Government Jobs

What Dmitri Berkov did in February would have been practically unthinkable only a few years ago. He resigned from the Russian Foreign Ministry. He left what was once one of the best paid, most prestigious careers in the former Soviet Union. Almost nobody left the Foreign Ministry, and almost everyone who was qualified wanted to work there. But now that capitalism has come to Russia, the government no longer pays enough to compete with new opportunities offered by private business, and the Foreign Ministry has lost much of its glamour.

The government panel that is deciding what to do with the nation's military bases yesterday gave to Philadelphia - and it took away. The city gained 281 Navy engineering and technical jobs that will aid the city's efforts to convert the soon-to-close Philadelphia Naval Base into a research and development and industrial center. On the other hand, 300 jobs at two Northeast Philadelphia facilities were tranferred to California. The federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommended transfer of the 281 jobs from Annapolis, Md., to the 1,600-person Naval Ship Systems Engineering Station (NAVSS)

The mood today in Gloucester County is decidedly against back-scratching in government - especially if the back belongs to a family member. Bowing to pressure from the Board of Freeholders, most of the county's 16 autonomous boards and agencies - from the Utilities Authority to the Housing Authority - this year have established policies banning nepotism. The drive to stamp out family favoritism has spilled over to the municipal level. In the last month, two local councils have approved guidelines that prohibit elected officials from giving government jobs to relatives, though one of those policies was vetoed by the town's mayor.

County officials in the Philadelphia suburbs are considering a new approach to government service: Let somebody else do it. It's not that they're wiggling out of their responsibilities. Rather, many are looking to private companies to perform tasks once done in-house - replacing government, rather than reinventing it. "Competition rears its head all over the place when costs get excessive," said John Shannon, a consultant at the Urban Institute in Washington. "The two organizations most ripe are big cities and suburban jurisdictions.

Albert Vagnozzi long dreamed of following in his father's footsteps: He wanted to be a police officer. A trainee on the Upper Merion Township police force, Vagnozzi, 24, scored high enough on the police test to be considered the leading candidate the night in February when the Township Board of Supervisors voted to hire a new officer. To his disappointment, the board voted, 3-2, to hire someone else. Albert Vagnozzi, it seems, lost the job because of politics - his father's politics.

Mayor Nutter on Tuesday named Rebecca Rhynhart the city's new budget director. He also appointed Maari Porter as recovery officer, which put her in charge of spending stimulus dollars. Both women already work for the city, Rhynhart as treasurer and Porter as deputy budget director for recovery efforts. They replace Steve Agostini, who did both jobs but left the administration last week to become chief financial officer at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington.

Philadelphia had a net gain of 1,800 jobs in the 12 months ending in October, according to state figures released today. The largest gain came in the service sector, which grew by 3,500 jobs between October 1996 and the same month this year, said the Department of Labor and Industry. The biggest loss was in government jobs, which dropped by 1,900. More than half of the government jobs were in the federal sector, while the number of state government jobs dropped by 700 and city government jobs dropped by 100, the figures show.

Hurling a constitutional gavel at the centuries-old political spoils system, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Constitution protects contractors from losing government business because of their political views or party loyalties. Dividing 7-2 in two cases of political dissent, the justices allowed a Kansas trash hauler and an Illinois tow-truck operator to sue local governments alleged to have retaliated against them for political reasons. People who do business with government, like public employees, are protected by First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and association, the court majority concluded in rulings that dissenters Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas called "profoundly disturbing.

Mayor Nutter on Tuesday named Rebecca Rhynhart the city's new budget director. He also appointed Maari Porter as Philadelphia's recovery officer, which puts her in charge of spending stimulus dollars. Both women already work for the city, Rhynhart as treasurer and Porter as deputy budget director for recovery efforts. They replace Steve Agostini, who did both jobs but left the administration last week to become chief financial officer at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington.

SO . . . WILLARD ROUSE'S death did not merit Page 1, but mobster Ralph Natalie's mistress did. That sound you hear is Western civilization crashing down around us. Tom O'Neill, Philadelphia 'Jewish' remark, cont'd. Two thoughts regarding the Hanford Jones "Jewish" remark: Why is it that when you scratch so many blacks, "Jew" pops out of their mouths? If there are so many Jewish architects (or doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.), it's because Jews earn the degrees.

TACARIGUA, Venezuela - The razor-close vote to replace late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has sparked what opposition leaders and human-rights groups say is a government crackdown on public employees who either didn't back Chavez's handpicked successor or failed to show sufficient support for the ruling party. The April 14 election had revealed a major shift in public support away from the Chavez program as problems such as food shortages, soaring inflation and crime, as well as the absence of the late leader's famous charm, led hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to back the opposition for the first time since Chavez took power 14 years ago. It was an ominous start for successor Nicolas Maduro's government, which is struggling to write the second chapter of the country's socialist transformation amid deepening economic problems and widening divisions in a bureaucracy and public that once solidly backed Chavez.

Wall Street liked what it heard from Washington, as the stock market responded positively to an upbeat jobs report Friday from the U.S. Labor Department. February's unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, while payroll jobs grew by 236,000, with broad hiring in nearly every sector. The report sent the Dow Jones industrial average up 67 points, and the S&P gained nearly seven points. "The number was up more than expected," said PNC Financial Services chief economist Kurt Rankin.

The nation's payrolls added 236,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent, down from 7.9 percent, the U.S. Labor Department reported Friday morning. Stocks rose as the news was released. Except for 10,000 government jobs lost, there was hiring in nearly every broad industry sector, including manufacturing, construction, retail, business and professional services and health. Education, typically a job generator, saw a decline, both in the private and public sectors.

WASHINGTON - Union membership plummeted last year to the lowest level since the 1930s as cash-strapped state and local governments shed workers and unions had difficulty organizing new members in the private sector despite signs of an improving economy. Government figures released Wednesday showed union membership declined from 11.8 percent to 11.3 percent of the workforce, another blow to a labor movement already stretched thin by battles in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and other states to curb bargaining rights and weaken union clout.

IN HIS STORY ON unemployment in Pennsylvania ( Daily News , Dec. 21), Will Bunch reveals a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to free-market economies. Recovering from a recession is best accomplished by growing private-sector employment - something the Corbett administration has done to the tune of 109,000 new jobs. These are the jobs that spur economic recovery, support other sectors through spending and investment and provide revenue for government services. Government jobs, on the other hand, consume public dollars, and the taxes public employees pay return only a fraction of money to the same treasury from which their salaries came.

The bell kept ringing at the Be a Hero, Hire a Hero job fair for veterans at the National Constitution Center on Friday - each ring signaling a tentative job offer or a second interview. Maybe it's a reflection of Friday's news from the U.S. Labor Department that the nation's payrolls expanded by 146,000 jobs in November or that the unemployment rate dropped to an unanticipated low of 7.7 percent - a five-year low. Or maybe it's just another confusing signal in a confusing job market.

WASHINGTON - The nation probably created 20 percent more jobs in the economy's third year of recovery than previously estimated, with businesses hiring nearly half a million more workers than earlier thought. In its latest employment revision, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday that the economy added 386,000 more jobs than its earlier estimate, bringing total hiring from April 2011 through March 2012 to 2.3 million. The private sector added more than 453,000 jobs, the report said.

By Tobias Peter Is this really the United States of America? Maybe we should forget the United - unless it means united in polarization, partisanship, and plotting. Washington today is like a battleship that doesn't move anymore because all the crew does is fight about who gets to steer. The surest way to overcome this gridlock would be to sink the battleship that is the two-party system and adopt proportional representation. Americans can choose from an innumerable range of different coffee drinks.

A fairly upbeat U.S. employment report released Friday showed 163,000 new jobs added in July, despite the overall unemployment level ticking up to 8.3 percent. One thing is certain: The latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor provided fresh fodder for the political debate about the economy. President Obama's administration and Republican challenger Mitt Romney had widely divergent reactions. Although payrolls were up 163,000, the largest increase since February, the unemployment rate increased to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent, the Labor Department said.