Study: Northern Calif. firms have cut 400,000 jobs

[UpInArms]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4602339/

LOS ANGELES - Silicon Valley shed far more jobs than originally feared last year and the area's ability to recover from the downturn may have been undermined by a shrinking labor force, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Economists at the UCLA Anderson business school said the six-county region around San Francisco Bay had lost 400,000 payroll jobs since the start of the slowdown three years ago.

San Jose, heartland of the technology industry, has lost 20 percent of its workf orce, a figure representing "the single largest loss of jobs by any major metropolitan area since at least the second world war", they said.

...more...

Yeah, we're right on the cusp - in the next month - the next quarter - later this year....

[AlCzervik]

1. You want fries with that?

I live in northern california and layoffs and outsourcing are starting to take a toll on things. HP is movong a whole bunch of people from Folson to Houston and they have booted the rest. My friend just back from Hydrabad India where he was training his replacement, he worked for Earthlink, all laid off.

[mhr]

2. North Dallas Lost 112,000 High-Tech Jobs In 2001 and 2002

Almost all of these where in Telecom.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Yeah, I came out and interviewed in 2000, and went

to a Halloween party in Richardson. All the people there were in tech or telecom, engineers with TI or marketing or technical people with Alcatel, the French telecom. Massive shakeout since then. I live and work in the area now, sometimes I wonder how many people at that party still have their jobs or are still in the area.

Many McMansions standing empty/on the market in my area.

[toodles_oduff]

4. How pricey are the McMansions?

I live in the Midwest and I understand that real estate in the N. Cal. area is sky high. I would imagine the same holds true for some areas of Texas. Wonder if the sellers will have to cut their asking prices (and take a loss possibly!) If the good jobs are leaving, who's left to afford the places?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. Houses here still WAY cheaper than CA. I moved here from

San Diego (long story, don't ask). You can get nice new homes in the ballpark of 100 dollars per square foot. So 300-500K will get you a really large, nice new home whereas you need that kind of money just to be in the game for any kind of ratty old house where I was (and sometimes a lot more). There are plenty of 1 mil and up kind of homes here too--I don't live in those neighborhoods so I don't know how that housing market is doing (can't imagine it's great).

I see lots of the 300-500K type homes for sale/unoccupied. I don't anticipate selling for a while so I haven't been following the prices. But I would imagine prices will have to take some kind of beating.

[mhr]

8. Unemployed For 46 Months - Refugee From Telecom

No job prospects in sight.

[tlcandie]

5. Business Week's March 22nd issue has some exceptional articles

regarding outsourcing. One in particular that I was able to read while in the doctor's office this morning was titled, "The Harsh Truth About Outsourcing," by Paul Craig Roberts.

It discussed the doctrine of comparative advantage put forth by economist David Ricardo in 1817 which is what is still used in today's world. The article stated it was never intended for today's times and that they are totally unrealistic. It is a short one page read and quite informative.

Other articles in this issue included:

"Productivity WHO WINS< WHO LOSES," by Michael J Mandel; "The Price of Efficiency," by James C. Cooper; "Where are the Jobs?" by Bruce Nussbaum; and "The Future of Work," by Peter Coy.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. No wonder the economy's on the rise!

Once corporations stop paying all these stupid damned salaries, everything will be just fine!