The global jobs news sounds schizophrenic the past few weeks—mixed between massive layoffs and equally big infrastructure investments.

Let’s start with some positives.
The European Commission’s European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures released a revised ‘roadmap’ detailing €1.7bn over seven years, with 40 percent of that sum for new projects. Changes include a €150m telescope for studying gamma rays; an €81m lab that will attempt to use lasers to initiate fusion in fuel pellets; and three new projects in environmental science, according to a story in Physics World.

Michigan, the US state with the highest unemployment rate in the country, will get a $550-million shot in the arm from the US Department of Energy. The department this month chose Michigan State University for a facility that will study rare nuclear isotopes, employing about 1,000 scientists.

Now for some bad news:
A blog at the Chronicle of Higher Education lists a series of salary cuts and hiring freezes. Cuts include Brandeis University, while Harvard University, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are implementing salary freezes for some administrators and academic departments. University of Wisconsin system faculty may get a 2.5 percent raise for 2009-2011—but that’s about half the last increase granted in 2006.

In the UK, a department head offers up a take of what it’s like to make budget cuts.

Finally, some homework. Anyone applying for US National Science Foundation funds after January 5, 2009, should check out the agency’s new rules.