THE GLOBAL WORKPLACE World's workers in cutthroat competition for employment; TODAY'S KEY POINTS Business trends that have created widespread insecurity over jobs and pay likely will continue into the next century. U.S. companies, like their employees, are running scared, striving to compete in global markets. Wall Street applauds cost-cutting layoffs by bidding up stock prices, boosting rewards for executives whose pay is tied to stock performance. While the U.S. middle class is shrinking, the middle class in India and other developing nations is growing, thus expanding markets and labor pools for multinational companies. Well-educated, highly skilled workers in India, who speak perfect English, are willing to do computer work for less money than their American counterparts. Some economists think the United States is on the verge of an economic surge as payoffs from the technological revolution finally roll in. Others think technology's impact on productivity has been overrated, saying computers are still "only about one-tenth as important in today's economy as railroads were in the late 19th century." In a spiraling circle, price-conscious consumers flock to discount outlets, which then squeeze suppliers to lower their prices. The suppliers, in turn, shave costs by closing old factories, shifting work to modern plants with fewer workers, moving to places with low-wage workers and eliminating the jobs of price-conscious consumers. In another ironic spiral, middle-class investors have flocked into the stock market through mutual funds, with 31% of American households now participating. Mutual fund managers must deliver top returns, or people will move their nest eggs and 401(k) savings elsewhere. The fund managers, who control huge blocks of stock, pressure executives to deliver top quarterly returns often achieved by cutting the jobs of middle-class investors. Some observers see a "plantation economy" developing in the U.S., where high-knowledge, high-wage workers blossom at one end while low-skill, low-wage workers mushroom at the other. The stock market booms, national economic output grows, but benefits go largely to the top. People moving up the ladder want more services, creating demand for low-wage hairdressers, child care workers and restaurant cooks.; ABOUT THE AUTHORS Rick Romell and Geeta Sharma-Jensen are both business news writers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sharma-Jensen, 47, was born in India and raised in Burma. She came to the United States in 1971 and earned a master's degree in journalism from Marquette University. She has been a newspaper reporter for 20 years, joining The Milwaukee Journal in 1989, and also has covered education and courts. Romell, 45, was born in Milwaukee and also has been a newspaper reporter for 20 years, most of them with the Milwaukee Sentinel. He has worked as a general assignment reporter, feature writer, travel editor, suburban editor and assistant city editor. Series: Middle Class Lost: America Pulling Apart; third of four parts

From: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Date: February 6, 1996| Author: GEETA SHARMA-JENSEN and RICK ROMELL | Copyright information

As the sun dips below the New Delhi skyline, S. Ashraf Ali, manager of Johnson Controls' newest design center, orders cardamom tea and taps out e-mail messages to his company's headquarters in Glendale. Hours later, while Ali sleeps in India and the sun floats over Milwaukee, colleagues sip their morning coffee and begin to respond picking up, on their computers, projects where Ali left off.

Indian engineers and designers have become part of Johnson Controls' global team dis...

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