Employment Opportunities

Bring in more residents.

90% of biz's in SL are cottage - one man bands or collaborations between a couple of people - very few make enough to be able to 'hire' people or subcontract.

Thats if you're taking about real employment.. if you're thinking about 'sit on this prim and make pizza for L$' a la The Sims or other such places.... then it would be 'Just say no..'

I've bookmarked this thread for ressurection in March 2007.

Welcome to the Forums, Vasudha.

Respectfully, I think you're pursuing the wrong course if you're trying to build up low-skill jobs. The real answer is to build up the skills of the user-base. Hire a good technical writer and a good course-designer, and work out web- or SL-based training in basic SL usage, building, texturing, scripting, and animation. By building up the users' skill-set, you not only open up job opportunities for them, you make it more likely to 'buy into' SL, invest time and effort in it, the same way some people throw themselves into power-levelling or crafting in MMORPGs.

I can understand LL wanting to farm out a lot of functions to users, but punting on documentation and traiing is really not a viable option. It's in LL's corporate best interest to have a *strong* educational component, and Philip should be prepared to break out the checkbook to pay for it. Even if LL employees can't do the actual training -- teachers don't scale, it's true -- it would help enormously to have high-quality training materials, rather than just a couple of resident-maintained wikis.

(Not to dis the wikis, by the way. The LSL wiki is a work of art, and tremendously useful. I'm just saying that LL really shoud be picking up more of the load here.)

I'd also second some of the calls here for better object and land permissions, along with improvements to the group tools to better support collaboration and business arrangements (e.g., better control over the disbursement of group funds, more levels of membership, etc.).

Education and infrastructure, not make-work or subsidy; that's the way to go.

Can we make this thread a sticky? It really needs to stay on top. I see many threads referencing this one popping up all over the firums.

Best. Post. Ever.

I agree - your post also made me look at 'employment' from a different angle - my intial read (this being land and economy) made me think 'what can we do to make it so people can have jobs' as in make it so someone running a business could employ people (sales clerks - admin types - hell if my business was large enough to hire someone, I would!'

But yeah your post makes good sence too... Heres one place to start:

Mentors and Live help - want to create jobs - Pay them. They are providing a service and SHOULD get a few bucks for the trouble.

USD - L$ whichever (remember running the mint to pay them with money whisked from the aether will of course have an impact on the economy).

Law of offer and demands
There is tons of ppl that applied to help for free. (myself, i'm waiting since months)

Additionally, you'll get ppl that will apply to mentor/live help just for money.
And it's bad BAD *BAD*

Linden Lab use linux and free software

If your Sims check the paper, or the computer, they can be offered up to 4 jobs a day! Criminal field, sports field, political field... etc.

Well this wouldn't be bad at face value. It would actually allow LL to demand a higher QUALITY mentor/helper. In most cases the mentors and helpers are absolutely TOP NOTCH and really add a lot of value to the community, however some leave a lot to be desired.

Maybe a paid frontline technical support staff would finally put an end to things like mentors passing out p2p links to their alt's and friend's stores on Help Island, etc, showing newbies all of the "good places" to spend money. This kind of behavour is rediculous, as it's a very VERY GOOD sales lead generation channel that 99.99% of the population is forbidden access to.

On the other hand, you have an excellent point about supply and demand. I can't see any reason why any sane company would want to pay anyone to do a job that EVERYONE is lining up and begging to do for free.

Microsoft SUCKS!!!!!!!!

Linux Rulez!!!!!!


Anybody who touts they are a Microsoft Expert is nothing
more than a push button monkey.

Real Men use Linux.

Actually the jobs are there, unfortunately the largest portion of them are tips only and the employer takes a cut. Also there are a lot who say they will pay then don't. I ahve had several jobs fgrom those "employers". ALl of which were major clubs. Unofrtunately the fix for this is LL to require that any employee be given a minimum wage and enforces same. I doubt Linden wants to get into that nightmare. The real damage to the economy is being done by those sitting on L's.."hiring" more help they don't pay adn skim off of and then they turn around and jack the price on the L's. Also the 1000+ % markups on land etc do not help. To stimulate an economy you ahve to put back into it...rather than use to to prey on others. What we have here is almost akin to outsourcing adn palce of work that charge the person to work for them wihtout any reimbursement for thier time. Fix that, you'll fix the prob. and BTW..killing stipend is not any answer. That's jsut a way to lose Linden a lot of potential customers. We've already allowed the economy in our nation to get screwed up. Let's make SL a model of how it should be done.

You should have seen the first draft.....

What country is that? France? Because I know
you couldn't in a million years be refering to America.
With its 4.8% Unemployment, 1,000,000-2,000,000
new jobs each year being created, rising standard of
living year over year, etc...

As for the French... 10% Unemployment, A meer
8,000 new jobs created in 2004, riots over the govt
giving industry the ability to layoff workers... Man,
talk about a rough economy... The French are Screwed.


The Economy | The French have a funny economy
By Andrew Cassel
Inquirer Columnist

We who love France like to say it possesses that certain je ne sais quoi, which, if you never got past French 1, simply means "I don't know what."

But je ne sais quoi the heck is going on over there this week.

All over France, they're taking to the streets, setting up barricades, stopping work and traffic in one of the biggest protests in years.

And for what?

Given the scale and depth of anger displayed, you might assume the French are fed up - that political or economic conditions had become too intolerable to bear, making nationwide paralysis the only way out.

Mais non. They're not tearing up the joint to force change, but to prevent it.

What sparked the wave of student protests, which has now grown into the threat of a general strike, was a new law designed to crack open the French job market, just a bit.

Called the "First Employment Contract," the law (which hasn't yet taken effect) eases up some of France's notoriously tight labor rules for workers under the age of 26.

Specifically, French employers would be able to fire young workers without going through elaborate and costly hoops.

Vasudha, rather than taking a good chunk of my time away from my work in SL I am simply going to copy and paste two posts I made recently. Hopefully they will give you some insight and food for thought. You can find my posts on pages 16 and 17 of the thread shown below.

/130/e4/86043/1.html

I don't have a problem with jobs being created in SL. Unfortunately, people like myself can't afford to hire help. The idea of taking away stipend hurting users financially ( I'm speaking of Linden dollars here, not real dollars), especially for basic accounts, may seem farfetched and/or absurd, but, the truth is, it is not for people like myself who are struggling to be able to pay for uploads, etc. I'm sure my situation is not unique, I have talked with a number of people who are in the same situation. We all agree that taking away stipends will hurt the "little guy" far more than it will help us. Hopefully my posts will give you a good idea of what it is really like for many of us in SL, who work hard trying to make a name for themselves by selling high quality products and are getting very little in return.

Please, keep in mind that nothing below this point is directed at you.
----------------------------------------------
I have to wonder just how many of you who are advocating doing away with the basic stipend think that everyone can afford to pay a monthly fee? Some of us are doing good just to pay our bills AND keep our internet connections. How many of you remember being able to buy a brand new car for 2500 USD? I haven't forgotten. Take a good look at the US Census average household incomes for states like Louisiana and Mississippi. Why should we have to give up or not be able to enjoy SL just because we don't have any extra cash to pay a monthly fee or buy Ls with? Why not take away the 500L per month premium accounts get as well? Are you going to discriminate against those less fortunate than you are financially? That is what taking the 50L stipend away from basic users amounts to.


The 2000 US Census gives the following for the state of Louisiana:

Median household income (dollars) $32,566 (annually)

http://factfinder.census.gov/servle...=DEC_2000_SF3_U

Last I heard poverty level was considered to be $30,000 - $35,000 and below. Are you going to force me to leave SL just because I don't make $50,000 or more a year? Think about it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Not one thing you said above applies to me. I'm on basic and I do work my ass off for what little I get. I spend hours daily in SL making things for sale. Yet without that 50L stipend there would be weeks when I would not be able to upload a snapshot of something I made for sale because of all the competition in SL.

You left that one factor out of your post... competition. You also left out the fact that people have a habit of buying the first thing they see they like rather than shopping around for the best deals. It's called impulse buying and people in SL do it far more than they would in RL. And if the freebies are such good things they why would anyone pay for anything else? There is a reason most of the freebies are free. Poor quality. I know there are some things out there that are freebies that are of good quality but the vast majority of them are not.


You didn't do a very good job of playing devil's advocate because you failed to include important factors like comptetion in your arguements. But then you probably aren't still struggling to make a name for yourself in SL like so many others are. I DO make high quality products and I DO price them so that they are affordable for the majority. I also make the effort to keep my products as low prim as possible. Yet, because of the high competition in SL I still can't afford to buy land and pay a monthly tier nor can I afford to buy Ls every time I need Ls. I don't earn above poverty level in RL and thanks to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita a bad economy is a heck of alot worse.

And I certainly do NOT appreciate the image you tried to paint of me with the crap you spouted. I do play tringo to earn extra Ls as often as I can. I don't do contests because even in RL I don't like clubs. I grew out of that years ago. I've had jobs in SL and had to fight to get my pay. And then my empoyers had the gall to expect me to put it all back into thier businesses. However, it is impossible to spend enough time playing games, etc. to make enough to pay rent and still have time to build new products to sell. The vast majority of the people in SL do have regular jobs and lives outside of SL.

The people advocating taking away basic stipend really pi$$ me off. They want to take away from the have nots and give to the haves. Like we don't already have enough of that kind of crap in RL... they want to drag it into SL. You people are the ones who need to get real and stop trying to take away from the have nots and keep them under your thumbs!!

Reserve the statistic you are quoting is accurate however it fails to tak einto account tha twhile there are more jobs being produced..more high paying jobs are being outsourced and the new ones don't pay enough for ppl to live in this country. Doesn't matter of you make five new 6 dollar an hour jobs..if you get rid of three 20 dollar an hour jobs. Why not use your brain instead of political rhetoric frmo the last election?

Open Office can read xcell and word documents.

Dmitri:

Stop being a broken record for the media, do your research.
Offshoring is GOOD FOR AMERICA because it creates jobs.
And not Mcdonalds jobs, but good high paying jobs.

If you paid under $1000 for a nice Flat Screen Monitor,
you can thank offshoring. Instead of $10,000 if it was made
in America. And guess what, that $9000 you saved, you can
now spend it elsewhere in the economy. And guess what? Your
ability to spend more elsewhere employs more people. As such,
offshoring is Good. Protectionism is Bad...







Per U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics
Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco2003.htm

Management of companies and enterprises will grow by 10.6 percent and add 182,000 new jobs.

Professional and business services. This industry supersector, which includes some of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy, will grow by 27.8 percent and add more than 4.5 million new jobs.

Employment in professional, scientific, and technical services will grow by 28.4 percent and add 1.9 million new jobs by 2014. Employment in computer systems design and related services will grow by 39.5 percent and add almost one-fourth of all new jobs in professional, scientific, and technical services. Employment growth will be driven by the increasing reliance of businesses on information technology and the continuing importance of maintaining system and network security. Management, scientific, and technical consulting services also will grow very rapidly, by 60.5 percent, spurred by the increased use of new technology and computer software and the growing complexity of business.


Information. Employment in the information supersector is expected to increase by 11.6 percent, adding 364,000 jobs by 2014. Information contains some of the fast-growing computer-related industries such as software publishers; Internet publishing and broadcasting; and Internet service providers, Web search portals, and data processing services. Employment in these industries is expected to grow by 67.6 percent, 43.5 percent, and 27.8 percent, respectively. The information supersector also includes telecommunications, broadcasting, and newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers. Increased demand for residential and business land-line and wireless services, cable service, high-speed Internet connections, and software will fuel job growth among these industries.

I'm confused. How does not having your business' name as your avatar name prevent you from doing business in SL? That is equivalent to saying that McDonalds will shut down the next time the board of directors change. Nothing in SL prevents you from uploading textures, test files, etc, with your company's name and ID, and you are then, [avatar name], the representative of [company name]. Despite many legal precedents to the contrary, corporations still are not people, and there isn't any sensible reason to insist on having an avatar named as that corporation for that corporation to do business.

And just what states are the jobs going to be created in? Any in Louisiana? You know... the state that got hit by Hurricane Katrina and then less than a month later Rita. What about Mississippi and the other states that always seems to end up at the botton of the list? How many of those jobs are being created for people over the age of 40? How many are for people under 30? How many of them require degrees? How many of them will be filled with people who have years of (hands-on) experience and no degree?


You copied and pasted projections not actual facts. With over 295,000,000 people in the US just how much difference will a few hundred thousands jobs spread over 50 states make? How many of those jobs will go to the smaller cities and towns?

Oh yeah.. I forgot... to hell with the little guy, the people over 40 who are out of work and can't find work because employers want the young people fresh out of college and with no experience (they have a degree!!), the people who have been hit hard by 2 natural disasters, the mom and pops who were the backbone of this country until Corporate America reared it's ugly head. Who needs them? Afterall there are plenty of good paying jobs out there to be had. That is if you consider earning $5.15 (federal minimum wage, which is what states that do not have a minimum wage go by) an hour good pay. That's $206.00 a week for 40 hours of work BEFORE taxes. That's 10,712 annually before taxes. Sure, we can all live on a little over $10,000 a year. Suuuuuuure we can.

Q) How many of those jobs will go to the smaller cities and towns?
A) None. If you don't like it, MOVE. Otherwise remain poor. Your Choice.

Q) And just what states are the jobs going to be created in? Any in Louisiana?
A) Doubt it. Time to pack the bags and move to where the money is...


Q) With over 295,000,000 people in the US just how much difference will a few hundred thousands jobs spread over 50 states make?
A) The "Working Population" of America is about 120,000,000/million. The rest are retired or children. And of the 120/million, about 115/million are already employed (note 4.8% unemployment). And of the 5/million out of work, most of them are slackers who watch Oprah or Play SL all day long. And with 2/million new jobs every year being created, anybody who wants a job can get a job. But those who refuse to leave their 1-stop sign town will just suffer. But its a choice they make, not a mandate they live with. Anytime the small town local wants some money for his/her pocket, all they need to do is relocate.


Q) Corporate America reared it's ugly head. Who needs them?
A) About 115,000,000/million Americans.

Could not agree more!!!!
Quicktime tutorials etc would be fantastic. even is LL doesn't ahve the resources, there are supremely talented and professional residents they could hire to produce educational material. It would be money well spent.
In my short time in SL I have encountered many new residents who are keen to learn, but give up quickly in frustration, because they're floundering in the dark. It would be better too smooth out that learning curve.
I'm a bit concerned that we'll end up with token jobs. Real 'uskilled' jobs would require structural changes, as you point out, You should have to give someone the keys to your kingdom just so you can employ them in your store. I'm fairly sure there is some sort of demand out there, but the current tools make it unviable.

I agree. It's all about comparative advantage and opportunity costs.

And just who is going to pay for me to move? YOU? Oh!... that's right... money grows on money trees in SL so it must be the same in RL.


And when you quote someone TRY not to quote them out of context the way you did my post.


BTW...I've lived in other states and in some larger cities as well. I own my own business and I work 7 days a week. I put in an average of 60 hours per week. While the city I live in may not be the size of NY, LA or some of the other highly overpopulated places, it is most defintately NOT a one stop sign town.


Someone needs to get a grip on reality and it isn't me. Then again, some people can't deal with reality and spend all thier time in fantasy worlds like SL.

You can take your condesending, holier-than-thou attitude and stuff it where the sun don't shine. Consider yourself whacked big time with my iggy stick.

More political rhetoric...telly uo what. Why don't you stop believing everything they tell you, quit your job..go out adn try to find yourself a GOOD paying job with a HS education...it ain't gonna happen. Outsourcing is not only not good for the nation..or anything else for that matter..it is effectively killing the largest customer base for those companies doing the outsourcing. Thing is they are taking the typical american business stand point of looking a tthings quarterly. They need to look 20 years ahead. And you need to lok at something other than political propoganda and comic books and get a reality check.