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Old 06-01-2011, 05:27 PM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,258,797 times
Reputation: 22751

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Quote:
Originally Posted by monkeyboy View Post
I'm not sure why someone would suggest jobs for HS grads are preferable to engineering. What sort of business would you want to attract to an area. The harsh truth is a HS degree doesn't qualify you for much these days and things will only get worse....

However, I'm not sure many Americans will like working for a Japanese company. We need more European companies relocating here...6wks vacation, tons of holidays..now we are talking...
Who was suggesting jobs primarily for HS grads rather than college grads????

The people I know, in Charlotte, who are unemployed are my neighbors and friends . . . all of whom have at least an undergrad degree. Their professions include:

Architect (2)
Lawyer
Paralegal
Engineer
IT Project Manager (2) (formerly in banking, lol)
Accountant (not sure if a CPA or not, but has MBA)
Creative Director (Ad Agency - 11 years as CD)
Graphic Artist (2)
Writer (newspaper)
Medical Devices Sales Rep

There are more but those are the ones who have been out of work for a year or longer (several, for two + years). A few have had a short gig or temp job (six weeks or so) during this period . . . All have long ago started sending out resumes to companies outside NC. A few are freelancing . . . two have taken part time retail jobs while continuing their search.

My friends who are lost their factory/mill jobs lost them years ago, not in 2008. They have all started their own businesses or retrained for other jobs or reached retirement age.
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Old 06-01-2011, 08:06 PM
 
Location: Crown Town
2,742 posts, read 6,731,939 times
Reputation: 1680
Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821 View Post
Who was suggesting jobs primarily for HS grads rather than college grads????

The people I know, in Charlotte, who are unemployed are my neighbors and friends . . . all of whom have at least an undergrad degree. Their professions include:

Architect (2)
Lawyer
Paralegal
Engineer
IT Project Manager (2) (formerly in banking, lol)
Accountant (not sure if a CPA or not, but has MBA)
Creative Director (Ad Agency - 11 years as CD)
Graphic Artist (2)
Writer (newspaper)
Medical Devices Sales Rep

There are more but those are the ones who have been out of work for a year or longer (several, for two + years). A few have had a short gig or temp job (six weeks or so) during this period . . . All have long ago started sending out resumes to companies outside NC. A few are freelancing . . . two have taken part time retail jobs while continuing their search.

My friends who are lost their factory/mill jobs lost them years ago, not in 2008. They have all started their own businesses or retrained for other jobs or reached retirement age.
So if you know an engineer who is out of work, why wouldn't you be happy about an engineering firm opening new jobs here?
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Old 06-01-2011, 08:32 PM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,258,797 times
Reputation: 22751
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carolina Blue View Post
So if you know an engineer who is out of work, why wouldn't you be happy about an engineering firm opening new jobs here?
Thank you for being so concerned about my happiness quotient, lol. I am touched.

I hope all unemployed folks land jobs. I hope this new company hires 135 + people from right here in Charlotte.

I would be pleased as punch if any of my friends landed a job with this company - or any other company, for that matter.
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Old 06-02-2011, 09:34 AM
 
Location: Pixley
3,519 posts, read 2,813,013 times
Reputation: 1863
Quote:
Originally Posted by yantosh22 View Post
You seemed to have completely missed that they also laid off this number of people in the Raleigh area when they bought another related company and promptly got rid of most of the employees there. Furthermore, they have announced another 15% general layoff.

I already explained why above.
It is a little disingenuous to equate the number of jobs cut by Merck’s purchase of Inspire to the number of jobs added by Merck in the 7 years since their incentive deal was announced, just as it is to say that jobs added here are simply cut from somewhere else.

Inspire was already laying off employees before they were bought out due to set backs in products they were developing – “Inspire slashes 65 jobs, drops failed CF drug in restructuring” - Inspire slashes 65 jobs, drops failed CF drug in restructuring - FierceBiotech. This link also shows they were in dire straights for at least the previous 2 years, so it may have been these jobs were not long for the Raleigh area anyway.

As for Merck, an opportunity came up, which is unrelated to their existing operations in NC, and they took it. Even if Merck were keeping tally of jobs gained by the purchase versus those needed to be cut in NC to even it out, they are behind - “Inspire has 175 employees, including about 60 in Raleigh, while Merck's North Carolina workforce amounts to about 1,000, housed at two separate sites.” - Merck plans to shutter Inspire HQ, axe staff as buyout closes - FierceBiotech ).
The probable ~60 Inspire job cuts in Raleigh hardly equals the ~400 currently working at the new plant, as you stated.

The 15% general layoff is mainly a result of their merger with Schering-Plough. Should they be forced to keep redundant operations? Even at that, I didn’t see any mention of the facilities in NC. Merck Plans Layoff of 15% of Work Force - NYTimes.com .

You wanted “some proof, that these taxpayer funded handouts do anything beyond lining the CEO and executive staff's pockets with money.” It would appear that Merck has a larger work force presence in NC now than they did 7 years ago when they received a tax incentive to build the plant in Raleigh, so is this not the case for the state of NC? Isn’t this the purpose of these incentives? Isn’t 40% of the tax income generated by these 400 jobs and land use better than 0%? Should a company only operate in the state where their HQ is? Should they evenly distribute their jobs throughout the 50 states? Welcome to the flavor of capitalism that operates in the US.
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