Federal Hiring Methods Outdated, Report Says
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Federal managers use outdated and ineffective tools to assess the talent of job applicants, giving rise to the widespread hiring of workers whose skills are poorly matched to their duties, according to a report released yesterday.
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Governments cannot prevent inexorable job migration
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Although SOA efforts are still early-stage at most organizations, systems integrators who work for government agencies are concerned that SOA efforts might put them out of a job. So says the Input Executive Forum, a trade organization representing federal contractors and agencies. Instead of hiring systems integrators to add new capabilities into existing IT environments, "agencies with a SOA environment can just acquire the services they need," says Deniece Peterson, a senior analyst at Input whose study examined the impact of SOA on IT contractors.[ What is SOA? Watch the InfoClipz primer to learn more. ]Only a few federal agencies -- including the Defense Dept., NASA, Treasury Dept., SEC, and FBI -- have significant SOA efforts under way, Peterson notes. Elsewhere, SOA efforts are typically small test projects or still in the research and design phases, she says. That slow uptake means IT providers haven't yet seen much shift away from traditional integration efforts in federal project proposals. "But they can see it coming," Peterson says. "When that time comes, they'll need to offer SOA services."While IT contractors are beginning to worry about possible loss of systems integration work, federal agencies that have a SOA agenda have their own concerns, Peterson notes. Many of the SOA-enabling technologies being sold to them contain proprietary components that interfere with SOA's promise of standards-based modularity. "The agencies are looking for standards, so this is slowing them down," she says.The other concern is a lack of SOA-skilled IT talent within the federal agencies, many of whom are facing a brain drain across the board due to the high percentage of retirement-age employees. Ironically, this lack of inside talent may help IT contractors -- if they can fill the gap by providing SOA-savvy architects, developers, and project managers, Peterson says.Although Peterson's research focused on the implications of federal SOA efforts, she suspects a similar set of issues exists in corporate IT environments. There, too, is an ecosystem of systems integrators accustomed to a series of integration projects in large enterprises -- particularly in finance and telecom -- who are looking at SOA as a way to reduce the integration need.
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Industry experts join government panel to look at what's keeping the old-fashioned bar code around.
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The most dynamic, future-oriented industries are having trouble finding qualified employees.
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To learn what is right and wrong about federal recruiting, listen to young people.
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The old methods of U.S.  discrimination at the polls have been replaced by "subtler and  more creative tactics," according to a report released on  Wednesday.
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A new GAO report indicates that offshore outsourcing could hurt IT employment growth over the next decade, but the study released today is sprinkled with caveats and qualifiers and shows more study is needed.
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The new year may be a slow one for job seekers, as few area employers expect to be hiring in the first quarter of 2005, the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey showed.
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Federal executives find that a new pay-for-performance system has had little effect on their performance, but it has caused morale problems, according to a survey released yesterday.
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(InfoWorld) - That explosive H-1B YouTube video offering advice on how to hire foreign workers instead of Americans has gotten the attention of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), who called it evidence of abuse of the visa program. Both men want a federal investigation and are seeking answers from the law firm that posted the original video on YouTube. In a letter to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Grassley and Smith characterized the video as "exposing the blatant disregard for American workers and deliberate attempt to bring in cheaper foreign workers through the H-1B program." They also want the labor secretary to review the video and investigate "the law firm's unethical procedures and advice to clients." In the video, a person identified as Lawrence Lebowitz, an attorney at the firm Cohen & Grigsby PC in Pittsburgh, Penn., explains how U.S. companies can avoid hiring U.S. workers. "Our goal is clearly not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," said Lebowitz in the video. "And that, in a sense, sounds funny, but it's what we are trying to do here." Grassley and Smith also wrote Cohen & Grigsby, noting that "your firm's video advises employers how to hire only foreign labor, while making it nearly impossible for a qualified American worker to get the job.... While many companies insist that they are not participating in fraud, many are finding loopholes around government rules and regulations in order to bring in cheaper foreign workers. These loopholes lead to abuse that ultimately displace qualified Americans. The abuse is evident thanks to a video produced by your firm...." They also noted that the video "advises potential employers that they can fulfill" Labor Department hiring requirements "by advertising the position in places where they will not find the most qualified applicants. Your firm asserts that an employer can advertise in regional publications with limited circulation, while internally listing the job for a foreign worker. We would like you to please explain how this practice does not constitute outright discrimination based on nationality and why your firm so blatantly promotes this type of behavior." The law firm had taped a seminar on immigration law it held in May and then posted the video on YouTube, possibly for training purposes. The firm has not responded to repeated requests for comment this week. The two letters, dated today, were initially posted online at the University of California, Davis by Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the school and one of the longest-standing critics of the H-1B program. Matloff, in an e-mail said, "This 'YouTube-Gate' incident should be an eye opener for people in the press and in Congress who have been taking the industry lobbyists at face value all these years." The tape was brought to light by the Programmers Guild, a Summit, N.J.-based professional association after guild president Kim Berry said he was alerted to it by activists. He made a copy of an excerpt, added in some subtitles to annotate the tape, mixed in some music for dramatic effect, and posted the new version on YouTube. "My hope is that this proof on video will open some eyes to this sham," said Berry.
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Most federal agencies are losing more employees with severe disabilities than they are hiring, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission wants to get the government back on path as a model employer.
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Federal agencies supporting the Iraq war and reconstruction should order their civilian employees to fill key jobs in the combat zone if not enough volunteers step forward, a high-level commission said in a report presented to the president and Congress yesterday.
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The U.S. government plans to hire  nearly 150,000 people in the next two years, but most will  replace existing workers while an aging workforce will  intensify competition from the private sector, a study released  on Wednesday showed.
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Times remain tough for IT workers looking for jobs across the U.S., according to a new employment study of the IT marketplace.
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WASHINGTON - Companies added 96,000 jobs to their payrolls in September, fewer than economists forecast for the last employment report before Election Day, highlighting a modest pace of hiring that has become an issue in President Bush's bid for another term.    The four hurricanes striking Florida and other coastal states the past two months "appears to have held down employment growth, but not enough to change (the overall jobs picture) materially," the Labor Department said Friday in assessing September's national employment situation...
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While some advocates of the Senate immigration plan back it, those who remember an earlier government guest worker plan are skeptical