The recession in Ohio’s steel towns wasn’t a black hole at the end of a sustained boom, or downgrading from Target to Wal-Mart, or cutting out $3 drinks at Starbucks. It was a confrontation with survival. ( Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/16/AR2009121604244.html
The hiring of temporary workers has surged, suggesting that the nation’s employers might soon take the next step, bringing on permanent workers, if they can just convince themselves that the upturn in the economy will be sustained. (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/business/economy/21temps.html
An encouraging jobs report Friday underscored the growing prominence of temporary workers who some experts predict could constitute up to a quarter of the workforce in a few years.
A big reason employers shed a far-less-than-expected 11,000 jobs last month is that temporary staffing agencies found slots for 52,000 additional workers, the most since 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.
That’s a good sign because cautious employers typically hire temps in a recovery before bringing on full-time staffers.
“Companies are hesitant to say demand is lasting and they go first to the contract labor market,” says Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres. The No. 1 staffing agency’s business rose 10% to 15% last quarter, he says.
Fifteen years ago, most temporary slots were for office work, but more than half are now filled by professionals such as engineers and physicians, Asin says. Business Talent Group, which places executives, saw its second-quarter business rise 70%. “You can choose your projects and if something’s not working out, you can move on” or “take a hiatus,” company co-founder Amelia Tyagi says.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-12-07-contractworkers07_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
Interesting and logical look at why sometimes talking about a goal makes it less likely to happen.
“The study’s author thinks it has to do with sense of identity and wholeness. We all want to be an idealized person, and declaring our intentions to work hard is a symbolic act. It contributes to the goal of completing who we are.”
It seems that once we let the world know what we are interested in becoming, it comes close enough to satisfying the need to be known for that. The doing usually never happens. Not cool.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/41800
New documentary film coming out soon… Discuses how laid-off workers took the opportunity to change career paths and lifestyles. Very Permanent Temporary!!
http://www.lemonademovie.com/
One of the core ideas in Permanent Temporary is that you can, and often should, do more than one thing at a time. In this case, some apartment building laundry rooms are moonlighting as libraries and sanctuary for the arts. Kudos.
The article is mildly interesting, but I must counter one claim in the article referencing the idea that in NYC “so many people live in energy-conserving apartments”. I doubt they come close to offsetting the countless apartment buildings that are centrally heated and force residents to leave their windows open all winter. I was forced to do it myself. I think there are much more of these kinds of building at present, just for the record. But this is beside the point.
Maybe your next trip to the laundry room will result in a found copy of Permanent Temporary! 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/nyregion/01bigcity.html?_r=1
Found in Wired Magazine November 2009, it appears scientists are developing a computerized robot that is capable of obtaining new energy from biomass, allowing the robot to recharge without conventional fueling stations. I’m not sure if everyone understands what this means. Or maybe I don’t. Wouldn’t that mean…. ? Shouldn’t we…? Um… Yikes. Even if it IS vegetarian…
http://www.robotictechnologyinc.com/index.php/EATR
Great Article in Wired Magazine November 2009 about how daydreaming and stargazing might actually be a catalyst for original and organized thought and invention. Could be seen as common sense, but I’ve never really heard anyone say it before…
I will post link when I can find it! I’ll daydream until I figure it out.
AdAge: Wal-Mart CMO Stephen Quinn defended his company’s massive expansion of is private-label brands. Earlier this year, the retail giant sparked a controversy in the food marketing industry when it unveiled a revamped “Great Value” brand line that includes more than 5,000 items in 100 grocery categories.
To explain why people are upset, it means that Wal-Mart will no longer be purchasing as much from food wholesalers but instead ‘producing’ it themselves. Essentially they are cutting out yet another middleman and that means less jobs. As people get poorer, Wal-Mart gets richer. As people get even poorer yet, they arrange a way to spin their tactics to appear that they are helping “everyman” by offering less expensive food. They glance over the fact that the cost is more jobs at the vendors who formerly supplied them.
To everyman: Short-term temporary benefits are leading to long-term permanent losses. Watch out!!
A Human Rights Watch report on Cuba takes the government of President Raul Castro to task for, among other things, jailing those without jobs. The report cited the cases of dozens of people charged with “dangerousness” for being unemployed.
“A person is considered to be in a state of dangerousness due to antisocial behavior if the person … lives, like a social parasite, off the work of others,’’ the report quoted Cuba’s Criminal Code as saying.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/jailing-the-jobless-in-cuba/?scp=3&sq=cuba&st=cse
Per Robert in Washington “Step back a little. The very same thing happens in America. We just use different language!”
