Matt Kasenga, LGO ’13
The migration in manufacturing jobs and facilities from the U.S. to China and other countries has been getting a lot of attention lately. Recently my LGO classmate Benj Christensen and I had the opportunity to discuss labor issues over lunch with Thomas A. Kochan, Professor of Work and Employment Research and Engineering Systems at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, who’s called for a “Jobs Compact” for America. Read More
Photograph: Margaret Bourke-White/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images: River-diversion pipes for the Fort Peck Dam project, 1901
From Harvard Business Review Blog Network
America is struggling with the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression with no clear path toward restoring the jobs lost in the Great Recession and no strategy for overcoming three decades of stagnating wages. Failure to address these twin dimensions of the jobs crisis will doom our children and grandchildren to a declining standard of living.
Unfortunately, just when action is most needed, government remains gridlocked. Politicians are choosing to focus on winning the next election rather than working together.
MIT Sloan Prof. Thomas Kochan
From Harvard Business Review
It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that the United States needs well-educated, technically skilled workers if it’s to remain competitive in the global marketplace. Just as obvious: We need a robust middle class with adequate disposable income and a sense that our economic system is working in a reasonably fair way. Yet business leaders and policy makers behave as if they don’t believe either of those things: Read More
Despite the ongoing economic turmoil, the job numbers for our MBA class of 2011 are very strong. In fact, we’re back to the same offer rates we saw before the recession.
As of this writing, 94% of the class has an offer. This is up from 81% last year and closely matches the 93.4% we saw in 2006 and 92.7% in 2007. Similarly, on-campus recruiting opportunities were back to the same levels we saw in 2006 and have so far remained firm as we move into this academic year.
From USA Today
In the book (and now film) Moneyball, general manager Billy Beane transforms the Oakland Athletics by recognizing that overlooked players contribute value to a team. He overturns conventional wisdom, indeed upends baseball’s domination by wealthier teams,by using data to measure performance. What he learns can also apply to the economic challenges we face today.
When people think and write about what leads to economic success, they too often focus only on the most visible, highly paid players. In the case of the economy, it is the CEOs. The business press is full of praise for celebrity leaders such as Jack Welch and Steve Jobs. But even when the CEO is not movie-star famous, stories about whether a firm will succeed or fail usually focus on the personality and actions of the person at the top.
Read the full column in USA Today
Paul Osterman is a professor at the MIT School of Management and co-author of Good Jobs America: Making Work Better For Everyone
Share your thoughts
![[MIT logo]](http://mitsloanexperts.mit.edu/wp-content/themes/twentyeleven/img/logo_mit.gif){kind=logo}
© Copyright 2010-2011 MIT Sloan School of Management