Posted on 09/05/2003 11:15:13 AM PDT by Afronaut
Firms still slashing jobs
WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 — Despite the civilian unemployment rate sliding down to 6.1 percent in August, the government reported Friday that companies slashed payrolls by 93,000, raising new concerns that the fragile economic recovery could falter.
AUGUST WAS THE seventh consecutive month of cuts in payrolls, a survey released by the Labor Department showed, indicating continuing weakness in the job market. Analysts had expected companies to add 12,000 new jobs.
At the same time, the overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 6.2 percent to 6.1 percent of the labor force, as reflected by a survey of U.S. households. Stock prices fell in early trading Friday on news of the job losses.
The survey of businesses showed that job cuts were heavy again in manufacturing, a sector that has suffered the brunt of the economic downturn that began in March 2001. President Bush on Monday announced that a Commerce Department assistant secretary post was being changed to focus on revitalizing that part of the economy.
Friday’s reports no longer reflected a cyclical economy trying to add jobs after a recession — “which is depressing,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo. Analysts had expected companies to add some jobs last month.
Deeper concerns now are focused on long-term structural problems in the economy, such as a flood of U.S. jobs going overseas. “We have simply seen the tip of the iceberg,” Sohn said. “I think it will get worse, not better.”
At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said, “The economy is growing but we want to see it grow even faster.” He said jobs are one of the last things to grow as the economy improves.
Some reports estimate 5 million jobs — many high-paying — will be lost to other countries by 2015. As the economy grows, demand is being filled from overseas, Sohn said. Also, because of that increasing global competition, businesses are holding down costs by not hiring. If hiring doesn’t improve, the recovery could be in jeopardy because consumers worried about their job prospects will stop spending. That’s been the driving force in the U.S. economy.
Hiring in health care and construction helped offset losses in factories and other industries, such as information, professional and business services and government, Friday’s report said.
Last month’s power blackout in the Northeast and Midwest was unlikely to have affected either of the monthly surveys, Labor Department analysts said.
Labor Department analysts believe the survey of businesses provides a more reliable picture of the jobs market than the household survey. The payroll report is based on a larger sample and estimates “are regularly anchored to” counts derived from employment insurance tax records, said Kathleen P. Utgoff, Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner.
Last month, the number of people in the labor force remained largely unchanged, with just 10,000 giving up their job searches. The labor force is comprised of those working and looking for work.
Nearly 2 million people in August were unemployed for 27 weeks or more, representing nearly 22 percent of all jobless workers. Those figures were similar to July numbers.
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(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
I bet we could share some good stories.
Flights on the Concorde, keeping cronies on the payroll as "consultants"-who never actually consult-as favors to see stock options come into profit, guys who make $400,000 a year demanding $5,000 expense reports be processed immediately.
Full blown insanity.
Actually, you've been telling us for decades.
LOL
We don't have a free market. It is broken. What we do have doesn't work, or isn't working now. The market isn't choosing winners and losers. Morons in suits are. Why do you have so much faith in their ability to choose? Because they are rich? I've met plenty of stupid rich people. They are not all Hank Rearden, industrial Uberman. Many of them are dumber than the morons in government, if that's even possible.
No policy proposals."It's for the children."
No recommendations.
No explanation what "action" would not require government intervention.
So, so true. These guys fly by the seat of their pants half the time. These same guys driving around in the Lexus, snapping their fingers at waiters are reduced to nervous wrecks before they have to make the conference call to tell investors they just can't make the projected numbers. Stuttering, stumpling. Most of them would sell their mother to not have to make those announcements.
Or do you approve of corporate welfare?
Ha! Ha! Ha! You're kidding right? How would that help, seeing that the Chairman of the Board, the board, and all the senior executive staff are all best buddies and all go sailing on the same boats and drink from the same bottle of wine at backyard barbecues? I'm not "whining and carping" and I don't even want my job back. I'll move on and be fine. I'm just calling them like I see them, and calling attention to the fact that you and 1rudeboy and the rest of the corporate apologists on the website have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Stop being a coporate shill for a moment to reflect on the idea that "the market", as you call it, is being steered by a bunch of narcissistic egotistical Clintonoids with more money than sense.
Which leads to the question: did your job-loss come as a surprise, and if so, why?
You have no idea what you are talking about. Anyone who thinks they can divine the reason for a person's termination by reading posts isn't really worthy of a response. But since you elected to insult me, I can trully say that your's is the dumbest post in this thread by far.
I'll try once more.
The government IS intervening in the form of OPIC and the IEB. It IS intervening by allowing business to import cheaper labor on special visas. Eliminating these would get us closer to the 'free market' you say we have now, wouldn't it?
When is government intervention OK & when is it not?
I'll try once more.
The government IS intervening in the form of OPIC and the IEB. It IS intervening by allowing business to import cheaper labor on special visas. Eliminating these would get us closer to the 'free market' you say we have now, wouldn't it?
When is government intervention OK & when is it not?
It was a big surprise to everyone but me. I base my foresight on watching the idiotic moves of management in the last 4 layoffs.
I provide programming support for many other engineers to enable them to collect data on systems under development. I'm the only person in the group who does what I do (and quite well, I might add), and there will be no replacement. It has started the others to think they are not far behind because without me, lab productivity will plummet since I'm the only one who knows how to program in the language used in the lab (I've got 9 years experience versus, no real experience among the others). Since I started 5 years ago, I've produced a mountain of source code that no one but me has even seen. Throughout all of the past layoffs, everyone always told me they wished they had my job, because it appeared the safest. Now they're all terrified because they know that since I've been let go, that likely means there is not any development work being planned. In fact, there are rumors that all future development work will be outsourced to China and India.
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