Trade magazine article - Wage Squeeze due to globalization

[liberal N proud]

A skilled yet aging workforce sees wages squeezed by globalization

Manufacturing Business Technology recently surveyed its corporate, operations, and IT management readership to gauge where it's at when it comes to employment conditions and attitudes on use of information technology in manufacturing.

The results reinforce predictions that in coming years, manufacturing industries will be faced with a very real skills shortage. The nearly 400 respondents revealed themselves to be highly educated, with 74 percent having a bachelor, multiple bachelors, or masters degree.

It's not difficult to conclude, therefore, that the three million jobs lost in the manufacturing industries since the year 2000 has tended to push or keep younger managers out of manufacturing, while retaining highly qualified and experienced managers. This poses serious human-capital management challenges in these industries in coming years.

Given this committed workforce laboring in industries awash with new competitors, it's not surprising that executives and managers ranging from C-level to directors all report relative wage stagflation, as evidenced by 79 percent of all respondents reporting these numbers:

No change in 2006-2007 base salary (19 percent); or
An increase of 1 percent to 3 percent in base salary (33 percent); or
An increase of 4 percent to 5 percent in base salary (27 percent).
When asked how their base salaries would change from 2007 to 2008, respondents see the same picture, with 82 percent expecting no change, or a raise of not more than 5 percent forthcoming.

In real terms, then, many executives and managers are losing ground when it comes to earning power, given at least a several percentage-point gain in core inflation annually.

http://www.mbtmag.com/article/CA6510309.html

[SoCalDem]

1. Duh! n/t

[ixion]

2. my response as well...

a big, whoppin 'DUH!'