Slowdown Forces Many to Wander for Work(IT New Grapes of Wrath)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35193-2004Nov8?language=printer

YORK, Pa. -- David Packman knocks on the motel room door and his wife lets him in. His 9-year-old son is waiting with sneakers on, hoping for a trip outside after a day of sitting around. Packman's other son, 4, dances gleefully around the room. Dad's home from work.

This is no holiday getaway; this motel room, for the moment, is where the family lives. Packman, 34, is one month into a four-month contract fixing computers at a local company, and one day closer to the end of the line. It's Monday, and the $50 in Packman's pocket will have to cover food, laundry and incidentals for the coming week.

Not long ago his family was settled in a rental house in Warren, Ohio, the kids chasing frogs in the yard and wife Sabrina, 30, baking bread in the kitchen. Packman was hiring himself out as a freelance computer expert, troubleshooting systems for any company that needed temporary help. But jobs disappeared, and the Packmans lost the house. So they wound up in a motel in a strange town, and now the $58-a-night bill is draining them dry.

Packman is among a wave of Americans taking to the highway to preserve a middle-class life. While few people nowadays expect to spend a career rooted to one spot, some information technology workers are having mobility thrust upon them as companies change the way they staff computer-related jobs. Foreign workers are cheaper for some basic programming and technical jobs, and short-term contract workers give companies more flexibility to add and subtract employees as needed.

[veteran_for_peace]

1. I had to move out of Texas to find work

[GOPFighter]

2. Welcome to the Corporate States of America

"We will only use you when we need you, otherwise no work, no pay. Oh, and by the way, if you don't put enough money away for your retirement, don't expect us (the wealthy taxpayers) to bail you out. Unlike you, we were smart enough to put money away instead of spending every penny as soon as we got it."

[AtlantaBob]

3. An Industry in India Cheers Bush's Victory

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/business/worldbusiness/04outsource.html?ei=5088&en=fde498285ee222ca&ex=1257224400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&adxnnlx=1099545277-sKI8qX21HSEh+t3upWUZkw

One of the indians working here (over 60% are H1b's) is happy W was reelected - he says when all the IT jobs are outsourced, He can just go home!