delighted to see this intelligent discussion on RADstats.
Exactly the same content has been seen recently in US publications.
There has been a staggering loss of manufacturing jobs in the US over the
past few years
Apologists like the Wall St Jrnl claim this will be made up by more
'hi-tech' Research and Development. This appears to be a bald-faced and
knowing lie.
R & D, new technology, jobs go where the manufacturing is done. China,
Bangladore, even Switzerland, etc.
Statistics and Operations Research (Management Science) has simiilarly gone
down the tubes. The business of local OR & MS societies is largely
organizing job fairs. I wonder how many of us teaching Management Science
have had the uncomfortable thoughts "I myself have used this procedure in my
consulting practice,[ and most likely in a Military Application ] but you
poor guys - and gals - will almost certainly never come within a sniff of
it" .. Hands up, how many have used Dykstra shortest route for real, and for
money? I have, 3 times so far, (Military) and loved it of course.
The one job that floats is IT - and very few entry level jobs at that.
Highly sophisticated tools (Remedy, Peregrine, Oracle, VB.Net ..) with
massive and slick Internet components, means that 1 or 2 consulltants can do
the work of the good old COBOL teams .. all very nice for us of course.
You see us in the local Borders browsing over the latest thick books, then
laying out $120 a piece.
The User group for one hoary old tool -Remedy - carries increasing listings
for US, and world-wide jobs.
This is all a shaking-out of 'Hi-tech' (incl Statistics) jobs, as well
as make-work Middle Management and lower jobs (Investment Adviser, Help
Desk, User Support) which has been in the works for 10-20 years. The result
will be a permanent, sharply lowered standard of living for Joe Blow (B.Sc.
or MBA) and his family in the Western Countries. and a rapid one-way trip to
a rather nasty retirement Condo in the middle of Fla, or the Euro
equivalent...
_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
*******************************************************
|