Oct 8, 2004 Report of the IEEE-USA Employment & Career Services Committee Employment Activities Although the employment outlook as a whole for IEEE members is not very positive, I received only 3 personal requests for information/help in 2004 so far from Region 3 members. Recently, the region sent a mass email covering employment topics and where to find information, to all R3 member email addresses. From that mailing, I received only one request for further information. On a personal note, my own company announced layoffs in its Greensboro, NC location totaling over 50 positions. Although I was unaffected, many of my long-time coworkers were. These layoffs will be completed by June of next year. Because of the number of positions involved (>50), the company was compelled to invoke the provisions of the WARN (aka the "60-day plant closing") Act, even though they are not closing the facility. Employment and Career Services Committee Activities The IEEE-USA E&CSC has met 3 times this year, once face-to-face, and two by teleconference. One of our focus topics has been working with the owners of the IEEE Jobs web site (IEEE Publications) to correct what the committee perceives as deficiencies in the site, and how it is operated. The committee has been monitoring the progress of the site and will report to the IEEE-USA president on its findings later this year. There are still concerns over whether the business model of the site is primarily a service to members (as the committee would prefer) or whether it is a revenue generator for IEEE Publications (as it appears to be set up currently). A member of the Santa Clara, CA section has written up a detailed analysis of the IEEE Job site, and has not minced words in his proposal to IEEE management on what he believes should be done... the analysis reflects the collective opinion of the committee that the primary focus of the Job site appears to be generating revenue. The committee is working with several commercial on-line outplacement firms to determine if their services should be made available to IEEE members. This is still on-going, as most of these firms don't really have a business model to work with a non-profit member organization (they are used to dealing with companies that hire them during layoffs). We have also had much success with the popularity of the Employment & Career Services Virtual Community. The community recently celebrated its 1 year anniversary. There are over 1600 members and over 1200 different postings on the site. We plan to send currently unemployed members invitations to join the community. The URL is: https://www.ieeecommunities.org/ecs The next meeting for the E&CSC is scheduled for November 5-7, in Rochester, NY. David Macchiarolo