New Jobs

Middle River Aircraft Systems will hire 200 people at its eastern Baltimore County plant during the next year to build brake systems for a redesigned jet that aircraft developer Boeing will soon bring to market. The additional jobs will raise the number of employees at the 1.7 million-square-foot plant to 1,000 at a time when most companies are still wary about hiring even as the economy shows signs of bottoming out. The planned hirings are a bright spot for the state's embattled manufacturing sector, which had been slowly deteriorating years before the recession hit. "This shows that companies like Middle River that really know how to embrace next-generation manufacturing can have job growth," said Mike Galiazzo, executive director of the Regional Manufacturing Institute.

America is at its best when our guiding principles of free enterprise and giving people a helping hand work together. The free enterprise system created our national wealth and employment opportunities. However, free enterprise also eliminated 3 million American jobs in the 2000s while creating 2.4 million new jobs overseas. Meanwhile, Apple set new records for "legal" tax evasion. The free enterprise system is focused on creating jobs for minimum wages, not necessarily in the U.S. That implies that the best opportunities for creating jobs are in the public sector.

Workers peered through safety goggles as they fitted together parts of the electric motors they were building on a General Motors assembly line in White Marsh. For now, the parts are made in a factory in Mexico and then shipped to Baltimore County for assembly. But not for long. By the end of the year, motors for cutting-edge electric vehicles will be built from scratch in a sprawling $244 million plant under construction next to GM's factory, now called General Motors Baltimore Operations.

A political campaign is about the worst time to have a discussion about economic realities. The party that is out will speak of nothing but looming disaster, while the party that is in will be singing nothing but "Happy Days Are Here Again. " And, since our current political system is in a permanent campaign mode, economics never escapes the warp of politics. The truth is, it is easy for politicians to pick and choose among the facts to support whatever best serves their campaigns because economic news can be good and bad at the same time.

In his Sept. 8 speech on jobs, President Barack Obama repeated the conventional wisdom that small businesses create most new jobs. Like a lot of conventional wisdom, this does not fully capture the real dynamics of the situation. A 2010 article published by three University of Maryland economists led by John Haltiwanger revealed that when they controlled data for the age of a company, there was no indication that small companies outperformed large companies in creating new jobs. The key factor was age: new start-up companies were the vehicle for generating new jobs.

Knorr Brake Corporation on Wednesday, Jan. 18, broke ground on the company's new manufacturing facility in the Westminster Technology Park in Westminster. This new facility will double the existing size of Knorr's manufacturing capabilities in Carroll County, from 120,000 square feet to 236,000 square feet of space. Knorr is a manufacturer of braking, door and HVAC systems for mass transit vehicles. Company officials said that an influx of new orders, primarily from a new series of rail cars for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, along with other increased business, is driving the expansion.

The decision of the manufacturer of After Six formal wear no to relocate to Harford County shows that it takes more than fast-track processing, assiduous promotion and readily available facilities to attract new business. Political power and labor union clout played a major role in keeping the well-known garment maker in Philadelphia.Pennsylvania's governor and U.S. senator added their personal intervention to that of Philadelphia's mayor in lobbying for the 300 jobs and a new financial deal with the company's creditors.

Success at creating jobs for the state economy requires heavy lifting. So far this year, Maryland has been up to the task.The nation's best-known AIDS researcher is coming to Baltimore. A Canadian company is investing $8 million in Snow Hill to put 150 people to work in a labeling plant. A health club chain is keeping its 450-person regional center in Towson and expanding. A snack-food manufacturer has reconsidered and will double its 150 jobs in Harford County. State and Montgomery County officials have made an aggressive pitch to get a home-grown biotechnology company to build its first manufacturing plant in Maryland, not Ohio.

The notion that Americans are working more for less pay is firmly embedded in public rhetoric. And it's practically gospel that the growing American economy cannot deliver the higher pay that American workers want.No doubt many Americans are losing ground economically. But in fact most of the 5.5 million jobs the economy has added in the last two and a half years are in occupations that pay more, not less, than the average, which is now about $15.50 an hour.This year alone, 72 percent of the 2.5 million new jobs have been for managers, from the chief executive to the branch sales manager, and for professionals, from surgeons and nurses to software programmers, accountants and high school teachers.

WASHINGTON -- Although many Americans believe that most new jobs are going to hamburger flippers and Wal-Mart clerks, the reality is surprisingly different: More than three-fifths of the jobs created over the past year have gone to managers and professionals.As thousands of former middle managers at IBM, General Motors and other companies can attest, white-collar workers were hit especially hard in the recent recession. But government statistics now show a steady climb in the hiring of white-collar workers.

Cellular Sales, the nation's largest Verizon premium wireless retailer, recently announced the grand opening of a new store at 1435 Rock Spring Road in Bel Air. "Cellular Sales is pleased to open our newest store on Rock Spring Road," Kory White, regional director of Cellular Sales, said in a press release. "We want our store to be a resource for customers to get all their wireless services needs met with outstanding service by our experts. " Cellular Sales was founded in Knoxville, Tenn., 19 years ago and has, for the past four years, been named by Inc. Magazine one of the nation's fastest growing privately-owned retailers operating 500 stores with nearly 4,000 employees.

An Israeli defense electronics firm has opened a Howard County location, where it plans to create 100 new jobs, the state Department of Business and Economic Development said Wednesday. ETLA North America, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., leased space in Maple Lawn, where it plans to grow to 25,000 square feet as it expands its staff and begins manufacturing there. The state has approved a $300,000 loan to the company, and Howard County has offered a property tax credit.

Workers peered through safety goggles as they fitted together parts of the electric motors they were building on a General Motors assembly line in White Marsh. For now, the parts are made in a factory in Mexico and then shipped to Baltimore County for assembly. But not for long. By the end of the year, motors for cutting-edge electric vehicles will be built from scratch in a sprawling $244 million plant under construction next to GM's factory, now called General Motors Baltimore Operations.

January's increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story -- the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy -- hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they've agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they've lost.

In his State of the State speech this week, Gov.Martin O'Malleymade a provocative boast: "Because of your wise and balanced decisions about where to cut, and your smart decisions about where to invest, Maryland's businesses are creating jobs again. Last year, Maryland businesses created more new jobs than we have in any year since this recession hit, and at twice the rate of our good neighbors in Virginia. " In the ongoing rivalry between Mr. O'Malley and Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell, them's fightin' words.

The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department said this morning. It was the 4th-best best monthly job growth in almost six years. More important, it looks like part of a trend. There were a couple good job months in 2010, but they were surrounded before and afterward by months with job losses. Now the economy has clocked 16 consecutive months of job growth. The numbers are finally well into six figures. Unemployment fell another two-tenths of a percentage point last month to 8.3 percent.

CHICAGO -- The U.S. economy created only 51,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported yesterday, but despite that tepid performance the nation's unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent. The latest jobs report was ambiguous enough, in fact, that economic optimists and pessimists alike found evidence to support their views. A number of experts suggested that the data show the economy is still expanding, but that it has downshifted to a slower growth rate in response to higher interest rates, a softening housing market and the domestic auto industry's continued slump.

BOSTON - Have you seen those economists scratching their heads trying to understand the jobless recovery? Every time they run the numbers, they end up with a question mark: How is it possible that only 1,000 new jobs were created in the past month? Well, maybe it's time we let them in on our little secret. The economy has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. Only they aren't in the manufacturing sector. They aren't even in the service economy. They're in the self-service economy.

Maryland employers added nearly 25,000 jobs last year, according to new estimates - the best performance since 2006, but one that still leaves the state with more than 80,000 jobs to make up, given the recession's losses. At this rate of employment growth, it will take Maryland until 2015 to dig out of the job-loss hole. Getting back to a truly normal employment situation would take even longer because population growth calls for the constant creation of new jobs. Economist Richard Clinch thinks Marylanders shouldn't count on faster job growth this year because efforts to rein in the federal budget are rippling through the state's sizable base of government contractors.

Gov.Martin O'Malleysays he needs higher taxes to create jobs in Maryland. Since Maryland does not require subcontractors to validate citizenship, most of the new jobs will most likely go to illegals, or new Americans as the governor likes to call them. Most working families in this state cannot afford higher taxes, tolls, and fees. Working people deal with spending cuts every month when the bills come in. It is high time the morons in Annapolis take a lesson from them. The Maryland legislature is lazy and has always taken the easy way out - taxes.