Meager Job Growth in September

California payrolls grew by a lackluster 4900 jobs last month, as employers in the state hesitated to hire. On the bright side, professional and business services posted a gain of 18,800 jobs, followed by trade, transit and utilities (up 4100), financial (up 1300), construction (up 500), and mining (up 100). However, the information sector lost 8300 jobs, followed by government (-7100), education and health services (-5500), manufacturing (-1900), leisure and hospitality (-800) and other services (-800). Experts point out that the state should have netted at least 10,000 new positions to keep pace with the nationwide job growth last month of 96,000. Statewide, the unemployment rate remained 5.9 percent, while the federal rate of 5.4 percent was also unchanged.

The Ups and Downs of High Tech

The high-tech job market is staging a comeback - or it's headed for another slump. It all depends upon whom you talk to. Tech journal Information Week reports that about 408,000 more Americans worked in IT this summer than they did six months earlier. In addition, the IT jobless rate (3.4 percent last quarter) was better than the second quarter in 2000 (3.5 percent) when the tech slump began. On the downside, job cuts in the tech sector soared 60 percent to 54,701 nationally in the third quarter, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. The paradox can be partially explained by the fact that many of today's tech jobs exist with nontechnical companies. Passage of the bookkeeping reform legislation (Sarbanes-Oxley), for example, has created much work for technologists with accounting firms. Geography may provide another answer. While some areas may be slumping, hiring experts in the Silicon Valley are upbeat, with at least one analyst forecasting the creation of 30,000 new tech jobs in the region in 2005.

On the Job Front

NATIONWIDE - Price wars in the long-distance phone market continue to force layoffs. Sprint will trim its nationwide payroll by 700, while Global Crossing is cutting its North American staff by 600. Just a week ago, AT&T announced it was reducing its workforce by 7400 as it exits the residential long-distance market.

BRISBANE - Inc Magazine has ranked Stentor, maker of image-archiving systems for hospitals, as the fast-growing company in the Bay Area.

LIVERMORE - FormFactor,Inc, a chip equipment maker, has doubled its operating space with the opening of a new manufacturing facility. The company currently employs 550 and is recruiting on its website (formfactor.com) to fill several spots.

NAPA VALLEY - Employees of Robert Mondavi Corp may be getting a reprieve. A New York beverage giant, Constellation Brands, has offered to buy all of the company for $1.3 billion. If the sale goes through, the firm has said it would retain staff and even hire back the roughly 300 already let go. Originally, Mondavi Corp had planned to sell the company piece by piece.

RANCHO CORDOVA - Sprint is adding 80 jobs at its call center here . . . Northern California Behavioral Health, a provider of outpatient mental health services, will close its doors Nov 3, idling 25 to 40.

SAN FRANCISCO - Talks between management and workers in the hotel strike have been tabled. A cooling-off period that would allow workers back to their jobs has been proposed . . . Ten percent of the management of the San Francisco Chronicle will be let go. Management pay will be frozen and vacation time reduced as well, as the paper works to bolster its bottom line.

SAN JOSE - Valley Medical Center plans to hire 205 workers in response to the impending closure of the nearby San Jose Medical Center. Valley will hire 82 nurses and 18 physicians along with other staff . . . 2Wire, maker of wireless equipment that links home computers and entertainment systems, is seeking 20 new workers, from software engineers to sales managers. The company has 250 full-time staff, up from 180 just five months ago.

SAN MATEO - NetSuite, maker of software for small to midsize companies, plans to add 100 workers (particularly engineers) over the next year.

STOCKTON - A long-running labor dispute at the Diamond walnut plant has been a tough nut to crack. Labor and management now hope to resolve the 13-year dispute in the next few weeks if the National Labor Relations Board can finalize or disallow the workers' vote to unionize.

WEST SACRAMENTO - This area may get its first Home Depot as part of the Riverpoint Center, which will also feature IKEA and Wal-Mart.

Older Workers Face Ageism

Discrimination against older workers is rampant in America, according to San Francisco gerontologist Ken Dychtwald, who testified recently before the Senate Special Commission on Aging. "Despite irrefutable evidence of both workforce aging and the untapped talents and reliability of older workers, ageism may be causing many managers to march their companies or organizations straight off a demographic cliff," warned Dychtwald. Victoria Humphrey, head of human resources at Volkswagen of America, agrees. "As many companies tried to turn their organizations around (in the mid 1990s), they became dismissive toward older, more experienced workers. This attitude is, in fact, a form of ageism . . . and ageism can be just as powerful as any other 'ism.'" The senate committee is particularly concerned because of this one fact: By 2010 there will be more than 80 million Americans between the ages of 50 and 80, and most of them will be working at least part time.