Perhaps the best answer to the question posed to Bernanke moments ago whether US unemployment is structural or cyclical comes courtesy of Microsoft, which announced earlier that it was set to hire "several thousand" workers. Sadly, the catch is that the hires will be in China.
From BusinessWeek [4]:
Microsoft the largest software maker, will hire several thousand workers in China to support new cloud computing services and smartphones using its Windows operating system, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said.
The workforce (MSFT) expansion, from a current base of 4,000 staff, will take place during the next year, Ballmer said today at a press conference in Shanghai that was streamed live on the Internet. He didn’t provide a specific number for new workers.
China has become the fastest growing market (MSFT) for the company’s smartphone operating system, Ballmer said. The Redmond, Washington-based company will start a public preview of its Windows Azure service in the country next month, making Microsoft the first multinational to offer public cloud computing in the nation.
“I visited China last about one year ago in May and it is remarkable to me how much has changed,” Ballmer, 57, said. “At Microsoft this is an incredibly exciting time.”
For future Chinese employees of Microsoft it is a quite exciting time too. For those Americans who will not be hired by Microsoft as a result of this decision, it is not nearly as exciting. But at least those unhired workers can take solace that their E*trade daytrading P&L is green for the day.