Jobs In Maryland

When Christopher McCleary launched U.S. Internetworking Inc. last year, he started out with 11 employees and a brash dream to tap the Internet's power.His goal: create a market for "renting" business software applications over the Internet to small and mid-size companies that can't afford to install them or don't want the headaches of operating the complex array of software for accounting and other back-office operations.U.S. Internetworking is on a blindingly fast-growth track. The company employs 375 in the United States and Latin America, more than 200 of them at its Annapolis headquarters.

State legislators agreed yesterday to award Bertelsmann AG, the parent of publishing giant Random House, a $2.5 million grant to help renovate and expand its national distribution facility in Carroll County.Richard C. Mike Lewin, state economic development secretary, said the grant was critical to retaining 900 jobs in Maryland."We just couldn't take a chance at losing those jobs," he said.William Barry, senior vice president for distribution at Random House in New York, said Maryland's offer was "very impressive" and helped the company make its decision to locate its sole national distribution facility in Westminster.

In a decision that will keep 1,600 jobs in Maryland, Bechtel Power Corp. said yesterday that it would consolidate its headquarters and other operations in a new complex in Frederick County.The international engineering and construction firm employs 750 its Gaithersburg headquarters and another 850 engineering and administrative workers in temporary facilities in Frederick. Those jobs will be consolidated in a new 475,000-square-foot, four-building complex that should be completed by 2001, said Bob Palmer, spokesman for Bechtel Power, a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Bechtel Group Inc.State officials said the company would receive a package of state and local incentives but declined to disclosed details.

The picture painted yesterday of Maryland's job growth is much rosier than earlier snapshots and shows the state biting at the heels of Virginia, its closest economic competitor.According to the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, the number of jobs in Maryland grew 2.567 percent between 1996 and 1997 -- ranking the state 16th in the nation, up from 38th. Virginia, with a 2.574 percent increase, was 15th, up from 24th. The national growth average was 2.45 percent.The BEA's numbers show Maryland in a stronger position than earlier numbers from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, economists said, because the BEA takes a wider sampling and includes farming and the self-employed.

First Union Corp. will eliminate 200 jobs in Maryland -- almost all of them downtown -- when it completes its acquisition of Signet Banking Corp.In addition, Kenneth H. Trout, president of Signet's Maryland region, will resign when the $3.3 billion takeover is completed Nov. 28.J. William Knott, president of First Union/Maryland, said yesterday that the 200 employees, most of whom work in Signet's downtown office tower at 7 St. Paul St., have already received pink slips. Signet employs 1,148 people statewide and 265 of them work downtown.

They think we're idiots, don't they? They think we have no memories. The corporate raiders, all of 'em, think they can march into a town and buy up a business and convince us it'll benefit the community when everybody knows that they're lying.Was anybody around here shocked last week, when the big-hearted, civic-minded bank executives at First Union Corp. announced they'll be eliminating 200 jobs in Maryland -- almost all of them in downtown Baltimore -- as they complete their acquisition of Signet Banking Corp.

Subscribers pay Blue Cross earningsIn the business article (Aug. 15) on Blue Cross/Blue Shield's 42 percent increase in second quarter earnings, Mark Chaney, chief financial officer, refers to ''modest increases in premiums."

WASHINGTON - Maryland lost nearly 5 percent of its private- sector, high-tech jobs over a five-year period - largely because of a severe cut in defense electronics positions, a recent survey indicates.The survey found that the number of Marylanders employed in private-sector, high-tech jobs dipped from 93,235 to 88,819 between 1990 and 1995. That's a loss of 4,416 jobs.A whopping 7,382 manufacturing jobs were lost in defense electronics - about 42 percent of the total jobs from this sector.

WASHINGTON -- The ambitious budget-balancing plans now before Congress will likely exact a heavy toll on the government-dependent Maryland economy, but could in the long run help forge a healthier private business sector, according to economists and others.If congressional Republicans follow through with their proposed budget cuts, Maryland can expect to lose a significant number of jobs in government and with firms doing federal business -- a major portion of the state's economy, experts said.

Maryland's economy generated new jobs in 1994 nearly twice as fast as originally thought but still lagged far behind the nation's employment growth rate, newly revised U.S. government figures show."

Don't necessarily bet on a corporate employer if you're a new grad or other job seeker. Nearly all the Maryland sectors adding more jobs than they're shedding are financed by the taxpayer, according to new government figures. Private Maryland companies ditched 78,000 jobs during the 12 months ending in April while state, local and federal government added 7,000, says the U.S. Labor Department. That's the worst showing for both sectors in more than a decade, but at least government is hiring.

Dishonest leaders betray lost soldiers Why are politicians so cruel? Why is it so difficult for them to tell the truth? Why do they continue to insist that the 4,000 soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq have not died in vain ("U.S. hits a grim mark in Iraq," March 24)? Why? Because to do so, they would have to admit that they ordered American soldiers into battle on false pretenses; that, rather than sending young men and women into harm's way as a last resort, they chose war as a first resort; that they planned poorly for the battle, if at all; and that they continue with this folly rather than lose face.

Unemployment in Maryland rose and job growth slowed last month as national economic troubles touched off by the slumping housing market continue to take a toll. The state's jobless rate was 4 percent in October, up from 3.9 percent a month earlier and 3.7 percent the month before that, the federal government said yesterday. But it remains better than the U.S. unemployment rate, which was 4.7 percent last month. Employers added 28,600 jobs in the past 12 months, according to preliminary estimates - a slowdown since the summer, when year-over-year gains topped 30,000.

Maryland added 3,600 jobs during May - about average for recent months, but a jump from the 600 created in April, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said yesterday. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, unchanged from April but down from 3.9 percent a year earlier, a drop the bureau said was statistically significant. Maryland continued to do better than the nation as a whole; the national unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in May. "It's more of the same," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute.

Maryland employers cut jobs for the second month in a row, according to federal numbers released yesterday, a sobering trend that comes on the heels of slowing growth. Jobs in Maryland fell by 1,000 last month, after a 1,100-job drop in June, the Labor Department said. Unemployment worsened as a result, rising to 4.3 percent from 4 percent -- still better than the nation overall, but not as much better as it used to be. Nationally, the jobless rate was 4.8 percent last month. The numbers, which are preliminary, are adjusted for seasonal variations to allow for monthly comparisons.

Employment growth slowed in Maryland last month, creeping up by just 700 jobs as unemployment also inched upward, the government said yesterday. Unemployment was 3.5 percent in April, compared with 3.4 percent the previous month, according to preliminary Labor Department numbers adjusted for seasonal variations. The share of Marylanders who are out of work and searching for employment remained well below the national rate of 4.7 percent. Over the past 12 months, employers added 30,700 jobs in Maryland, also a slowing pace.

McCormick & Co. Inc. said yesterday that it would close a spice-making plant in Salinas, Calif., and move the jobs to other facilities in Maryland and elsewhere as part of a restructuring aimed at reversing a year of disappointing financial results. The company said it also plans by the end of the year to close its condiment manufacturing plant in Hunt Valley and transfer production to a plant in South Bend, Ind. The 80 to 100 displaced employees will be moved to other jobs in Maryland, McCormick officials said.

Fighting the proposed relocation of thousands of high-tech military jobs to Maryland, officials from New Jersey said yesterday that the move would cost taxpayers billions of dollars, endanger troops in Iraq and lead to a "brain drain" as workers refuse to transfer south. The proposal, part of a package of shifts proposed by the Pentagon in its latest national base relocation, would mean a net gain of about 6,600 jobs for Maryland and was warmly embraced yesterday by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and others at a regional hearing of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission at Goucher College in Towson.

State tax credit helps research create new jobs The Johns Hopkins University and the University System of Maryland support Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s proposal to strengthen our economy by reinstating the state's research and development tax credit. The recent Pappas Commission report concluded that a vibrant technology industry is a key to Maryland's future competitiveness. It recommended research and development tax credits for business to leverage the advantages that Maryland clearly possesses in technology, including its research universities and government laboratories.

Maryland experienced a net loss of 2,400 jobs last month, according to new federal estimates, puzzling economists who said they've seen no sign of significant layoffs in the state. The loss, adjusted for seasonal variations, mainly was caused by a decline in the number of government positions, the U.S. Labor Department said yesterday. It followed a net decrease of 2,200 jobs in August, after what had been steady growth earlier in the year. State employment was about 2.5 million in September.