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Omar Yaqub

The Way We Culture: Edmonton's Plan for Multiculturalism? - 0 views

www.google.com/...view

immigrants edmonton

shared by Omar Yaqub on 20 May 11 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 20 May 11
     
    With 24%, or almost one in four Edmontonians having immigrated to Edmonton in their lifetime, Edmonton is certainly a multicultural city.(1)  With the population now more than 722,260 people, there are over 180,565 neighbours, coworkers and friends in Edmonton whose comforts of urban culture and urban design are likely somewhat to very different than the Canadian status-quo. Based on the language spoken at home, Figure 1 shows the nation of origin of many new Edmontonians, including 40% from India, the Philippines and China, thousands from Germany, the Ukraine, Poland, Spain, the Middle East, Vietnam and many other countries. Edmonton is home to over 70 different ethnic groups.(2)  This multiculturalism could be called one of the backbones of the Canadian identity - and one which the Canadian government continues to pride itself on at national and international levels. At our municipal level, the City of Edmonton has stated it "acknowledges the diversity of Edmontonians and [has charted] a course of inclusion where all people can be confident of the opportunity for success in [the] city".(3) However, to truly plan for a multicultural city we must include and go beyond hosting food and dance fairs and funding cultural associations. To build a city that is reflective of its people means to provide room for the very public spaces and culturally-relevant buildings that inhabit and nurture the essence of urban culture that exist in its people's way of being. So how does the City of Edmonton contribute to the celebration and accommodation of the diversity of its citizens through the built form? The City's newly released 'Ways' documents including The Way We Grow (Edmonton's Municipal Development Plan (MDP) for urban growth) and The Way We Live (Edmonton's plan for community development and social service delivery) provide some insight to Edmonton's plans for cultural inclusivity through urban design using a livability framework.(4, 5) From the MDP Th
Omar Yaqub

Canadian Immigration and Visas | National Occupation Classification List - 0 views

www.workpermit.com/...employee_list.htm

immigration work

shared by Omar Yaqub on 27 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Code Occupation 0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture)1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management (cap reached for June 2011 year)1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners2121 Biologists and Related Scientists2151 Architects3111 Specialist Physicians3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians3113 Dentists3131 Pharmacists3142 Physiotherapists3152 Registered Nurses (cap reached for June 2011 year)3215 Medical Radiation Technologists3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists3233 Licensed Practical Nurses4151 Psychologists4152 Social Workers6241 Chefs6242 Cooks7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System)7242 Industrial Electricians7251 Plumbers7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics7371 Crane Operators7372 Drillers & Blasters - Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service
  • Canadian Eligible Skilled Occupations
  • Omar Yaqub on 27 Feb 12
     
    Canadian Eligible Skilled Occupations Code Occupation 0631 Restaurant and Food Service Managers 0811 Primary Production Managers (Except Agriculture) 1122 Professional Occupations in Business Services to Management (cap reached for June 2011 year) 1233 Insurance Adjusters and Claims Examiners 2121 Biologists and Related Scientists 2151 Architects 3111 Specialist Physicians 3112 General Practitioners and Family Physicians 3113 Dentists 3131 Pharmacists 3142 Physiotherapists 3152 Registered Nurses (cap reached for June 2011 year) 3215 Medical Radiation Technologists 3222 Dental Hygienists & Dental Therapists 3233 Licensed Practical Nurses 4151 Psychologists 4152 Social Workers 6241 Chefs 6242 Cooks 7215 Contractors and Supervisors, Carpentry Trades 7216 Contractors and Supervisors, Mechanic Trades 7241 Electricians (Except Industrial & Power System) 7242 Industrial Electricians 7251 Plumbers 7265 Welders & Related Machine Operators 7312 Heavy-Duty Equipment Mechanics 7371 Crane Operators 7372 Drillers & Blasters - Surface Mining, Quarrying & Construction 8222 Supervisors, Oil and Gas Drilling and Service Canada Guide for Employers Skilled Workers Assessment Points calculator Guide for Individuals Overview Skilled Worker Immigration Shortage Occupations Family & Dependants International adoptions US vs. Canada Resume (CV) Format IT professionals Provincial Nominee Program Canada business immigration Working Holiday Program Canada Study Permits Relocating to Canada Immigration to Australia Canada United Kingdom United States more countries » Immigration assessments Tier 1 (General) Assessment UK employee work permit Australia skilled immigration Canadian skilled workers US green card lottery US H-1B for individuals US L-1 appraisal form US Green card assessment German green card General assessment Eligibility certificate Full assessments list
Omar Yaqub

The growing US jobs challenge - McKinsey Quarterly - Economic Studies - Country Reports - 0 views

www.mckinseyquarterly.com/...growing_US_jobs_challenge_2816

Work us

shared by Omar Yaqub on 20 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • The growing US jobs challenge It could take more than five years—longer than after any postwar downturn—to replace the millions of jobs lost to the 2008–09 recession. How can the US rev up its job creation engine?
  • Omar Yaqub on 20 Jul 11
     
    The growing US jobs challenge It could take more than five years-longer than after any postwar downturn-to replace the millions of jobs lost to the 2008-09 recession. How can the US rev up its job creation engine?
Omar Yaqub

The awful truth: education won't stop the west getting poorer | Peter Wilby | Comment i... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...tion-jobs-middle-class-decline

education trends competitiveness work

shared by Omar Yaqub on 02 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Skilled jobs will go to the lowest bidder worldwide. A decline in middle class pay and job satisfaction is only just beginning
  • Americans are about to suffer a profound shock. For the past 30 years governments have explained that, while they can no longer protect jobs through traditional forms of state intervention such as subsidies and tariffs, they can expand and reform education to maximise opportunity. If enough people buckle down to acquiring higher-level skills and qualifications, Europeans and Americans will continue to enjoy rising living standards. If they work hard enough, each generation can still do better than its parents. All that is required is to bring schools up to scratch and persuade universities to teach "marketable" skills. That is the thinking behind Michael Gove's policies and those of all his recent predecessors as education secretary.
  • "Knowledge work", supposedly the west's salvation, is now being exported like manual work. A global mass market in unskilled labour is being quickly succeeded by a market in middle-class work, particularly for industries, such as electronics, in which so much hope of employment opportunities and high wages was invested. As supply increases, employers inevitably go to the cheapest source. A chip designer in India costs 10 times less than a US one.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Alan Blinder, a former vice-chairman of the US Federal Reserve, has estimated that a quarter of all American service sector jobs could go overseas.
  • Western neoliberal "flat earthers" (after Thomas Friedman's book) believed jobs would migrate overseas in an orderly fashion. Some skilled work might eventually leave but, they argued, it would make space for new industries, requiring yet higher skills and paying better wages. Only highly educated westerners would be capable of the necessary originality and adaptability. Developing countries would obligingly wait for us to innovate in new areas before trying to compete.
  • But why shouldn't developing countries leapfrog the west? Asia now produces more scientists and engineers than the EU and the US put together. By 2012, on current trends, the Chinese will patent more inventions than any other nation.
  • t suggests neoliberals made a second, perhaps more important error. They assumed "knowledge work" would always entail the personal autonomy, creativity and job satisfaction to which the middle classes were accustomed. They did not understand that, as the industrial revolution allowed manual work to be routinised, so in the electronic revolution the same fate would overtake many professional jobs. Many "knowledge skills" will go the way of craft skills. They are being chopped up, codified and digitised. Every high street once had bank managers who used their discretion and local knowledge to decide which customers should receive loans. Now software does the job. Human judgment is reduced to a minimum, which explains why loan applicants are often denied because of some tiny, long-forgotten overdue payment
  • Digital Taylorism makes jobs easier to export but, crucially, changes the nature of much professional work. Aspirant graduates face the prospect not only of lower wages, smaller pensions and less job security than their parents enjoyed but also of less satisfying careers. True, every profession and company will retain a cadre of thinkers and decision-makers at the top – perhaps 10% or 15% of the total – but the mass of employees, whether or not they hold high qualifications, will perform routine functions for modest wages. Only for those with elite qualifications from elite universities (not all in Europe or America) will education deliver the promised rewards.
  • The effects of the financial squeeze and deficit reduction programme will threaten much more than this government's survival. We shall see, in all probability, a permanent reduction in British living standards that can't be arrested by educational reform. Neoliberalism, already badly dented by the financial meltdown, will be almost entirely discredited. Governments will then need to rethink their attitudes to education, inequality and the state's economic role.
  • Omar Yaqub on 02 Mar 11
     
    Skilled jobs will go to the lowest bidder worldwide. A decline in middle class pay and job satisfaction is only just beginning
Omar Yaqub

Why US productivity can grow without killing jobs - McKinsey Quarterly - Economic Studi... - 0 views

www.mckinseyquarterly.com/...grow_without_killing_jobs_2748

productivity us work competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Does higher productivity destroy jobs? Sometimes, but only in the very short term
  • We are optimistic about productivity because it isn’t only about efficiency; it is no less about expanding output through innovations that improve the performance, quality, or value of goods and services. What’s more, even productivity solely from efficiency gains can, in the aggregate, lead to higher employment if the cost savings are put back to work elsewhere in the economy. Companies can pass on those savings to their customers in the form of lower prices, leaving households and businesses with more money to spend elsewhere. They can also reinvest savings from more efficient operations in new job-creating activities.
  • The largest productivity gains since 2000 came from sectors that have seen substantial employment reductions (Exhibit 2). Computers and related electronics, the rest of manufacturing, and information sectors contributed around half of overall productivity growth since the turn of the century and reduced employment by almost 4.5 million jobs. More than 85 percent of them were lost even before the recession’s onset. The sectors that added the most employment during this period tended to be those with lower productivity—notably the health sector.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The sprawling US health care sector, for example, has only begun to implement the lean-management principles that have revolutionized manufacturing. Today, nurses still spend less than 40 percent of their time with patients and the rest on paperwork. Even sectors such as retailing, where US businesses have had a strong productivity record, could do more. One way would be to take lean practices from the stockroom to the storefront through simple changes such as adjusting employee shifts to suit changing levels of customer traffic.
  • Businesses can also boost productivity by thinking innovatively about goods and services they provide to their customers—and how they provide them. An office supply company, for example, could offer comprehensive, value-adding procurement services. Innovations such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, currently gaining steam in retailing, could improve supply chain productivity across a wide array of industries. Retail banks and payment companies can find new ways to serve the nearly one-quarter of Americans who are unbanked or underbanked.
  • The private sector can’t solve the productivity and growth challenge alone; targeted government policy changes are also critical. The federal government, with support from business, should act on economy-wide barriers that today limit growth. Policy makers should realign incentives in public and regulated sectors to expand services and should invest more resources in improving the US skill base and infrastructure.
  • Easing restrictions that keep older Americans out of the workforce and refining immigration rules could help reduce the growth drag that aging populations naturally impose. S
Omar Yaqub

Multicultural meritocracy - 0 views

www.financialpost.com/...story.html

immigrants work canada

shared by Omar Yaqub on 09 May 11 - Cached
  • Yezdi Pavri, vice-chairman of professional services firm Deloitte in Canada. "There is a competitive business advantage to having a diverse workforce and drawing from the widest talent pool possible. At Deloitte we have created an inclusive meritocracy. We have proven just as other organizations have that diversity leads to innovation. When you capitalize on the different experiences people bring you come up with better solutions. Now, many of our clients push us to have diverse teams. The worst thing you can do these days is go to a client with a team of five white men because that does not represent what the market or what our clients look like.
  • Here then are some strategies small businesses can use to attract and retain skilled immigrant workers:
  • "Make it known that as a small employer you are interested in hiring skilled immigrants,"
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • ALLIES [Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies] is an umbrella organization that reaches across the country. It's a good place to start
  • Conduct interviews in the applicant's first language. "From a recruiting perspective, we are out looking for people with the right skills and often we will find individuals who have tremendous technical capabilities but English may be a struggle and so they have trouble representing themselves in an interview situation,"
  • "If we bring someone on board, we go through an extensive orientation process and part of that includes offering them the opportunity to take English language courses or other types of assimilation courses. We also fund continuing learning across our teams. That is a value for us and it helps us retain our talent." Thales Canada's Toronto location has a 95% reten-tion rate among new immigrants.
  • Create a buddy system. "We partner every new employee with a buddy who is not their coach or manager and who helps them navigate Deloitte,"
  • "What is the right way to dress? What are the right cultural protocols? People coming from other parts of the world don't have the common protocols we take for granted. This buddy system has been tremendously effective. A couple of years after a skilled immigrant has joined us and assimilated into the culture, they are often the most keen to act as buddies to new people coming in.
  • Start small. "We piloted our strategy, nurturing our leaders and instituted cultural awareness training,"
  • "Organizations like TRIEC can help you with cultural training, often at no cost. This will help you identify cultural differences and then figure out ways to address them tactfully."
Omar Yaqub

Operational Bulletin 279-D (revised) - September 27, 2012 - 0 views

www.cic.gc.ca/...ob279D.asp

work canada alberta

shared by Omar Yaqub on 12 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 12 Dec 12
     
    "to clarify for employers that they may use the Labour Market Opinion (LMO) or Accelerated Labour Market Opinion (A‑LMO) process rather than the Alberta Occupation-Specific Pilot. If an employer uses the LMO or A‑LMO process, the foreign national(s) should be issued an employer-specific Work Permit (WP)."
Omar Yaqub

Applicants: Engineers: Registered Elsewhere - 0 views

www.apegga.org/...peng_elsewhere.html

engineers canada immigrants

shared by Omar Yaqub on 23 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • For US Professional Engineers not registered with one of the Canadian engineering associations you will need to have your academic institution provide us with your transcripts and you will also need to provide us with the names and contact information of at least three references. Alternatively, you can submit your NCEES Record Book instead. Also note that if you are a US Professional Engineer but not registered elsewhere in Canada, you will need to pass the National Professional Practice Examination before you can become licensed as a Professional Engineer or Foreign Licensee with APEGGA.
  • If you are going to practice engineering in Alberta you must be licensed as a Professional Engineer or Foreign Licensee with APEGGA.
Omar Yaqub

How to compete and grow: A sector guide to policy | www.mckinsey.com | Readability - 0 views

www.readability.com/...c5adhseh

work us trends

shared by Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • To streamline the complex analysis governments need to undertake, MGI offers a new framework of six sector groups that share characteristics and respond to similar approaches to enhancing competitiveness. They are (1) infrastructure services; (2) local services; (3) business services; (4) research and development (R&D)-intensive manufacturing; (5) manufacturing; and (6) resource-intensive industries. In each of these groups, MGI documents how competitiveness levers vary and how policy has influenced competitiveness in each. These six categories provide a useful framework for understanding what determines competitiveness in different kinds of industries and what tangible actions governments and businesses can take to improve competitiveness
  • Omar Yaqub on 17 Mar 11
     
    To streamline the complex analysis governments need to undertake, MGI offers a new framework of six sector groups that share characteristics and respond to similar approaches to enhancing competitiveness. They are (1) infrastructure services; (2) local services; (3) business services; (4) research and development (R&D)-intensive manufacturing; (5) manufacturing; and (6) resource-intensive industries. In each of these groups, MGI documents how competitiveness levers vary and how policy has influenced competitiveness in each. These six categories provide a useful framework for understanding what determines competitiveness in different kinds of industries and what tangible actions governments and businesses can take to improve competitiveness.
Omar Yaqub

What is the difference between a pre-approved LMO and a LMO? - 0 views

www.experts123.com/...re-approved-lmo-and-a-lmo.html

work government

shared by Omar Yaqub on 12 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • A pre-approved LMO or ‘pre-approval to hire temporary foreign workers’ is a process introduced by Service Canada for employers hiring foreign workers in occupations where the recruitment activities are ‘prolonged and/or extensive’. Given the current pressure for workers, most of the occupations in the construction industry fall under this category. Pre-approved LMOs are used when the employer wishes to have an ‘approval in principle’ prior to starting the recruitment phase. It is important to note that pre-approved LMOs do not guarantee a positive Labour Market Opinion from Service Canada. LMOs are specific to a particular worker and the labour market situation at any given time. The actual determination of a positive LMO can only be made after the employee has been selected. If you have already applied for a pre-approval, you will only provide the worker-specific information once you have selected your worker. For employers who have not applied for a pre-approval to hire a worker, ...
  • Omar Yaqub on 12 Feb 13
     
    "A pre-approved LMO or 'pre-approval to hire temporary foreign workers' is a process introduced by Service Canada for employers hiring foreign workers in occupations where the recruitment activities are 'prolonged and/or extensive'. Given the current pressure for workers, most of the occupations in the construction industry fall under this category. Pre-approved LMOs are used when the employer wishes to have an 'approval in principle' prior to starting the recruitment phase. It is important to note that pre-approved LMOs do not guarantee a positive Labour Market Opinion from Service Canada. LMOs are specific to a particular worker and the labour market situation at any given time. The actual determination of a positive LMO can only be made after the employee has been selected. If you have already applied for a pre-approval, you will only provide the worker-specific information once you have selected your worker. For employers who have not applied for a pre-approval to hire a worker, "
Omar Yaqub

CCLB - 0 views

www.language.ca/display_page.asp

language

shared by Omar Yaqub on 10 May 12 - No Cached
  • Intermediate Proficiency (Stage II - CLB Levels 5-8) represents the range of abilities which enable a learner to participate more fully in social, educational, and work-related settings. The contexts in which English is used are less familiar and predictable and the proficiencies demonstrated by learners enable them to function more independently. Competencies acquired in this stage may enable a learner to move beyond the ESL classroom into new opportunities. Many learners, at the end of Stage II, are ready for post-secondary academic programs.
  • Basic Proficiency (Stage I - CLB Levels 1-4) is the range of abilities needed to communicate in common and predictable settings to meet basic needs and to carry out everyday activities. A curriculum aligned to the Benchmarks and targeting the language proficiencies of stage 1 learners would focus on topics of immediate personal relevance.
  • Omar Yaqub on 10 May 12
     
    Intermediate Proficiency (Stage II - CLB Levels 5-8) represents the range of abilities which enable a learner to participate more fully in social, educational, and work-related settings. The contexts in which English is used are less familiar and predictable and the proficiencies demonstrated by learners enable them to function more independently. Competencies acquired in this stage may enable a learner to move beyond the ESL classroom into new opportunities. Many learners, at the end of Stage II, are ready for post-secondary academic programs.
Omar Yaqub

Regulated professions : Alberta, Canada - Immigration - 0 views

albertacanada.com/...ons-regulated-professions.aspx

work alberta

shared by Omar Yaqub on 13 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Regulated professions Below is a complete list of regulated professions in Alberta. There are links to the professional regulatory organizations for each, where you'll find more information about accreditation. Your occupation might be called something different in Canada than it is in your country of origin. You can use the Working in Canada tool to find the job description that most closely matches the occupation for which you are trained. For some occupations a guide to the accreditation process is available. More guides will be added as they are created.
  • Omar Yaqub on 13 Mar 12
     
    Regulated professions Below is a complete list of regulated professions in Alberta. There are links to the professional regulatory organizations for each, where you'll find more information about accreditation. Your occupation might be called something different in Canada than it is in your country of origin. You can use the Working in Canada tool to find the job description that most closely matches the occupation for which you are trained. For some occupations a guide to the accreditation process is available. More guides will be added as they are created.
Omar Yaqub

Major Changes to Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program - Immigration - Canada - 0 views

www.mondaq.com/...article.asp

tfw immigration work

shared by Omar Yaqub on 06 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Many TFWs will be exempt from the 4 year time cap, including: TFWs in managerial (NOC 0) or professional occupations (NOC A). Therefore, LMO-based work permit holders in occupations at these two NOC skill levels are not affected by the 4 year time cap. TFWs who are exempt from the Labour Market Opinion process. This includes two key work permit categories used by many Canadian employers: (1) the intra-company transferee work permit category; and (2) work permits issued under international agreements (such as NAFTA, CCFTA, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program etc.)
  • Omar Yaqub on 06 Mar 12
     
    Many TFWs will be exempt from the 4 year time cap, including: TFWs in managerial (NOC 0) or professional occupations (NOC A). Therefore, LMO-based work permit holders in occupations at these two NOC skill levels are not affected by the 4 year time cap. TFWs who are exempt from the Labour Market Opinion process. This includes two key work permit categories used by many Canadian employers: (1) the intra-company transferee work permit category; and (2) work permits issued under international agreements (such as NAFTA, CCFTA, the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program etc.)
Omar Yaqub

Measuring Capacity Building for Aboriginal Economic Development « Global Lead... - 0 views

www.global-leadership.ca/...boriginal-economic-development

work edmonton aboriginal

shared by Omar Yaqub on 14 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Measurement of capacity building frequently involves the use of a logic model and self-assessments, which can be useful in helping to focus evaluation and in gathering individual perceptions.  Two drawbacks to the use of the logic model for evaluation are firstly that funder output focus may not match actual organizational goals and outcomes, and secondly that the complex relationships between components in the system are over-simplified or ignored. Self-assessments alone are problematic in that they focus solely on the perception of individuals and lack objectivity because they may be influenced by: effort, bias, discrimination, interpersonal conflict in the organization, desire to avoid scrutiny, fear of reprisal or personal gain.
Omar Yaqub

Why US productivity can grow without killing jobs - McKinsey Quarterly - Economic Studi... - 0 views

www.mckinseyquarterly.com/...grow_without_killing_jobs_2748

productivity work competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 10 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Does higher productivity destroy jobs? Sometimes, but only in the very short term, considering US economic performance over the past 80 years. In fact, every ten-year rolling period but one since 1929 has seen increases in both US productivity and employment. Even on a rolling annual basis, 69 percent of periods have delivered both productivity and jobs growth (Exhibit 1). Over the long term, apparently, it’s a fallacy to suggest that there’s a trade-off between unemployment and productivity. These are among the key findings of the latest report from the McKinsey Global Institute, Growth and renewal in the United States: Retooling America’s economic engine. We are optimistic about productivity because it isn’t only about efficiency; it is no less about expanding output through innovations that improve the performance, quality, or value of goods and services. What’s more, even productivity solely from efficiency gains can, in the aggregate, lead to higher employment if the cost savings are put back to work elsewhere in the economy. Companies can pass on those savings to their customers in the form of lower prices, leaving households and businesses with more money to spend elsewhere. They can also reinvest savings from more efficient operations in new job-creating activities.
Omar Yaqub

Building America's Third Great Job Machine - Richard Florida - Business - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...238316

Work competitiveness

shared by Omar Yaqub on 07 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • The first American job machine was organized around farms and agricultural employment. More than four in 10 Americans worked on farms in 1800. Another 20 percent or so worked in manufacturing.
  • The second great American job machine took hold during the mid-19th century, propelled by the surge in manufacturing.  By late in the century, some 60 percent of the workforce had been absorbed in industrial jobs while agricultural work dropped to roughly ten percent of employment. Industrial and blue-collar manufacturing jobs would power America's economic and employment growth for the better part of the next century, until roughly1950. But for most of those years, it was low-wage, long-day, dirty and dangerous work -- it wasn't until the Great Depression, the New Deal, and post WW II prosperity that blue-collar jobs became good, family supporting jobs.
  • Against the backdrop of a massive decline in once high-paying blue collar manufacturing jobs which is eerily similar to the decline of agricultural jobs a century or so ago, this third transformation is creating not one overall, but two distinct categories of jobs and employment.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • first category includes millions of the best jobs America has ever seen: high-pay, high-skill jobs in knowledge-based professional and creative fields. Almost a third of American workers now have these kinds of jobs, which pay more than double most manufacturing jobs and which have been rather impervious to unemployment.
  • When unemployment among production workers climbed to more than 15 percent and surged above 20 percent for construction workers, unemployment among professional, technical and creative workers never got much above five percent.
  • the second category, which comprises such routine service work as personal care assistants and home health care aids, retail sales clerks, and food preparers -- is not so good. In fact, the pay for these jobs is roughly half that of manufacturing jobs. The result is as simple as it is tragic: a startling bifurcation of the job market and an increasingly unequal and divided society. Once we see this, it becomes clear that neither of the two most commonly cited prescriptions -- the counter-cyclical approach to job creation by boosting investment and demand, or the path of educating more people for higher-paying knowledge-based jobs -- can work.
  • A successful jobs strategy must focus centrally on upgrading the content and improving the wages of this entire job category. That is what happened a century ago, when public policy shifted to protect workers' rights and line jobs in manufacturing, once considered dirty and dangerous and impossible to upgrade, became high-paid work.
  • service work and service workers are not just a necessary cost of doing business, part of the overhead, but a potential profit center. Service workers can produce real value and there's no reason that they can't have real careers.
  • make the upgrading of service jobs a key prong of America's next great job machine.
  • Most service firms are smaller, mom-and-pop operations. To bring them into the 21stcentury, the administration should develop strategies to help these smaller firms learn the advantages of seeing workers as sources of innovation and productivity gains.
  • This could be a modest, low cost public-private partnership, involving universities, community colleges, and industry groups, modeled perhaps along the lines of the old Agricultural and Manufacturing Extension programs. The administration should also consider using incentives to encourage companies to upgrade service jobs, which would have the added benefit of improving the overall productivity of the highly fragmented service sector -- the last great frontier of inefficiency in advanced economies -- lifting the productivity of the economy overall, while boosting wages and lifting consumer demand.
  • This wouldn't come for free. All of us would have to pay a little more to the people who clean our homes, take care of our kids and aging parents, cut our hair, and sell us our clothes. This is exactly what we did a half century ago to spur recovery, when we agreed to pay more to the workers who made our cars and appliances and were building our homes. The costs are so modest and widely spread that they are unlikely to derail any recovery. And the payoffs in terms of productivity gains and increased demand are surely worth it.
Omar Yaqub

Labour markets: Jobs don't pay what they used to | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...labour_markets_1

work trends

shared by Omar Yaqub on 30 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Omar Yaqub on 30 Mar 11
     
    With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten so desperate that they're willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.
Omar Yaqub

ICCI: Key Features of the program - 0 views

www.international.gc.ca/...features.aspx

government funding

shared by Omar Yaqub on 28 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • main funding process occurs once a year using a standard application process.
  • Omar Yaqub on 28 Jun 11
     
    main funding process occurs once a year using a standard application process.
Omar Yaqub

Oilsands expansion ramps up demand for engineers - 0 views

www.edmontonjournal.com/...story.html

work immigrants alberta engineers

shared by Omar Yaqub on 09 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • The most in-demand engineering positions include civil, mechanical and electrical with expertise in areas such as pipe design, instrumentation and project management.
  • money is not the biggest factor when experienced engineers change employers
  • It is rarely money, the most recent poll found a pleasant work environment. That includes an innovative company the offers both challenges and job security, with a positive image where people are proud to work,” said Winterfield.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “We have more than 450 employees who have had 30-plus year careers with us and who are still employed with us. Many of Syncrude’s senior employees are pioneers in the oilsands industry, and they have invaluable knowledge to share, and this helps attract young professionals who are starting out in their careers,” she said.
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