Y2K Workers' Pay: The Sky Was the Limit
Security guards, baby sitters and other service employees who worked on New Year's Eve got a bonanza -- an average of double their usual pay rates. Security firms across the nation reported that they were booked solid for weeks before the turn of the millennium. Baby-sitting services, as well, were unable to keep up with the demand, with some sitters earning as much as $300 for the single evening's work.

Fewer Employees Saw '99 Holiday Bonus
With more firms rewarding their workers with stock options, profit-sharing and other flexible forms of extra compensation, the traditional holiday bonus was scarce in 1999, according to a year-end survey. Just 9% of companies with more than a thousand employees handed out extra holiday cash -- down from 40% in 1998. Small firms, however, kept up the tradition, with 25% giving their employees modest cash gifts -- an average of $100 for non-managers and $150 for managers.

What, Me Worry? U.S. Workers Optimistic
A new survey has found that only 1 percent of U.S. workers expect to be downsized in 2000 -- half as many as expected to be fired in 1999. But 15% of workers say they plan to voluntarily leave their current position to take another job. Another 7% expect to leave the work world behind entirely and retire.

Portland's High-tech Boom Jolts Housing Prices
High-tech companies that have set up shop in Portland, Oregon, hoping to lure workers with the area's cheap housing, are facing a letdown; in the last year, the area's median price for a single-family home jumped almost 90%, to 159,000. Many companies had touted the area as an affordable West Coast alternative to Seattle and Silicon Valley. Corporate recruiters say they've had to adopt more aggressive strategies to lure workers to the area.