Techie Masala

August Job Numbers Redux

Sumit — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:43:50 +0000

They say bad news comes in threes, but what about good news?

While the unemployment rate edged up to 9.6 percent, there are a few things that cause us to take a “glass half full” perspective on U.S. employment this month.

Yes, nonfarm payroll employment declined by -54,000 in August, BUT it was better than economist predictions that job loss could be up to -105,000

Secondly, June’s job loss was originally reported to be -221,000; it was revised to -175,000. And July’s number was revised from a loss of -131,000 to a decline of -54,000. (The Pollyanna in me is thinking about what August’s revision will be next month.)

Finally, while Government employment fell by -121,000, reflecting the departure of 114,000 temporary Census 2010 workers from federal government payrolls, private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly by adding 67,000 jobs.

Dean Maki of Barclays Capital told Forbes: “On balance, the upward revisions make the report a bit stronger than we expected. It does not change the recent trend of moderate growth in private payrolls and is inconsistent with fears that a sharp slowdown in the economy is underway.”

Here’s a look at how some of the major sectors fared in August:

Health care increased by 28,000, with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory health care services (+17,000) and hospitals (+9,000).
Manufacturing employment dropped by -27,000. A decline in motor vehicles and parts (-22,000) offset a gain of similar magnitude in July as the industry geared up for its annual retooling.
Temporary help services, which have added 392,000 jobs since a recent employment low in September 2009, added 17,000 jobs.
Construction employment was up by 19,000, partially reflected by the return of the payrolls of 10,000 workers who were on strike in July.
Retail trade was relatively unchanged. A job gain among motor vehicle and parts dealers (+8,000) was essentially offset by losses in building materials and garden supply stores (-6,000).

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

Today’s Most Dangerous Jobs

Sumit — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:43:50 +0000

For other workers, however, physical risks are part of the job. Whether you’re a police officer on patrol or a construction worker building a skyscraper, danger is a daily concern.

The new workplace injury statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are a mix of good and bad news. The good news: Fatal workplace injuries were down 28 percent in 2009 compared to 2008. The bad news: 4,340 workers still died as a result of on-the-job injuries. So we’re happy to see a reduction in fatal injuries, but don’t we want that number down to zero?

Which sectors had the biggest improvements?
If you look only at the raw numbers, here are the occupations with the most to the fewest fatal occupational injuries last year:

Transportation and material moving (1,376)
Construction and extraction (988)
Management (514)
Installation, maintenance and repair (317)
Sales and related (269)
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (248)
Protective service (243)
Farming, fishing and forestry (229)

The change in percentage of fatal workplace injuries by industry reorders the list a bit:

Transportation and material moving (28 percent decrease)
Protective service (21 percent decrease)
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (18 percent decrease)
Construction and extraction (16 percent decrease)
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (6 percent increase)
Resident military personnel (21 percent increase)

What does this tell us?
Although drawing conclusions from preliminary numbers is a tricky process, you can make some general observations.

As the BLS notes, the construction industry has experienced significant setbacks since the recession began in 2007. Therefore a reduction in fatalities could be linked to the reduction in construction jobs. Again, a mix of good and bad news.

Fewer deaths for law enforcement officers and fire fighters helped with the decrease in fatal injuries for protective services. And while many cities have struggled with budget issues to compensate and retain law enforcement officers, they have not laid off workers on the same scale that construction has. Therefore the decrease in fatalities seems to be a completely positive change that doesn’t correlate to fewer employed police officers and firefighters.

And

To read the full report from the BLS, visit their site here.

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Courtesy: The Work Buzz

Microsoft upgrades free app security tool

Vandana — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:20:49 +0000

Microsoft released this week an upgrade to a tool that helps secure applications for the Internet without having to recode them.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

Toshiba Satellite laptops recalled for burn hazard

Vandana — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:20:49 +0000

The U.S. and Canadian governments this week said that Toshiba is voluntarily recalling some Satellite laptops for posing a burn hazard to customers.

Laptops could overheat and possibly melt the area around the notebook’s plug-in to the AC adapter, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada said in a joint statement.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

HP Buys 3Par, Apple Rolls Out New Gear

Sumit — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:43:38 +0000

Hewlett-Packard swooped in with the better bid to overtake Dell and win 3Par, so now we can all sit back and wait for the next acquisition battle to roll around. Meanwhile, Apple debuted updated iPods and Apple TV to entertain us, among other IT news stories of the week.
Courtesy: CIO.in

Real-Life IT Tales and Lessons Learned

Sumit — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:43:38 +0000

Techies share their most noteworthy IT experiences in InfoWorld’s Off the Record blog.
Courtesy: CIO.in

Plenty of fish for Dell after losing 3PAR to HP

Vandana — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:55:06 +0000

Bangalore: Dell Inc. may have lost the bidding war for 3PAR Inc to Hewlett-Packard Co, but the data storage industry offers plenty of other targets.

Since Dell was willing to spend over $2 billion on 3PAR, analysts said the company could go after other small, niche technology companies, although they may no longer be bargains as deal speculation has boosted share prices.

“It is definitely a loss for Dell, but this is a situation where they were competing with someone about four times their size,” said Andrew Redmond, an associate in the technology investment banking group of investment banking firm TM Capital.

Analysts say potential targets in data storage could include Compellent Technologies Inc, whose shares jumped 18.5% on Thursday; CommVault Systems Inc, whose shares rose 5.2%; Isilon Systems Inc, which rose 3.5%; as well as privately held Pillar Data Systems and DataDirect Networks.

Such companies are not the same as 3PAR, which specializes in high-end storage that can help large companies handling high volumes of data. But by spending less on a medium or lower-end data storage company, Dell could invest more in developing it to a more advanced level.

“Dell wants to and needs to expand the enterprise storage side of their business,” said TM Capital’s Redmond. “There are a lot of smaller private companies that are a … little below the radar and there are definitely a lot of opportunities.”

Some analysts said Dell could look at Compellent — with a market cap of $566 million — to boost its presence in the mid-sized storage solutions aimed at small and medium businesses. Dell entered this market in 2008 with its purchase of EqualLogic.

Compellent, which helps firms store and recover vast amounts of data and serves the mid-market data storage market with relatively low-cost products, could fetch a price anywhere between $700 million and $1 billion, according to analysts.

That would imply a forward price-to-sales multiple of 3.8 to 5.5 times, according to Reuters data. HP’s deal for 3PAR valued it at more than 8 times estimated forward sales.

“There are plenty of very valuable storage companies out there to buy,” said IDC analyst Benjamin Woo.

No more bargains?

By bidding so aggressively for 3PAR, Dell may have shown its hand, analysts said. Any company it approaches is likely to demand a similarly high premium.

Shares of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based Compellent have gained 50% since Dell announced its offer to acquire 3PAR on 16 August, and trade at about three times forward sales.

Some analysts said another target could be Isilon, which manages data networks designed for the media industry but is increasingly diversifying into other businesses such as Internet hosting.

“This is a much different approach than 3PAR, but it would bring in a unique technology that Dell could exploit through its vast distribution reach,” Morningstar analyst Michael Holt said.

But Isilon is no longer cheap, either. Its shares have risen 36% since the 3PAR news emerged, and are more than triple their value a year ago. The company, with a market value of about $1.4 billion, trades at about 5 times forward sales.

Data storage software maker CommVault, which has a market cap of $1.1 billion, has also long been seen as a target for Dell, its biggest customer.

Gartner analyst Roger Cox said Pillar Data could improve Dell’s competitive position against HP-3PAR. Pillar might also be a good fit because Dell is trying to get a foothold in the high end section of the storage market.

Wedbush Securities analyst Kaushik Roy said Dell was smart to bow out and that HP is overpaying for 3PAR.

Instead, he said, Dell could buy Brocade Communications Systems Inc, which sells data storage and IP ethernet equipment and whose prime competitor is Cisco Systems Inc. Brocade shares rose 7.9% on Thursday.

“If Dell is following the footsteps of HP, then Dell should buy Brocade,” Roy said, pointing to HP’s acquisition of 3Com to expand its presence in the networking market.

Courtesy: LiveMint

Secunia security program automatically tracks down, applies patches

Vandana — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:50:12 +0000

Secunia has updated its Personal Software Inspector (PSI) with the ability to silently download and apply patches from multiple vendors soon after their release. PSI 2.0 is now available in an open beta test,

Courtesy: Infoworld News

VMware customers cast a wary glance at Microsoft’s virtualization tools

Vandana — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:50:12 +0000

VMware customers attending VMworld are taking a look at Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization software, but say the Microsoft technology falls a bit short and that it would be problematic to start over after investing heavily in VMware.

Courtesy: Infoworld News

The Most Dangerous Jobs and Industries

Sumit — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:11:46 +0000

In a culture that is filled with cubicle jobs that we’re quick to label boring, we can easily forget that some jobs are dangerous. Commuting through rush-hour traffic in a big city can feel like a life-or-death adventure every morning, but for many workers that risk disappears once they exit the six-land highway and pull into a parking lot. For other workers, however, physical risks are part of the job. Whether you’re a police officer on patrol or a construction worker building a skyscraper, danger is a daily concern.

Which sectors had the biggest improvements?
If you look only at the raw numbers, here are the occupations with the most to the fewest fatal occupational injuries last year:

Transportation and material moving (1,376)
Construction and extraction (988)
Management (514)
Installation, maintenance and repair (317)
Sales and related (269)
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (248)
Protective service (243)
Farming, fishing and forestry (229)

The change in percentage of fatal workplace injuries by industry reorders the list a bit:

Transportation and material moving (28 percent decrease)
Protective service (21 percent decrease)
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (18 percent decrease)
Construction and extraction (16 percent decrease)
Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance (6 percent increase)
Resident military personnel (21 percent increase)

What does this tell us?
Although drawing conclusions from preliminary numbers is a tricky process, you can make some general observations.

And

To read the full report from the BLS, visit their site here.

Workplace Fatalities Reach Record Low Another silver lining in the unemployment cloud: Workplace fatalities have…
U.S. loses 263,000 jobs in September We were waiting for two big announcements this morning at CareerBuilder….
Summer job season not too hot Whenever I think of summer jobs, the first thing that…

Courtesy: The Work Buzz