Posted on 11/08/2012 9:48:06 AM PST by Red Steel
Obamanomics grinds grimly onward, as CNBC brings word that on the day after the election, “Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California, and consolidate several business units to cut costs.” It was sweet of them to keep that under wraps until after the election, wasn’t it?
And that’s not even the dreaded “sequestration” layoffs, which Obama broke the law to convince defense contractors to keep under wraps until after the election. Those are yet to come. The upside to living in a banana Republic with Party-dominated media is that life is full of “unexpected” surprises, to use the word that has come to dominate economic news in the Obama era.
Another round of layoffs announced on Wednesday came from Hawker Beechcraft, which announced it would close facilities in Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas, resulting in 400 jobs lost, while another 170 jobs would be cut from corporate offices in Kansas and Arkansas.
Also on the day after the election, the CEO of the Papa John’s pizza restaurant chain, John Schnatter, told a small community college audience in Florida that ObamaCare would likely result in cuts to employee hours by franchise owners seeking to escape the law’s mandates by eliminating full-time positions, a move he described as “common sense” and “lose-lose.”
Schnatter also predicted ObamaCare would add between $5 million and $8 million to his business costs (which is fine, because he’s an evil rich guy who supported Mitt Romney for president, and we all know that truly patriotic job creators happily pay for increased business costs out of their own pockets) and that it would add 10 to 14 cents to the cost of his pizzas, which is a bummer, but under Obamanomics theory is totally unrelated to the process of extracting that “fair share” from idle plutocrats. Then he headed off to help out with a telethon for Hurricane Sandy victims and write the Red Cross a million-dollar check, but we all know that private charity is irrelevant, as only Big Government can save us from big storms.
The Huffington Post relays the thoughts of Fox Business Network corresponded Charlie Gasparino, who says Wall Street executives are “in mourning” after Obama’s re-election, because “they know that Wall Street is going to lay off a lot more people.” About 10,000 of them by the end of the year, in fact, if the New York state comptroller’s estimate is accurate. It’s not a big deal though, because those people are evil. Everyone knows that investment capital and consumer loans should be redistributed by selfless government agencies, not greedy bankers.
According to Gasparino, things could look up if “Republicans and Democrats happen to reach a long-term budget deal similar to Simpson-Bowles,” which could mean “the market is going to go through the roof” to “Dow 20,000, easy.” But he knows perfectly well that’s not going to happen. We’ll more likely get the usual: big tax increases right now, combined with vague promises of largely symbolic spending cuts at some indeterminate point in the future.
Once the sequestration cuts and financial industry devastation are done, the real action to watch in the job market next year will be the transition of full-time workers to part-time. That’s a very attractive option for escaping from ObamaCare and reducing payroll costs, without producing headline-grabbing mass layoffs (executives don’t like giving the impression their companies are terminally ill) or depriving operations of needed labor altogether. As a New York Times article noted in October, it’s increasingly easy for service companies (which accounted for the bulk of job creation in the last pre-election employment report) to do, using “sophisticated software that tracks the flow of customers, allowing managers to assign just enough employees to handle the anticipated demand.” It’s a trend that’s been developing for a long time, but there are now powerful incentives accelerating it.
The result “has been a bane to many workers, pushing many into poverty and forcing some onto food stamps and Medicaid. And with work schedules that change week to week, workers can find it hard to arrange child care, attend college or hold a second job.” Fortunately, there are lots of food stamps to give away here in the New Normal, and it’s likely that pleas for more extensive government-provided child care to assist America’s part-time workforce would not fall upon deaf ears.
Update: An anonymous business owner in Las Vegas told talk-radio host Kevin Wall he fired 22 of his 114 employees on the day after President Obama’s re-election because “elections have consequences” and “at the end of the day, I need to survive.” He said this was necessary to “make sure I have enough money to cover the payroll taxes and the additional health care I’m gonna have to do.”
“Well unfortunately, and most of my employees are Hispanic — I’m not gonna go into what kind of company I have, but I have mostly Hispanic employees — well unfortunately we know what happened and I can’t wait around anymore, I have to be proactive,” the businessman continued. ”I had to lay off 22 people today to make sure that my business is gonna thrive and I’m gonna be around for years to come. I have to build up that nest egg now for the taxes and regulations that are coming my way. Elections do have consequences, but so do choices. A choice you make every day has consequences and you know what, I’ve always put my employees first, but unfortunately today I have to put me and my family first, and you watch what’s gonna happen. I’m just one guy with 114 employees — well was 114 employees — watch what happens in the next six months. The Dow alone lost 314 points today. There’s a tsunami coming and if you didn’t think this election had consequences, just wait.”
The entire conversation can be heard by clicking this link.
Updated: FreedomWorks has an extensive list of even more post-election layoffs resulting directly from Obama policies. Among the bigger names: Welch-Allyn, Dana Holding Corporation, Stryker, Boston Scientific, and Medtronic. The confirmed post-election jobs death toll from this list stands at 5,263 jobs, but much more are on the way, including a 5 percent cut in the huge Stryker workforce, a probably comparable reduction of Dana’s even larger staff, and talk of jobs being sent to China. The transition to part-time labor I mentioned above is also discussed.
I remember I lived in one apartment complex where my rent was $340 a month. One of my neighbors was on public assistance and her rent was $3 a month and she was six months behind.
Don’t forget Lockheed [and other gov’t contracting] employees in VA. Estimated to be something like 200K ...
Obama got the companies to violate the FEAR Act by telling them that the gov’t would pay the fines if they would NOT send layoff notices by 1 Oct [as required by law] ...
They didn’t send out the notices - and Obama avoided an uptick in UE ...
The day AFTER the election, Lockheed gave out the pink slips [according to a guy who called in to the “Morning Majority” on WMAL 630 radio]. He just got his - and he knows of at least 3000 more ...
Way to go VA [in the election] - and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS !!! Hope you can buy presents, meet your mortgages, and put food in your childrens’ mouths ...
Ho !!! Ho !!! Ho !!!
She does express particular disgust for users, losers, entitlement scum and cheats. It is quite amusing at times. But I have seen her on other shows expressing her support for gay marriage, etc.
The private sector dominos are falling and it’s just what Obama wants.
I hope his workforce realizes that if they were in the 71% they lost....
They will realize that emotions don’t create or sustain jobs , and elections
have real consequences.
Sí lo hacen ( YES THEY DO)
Good to see that Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, isn’t phased by the economic
realities, even though he chaired one of Obamas job councils ( exports )
All we are going to hear from the lapdog media is that all these layoffs were planned and not Dear Leader’s fault,,,,,and those same media bots will be completely clueless to the fact they are revealing that the “recovery” is indeed NOT happening.
Hopefully the media will have to start layoffs too.
Sounds about as real as a WWE show.
Not FEAR. WARN. But anyhow, now does Mr. Lame Duck Big Ears have to keep any of his promises?
Corning lays off 100.
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121105/NEWS01/311050032/100-layoffs-Corning-Inc-plants-Erwin
Yeah, Jim, that’s about right but remember we ABSOLUTELY have to keep the pressure on the House Republicans to not give Obamuzzie any new money——NONE.
Lybia the TAA-toooooed Lady!
>Lybia the TAA-toooooed Lady!
I don’t understand.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8
I wish every retailer, service company, etc. (at least those who see this for what it is) would put signs up when they have to raise prices - signs that say, "Due to increased labor costs from Obamacare - we have to raise prices. Please don't get mad at us, write to the President and your Congressman and Senators."
Even more interesting would be to tag on an "Obamacare Surcharge" on their tickets... be sure to include both the actual cost to the business, but also the administrative costs of compliance. That way every time someone buys something or a service, they are reminded what ObamaScare is really costing them... each and every day.
Somebody needs to put that on a poster. I expect to see it on some billboards soon.
Little remembered fact: in the period between election day and inauguration day last cycle, 2 million lay offs occurred. They were Obama lay offs, but credited to the Bush stats. Now, we’ll probably see another flood - businesses who thought Mitt would win and were hanging on, but now they’ll lay off big time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.