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.

Performance reviews corrupt the system by getting employees to focus on pleasing the boss, rather than on achieving desired results. And they make it difficult, if not impossible, for workers to speak truth to power.

performance preview. Instead of top-down reviews, both boss and subordinate are held responsible for setting goals and achieving results. No longer will only the subordinate be held accountable for the often arbitrary metrics that the boss creates. Instead, bosses are taught how to truly manage, and learn that it’s in their interest to listen to their subordinates to get the results the taxpayer is counting on.

Instead of the bosses merely handing out A’s and C’s, they work to make sure everyone can earn an A. And the word goes out: “No more after-the-fact disappointments. Tell me your problems as they happen; we’re in it together and it’s my job to ensure results.”

Yet it's worth thinking about why it's absurd to argue that every state should try to subsidise up a local film industry but not crazy to support local universities. Certainly, there are huge efficiencies being sacrificed by duplicating administrative capacity all around the country. And academics benefit from close proximity to those working on similar problems; the efficacy of research is reduced when it's spread more thinly around the country. If America had fewer, bigger states, it would probably have fewer, bigger universities, and that might well be a very good thing.

The joke, I'm sure I don't need to explain, is that not every state can succeed by poaching productions from other states, since what's made in one state can't be made in another. But that's not quite right. A subsidy allows a business to cut prices and artificially raise demand. Given generous enough subsidies, many more movies would be made, and each state could, potentially, have a thriving film industry. This is how higher education works, more or less. New Mexico has state universities just like California and Iowa and Alaska. These schools are understandably viewed as foundations of the local economies in which they're located, as well as important cultural institutions. And we obviously view the subsidisation of the production of college graduates as a worthwhile contribution to long-run growth, again, understandably.

[Former New Mexico Governor Bill] Richardson says that the film and TV subsidy has brought "nearly $4 billion into our economy over eight years" and has created 10,000 jobs. By "our," he means New Mexico. He says every state should emulate this success.

mid-sized cities in developed countries with relatively low population densities tend to score well by having all the cultural and infrastructural benefits on offer with fewer problems related to crime or congestion

oderately sized and populated, can more thoroughly address urban infrastructural and governmental needs like public education, healthcare, and safety than their larger, denser global counterparts.

The Mentoring Partnership Program is run by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC) through 12 agencies and 27 corporate partners. Since its creation six years ago, it's arranged 5,300 matches, with the help of more than 3,800 volunteer mentors.

"Of all our programs, it's probably the initiative that's caught the imagination of our corporate partners. It has a real return for them," says TRIEC executive director Elizabeth McIsaac. "It can be a form of soft recruitment and it helps its leaders become more cross-culturally competent."

it's in unlicensed professions where networking is crucial that the mentoring program makes the biggest difference.

IBM Corporate Service Corps Teams Head to India and Ghana CDS is kicking off the third year of its partnership with IBM’s Corporate Service Corps (CSC) with teams heading to Ghana and India at the end of February.

Corporate Service Corps, through which the company disperses small teams of high-performing employees, for weeks at a time, to help communities around the world address economic and societal challenges. The mission of these teams combines corporate responsibility with leadership training and business development—representing a new integration of the company’s business and societal goals.

That work roster suggests why the Corporate Service Corps represents not only cutting-edge career training but also a major advance in the practice of corporate social responsibility. The latter has come a long way over the past 100 years. A century ago, businesses answered only to their shareholders, and philanthropy was a personal (and primarily financial) matter for wealthy industrialists and their companies. However, over the course of the twentieth century, the most enlightened corporations came to see developing responsible relationships with society as an important element of how they defined themselves. Today, engaging with society has increasingly become an essential part of doing business, woven into every decision about how the organization operates.

For IBM, the company gains experienced leaders, inspired employees, insights into new markets.

Sustainable Happiness: How Happiness Studies Can Contribute to a More Sustainable Future This paper provides the rationale for integrating sustainability principles with happiness studies. Examples of sustainable happiness in practice are provided as well as recommendations for further applications.

WiganPlus is an exciting new scheme that rewards people who live and work within Wigan for continuing to shop in our local town centre. With exclusive promotions from Arriva on local bus travel to Wigan town centre and exciting offers and incentives from the towns favourite retailers, WiganPlus makes local loyalty more rewarding. 

What if, however, you were told most of your mortgage or all of your rent could be paid off instantly, or you could send your kids to a national daycare program? Still bored? Yet that’s exactly what could have happened if Canada didn’t have a productivity gap with the U.S., according to Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

Canada trails the U.S. in GDP per capita by $9,300. In 1981 that gap was only $2,600. If we got back to the 1981 gap, the average family would see their disposable, after-tax income go up by $8,800, according to the institute, which is the research arm for the task force chaired by Martin.

That would be like having almost all the mortgages and rental payments disappear. It would be like having enough money to pay for a national child-care program and still have enough left over for the biggest tax cut in history

Welders, exterior finishing occupations, machinists, carpenters and heavy equipment and crane operators, including drillers, experienced the largest employment losses among apprenticeable occupations. For all occupations combined, the employment downturn took its heaviest toll in Ontario and Alberta, where employment decreased by 3.1% and 3.3%, respectively.

n the absence of a comprehensive renewable energy plan for Canada, several have begun forging ahead with their own long-term visions to produce renewable energy locally.

We see this across Alberta. More than 20 communities, from Athabasca to Pincher Creek, have installed solar electricity systems on highly visible public buildings.

at a meeting of the City of Edmonton's Task Force on Renewable Energy that we heard the story of one of the boldest municipal steps to encourage local renewable energy in North America. Gainesville, Florida - home of the Gators and Gatorade - made headlines when they launched the very first municipal feed-in tariff program to facilitate solar energy on homes and businesses.