In The News

India Becoming a Crucial Cog in the Machine at IBM

Saritha Rai July 3, 2006
IBM is unmatched in taking advantage of the technology talent-pool in India and providing global services on a grand scale. While US and European workers have faced repeated layoffs over the past several years, the number of IBM’s Indian employees grows at a staggering rate. IBM’s growth in India also stems from multiple acquisitions of Indian companies. The company’s research labs focus on...

As China Ages, a Shortage of Cheap Labor Looms

Howard W. French June 30, 2006
The world’s most populous nation may soon face a labor shortage. Chinese traditionally retire at age 60. But expansion of nursing homes and home care provide evidence of a demographic shift and aging population, which could pressure China’s already stretched pension program. Analysts debate the wisdom of relaxing laws such as the one-child policy and restrictions on internal migration to ease...

For Dr. Sengupta, Long-Term Visa Is a Long Way Off

June Kronholz June 30, 2006
Highly successful immigrant researchers, doctors and engineers often wait years for citizenship in the US. The US Labor Department has a backlog of 235,000 skilled-immigrant permanent-residency applications, and the Citizenship and Immigration Service has another backlog of 180,000 cases. About half of the Ph.D. engineers and scientists in the US are foreign born, according to the National...

Managing Globalization: Economies Have a Stake in Where Companies Find Employees

Daniel Altman June 26, 2006
A growing interconnectedness of the global economy means companies will find skilled workers one way or another. The motives for companies to turn to outsourcing or the recruitment of immigrant labor are often similar: a domestic skills shortage, jobs that local workers will not take or the comparatively cheap cost of foreign labor. The forces driving companies’ choices to outsource or recruit...

US Wages Face Glut of Pressures

David Wessel June 26, 2006
Conventional economics suggests that the retirement of the baby boomers in the US will reverse the decline of wages and job benefits throughout the US. But the emergence of China, India and the former Soviet bloc as modern capitalist economies could prolong the agony, suggests journalist David Wessel, particularly if the US is unprepared. Overseas competition will continue to lower wages of US...

Rioting in China Over Label on College Diplomas

Joseph Kahn June 26, 2006
This year, China will produce less than half as many jobs as it will college graduates. No wonder, then, students and families are willing to pay steeper tuition at colleges associated with prestigious national universities. Promised that their diplomas would bear the name of Zhengzhou University, the top school in the province, graduates from Shengda College exploded into riots after receiving...

Coming to Terms With the Forces of Anti-Globalization

Nick Mathiason June 23, 2006
Increasing criticism of capitalism and multinationals, even by British Conservatives, neglects an emerging trend in global commerce. Cited in the May/June issue of “Foreign Affairs” by IBM chairman and chief executive Samuel Palmisano, the “globally integrated enterprise,” or GIE, is a new trend. The GIE no longer invests in outsourcing cheap labor to poor countries while reserving the...