U.S. Economy Adds 1,000 Jobs, Fewer Than Forecast; Unemployment Rate Drops

bloomberg ^ | 01/09/04 | Bloomberg

[Pikamax]

U.S. December Payrolls Rise 1,000; Jobless Rate Falls (Update1) Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy gained 1,000 jobs in December, fewer than the 150,000 that economists had forecast, as companies relied on productivity gains to meet increased demand, a government report showed.

[CasearianDaoist]

``The economy is exhibiting tremendous productivity at this point and businesses are slow to rehire,'' said Chris Rupkey, senior financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd. in New York, before the report. The statistics ``throw into question the belief that the labor market is close to recovery.''

How long will they be able to maintain the fiction that this "rise in productivity" is not due to shiping factories and jobs overseas?

[Support Free Republic]

CHEAP THRILLS - $1 (the first one's free!)
	If every FR member gave a buck a month, we wouldn't need fundraisers. Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[Naspino]

Some guy on Fox and Friends said we added 1,000,000 jobs last year because these numbers don't account for new people entering self-employment.

[gathersnomoss]

Many are starting to work every morning as their own boss. Not a bad idea.

[1rudeboy]

If you have 10 jobs, and ship 5 overseas, how does that result in rising productivity?

[Capitalism2003]

The ONLY way to stop businesses from leaving is to stop PENALIZING them for making money. Reduce the corporate tax rate to 0%. Let people pay taxes on their income...Don't punish the corporation (shareholders, and workers, and CONSUMERS) through this ridiculous tax. Drop tax rates for business and individuals...Increase the incentive to make money in America, and you will more than make up for lost revenue by having MORE TAXPAYERS.

[CWW]

Look, we live in a market driven/profit driven country. CEOs are pressed to show gains to stckholders. If they can outsource to a foreign country and reduce expenses, they are obligated to do so because their legal obligation is to the shareholders.

Don't get me wrong -- I think losing our manufacturing base is not good for the country as a whole. But we need to face facts -- just as the steel industry went overseas, so will other manufacruing jobs. It's jsut like water seeking its lowest point -- it will flow where there is the least resistance.

[CasearianDaoist]

Well of course it doesn't - it results in higher profits.

To mask this slide of hand they call it a "rise in productivity." It is the "boss-speak" of the new era.

[1rudeboy]

Maybe you missed my point. If one has 7 jobs that can be done by 5 because of rising productivity, then one cannot simultaneously claim that the 2 displaced jobs were "shipped overseas."

[1rudeboy]

God forbid that a company be concerned about profit, of all things.

[templar]

Reduce the corporate tax rate to 0%.

It's a fairly simple matter for a person (particularly a self employed person or any person conducting anything other than straight wage earning) to incorporate. There are a number of disadvantages to this now if you earn less than about double the average wage. This should remove all of the disadvantages for most people and allow them to reduce their effective tax rate to only a few percent at most (Arianna Huffington style). It should also provide a tremendous boost for accountants, lawyers, etc. to handle the details. Laywers in particular, I think, as they would be setting up the corporations and giving advice on how to make best legal use of them. Accountants would also get a big boost although many people would probably elect to do their own accounting via computer accounting programs.

[CasearianDaoist]

I am not criticizing profits, I a criticizing lying about it. And G-d forbid that we should be concerned about our citizens, the country after all is just a labor market, right?

It is not our home. Next you will be telling me about buggywhips no doubt.

[1rudeboy]

And next you will be telling me about starving children.

[CajunConservative]

Many are starting to work every morning as their own boss. Not a bad idea.

You got that right. It's rather nice.

[cpst12]

>>Reduce the corporate tax rate to 0%.

Right, incoporate, have the company pay most your living expenses...retain all your earnings, invest those retained earnings and the small one-person coporations can become worth millions of dollars in a few years without ever paying a single cent of taxes....somehow that doesn't exactly seem fair to me. Meanwhile, lets screw the income earner to make up for those "lost" taxes...why not make the coroporations pay all the taxes and let the wage earners keep 100%? That way, only corps need to file with the IRS and the other 100Million wage earners don't even need to file each year?

[Malsua]

>>If you have 10 jobs, and ship 5 overseas, how does that result in rising productivity?<<

It doesn't if numbers were reported accurately.

However, if I outsource the labor intensive bits of a process and buy a more complete "raw material" and then finish it or package it or put a sticker on it it now looks like I've produced the same thing as before with fewer people and for a lower cost. Productivity doesn't take into account the additional work produced by upstream providers. It just takes into account the cost of raw materials.

If I lay off 20 people here who get $10/hour for $200/hour labor cost and replace them with 100 people making 50 cents an hour in China, my resulting labor cost is now $50/hour. The difference is that those 100 people aren't counted as employees because they don't work in the US.

Before outsourcing/offshoring I would spend $200 in labor, $50 in material and all other costs for $250/hour total production cost.

After outsourcing/offshoring, I buy a mostly or completely finished good that may cost me $75 for an hour's production cost.

Instead of having 30 employees, now I've got 10. The bean counters call it "productivity" to do the same final output with 10 employees instead of 30 and I'm doing it for about 1/3 the cost. This is where all that miraculous productivity is coming from.

[sinkspur]

why not make the coroporations pay all the taxes and let the wage earners keep 100%?

Here's some news:

Corporations do not pay taxes!! Not even today.

They pass the "tax cost" to consumers, or pay their employees less.

A "0%" corporate tax would increase business investment, lower prices, and raise salaries.

The idea of "corporate taxes" is a total fiction.

[cpst12]

>>Corporations do not pay taxes!!

>>The idea of "corporate taxes" is a total fiction.

So if the coporations are paying no taxes, why are they complaining that they need lower taxes?

[familyofman]

The jobs added number probably doesn't take into account the hundreds of thousands of jobs added by illegal immigrants. Hell, we don't even know how many of the slime are here. Maybe V. Fox knows, let's ask him.