[Pontiac]

In August, the number of hours worked — a proxy for GDP growth — and average hourly wages both rose 2.1% from last year. That only barely beats the current inflation rate of 2%. Not much growth there.

Yep great recovery.

I got my first raise in over three years yesterday. It was only 2.5% but I was pleasantly surprised.

I was expecting another goose egg. The company has had a bad summer.

I work for an electric utility and the cool summer has meant low sales.

Low sales and the Obama War on Coal has hurt the company bad.

Eventually the War on Coal is going to hit energy prices hard and there could be a real jolt to the overall economy

[wally_bert]

Energy costs are part of what is killing the place where I work.

That is part of the reason but not the only one where a couple hundred or so are going to get the cut next year. A new processing plant is being built that will be automated to the nth degree.

Most are going to be the hourly people but a segment of the salaried types are up for targeting. The announcement for voluntary separation applications came out Friday.