kiplinger connection
Jobs and Workers • Business Costs • Weather

Jobs and Workers: H-1B visas almost capped, but there’s another great labor source.
Business Costs: Small businesses can find some good telecom deals this year.
Weather: Here’s an on-line source for 90-day National Weather Service predictions.

Jobs and workers
It’ll be even harder to find foreign high-tech workers this year.
The 65,000 H-1B visa cap will be met in the first half of April, a month ahead of last year and four months ahead of 2005. Thousands of applicants will be turned away. The rush is a sign of growing demand in the biotechnology, nanotechnology, aerospace, and computer industries.
There’s bipartisan support in Congress to overhaul the visa plan, including a proposal to let the cap fluctuate based on market forces.
But it’s tied up with the broader push for an immigration bill. And that means employers won’t get relief until 2008 at the earliest.

Having trouble filling jobs? Consider hiring a disabled worker. The pool of unemployed disabled American workers is over 10 million.
Technological advances let the disabled do more jobs than ever. Braille keyboards, voice-activated tools, and robotic limbs all help.
Accommodating the disabled usually costs a company $500 or less.
And the rewards can be big: Disabled workers tend to stay longer, reducing turnover. Plus state and federal tax credits are available. See www.jan.wvu.edu for help finding and accommodating disabled workers.

Business costs
A price war will bring down telecom costs for small businesses.
Phone and cable companies are locked in competition to give firms phone and Internet packages at bargain prices. Expect to pay $75 a month or less per phone line with unlimited calls, call waiting and forwarding, conferencing, Web speeds faster than a DSL or T-1 line, and data storage. Wait to lock in rates until all the offerings are out later this year.
Who’ll win the competition? Probably the phone companies. Firms are comfortable with phone companies and apt to stick with them.
The real winners, though: Small businesses. They’ll pay less.

Companies that don’t pay for protective gear will soon have to.
New regs will clarify employers’ responsibilities in the supply of equipment. The rules, from the Occupational Safety and Health Admin., are due in Nov. and may end an eight-year stalemate. A 1999 draft plan written by the Clinton administration languished under Bush appointees. Unions sued, finally forcing OSHA to act, but if labor rejects the rules, the Democratic Congress may take up the cause, rekindling the battle.
Expect firms to be responsible for hard hats, harnesses, etc., but workers will probably have to pay to replace equipment they lose. Plus limits may be put on customized gear, such as prescription goggles.

Weather
Wondering what kind of weather you can expect this summer?
The National Weather Service now has 90-day temperature outlooks geared to businesses’ needs. Its Web site focuses on local forecasts that can help amusement park owners, farmers, and commodity traders.

But like all meteorologists, the government is hedging its bets, offering only rough odds on how the next three months will compare with historical averages. Go to www.weather.gov/climate/l3mto.php, plug in your ZIP code, and scroll down for temperature forecasts.