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Sunday Morning News

American Workers Are Making More, But Also Working More

Aired September 3, 2000 - 9:42 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A new study finds Americans better off financially than in 1989, but they're also working harder to make those extra dollars. The Economic Policy Institute finds that income grew more than 9 percent after inflation from 1989 to 1998.

But to achieve it, they also put in about 200 more hours of work each year. Blacks and Hispanics also worked longer hours than whites.

Also on the labor front, more Americans are looking for work. The jobless rate inched up 0.1 percent in August, from 4-point -- or 4 percent, rather, in July.

And joining us to discuss the job outlook is Rick Cobb, an employment consultant.

Good morning there, Rick.

RICK COBB, EMPLOYMENT CONSULTANT: Happy Labor Day, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Happy Labor Day.

OK, let's put it in perspective, 4.1 unemployment rate. How bad is that, really?

COBB: Well, I don't think it's bad. We tend to come out of the summer sort of flat. You will start to see some of the companies that are going more towards commodity begin to downsize, but we're hoping that the midsize to smaller companies pick up the slack by taking those employees on.

PHILLIPS: Can you give us some examples, Rick?

COBB: Well, I think the apparel business is an industry right now that's going through that process. They are more and more moving towards the idea that e-commerce is their future. And as they do that, a lot of the people that they normally get product to market through are probably going to see downsizings.

PHILLIPS: So who are the marketable workers right now?

COBB: Well, the ones that everybody wants probably haven't changed in the last five or six years. Certainly the software programmers, the double-e's, the electrical engineers, the mechanical engineers. But if the economy stays positive, I think the position that's going to be more and more critical for companies is human resources.

PHILLIPS: College graduates, they're going through a critical period. Are they as prepared, do you think, for corporate life?

COBB: The concerns, I think, on the part of corporations is that college graduates in the technical part of their job are prepared, but the practical business experience issues, they don't seem to have the skill sets they need.

PHILLIPS: So what's the answer, hands-on internships, or...

COBB: Well, internships are one of them. We've seen a radical increase in the number of corporate universities come into being, in many cases on your second or third job having, say, a Motorola University or a Disney University comment on your resume gives you a lot more value to the company than a good undergraduate degree.

PHILLIPS: What about the dot-com phenomena, has this made an impact on numbers and jobs and changes within our workforce?

COBB: Well, there's a lot of sex appeal to the dot-com idea. I think what's happening is, many companies, many investors, went to the dot-com world with stars in their eyes initially and poured tons of money into that area. That is eventually where we head, but what we're learning now is to be more careful about the dot.coms that we invest in. And as a result, dot.coms are becoming a lot more responsible to their structure and their accountability to finance before they go to the IPO.

And what that means is, many dot.coms now are going to go through a reduction in force before they go to their initial public offering.

PHILLIPS: Rick Cobb, employment consultant, thanks for working for us and getting up so early this morning.

COBB: Thank you for having me.

PHILLIPS: All right.

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