Unemployment Just Went Higher

[Viva_La_Migra]

Losing 8,000 at Johnson and Johnson is about 6% of their workforce.

Compare that to a company like General Motors.

GM now, today, has about 43, 000 hourly workers. They 113,000 workers two year ago. They've lost 73,000 workers just since 2006,

Back in 2000- they had a work force of almost 180,000.

So they've gone from 180,000 in 2000, to 43,000 today. GM had lost 76% of it's workforce in the last ten years,

I feel for the workers at Johnson and Johnson- 8,000 jobs hurts. But 6% lost, compared to 76% lost, and you can see the effect of Americans choosing foreign cars for the last decade. In large part because it's cheaper to buy a Hundya, then it is a Chevy. Because South Korea has an excellent national health care system, which doesn't get added into the price of a car.

Anyway- that's my rant for the day.

If I'm not mistaken, Korean employers pay half of the premiums for their employees. I'm sure the Korean automakers add those costs to the price of their cars. About the only real difference is that American Auto Workers unions negotiated for their healthcare insurance plans. I'm guessing the coverage is better in the union negotiated plan than the basic coverage of the Korean plan.

One thing I haven't seen in the universal healthcare debate is the cost of medical malpractice in universal healthcare countries. Why is that? Are malpractice lawsuits not allowed in those countries? If allowed, are they capped somehow? I've read that Japan doesn't have many malpractice lawsuits, because there aren't enough lawyers. I find that hard to believe, but maybe that is the answer...kill all the lawyers!:nuts:

 

[Bullitt]

James, you are right, there are engineers and cutting edge employees at both companies who are being laid off. I didn't think both sides out before posting. Besides, I should have posted that comment in one of the many threads related to GM.

My initial thoughts when I created this thread as CIT was facing bankruptcy was, "Who's going to lend to the little guy from here?". The TBTF's surely aren't, but somebody is going to have to do it if we want to save whatever innovation is out there seeking a loan. How many great ideas are being squashed right now because somebody can't get a loan from one of the deadbeat TBTF institution's who would rather give 6 figure bonuses instead of a line of credit?

There has been some slight prodding at the TBTF's to get them to loan to the little guy, but since everyone's 401K has been growing like a weed as of late, nobody has taken any real action to get the crooks to participate in real lending to small business.

 

[Show-me]

10.2%

10.2% unemployment. Big ouch!

 

[Show-me]

Steve Liesman, who I don't care for, made a interesting statement about real unemployment. If you count unemployed and underemployed, the number is closer to 17.6% of effected workers.

 

[Gumby]

Steve Liesman, who I don't care for, made a interesting statement about real unemployment. If you count unemployed and underemployed, the number is closer to 17.6% of effected workers.

And the market marches higher this morning. Is the PPT at work or people spending money buying equities at these "bargain" prices? Insane:nuts:

 

[Bullitt]

Well, it's not going higher today! Looks like temporary work is the new vogue and may have saved this most recent jobs report.

Just a bump in the road though with real unemployment probably still around 20%.

 

[Frixxxx]

Well, it's not going higher today! Looks like temporary work is the new vogue and may have saved this most recent jobs report.

Just a bump in the road though with real unemployment probably still around 20%.

Agreed, very unexpected, but dollar is gonna rise on this one!

 

[James48843]

Some little known facts-

Unemployment in America's eleventh largest city is now far above the Great Depression highs- with a real unemployment rate now of 44.5%:


http://www.detnews.com/article/20091216/METRO01/912160374/1409/METRO

 

[Valkyrie]

Labor Dept: Available Labor Rate Increases To 10.2%

December 5, 2009 | Issue 45•49

WASHINGTON—In what is being touted by the Labor Department as extremely positive news, the nation's available labor rate has reached double digits for the first time in 26 years, bringing the total number of potentially employable Americans to an impressive 15.7 million.
"This is such an exciting time to be an employer in America," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, adding that every single day 6,500 more citizens join America's growing possible workforce. "There's such a massive and diverse pool of job-ready Americans to choose from. And each month the number only gets higher."
"While our current available labor rate of 10.2 percent isn't quite as robust as it was in 1982 or 1933, we're happy to say that reaching that benchmark is no longer out of the realm of possibility," Solis continued.
According to the Department of Labor's report, nearly 200,000 more Americans suddenly became fully hirable in October alone. And November saw unprecedented gains in the number of high-quality auto workers, teachers, lawyers, part-time retailers, and even doctors who could be employed.
The report also explained that, because of the booming would-be-employee market, college graduates are having an easier time than ever joining the ranks of those ready and able to receive monetary compensation for work performed at some point.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/labor_dept_available_labor_rate


this is the european plan to stay around 10%. the one luvs europe

 

[Bullitt]

UPS announces good earnings but they expect to cut 1800 jobs ahead. What do you think is driving profits at these corporations? Demand or downsizing?
http://www.ttnews.com/articles/lmtbase.aspx?storyid=675

Even more troubling than the little bit of downsizing left is State government cuts in the year ahead. California gets all the headlines with a $20 billion deficit and the Governor is looking to make pay additional pay cuts to raise capital. However, California is still looking for job stimulus programs, so it's kind of like a cache 22. You're going to cut pay from the work force in order to create additional jobs. It's like, instead of building a house and finishing it, you're going to build two half houses and then tell the world that you used concrete to pour two basements instead of one. Then our leaders can grandstand, "Look at all the concrete we're using now, the economy is coming back."
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14143193

 

[James48843]

December Unemployment rates by state came out this morning-

My state dropped to 14.6 from 14.7. Third month in a row of improvement, although not much. At least the bloodletting appears to have stopped-

Around the nation- it's a varied picture:

View attachment 8037

Full details here:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm​

 

[Bullitt]

With the Census coming up that should ring in a couple thousand 'new hires', but will it be enough to offset the carnage? Has the market already factored this temp hiring blitz in?

 

[Show-me]

Sam's Club eliminating 11,200 jobs

SAN FRANCISCO
Sun Jan 24, 2010 2:22pm EST

Related News

• UPDATE 1-Sam's Club closing 10 stores, 1,500 jobs to be lost Mon, Jan 11 2010

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Sam's Club, the warehouse club division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Sunday that it will use Shopper Events, a third-party company, to run its in-store product demonstrations, and 10,000 jobs will be lost as a result of the change.
U.S.

The No. 2 U.S. warehouse club operator also said it was eliminating the new business membership representative position, which will result in the loss of about 1,200 jobs, or about two jobs per every location.
It said all of the its current demo employees will have the opportunity to apply for new positions with Shopper Events.

Sam's Club operates some 600 clubs and has about 110,000 employees.
(Reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Maureen Bavdek)

 

[Show-me]

That is over 10% or there employee's, boom, out the door.

 

[James48843]

That is over 10% or there employee's, boom, out the door.

No- not really. It says those employees are being "outsourced to another company".

they'll still come into the story every day.
they still will be demonstrating products to customers. " in-store product demonstrations"

the difference is those people won't be eligible for Wal-Mart benefits anymore (like there are any benefits, eh?) because they technically will be employed by a different company.

More crap out of corporate America giving the shaft to the little guy.

P.S.- couldn't POSSIBLY have anything to do wih a recent revival of Unionization attempts of merchandise display employees, now would it?

 

[James48843]

Wal-Mart policy is that if you get sick too often, you get fired.

How much is "too often?"

Well, they fired somebody while they were in the hospital...

Read about the Wal-Mart demerit system for getting sick:
http://www.demeritwalmart.com/why.html

 

[James48843]

​

 

[grandma]

The loss of demonstrators' employment started several months ago, here in Headquarters Country. I am acquainted with some whose positions closed up, not offered another position, not taken up by an `outsource' company,
Connie had worked for Sams when first opened warehouse here. So no, Connie won't be going into the store everyday .

No- not really. It says those employees are being "outsourced to another company".
they'll still come into the story every day. .....
they still will be demonstrating products to customers. " in-store product demonstrations"