Wall Street Journal, aug 22, 2012 (college graduates)

choi

(1) Lilian Lin, China's Graduates Face Glut; Mismatch between their skills, job market's needs results in underemployment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 66752847208984.html

(a) Quote:

(i) "A survey of more than 6,000 new graduates conducted last year by Tsinghua University in Beijing said that entry-level salaries of 69% of college graduates are lower than those of the migrant workers who come from the countryside to man Chinese factories, a figure that government statistics currently put at about 2,200 yuan ($345) a month. Graduates from lower-level universities make an average of only 1,903 yuan a month, it said.

(ii) "People with some college education now account for about 8.9% of China's population, according to 2010 government data. While that's a much smaller proportion than the 36.7% of the adult population in the U.S, it's a sharp rise from China's 3.6% in 2000.

(iii) "'To solve the underemployment problem, you need to adjust the economy for the workforce that China has now,' said Chetan Ahya, an economist and managing director at Morgan Stanley. 'A comprehensive approach is needed to create jobs with high value.'

"'High-end jobs that should have been produced by industrialization, including research, marketing and accounting etc, have been left in the West,' said Chen Yuyu, associate professor at Peking University's Guanghua School of Management. Referencing the trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the Taiwan-based company that makes gadgets for Apple Inc and others in Chinese factories, he said, 'We only have assembly lines in Foxconns.'


(b) Note:
(i) Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics (ZUFE) 浙江财经学院 (founded in 1974; located in Hangzhou)
(ii) Communication University of China  中国传媒大学  (established in 1954; Location Beijing; national)
(iii) CHEN Yuyu  陈 玉宇
http://www1.gsm.pku.edu.cn/faculty/chenyuyu.aspx
(1998年1月－2002年8月， 澳大利亚国立大学经济系，博士)


(2) Cathy Chu, Big Retail Squeezes Hong Kong Middleman.

(a) Quote:

(i) The first two paragraphs:

"For the past century, Li & Fung Ltd. has been supplying  everything from shoes t baby clothes for such global retailers as Target Corp and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. But after decades of rapid expaqnsion, the company is logging shrinking profit margins.

"Now, an even greater threat looms: retailers working direct6ly with factories and cutting out middleman like Li & Fung.

(ii) Li & Fung's original business model was to contract with factories to manufacture goods for retailers, but the company long ago expanded into a one-stop shop: It now designs, markets and transports products as well.

(iii) But Li & Fing's chief executive Bruce Rockowitz, a 53-year-old former tennis instructor from Canada who married Asian pop star CoCo LEE last year, defended the prospect of the firm:

"But even when retailers decided to source directly, they will still need an intermediary to manage logistics, communications and quality checks with the factories, Mr Rockwitz.

(b) Note:
(i) Li & Fung Limited 利豐有限公司 (based in Hong Kong; founded in 1906 by FUNG Pak-liu 馮柏燎 and LI To-ming 李道明 at Canton as an export trading operation dealing in porcelain, fireworks, jade handicrafts and silk, mainly to the United States) Wikipedia (in Chinese and English)
(ii) CoCo Lee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoCo_Lee
(李玟; born in 1975 in Hong Kong; a naturalized US citizen; the first and only person of Chinese ethnicity to perform at an Oscars ceremony, perform[ing] the Academy Award composition nominated for Best Original Song, "A Love Before Time" (from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon))


(3) Ben Worthen, Dell Outlook Gloomy as PCs Slump; Computer maker's profit falls 18% amid weak revenue; more tough times ahead
("The announcement marked Dell's second straight quarter of dissapointing results, and its stock price has fallen about 18% since late May")

(4) Daniel Michaels, New Branch of Treetop Hotel Market Puts More Tourists Out on a Limb; Canopy beds on offer in simple cabins, luxury aeries; Forest 'love nest' (front page)
(treehouse)

Note: aerie (n; Medieval Latin aerea, from Old French aire, probably from Vulgar Latin *agrum origin, nest, lair, from Latin ager field — more at ACRE):
"1: the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop
* * *
3: an elevated often secluded dwelling, structure, or position"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aerie