U.S. Layoffs Surge to 17-Month High

Market Watch ^ | 7/6/2005 | Rex Nutting

[jb6]

Tell that to the American construction workers, the gardeners, the nannies, the warehouse workers, the restaurant workers, the tile guys, the auto body shop guys, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, come on now, those people don't exist. The MSM told me so. We are all college educated and will be IT specialists. Only some old folks and spoiled teenagers do manual work. Why Uncle Sam and the MSM tell me that every day and that outsourcing is making me richer.

You aren't saying they're lieing, are you? /sarcasm

[listenhillary]

Where will be the market for your products when the US tariffs are restored?

Good question! Where will be the market? It will no longer be the US driving the world economy due to protectionist policies.

[A. Pole]

Where will be the market? It will no longer be the US driving the world economy due to protectionist policies.

You should move to China with your business as soon as you can. (When they give you the visa)

[Liberty Valance]

"You forgot to throw in a few more tried-and-true standard FR bromides:
1. They should start their own business.
2. It's their own fault they chose the wrong career.
3. Get retrained for The Next Big Thing (just don't ask what that is).
4. Move to where the work is (like India, Indonesia, China).
5. Quit complaining and suck it up (IOW, throw away all you've worked for and be glad to take a job at Mac's).
6. Let 'em eat cake.

(/sarc)"

---

Well, #1 is right.
The other choices only reinforce #1
:o)

[Golden Eagle]

I have been searching for an IT position for coming up on one year now. I have traveled across this land from East to West and have applied for over 400 positions along the way. Turns out, most of these posted jobs have been bogus from the start, a little game the corps are playing right now, you know the one, to build a position that near any IT guy could fill but with one or two requirements that few can fill. I have had one response for an interview w/IBM, and it's part time at less than 1/3 of my previous salary. I have lost my home, have run through damn near every penny I have saved over the years towards my retirement, IRA's, 401K's etc...The amount of monies I have lost through cashing that in for my Family's survival are enormous. My qualifications are vast with over 20 years in IT, and another 10 years in Electronics and Communications. I have spent (my own money) in excess of $100K in keeping myself trained over the years with the Cert of the week. I can plaster a wall with Cert's. In short there's little I can't do in this field.

Sorry to hear that. Please PM me your resume. I can't promise you anything, except that if we have something for you your work won't be given away to foreign governments under some open source license, which I imagine is A-OK with you. Thanks.

[SandyB]

More people are working today in this country both in actual numbers AND as a percentage of the available for work population.

Says who? I dont believe it. Where do you get your figures, and how are those figures compiled? Were you called in an unemployment survey? ever?

[ARCADIA]

The article 1, section 8 was to provide revenue for the federal government, not to make the US citizens pay higher prices to benefit US industry.

Can you provide a reference for that comment? I do not specifically remember seeing the language "provide revenue for the federal government" anywhere in article 1 section 8. Please let me know where you are reading that specific limitation. I seem to recall something about debt, but also other reason like protecting our military interests or providing for the general welfare. Perhaps, you even have a case reference, or two, to help clear that up for us.

BTW, way back when we had those very high tariffs levels 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, can you explain why housing, appliances, autos, and just about everything else sold for such low prices comparative to where those very same items (especially houses) are selling today? If your nexus between protectionism and free trade is to be given any credence then please let us know why homes that sell today for say $1,000,000 were only $40-50 grand back then; listening to you, one would have expected those protectionist prices to have been way higher. Please explain?

[ARCADIA]

Where do you get your figures

The Household Survey counts you as "employed" if you so much as volunteer as an unpaid scout master once a month, or serve as a home maker. It is a very generous (meaningless) definition.

[familyop]

Our Federal Reserve needs to stop messing with the rate when businesses tell the Administration to jump. Oil companies control inflation, up or down, anyway. The US dollar must fall. The yuan and the peso must go up.

The alternative is Hillary and her plans for the properties of what her kind call the "good ol' boys" (and "good ol' girls," of course).

[familyop]

"I'm sick to death of that lame McDonald's reference. There is a hell of a lot more to do in this country that fix fast food, unless that's all you are qualified to do. If that is all you are qualified to do, whose fault is that, the government's? Freakin' crybabies."

There's nothing dishonorable about custom, precision machinists and software developers cooking fast food. ...stupid lack of preparation for the day when we'll need millions of patriotic soldiers, but it has nothing to do with honor.

[ex-Texan]

You are missing the point, Eva. The point is that I believe in my heart what I understand to be true most firmly. Please be advised that many years of experience and education support my private views. Your arguments to the contrary do not change my opinion. My current opinion is basically unalterable until major economic events provide impetus to change them. My views are not truly 'negative' or 'pessimistic,' but rather they are based on documented fact, and therefore, are basically realistic.

From the posts here the majority appear to be on my side. You may review all my posts on FR, and then you are free to disagree with them. Frankly, my hope is that I am proven ultimately to be incorrect.

Then, in that case, our policy of open borders is both wise and prudent and does represent any conceivable threat to national security. Ergo: Major U.S. corporations are focused only on wise long term economic policies rather than on short term profit considerations. And Ergo: Toyota is terribly mismanaged and General Motors is the ideal profit model studied by the best MBA programs in America.

I still smell something foul in the air. Must be mistaken. Oh, well, I'm just an old geezer living in Oregon anyway.

[libill]

I think you are right and mostly they are driven by greed. For years the American worker was blamed for U.S. company's inability to compete, yet these companies use American workers.

[familyop]

"My qualifications are vast with over 20 years in IT, and another 10 years in Electronics and Communications. I have spent (my own money) in excess of $100K in keeping myself trained over the years with the Cert of the week. I can plaster a wall with Cert's. In short there's little I can't do in this field."

Are you a software developer?

[Diplomat]

Cuba was at a distinct disadvantage. It is not big enough for a closed economic system, and the communist government...

Was the Soviet Union big enough for a closed system to work?

There is no escaping basic macro economic principles. Freedom and free trade beats socialism and government controlled markets every time.

[ARCADIA]

Was the Soviet Union big enough for a closed system to work?

You are intentionally confusing globalization with a free market capitalistic economy. I am for free market capitalism, and against the free trade circus. Where Have I advocated "socialism and government controlled markets"? Get with the program, and address the issue as presented.

[SealSeven]

All this talk about McDonalds is getting me hungry.
Time for a #3.

[SandyB]

The Household Survey counts you as "employed"

I'm sorry, but I have never ever been surveyed for unemployment numbers in my whole life, nor have I ever known anyone who has been surveyed - how many times have you been surveyed?

[ARCADIA]

Sandy,

They have a standard statistical sample of 300,000 homes across the country that they use to generate the numbers. I have no idea what criteria they use to select them.

[SandyB]

Ok, but exactly how many times have you been surveyed for the gov's unemployment numbers? and/or how many other people have you personally known who have been surveyed for the unemployment numbers?

(I have been surveyed a zillion times for all kinds of things, but never for unemployment)

[technochick99]

bump for a later read....