ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 25, 1997 TAG: 9702250067
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: DAVID SKIDMORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ECONOMIC EXPERTS are surprised by our current situation - workers are in demand, but they are letting their wages lag in exchange for a feeling of greater job security.
With software development jobs going begging, some of the most celebrated high-tech names in Austin, Texas - Dell Computer, Tivoli Systems, CSC Continuum - went to Massachusetts last weekend to do some begging of their own.
They're staging a two-day ``Austin to Boston Job Fair'' in Waltham, Mass., in hopes of luring away some of the highly skilled, highly paid workers from the computer companies lining Route 128 outside Boston.
Is it a sign, after the recession, layoffs and downsizings earlier this decade, that it's finally a seller's market for America's workers?
For some, yes. But for others, no. It depends on their skills and where they live.
``For highly skilled labor, it is a seller's market,'' said economist Mark Zandi of Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa.
``But the tightness in labor markets hasn't been uniform across the country. ... Until recently the markets in California and the Northeast weren't tight, and people were moving to the South and Midwest. That helped contain wages there.''
To be sure, compensation gains have picked up a bit. But not much. Wages and benefits rose a moderate 2.9 percent last year, compared with 2.7 percent in 1995. Inflation was higher last year, 3.3 percent.
At the same time, the unemployment rate has remained below 6 percent since September 1994. In the past, that would have produced accelerating wage gains for workers.
Economists, from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on down, have been contemplating that seeming anomaly between low unemployment rates and lackluster wage growth.
In testimony to Congress last month, Greenspan said dramatic deceleration in health-care costs is restraining the growth of benefits, which make up about 30 percent of total compensation. The declining percentage of workers in unions is another factor, he said.
As Greenspan sees it, workers are accepting smaller wage increases in exchange for greater job security. Their companies are increasingly pressured by international competition. And many worry their job skills are falling behind technology's rapid advance.
``Continuing adult education is perceived to be increasingly necessary,'' Greenspan said.
John Lim, 31, is a good example. A month before finishing a master's degree in business administration from Pepperdine University in December, he moved from a sales job at the insurer Cigna Corp. to a management position, director of benefits administration, for Hilton Hotel Corp. in Los Angeles.
His education allowed him to make the move even though Los Angeles has one of the highest big-city unemployment rates in the nation, 7.5 percent in December.
``It gives you a foot in the door,'' he said of his degree.
He was looking for a higher salary. But as much as that, he was looking for a good working environment and corporate lifestyle.
``I'm single right now, but I would like to get married, raise a family,'' he said. ``Hilton encourages that. They don't keep you in meetings to all hours of the night.''
Attitudes such as Lim's are another reason that compensation isn't increasing faster, said management consultant Roger Herman of Greensboro, N.C.
``A lot of people, particularly those coming out of school today, are more idealistic than materialistic,'' Herman said. ``They're not looking for the big bucks so much as flexibility, learning opportunities and a company that's sensitive to its employees.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Curt Beckmeier, an employee of Tivoli Systems, Inc.,by CNBbased in Austin, Texas, talks to a Boston-based computer systems
worker at the "Austin to Boston Job Fair" in Waltham, Mass. The job
fair was staged to lure workers from the Boston area to Austin.
color.