salinas Restaurant in Lingayen last July 26, Pangasinan PESO Chief Alex Ferrer said foreign employers engaged in the online business have opened doors to PWDs.

Ferrer said that Virtual Assistant Training Center (VATC) Chief Operating Officer Marivic Sison-Verceles expressed willingness to conduct workshops for PWDs to train them on various online jobs such as content writers, researchers, encoding and others.

Meanwhile, Katipunan ng may Kapansanan sa Pilipinas, Inc. (KAMPI) President Josephine de Vera told private companies that they are entitled for tax privileges and other incentives in return for employing PWDs.

In another development in Rizal province, National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) Executive Director Carmen Zubiaga said her office has been disseminating information to PWD organizations nationwide to inform the disabled about their rights to participate in the coming elections.

PWDs qualified to vote in next year’s polls are being enjoined to avail of the special registration to be given by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in their respective localities on August 11.

source: mb.com.ph

PAL hiring more flight crews

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Airlines is looking to hire more flight crews as an expansion program anticipates a growing market for air travel.

During the delivery of its third Boeing 777-300ER last week, PAL president Ramon Ang said PAL’s growth rests on the modernization of its fleet, the expansion of its network and improvements in passenger service.

“Philippine Airlines must become known for its warm, sincere and hospitable service; we operate in a very competitive environment, but one with a wealth of opportunity, the Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market for air travel and we need to improve our competitiveness as an airline,” Ang said.

The airline will be acquiring three more 777-300ERs until November next year, 2013, completing its fleet modernization for long haul flights and replacing the aging B747 fleet.

PAL said flight crew applicants from Metro Manila and Luzon should go to the Diamond Hotel from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on August 11for the Airlines Cabin Crew Recruitment Tour, which will kick off a nationwide drive. Registration ends at 10 a.m.

Aspiring cabin crews from from Visayas and Mindanao are advised to watch for announcements of when the recruitment tour goes to their regions.

Applicants should bring their resumes with close-up and full-body photos, and apply in person.

More information is on PAL's website at www.philippineairlines.com. Eric B. Apolonio, InterAksyon.com

source: interaksyon.com

'Strikingly' few women in Asia's top jobs: report

SEOUL (AFP) — Companies in Asia’s leading economies have “strikingly” few women in senior jobs, missing out on a vital pool of talent to fuel the region’s growth, consultancy firm McKinsey & Company said on Sunday.

In a survey covering 744 firms of 10 major stock markets in the Asia-Pacific, McKinsey said women on average account for only six percent of board seats compared to 17 percent in Europe and 15 percent in the US.

Women hold eight percent of executive committee seats in the Asian firms, still lower than the average of 10 percent in Europe and 14 percent in the US, it said, calling the numbers in Asia “strikingly low”.

“It’s a huge waste of talent, as half of Asian graduates are female. And it is a waste that Asian companies can ill afford, given the severe shortage of senior managers in the region,” said the report titled “Women Matter”.

Australia, Hong Kong and China topped the list of female presence in the boardroom, with women accounting for 13, nine and eight percent respectively in these top jobs, while South Korea, Japan and India were at the bottom.

In South Korea, where a conservative culture makes women’s “double burden” of career and household duties particularly heavy, women take up only one percent of boardroom seats.

Japan came next from bottom with only two percent of such jobs held by women due to similar pressures on them to be a sole caregiver of the family, it said, adding about 60 percent of Japanese women quit or change jobs after marriage.

The number hovers slightly higher at five percent in India.

Such “double burden” pressure was a dominant reason for women in the two economic powerhouses in northeast Asia as well as in India to leave jobs, while it had a far less influence in places like Singapore and China, it said.

“The double burden affects women in Europe, too. But inarguably, it is particularly heavy for Asian women…also because there is a lack of government support in areas such as childcare,” it said.

China fared better than most other neighbours but the situation in Asia’s biggest economy is hardly satisfying given it has one of the world’s highest female labour participation rates, the report added.

“The study finds that…gender diversity is not yet high on the strategic agenda for most Asian companies, and few senior managers believe this will change anytime soon,” McKinsey said in its first study on women in corporate Asia.

“Given tight labour markets and intense competition for talent across Asia…gender diversity needs to become a corporate priority,” said Claudia Sussmuth-Dyckerhoff, co-author of the report.

She urged governments to follow moves by Malaysia or South Korea to set quotas for public jobs or offer incentives for firms building daycare centres, and management to offer more development programmes for women.

source: japantoday.com

Weak U.S. Hiring Adds to Global Gloom

A dismal job market report Friday gave a resounding confirmation to fears that the United States recovery has markedly slowed, reflecting mounting evidence of a global slowdown.

The report, which showed the smallest net job growth in a year and an unemployment rate moving in the wrong direction, was a political game-changer that bodes ill for President Obama as he faces re-election.

It provided traction for his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, at a time when politicians have been deeply divided over the most effective way to strengthen the economy. And it put increased pressure on the Federal Reserve to take further action to stimulate growth.

The United States economy gained a net 69,000 jobs in May, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent from 8.1 in April, largely because more people began looking for work. And there was more unexpected bad news: job gains that had been reported in March and April were revised downward.

Economists can explain away a month or two of disappointing numbers. But this was the third consecutive disappointing monthly performance by the job market, following a winter of solid gains, convincing many that the economic recovery has, for the third year in a row, lost momentum. A few analysts even reintroduced a possibility that dogged last year’s forecasts but did not come to pass: a double-dip recession.

The report on American jobs added to the global pall that has deepened as a result of renewed uncertainty in Europe and slowing growth in China and India. Global financial markets, already weak in early trading on Friday, sank further on the numbers. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.8 percent, or 221 points, by early afternoon, and the main index of the German stock market closed down 3.4 percent.

Yields on United States and German government bonds also slumped further as traders sought safer investments. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to another record, 1.46 percent, and the German tw0-year bond fell below zero.

Once again, uncertainty became a dominant theme. “Manufacturers are very concerned about Europe because a blowup in Europe means a global slowdown,” said Ellen Zentner, the senior United States economist for Nomura, the financial services firm. “It hasn’t translated into layoffs — businesses are just hiring less.”

Republicans immediately seized upon the jobs numbers as an opportunity to criticize Mr. Obama’s economic policies.

“The American people don’t have to accept President Obama’s new normal of fewer jobs and higher prices,” House Speaker John A. Boehner said in a statement.

The May jobs report showed gains in health care, transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade, while construction jobs fell by a seasonally adjusted 28,000. Even some bright spots, like booming auto sales, failed to bolster manufacturing employment by much — it was up by 12,000 jobs. Once again, government at all levels shed workers.

“In February or March, I thought the labor market had achieved escape velocity,” said Patrick J. O’Keefe, the director of economic research at J. H. Cohn, a consulting firm. “It appears to me now that that was a premature call.”

Several members of the Federal Reserve’s policy-making committee have said in recent days that they were not inclined to change current policy, but that position has always been contingent on continued growth. The economy needs to grow by about 125,000 jobs each month just to maintain the current unemployment rate.

When the Fed committee next meets, in late June, it will face the possibility that the economic recovery once again has failed to take off.

Global fears showed up in other economic data on Friday. Slowing exports cooled a the major manufacturing index, though it remained in positive territory with a strong report of new orders. That news came on the heels of falling consumer confidence, an uptick in new claims for unemployment benefits, and a downward revision of the country’s overall economic growth in the first quarter, to a 1.9 percent annual rate from 2.2 percent.

The jobs report is based on two surveys, one of businesses and the other of households. The household survey showed a net gain of 400,000 in the number of people employed.

But David Rosenberg, the chief economist with Gluskin Sheff, an investment firm, said virtually all of the gain was in part-time work, while the number of full-time workers fell.

“Even the good news in this report was bad,” he said.

Some analysts said it was still too soon to declare a significant slowdown. The recovery’s roller-coaster trajectory may be largely illusory, Ms. Zentner said, the product of seasonal adjustment distortions and, this year, the unusually warm winter. While many economists say the weather impact, which caused some growth to occur earlier in the year than it otherwise would have, should be over by now, Ms. Zentner said her research showed that historically, May is the month that is most dampened after a warm winter. Seasonal adjustments were also making the winter look better than it was and the spring look worse.

“What the seasonal bias has done is it’s made the recovery look like a stop-start recovery,” Ms. Zentner said. “Instead, the pace of the recovery has been very steady — very moderate, and disappointing, but steady.”

The number of long-term unemployed, those who have been looking for more than half a year, rose by 300,000, even as hundreds of thousands of jobless workers lost their unemployment checks because of cutbacks. The long-term unemployed have the hardest time finding jobs, and many of them say they have not seen any improvement in the job market.

“Nobody has lists and lists of hundreds of available jobs,” said Glen Barry of Carmel, N.Y., who worked for the government at the county level for 25 years as a computer operator and was laid off in December 2010. “A lot of people work a job and a half now. Instead of having four people doing the work, they have two people doing the work.”

source: nytimes.com