Companies Cutting Jobs for Good -Jarring Shift From the pastTemporary Cuts

[papau]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAQLD4KMLD.html

Companies Cutting Jobs for Good, in a Jarring Shift From the Temporary Cutbacks of the Past
By Adam Geller
The Associated Press

Judy Peavler was good at her job, stitching the fly and zipper into more than 3,100 pairs of Wrangler jeans a day. At roughly $9.50 an hour, plus benefits, the job was good to Peavler, too. So when VF Corp. cut hours at its Okmulgee, Okla., jeans factory a few years ago, Peavler waited three months for business to bounce back. Now, though, she is certain the job is gone for good.

"My Dad used to preach to me to find a decent job and marry it, don't move around and around like he did," says Peavler, whose husband, Roy, also worked at the plant before it closed in April. "So I took his advice ... but it didn't do me any good."
More workers like Peavler are finding themselves in similar straits in a labor market that is behaving very differently than in past economic cycles. In past downturns, employers cut large numbers of jobs in temporary layoffs, then called many workers back once a recovery began.

But although the economy continues to rebound, most of the 2.7 million jobs lost since early 2001 won't be coming back, analysts say. In many cases, companies are cutting jobs and limiting hiring because of structural changes in their businesses and the broader economy.

Some of it is beyond companies' control, as demand for certain products and services dries up permanently. But employers also are limiting or cutting jobs by squeezing more productivity out of existing workers, sometimes by using additional technology. Many companies have cut jobs by outsourcing work to firms and facilities overseas. <snip>

In most past recessions, temporary layoffs accounted for 30 percent to 40 percent of the rise in unemployment, the pair found. Employers often helped workers to apply for unemployment insurance, kept in contact and called them back when business picked up. Since those job cuts were reversible, they helped the labor market rebound quickly as the economy found its legs. That explains situations like one in September 1983, when the economy added more than 1 million jobs in a single month. <snip>

[hedda_foil]

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[Javneh]

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