Pinboard (guardiantech)

Death of the salesmen: technology's threat to retail jobs >> The Atlantic

guardiantech — 2013-07-01T20:16:06+00:00

Derek Thompson:

retail employment is following a familiar path, one already beaten by farmers and factory workers. In 1900, more than 40% of the US workforce was in agriculture. Today, that number is about 2%. In 1950, about one-third of Americans worked in manufacturing. Today, about 10% do. This is what happens to industries that are bitten by the productivity bug. Jobs are plentiful, and employment climbs and climbs, and then something happens—somebody invents the tractor; somebody builds an assembly-line robot—and suddenly the trend line finds itself on the long side of the mountain.
Retail still employs one in nine working Americans, and retail jobs have grown since the bottom of the Great Recession. But we might be witnessing the moment when it passes over the mountaintop. Between 1950 and 1990, retail employment grew more than 50% faster than the general workforce did. Since 1990, it’s grown 50% slower. Retail now employs fewer people than it did in 1999. And those people work significantly fewer hours, too.

Of course the article's title is a snappy play on the name of the play, but saleswomen are likely to be harder hit.

HTML5, Responsive design, app Job Trends >> Indeed.com

guardiantech — 2013-03-12T13:20:53+00:00

Before you go there, see if you can guess the relative growth and size of HTML5, "apps" and responsive design among the job trends on Indeed.

Better to be a guru than a ninja... >> Benedict Evans

guardiantech — 2013-01-07T21:57:08+00:00

Comparing indeed.com job trends for ninja, rock star, god, guru and maven. The ninjas are there, just very, very quiet.

'Sub-arctic' atmos at RIM UK as jobs apocalypse looms >> The Register

guardiantech — 2012-09-20T22:11:25+00:00

Employees were called into a meeting on Tuesday afternoon and told of the redundancies, a Register source said, adding that the cuts are deeper than expected and had fallen across both the consumer and enterprise teams.
Our informant described the atmosphere in the Slough HQ as "sub-Arctic".
In a back-of-the-beer-mat (BOTBM) calculation, the Reg reckons that if 5,000 jobs are to go at RIM this year, and 3,000 went in North America in August, then circa 1,000 to 1,500 people are likely to be facing redundancy in Europe.

Depressing.

Revealed: The jobs that will be wiped out by cloud computing >> TechRepublic

guardiantech — 2012-05-30T05:13:22+00:00

EMC chief operating officer:

“If you are a server, storage or network admin, there may be fewer of those dedicated - what I call siloed component - skillsets needed.”
While these roles disappear, new jobs will spring up in their place both technical - focused on marshalling different services and technologies, and business orientated - analysing huge data stores for valuable insights and matching technologies to the needs of business and customers.

What's not said: cloud computing might demand fewer jobs overall in IT.

HP launches multi-year restructuring to fuel innovation and enable investment >> Yahoo! Finance

guardiantech — 2012-05-23T21:44:34+00:00

As part of the restructuring, HP expects approximately 27,000 employees to exit the company, or 8.0% of its workforce as of Oct. 31, 2011, by the end of fiscal year 2014. The company is offering an early retirement program, so the total number of employees affected will be impacted by the number of employees that participate in the early retirement plan. Workforce reduction plans will vary by country, based on local legal requirements and consultation with works councils and employee representatives, as appropriate.

Because people aren't innovative. Cash in the bank is innovative.

My Summer at an Indian Call Center >> Mother Jones

guardiantech — 2011-07-07T08:37:05+00:00

"While we idle in interminable traffic, my coworker Nishant asks where I'm from. 'America?' he says. 'I'll tell you about America.'
"I must look wary, because he quickly explains that, after years of 50-hour workweeks, he's probably spoken with more of my compatriots than I have. 'America is not all honey and roses the way they tell you,' he informs me. 'Truth is, 90 percent of the people there, you will find, they'll do the most stupid things, impulsive things. I know for a fact. At the same time, Americans are bighearted people, and the remaining 10 percent of them are smart. Bloody smart. That's why they rule the world.'"

Fascinating insight. The comments - including one from someone who admits they would be the idiot customer from hell - are also enlightening.

Steve Jobs presents new campus plans to Cupertino City Council >> YouTube

guardiantech — 2011-06-08T13:46:21+00:00

Includes some interesting reminiscences from the Apple chief exec from his boyhood. Note how cleverly he negotiates things with the councillors. "Do we get free Wi-Fi?" "I think we pay taxes and the council should do that.."

Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks about how the iPhone does and doesn't use location information >> AllThingsD

guardiantech — 2011-04-27T21:33:17+00:00

Basically, he goes around the press release. But since he pretty much dictated it, no surprise. Interesting that Apple takes this so seriously now, though. All we got was lots of 'no comment' last week.