Job reductions soar 42% in May, "too early to worry" about "weak" economy

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Job reductions soar 42% in May

Report: Computer firms lead the surge, but it's too early to worry about weakness in U.S. economy.
June 2, 2005: 11:02 AM EDT

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/02/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Planned job cuts announced by employers soared 42 percent in May after hitting a five-year low in April, but it's too early to worry about weakness in the economy, an employment firm said Thursday.

Employers announced 82,283 job cuts in May, compared to 57,861 the previous month, according to a monthly report issued by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. May job cuts rose 12 percent from the year-ago period. So far this year, 427,278 job cuts have been announced, 4.6 percent more than the five-month total of 408,392 last year, the report said.

Computer companies -- which reported 17,886 cuts, or about one-fifth of the monthly total -- led the rise in May, while the transportation industry ranked second with 7,339 announced job cuts.

"If job cuts do not lessen in June, July and August, which historically are the lowest job-cut months of the year, then it might be time to be concerned about the economy's strength," John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said. The report also noted that employers appear to be retaining their workers, but appear reluctant to add new one. Job creation, while improving, is still well below the pace of previous recoveries, it said.



"My message to Congress when they come back is this; that our economy is strong, but we need to work together to make sure that we continue to have a prosperous economy, so people can find jobs. I say it's strong because we've added over 3.5 million new jobs over the last two years, and the unemployment rate is 5.2 percent. More Americans are working today than ever before. Homeownership is at an all-time high. Small businesses are flourishing. Families are taking home more of what they earn."

- George W. Bush, Press Conference, 05/31/05

[aden_nak]

1. Work one day of your damn life, George, and then tell me about the economy

[fertilizeonarbusto]

2. Well, if you have *'s trust fund,

who needs to worry? All of you have trust funds, right? Right?

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Another misleading headline

Alot of people will glance at it and see the words "Job" and "Soar" without seeing "reductions". The eye travels from the first word (Jobs) to the number (42%). With 'soar' next to the number...well, you get the idea.

[bullimiami]

4. job cuts soar but ... too early to say if it means anything.

production goes up modestly and its a sure sign the economy is healthy and growing.

another failure of the media. more propaganda less news.

[whistle]

5. 82,283 job cuts at an average of $28.00 an hour all of which are....

...being outsourced overseas for $3.00 per hour, while the labor department reports 365,000 new jobs added, 82,283 at fast food establishments paying $5.35 per hour. The remaining 282,717 are just made up jobs based on life and death rate estimates produced by BLS.

[redqueen]

6. Unemployment is actually 9%

They always fudge the numbers, you can look at this table for the actual rates (and also find explanations of which unemployed people are ignored for the rate they always talk about in the media).

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm

[ProfessorGAC]

7. John Challenger Is A Dunce

Job cuts rise, but it's ok as long as they don't continue to rise? We still have fewer people working now then were in 2000, and the overall size of the workforce is larger. So, there are WAY more unemployed people now.

Exactly when were you going to start worrying John-boy? Idiot.
The Professor