Donald Sears

There’s no way around it. While certain indicators are down, which is good news, state unemployment levels—based on the latest government numbers—are just plain ugly. It’s particularly bad in the West. Take a look at this (via the AP): “The Labor Department reported Friday that 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions […]

The Detroit Free Press recently interviewed Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who asked him why Microsoft in 2007 built a research and development facility in Canada–over the border in Vancouver–not that far from Microsoft’s quarters in Redmond, Wash. Why not build it in the United States? Ballmer’s response: “While the Canadian R&D credit may have been […]

It’s pretty interesting to read a news release trying to give a gender spin to a recession that has impacted everyone so deeply. I realize Father’s Day is coming up, but is this really news that there are more men than women unemployed right now? Maybe. But it feels kind of forced. Here’s how outplacement […]

The engineers who work on simulated models and environments are getting a nice profile in a NY Times article. The news is that there is a growing need for creating simulations to help avoid risky endeavors for businesses and major catastrophes for the government and military–anything that has a large price tag and could involve […]

There are plenty of companies–including Dell, HP, Nokia and others–who have used work furloughs to help reduce labor expenses and avoid more layoffs these days. Given the state of things, it would seem that given the choice, most of us would take the unpaid time off rather than be thrown into the ocean of unemployment. […]

I think the answer on how technical an IT manager should have to be is dependent on a whole slew of issues, and open to a lot of discussion. But it also depends on the actual management the job requires as well as the state of your company in these challenging business times. Many managers […]

That’s right, Rockwell, Michael Jackson and the Geico “Money That You Could Be Saving”: You do, in fact, always feel like someone is watching you and your private information at work. You’re not paranoid. Your fellow employees–to the tune of 35 percent–have admitted to ignoring security policies and looking at your salary information, your medical […]

The laws of supply and demand are in full effect. Despite there being a slight gain in technology consulting jobs according to government data, the latest Dice Report for June is not a pretty picture. Dice is a technology job board that is used by many technology recruiters, hiring managers and general techie workers looking […]

The majority of the news around technology employment has been weak or negative lately. But there does appear to be one small nugget of good news in the U.S. government’s recent data: Tech consulting services are up. There are a few ways to look at this, but before dissecting, here is what Foote Partners–an IT […]

More government data was released today that shows what was expected: more total unemployment cumulatively, fewer jobs being lost than there were half a year ago. Here are the key nuggets of info from the June 5 Bureau of Labor Statistics report: “Nonfarm payroll employment fell by 345,000 in May, about half the average monthly […]