Here’s a little preview of the State of the Union speech:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary______________________________________________________________________________________________
EMBARGOED UNTIL 6:00PM ET
February 12, 2013
EMBARGOED: Excerpts of the President’s State of the Union Address
As Prepared for Delivery
“It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.
It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country – the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or who you love.
It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation of ours.”
…
“A growing economy that creates good, middle-class jobs – that must be the North Star that guides our efforts. Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation: How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?”
…
“Tonight, I’ll lay out additional proposals that are fully paid for and fully consistent with the budget framework both parties agreed to just 18 months ago. Let me repeat – nothing I’m proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It’s not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth.”
Sounds like maybe he wants to talk about jobs.
And will he say “We must guarantee that each American who graduates from college should be first in line for jobs.”
He should.
he kind of did. He talked about making sure we give our students the skills for those jobs.
Well, that’s a very different thing. In other words, if you don’t have the skills, you are out of luck.
Before 1998, when the H-1B was created, people were trained because businesses needed to hire. Today, businesses do not train. Before 1998, you could get your expenses paid for a job interview. Today, doesn’t happen.
When you set up a huge labor glut, you make the situation very difficult for US workers. Norm Matloff has shown in a number of publications that in IT, old is 35. You get to be 35, you get laid off.
And the stories about people having to train their replacements? These stories are true.
Not sure about the training stuff (working for the Feds, they train you), but for every interview I had, they paid for my plane fare and hotel.
If you can’t get hired in tech, the problem is not H1-B candidates in front of you.
I hire. My problem is not my position.
Editorial “you”. I don’t mean you, dataguy.
I don’t like H1-Bs, because rather than sending highly qualified workers back to their home countries, I’d rather they have the chance to build their lives here, start companies here, etc.
But I also don’t like to see guest workers pitted against the native born. There are a lot of opportunities, and not enough talent to take them on.
You should look up the writing of Norm Matloff, Professor, Computer Science, UC-Davis. Norm has shown that in IT, if you are over 35, you are going to be laid off and will not get hired. So, if you are over 35, the problem is that there are hundreds of thousands of H-1Bs, L-1s, F-1s, J-1s, and a bunch of other TEMPORARY JOB VISAS.
NONE OF THESE ARE IMMIGRATION VISAS. THEY ARE TEMPORARY JOB VISAS.
But if you are over 35, the vast number of temporary workers means that you will probably never work again.
Save up, seabe. You have 10 years.
Oh I will. First I gotta pay down my loans lololol. 27.5/56k to go.
Pushing 40, working in tech, not worried for my job. Started my most recent position in the last year.
Professor Matloff’s theories sound like further evidence that academia doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on in industry. Same reason graduates aren’t prepared. Not the fault of H1-Bs, who by and large, also emerge from school unprepared.
And just as a note: I hire in a specific area of IT, statistical programming. I know, 100% of the time, that those with the academic credentials to do the job will not be ready. That’s because the skills to do data management and statistical programming come from on-the-job experience. So, when I hire, I know that training is necessary. It usually takes 6-8 months to turn someone from potential to useful. Sometimes they quit.
But there is no shortcut for on-the-job training.
Repeal the sequester. Word from management pretty much says: “We’re going to give you every Friday off for 22 weeks straight. In that time, either they repeal it, pass new appropriations, or we start firing/’letting people go.'”
…and tonight, I can report that the state of our union is Meh.
It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth – a rising, thriving middle class.
Talk about Henry Ford!
Usually, when a Republican salivates at the thought of privatizing Medicare, he does so in a metaphorical sense.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Marco Rubio!