Job cuts in July surge 48% from 2004

[elehhhhna]

Job cuts in July surge 48% from 2004

Bloomberg News
Aug. 4, 2005 12:00 AM

CHICAGO - The number of job cuts announced by U.S. employers in July jumped to 102,971, 48 percent higher than the same month last year, led by reductions at consumer-product and computer makers and financial-service companies, a private survey showed.

The job cuts announced last month compare with 69,572 planned in July 2004 and represent a 7.2 percent decrease from June's 110,996, the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Wednesday. The firm's data aren't adjusted for seasonal variations.

July was the fifth month this year in which employers announced more reductions than they did in the same month in 2004. The surge in announcements doesn't necessarily suggest the economy is slowing because companies such as Kimberly-Clark Corp. are using reductions to boost productivity, said John A. Challenger, chief executive of the Chicago-based recruiting firm.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0804jobcuts04.html

[jojo54]

1. I don't get it....

how is it that the economy is (supposedly) doing so well? I thought you had to have a job in order to get a mortgage or new car loan???

..or am I just still asleep?

[Deja Q]

3. Simple. Our economy is defined by CEO profits... bottom line shit.

Offshore and cut workers; the CEO's bottom line IMPROVES and that is why our economy appears to look good.

But it doesn't. It's only a "band-aid", so to speak. Meanwhile, the underlying wounds (joblessness and not being able to buy goods, services, or wants in a "society" whose economy demands this happens for itself to remain stable or grow) grow bigger, pus-filled, and weeping of bacteria caused by job losses, et al.

It's short-term chicanery. And I fear there is no real antiseptic to stop the infection.

If you were asleep before, you're not anymore.

[HughBeaumont]

4. Great for Wall Street . . . shitto for Main Street.

Satisfying Wall Street is all that matters for the NeoEnronomy and the media that handjobs the RNC.

[proud patriot]

6. Also once people's unemployment runs out , they don't count

as jobless . They count them at all .

[acmejack]

2. Thank god it doesn't mean the economy is weak!

If that was the case, when taken with my continued unemployment, my consumer confidence would not remain as high as it is. But I know that it's all OK, my government says so.

We are sooo fucked...

[flamin lib]

5. I have it on good authority that there is a hiring boom going on.

I'm in Texas and my state was listed in News Week as the #3 fastest growing in employment. Whoopee! The jobs we lost were engineering and manufacturing/manufacturing management at an average of $35,000/year and up. The new jobs are primarily medical and insurance clerical jobs averaging $15,000 to $18,000/year. These jobs require a high school education or, at best, a two year associates degree.

Meanwhile all those Bachelors and Masters degrees are still looking for a job. My job paid $70,000/year with full benefits and a 401k. It went to China. In the last four years my total income has been $30,000 total.

I feel so fucking lucky to have an economy this strong.

[wli]

8. the hiring boom for degreed people is in India, of course

[wli]

7. I might as well move to Bangalore

I can't be offshored if I'm already offshore, can I? Who knows.

India's probably a freer country anyway.