U.S. Vehicle Sales Seen Edging Up in '04

Yahoo ^ | Sat Jan 31, 5:59 PM ET

[SunkenCiv]

U.S. Vehicle Sales Seen Edging Up in '04
Sat Jan 31, 5:59 PM ET

U.S. new car and light truck sales are expected to increase this year as the economic recovery puts the pedal to the metal for the auto industry... Paul Taylor, chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association, said new vehicle sales will total about 16.8 million vehicles in 2004, up from 16.6 million in 2003. That would still mark a decline from the all-time high of 17.4 million vehicles sold in 2000, however, a banner year for an industry that accounts for roughly one-fifth of U.S. retail sales. Taylor's forecast is more conservative than some estimates. But he attributed that to an expected hike in interest rates in the latter part of the year...

[SunkenCiv]

Self-Employment May Mask U.S. Job Growth
by Andrea Hopkins
Sat Jan 31, 8:39 AM ET

According to the most widely accepted measure of U.S. employment, public-speaking coach and consultant LeeAundra Temescu was not among the 130 million Americans who had a job in 2003... Because she is one of more than 15 million self-employed workers in the United States, Temescu is on nobody's payroll -- and thus does not show up on the Labor Department's employer survey used each month to assess the strength of the job market. The failure of the survey to count independent contractors has come under fire by President Bush's economic team and some analysts, who argue it underestimates job growth by ignoring one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy... A rise in self-employed and other nonpayroll workers would bolster the argument of Bush supporters that the "jobless" nature of America's recovery has been exaggerated... Government data show employment costs rose 3.8 percent in 2003. Outsourcing work to a self-employed contractor cuts those costs by up to a third -- because health care, pensions and other benefits make up 30 percent of total compensation.

[joesnuffy]

Keep buyin up those SUVs...its ccccccold up here

[expat_panama]

This is very good news!  Any minute now, all the Dems will be changing their take on the fate the economy.

Or not.

BTW, it was cold this morning here too-- it'd gone down to 56 degrees F.  Back up to 72 now.

[varon]

U.S. Vehicle Sales Seen Edging Up in '04

I personally think using the term "Sales" is stretching it a bit, it's been more like a "give-away" with the 0 Down, 0% financing for 60 months. Any fool can buy a new car under those terms. Now we'll see just how many of them will be able to make those payments for the next 5 years.
One big sneeze in the job market and the used car marketplace will be flooded with repos.