Hi Tom,

NBC News, on Friday night, did a short piece on Silicon Valley. They were at Google and big-wigs there repeated that they are hiring. And they showed the free cafeteria, exercise rooms, Segways and such enjoyed by the employees.
Then they said that most of the vacant office space is now filled and things are almost back to where they were. This didn't jive with what I've read you saying here and I dismissed the whole story.

Now, as regards Unemployment Insurance down there... here you can collect until it runs out, then you are SOL. I guess it works differently doen there, since the increased rate of unemployment was attributed to people now GETTING BACK into the unemployment roles.

My **guess** at the 'huge' number of jobs created is as follows... in an election year all kinds of people help out with campaigns, some paid and some not. I'm thinking these participants have been counted as 'employed'. After all, a politician would ceretainly categorize them as doing "productive work".
There is also the general McJobs generated in any election 'season', like delivering flyers, doing polls, manning phones, printing/distributing signs and such, etc.

I wonder how much the people of Silicon Valley or Ohio have benefitted from all those new jobs???

Jim (can't sign 'cheers' after that!)

>It seems politicians like to modify how numbers are derived to make their case. Take employment as one example. The Administration expected a certain number of jobs to be created for March 2004 and expectations were exceeded. Why you may ask? Will this trend continue? I would suggest it is because the “books were cooked” or to be more specific a new accounting method was used.
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>We are told that unemployment in March rose from 5.6 to 5.7 percent because people are once again looking for work, due to the surge in employment for March. Are you serious? The only people counted as unemployed are those who receive unemployment insurance benefits. I would suggest there are more people out of work. When your unemployment insurance runs out (6 months) you are no longer counted as unemployed.
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>On average it takes an IT person in Silicon Valley 2 years to find a job and most end up in non IT related fields like Service Centers.
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>Now let us get into the why the creation of a larger number of new jobs than expected. It is an election year and reality has shown us that employment is a serious issue with many people. To make the employment numbers look even better than expected the Administration used a new method of measure explained below.
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>The grocery strike in Southern California ended in March and workers returned to work. Being on strike they were not considered unemployed and this had no impact on the unemployment figures. It is interesting to note that the returning strikers (who were out for about 5 months and received nothing for their efforts) comprise the largest single segment of “new jobs” created in March. This is the first time I have seen figures used in this way and it does seem interesting.
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>Just think the strikers had no impact on unemployment figures but by returning to work they have created new jobs! Interesting stuff this politics. Wait until next month when the new numbers come in. What accounting procedure will be used?