Labor Shortage

Justinian's Flea Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe By William Rosen Viking Adult / 384 pages / $27.95 Don't charge William Rosen with lack of ambition. Instead of biography or the thin slice of the past that has become popular with history publishers, he presents us with no less than the foundations of the modern world, as built by a man and an insect. The result is largely successful and engaging. While the reader occasionally loses his bearings in an account that spans 10,000 miles, a dozen peoples, biology, architecture and the law, he is also amazed that Rosen packs it all into only 384 pages.

As this country works to clothe the burgeoning New Economy in an Old Economy wardrobe, communities everywhere are finding the fit isn't always perfect. Just look at California's Silicon Valley, the world's foremost technology center, where demand for electricity during the summer was so high that it threatened to outrace supply. Hundreds of big electricity users - the ones who got lower rates by agreeing to slash consumption when supplies ran short - suffered severe financial losses when they were forced to endure major outages.

Last week, Congress passed legislation that stops the reduction of Social Security benefits for people who continue to work through their late 60s. The bill, which President Clinton has said he will sign, would be made retroactive to Dec. 31, 1999, effectively boosting the income of 800,000 workers 65 through 69 by thousands of dollars before Election Day in November. Under current law, elderly workers 65 through 69 lose $1 in Social Security benefits for every $3 in wages they make above $17,000.

TOKYO -- As U.S. military strategists plan climactic land battles, analysts here are quietly calculating what Japan stands to gain, relative to other industrial countries, from the gulf war's impact on world economies.They are concluding that although the Japanese economy, the world's second-largest, is being slowed by last fall's spurt in oil prices and by multibillion-dollar financial contributions to the war effort, Japan will be a long-term relative gainer because it will be hurt substantially less than most others, especially the United States.

Where tourists and revelers today flock to the Baltimore waterfront, a grim trade in human beings once flourished. Ralph Clayton has spent much of the last 25 years poring over faded documents, trying to bring its lost history to light. He can tell you how slave trader Austin Woolfolk marched slaves in chains down Pratt Street to ships moored in Fells Point, passing the very buildings that now house trendy bars. Woolfolk moved at night to reduce interference from the slaves' despairing relatives, who would never see their family members after they departed for the auction blocks of New Orleans.

WASHINGTON -- Some people just don't know how to leave well enough alone.The U.S. Social Security system helps pay for the retirement of more than 35 million people. It provides disability insurance to almost the entire working population, as well as survivors' insurance for those who lose a parent or spouse. It is also our most successful anti-poverty program, pulling 15 million people over the poverty line each year.All of this comes at a remarkably low administrative cost of less than 0.8 percent of benefits.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Lured by easy riches, the Dutch took up the slave trade in the 17th century and left a legacy of brutality. From the start of European settlements in the North America, the Dutch had their hands in slaving. The first 20 Africans to arrive in the British colony at Jamestown were brought from the West Indies in 1619 by a Dutch trader who had robbed them from a Spanish ship. He exchanged his human cargo for food. Almost from its beginning in 1621, the Dutch West India Company found a place for slaves in its financial schemes.

Executives fretting about labor shortageIt may seem to the average worker that all the good jobs are disappearing. But most executives are worried about the opposite problem -- not enough good, well-trained workers.A survey sponsored by Accountemps, the New York-based temporary services agency, found that nearly three out of four executives at large companies fear a shortage of skilled labor by the year 2000.And some local employers say they are already seeing puzzling labor shortages.Jim Whiteford, a supervisor at Asplundh Tree Expert Co., said he attended a blue-collar job fair held by Dundalk Community College this week to look for backhoe operators.

Employment Labor shortage may be ahead Job searchers should not despair over December's relatively disappointing employment figures announced Friday. Many employers say they still need more workers, and the labor market looks so tight that a shortage may be ahead. The Labor Department said 108,000 jobs were created last month, slightly more than half the 200,000 that economists had forecast. Nongovernment measures also showed a drop in the growth of hiring. But this conforms to seasonal trends.

After suggesting that Maryland is not developing the needed work force for defense jobs, the Fort Meade Alliance is encouraging the two community colleges closest to the growing Army post to promote distinct programs to meet national security needs. Martha A. Smith, president of Anne Arundel Community College, told Fort Meade's lobbying arm at a meeting yesterday in Severna Park that the two-year school might create a specialized center around math, science, technology and homeland security that could draw top high school graduates, train professionals and harness the skills of defense industry retirees.