Comment Re:So says the "trade group" ... (Score 1) 497
I recall April 1 of 2001 was a Monday. There was an article something like this running front page of the NY Times, and of the Chicago Tribune and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It said there werew half a million IT jobs going begging. Caught mny eye cause I was an IT guy who'd relocated due to marriage and been jobless for months, could not even get an interview, except for agencies trolling for resumes.
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I got so mad that I looked in 22 or 24 (I forget which) of the top US daily papers online, Miami, Boston, St. Louis, LA, etc. ALL of them carried the same story, and sourced a trade group, which was commenting on a Department of Labor study. I visited the Department of Labor and looked at the abstract of the study and it said no such thing. But the trade association commenting on the story, which WAS the story the papers carried said it.
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The Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post were the only exceptions. The Trib juxtaposed the story with tales of IT folks who could not get a job. The Post ran the trade assocaiation's PR spin, then ran some of the abstract of the actual study which contradicted it.
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The moral of the story is like the comment at the top of this thread. Trade associations hire PR people (I used to do that too) to write stories of fake news that help them get their H1-B laws and such extended. Go figger. But ordinary schmucks have nowhere to go for correct labor market information. And you better not believe what they tell you.
<p>
I got so mad that I looked in 22 or 24 (I forget which) of the top US daily papers online, Miami, Boston, St. Louis, LA, etc. ALL of them carried the same story, and sourced a trade group, which was commenting on a Department of Labor study. I visited the Department of Labor and looked at the abstract of the study and it said no such thing. But the trade association commenting on the story, which WAS the story the papers carried said it.
<p>
The Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post were the only exceptions. The Trib juxtaposed the story with tales of IT folks who could not get a job. The Post ran the trade assocaiation's PR spin, then ran some of the abstract of the actual study which contradicted it.
<p>
The moral of the story is like the comment at the top of this thread. Trade associations hire PR people (I used to do that too) to write stories of fake news that help them get their H1-B laws and such extended. Go figger. But ordinary schmucks have nowhere to go for correct labor market information. And you better not believe what they tell you.
