Layoff trend worries U.S. industry experts

[idlisambar]

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) - In a week where Alan Greenspan said he expected the U.S. economy to keep growing, and Wall Street seemed generally pleased with corporate performance, workers at Eastman Kodak Co., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp., among others, were warned about thousands of new layoffs.

"You get immune to it after a while," longtime Kodak technician John Hladis said with barely a shrug when the scythe fell once more at the Rochester-based photography company, slicing away another 10,000 employees.

But some economy watchers are suddenly concerned that this latest flurry of job cuts - a byproduct of various trends such as outsourcing, mergers, automation, changing technology and consumer demands - might foreshadow some trouble ahead.

.....
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http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Jul/20050723News017.asp

[BuelahWitch]

1. They just realize this now?

If enough people lose their lower middle class income and have to get a $5.15 McJob, who's going to buy your overpriced crap produced by child labor in third world countries ASSH*LES??? Not the people producing it!

[whistle]

2. Economy is in fine shape, nothing to see, move along.....

....October black thursday of 2005 right around the corner. Bush's base is prepared, holding solid assets like gold and other presious metals.

[Zorra]

3. Economic Growth: The rich get richer and everyone else gets laid off.

[Oversea Visitor]

4. might foreshadow some trouble ahead

get real already seeing how US screwing itself like for 4 years.
Ouch Dollar devalue by 30%. No local Domestic spending by Government to help boost economy.... all poured into Iraq war..... worst big big cut in existing domestic spending... talk about being screw.

Bush not pulling handbrake on downward trends he is flooring the accelerator to the floorboard on this.

[acmavm]

5. These guys kill me. Like this is a new thing. Corporations have been

sending jobs overseas for years and now, NOW, it's becoming a big deal. I shouldn't laugh about this, but I am.

It's so typical with the slime and slugs running shit in this country. Next they'll maybe notice that more people are suffering from physical ailments and illnesses because the number of people without health insurance increases by the day. Or the number of kids who are in school but are homeless is at an all time high. Or that bankruptcies and foreclosures are spiraling out of control. Hell, give these guys another couple of months and they might even notice we have people dying everyday in Iraq, and we're not even at war.

It is a very discomforting feeling to know, and have demonstrated with regularity, that the people who are considered worthy of being in prominent positions in this country are often crooks or idiots.

[leesa]

6. Thes "experts" are really on top of things, aren't they? Did they just

figure out that if no one has paying jobs, no one will buy their shit?

[Oversea Visitor]

7. Guess

They dont understand the concept of circulation flow of income.

[Lindsay]

8. No shit, Sherlocks.

This must be why they get the big bucks.

(How many of us coulda told them this years ago, free for the asking?)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

9. The layoff trend since December 2000? And it took five years....

...for the so-called U. S. industry experts to start worrying??

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

10. US industry experts? yeah.

right.

more like experts at milking the US industry.

[cliss]

11. The thing that worries me - is

that the companies which are laying off people, are not necessarily American companies any longer.

I used to laugh sarcastically about the layoffs. I thought; well, what will happen to their damn profits if they lay off so many people that they can't sell their stuff? Even Henry Ford realized that back in the early 1900's. He paid his factory workers huge salaries at the time (I think $6.50/hr.), so they could make enough money to buy his cars.

I knew that at some point, there would be some type of equilibrium.

But my blood ran cold when I realized that these companies may NOT have loyalty to Americans. They may not be American firms. They're just here doing business.

Randi Rhodes pointed this out a while back, also. She mentioned that Bush sent US troops into Iraq to protect oil interests. But many of these oil companies are not American companies.

[bunny planet]

13. Yes, she says it all the time, they are globalists. They've got theirs,

the hell with what happens to us.

[mbperrin]

12. Well, thank goodness those being laid OFF aren't

having to worry about anything!

Give me the home address of one of these "experts" please. I need some face to face time....

[Daphne08]

14. As for the corporate executives who downsized my husband's

professional career right out the door (along with thousands of his fellow employees)... well, I hope those executives aren't sleeping very well at night these days. They nearly ruined my husband's pride and his self-esteem (as well as our financial future).

Therefore, I have nothing but utter contempt for those executives who place profit above people.

[Joebert]

15. I'm getting tired of picking up the work every time they whack my friends.

I've lived through numerous layoffs so far.

I've helped train their replacements in other countries.

I've been the one that gets yelled at because the lowest bidder with no experience isn't as good as our guys were.


I don't know how any company could possibly believe their own bull. They keep saying that as long as the customer experience is as good as it was, why not?

Well, when you take support for a product, and send it to a country whose citizens can't afford one using their entire annual salary, it's hard to get somebody with experience.

It's not fair to the person taking the tech support call in India/China/Pakistan/Nigeria... to take a high tech call from somebody who owns 3 computers, and is trying to report a bug in the driver. How can somebody who could never afford the product possibly support a customer so savvy that they are finding, reporting and reproducing a bug in a driver.


From the US company's perspective, it's brilliant. Keep whacking people in divisions that have others who will pick up the extra work for no more pay. Find people that need the pay and health insurance, so they're willing to work 10-12 hours a day, no weekends, no holidays...

Now THAT'S cost cutting.


You know what the biggest problem I see out of all this outsourcing and transition from thinking jobs to cash-register jobs?

Many still vote for the people that do this to them.


Side note: I sometimes wonder if Brave New World isn't on its way to being almost right. But instead of New Mexico being the vacation spot, the USA will be. We'll all be tour guides, sell film, gas, food, etc. Our unbelievable amount of natual beauty (that isn't ruined yet) has me thinking we're going to be a theme-park for the ultra-rich.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

16. July 23, 2005, U.S. industry experts "become worried" about layoffs

July 12, 2005, Scott McClellan assures us that:

"Our economy is strong. We continue to see sustained growth. We've had more than 3.7 million jobs created over the last 25 months. We have an unemployment rate that is now at its lowest since September of 2001, at 5 percent. But there's more we need to do to continue to keep our economy strong. The tax cuts that we passed are working. Those are fueling economic growth and job creation."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050712-4.html



:grouphug:

SOMEONE appears to have their head up their ass.

Hmmmmmm....

U.S. industry experts?

McClellan?

Experts?

McClellan?

I think I'm going to go with McClellan. Definitely. McClellan has his head up his ass.

:patriot:

[Joebert]

17. What kind of jobs are those, Scott?

How many at McD's, grocery stores, lawn mowing...

How many engineering, science, education?

As long as the unemployment rate doesn't count how many people STOPPED looking, we don't know how unemployed we are.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

18. Remember the little SNAFU about "manufacturing" jobs?

How the Bush folks wanted to include fast food jobs in their stats and call them "manufacturing" jobs because you "assemble" burgers?

Bun

Meat

Cheese

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Onions

Pickles

Ketchup

Mustard

Bun

"But there's more we need to do to continue to keep our economy strong."

Yeah, like elect a real President.

:silly:

[Joebert]

19. I hope you're kidding, I missed that one.

I wonder if

- work visas count in the unemployment rate.
- part time jobs count?
- they have a formula for counting undocumented workers?
- they are counting the NHL players going back to work? (now wouldn't that be ironic? Our administration presided over not only a decrease in unemployment, but these jobs starting pay was over $100,000!
- prison labor counts?
- people running weblogs and getting ad money count.

These numbers make no sense.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. No he is not kidding

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

22. Read it and weep, my friend...read it and weep:

Building Blue-Collar … Burgers?

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2004

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/20/politics/main601336.shtml



(CBS) Manufacturing jobs making things like airplane engines, cars and farm equipment are disappearing from the American economy.

Or are they? According to a White House report, new manufacturing jobs might be as close as your nearest drive-thru.

The annual Economic Report of the President has already stirred controversy by suggesting the loss of U.S. jobs overseas might be beneficial, and predicting that a whopping 2.6 million jobs will be created in the country this year.

As first reported by The New York Times, the fast food issue is taken up on page 73 of the lengthy report in a special box headlined "What is manufacturing?" "The definition of a manufactured product," the box reads, "is not straightforward. When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?" it asks.

[Joebert]

23. You know, I took a month off reading DU because I'd vomit blood.

The break didn't help.

My desk is a mess.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

24. I just posted it as a separate thread in GDP...

...for the people who have forgotten it among the multitude of atrocities that followed, it's worth a refresher.

For people who have never read it, well...sorry about your desk.

:evilgrin:

:toast:

[Joebert]

25. I learned a long time ago...

I think it was at a Gallagher show, always use the plastic sheeting.

The desk is safe.

Much like the peril-sensitive goggles from the Infocom "Hitchhiker's Guide" game back on my Apple.

When the score was going to be displayed, it told you to put on the goggles. They were solid black cardboard.

You have to be prepared at all times.

I have a set of the peril-sensitive goggles for State of the Union addresses.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. They are STARTING TO GET WORRIED NOW?

My god... we could all have told them this so many years ago?

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[wli]

26. the layoff phenomenon is massive

I highly suspect the official statistics are fabricated. Just as they effectively are for unemployment. It's as if there's a coverup of what's going on in the economy. I personally highly suspect Depression-level unemployment, particularly given my 1990's "blue collar experience" where the only people who weren't semi-homeless were camping out in "collectivized apartments" with groups of ca. 10 menial laborers working for phenomenally low wages relative to the strenuousness of the labor (hazardous factory labor literally below minimum wage but somehow unreported).

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. fully agree

when we fully find out waht is going on in the country people will be shocked, and we are one step away from the great depresion, by the way

[wli]

28. if the human race even survives this disaster

The former "Great Depression" will take a back seat to this catastrophe that's coming as a recession, by a longshot. This upcoming depression will be the new "Great Depression" and the 1930's will just be the "post-WWI recession" or some such.

Hell, if the human race even survives it, it may very well be the new Dark Ages.

[cliss]

32. You and me both, wli.

I'm an economist. I started to smell a rat a few years ago. The Secretary of Labor is Elaine Chao. She's a Bush appointee. Shortly after she took office, the numbers started to look strange.

I knew there was something wrong. I've pointed this out many times in my posts. People here seem to agree, but no one else in the outside world does.

They're making these figures up.

[MadisonProgressive]

35. It's all bullshit

Do you ever see anything in the news about small local businesses that have 30 employees and lay off 5-10 off them? Add that up across the board.

[OneBlueSky]

29. well . . . DUH! . . . n/t

.

[WCGreen]

30. I got good news and I got bad news

The good news is your stock in the 401k is at an all time high....

The bad news, you're fired

[dbt]

31. The number one growth industry in this country is JOB CUTS.

How do you spin that?

:freak:

[lovuian]

33. A Great Big Depression is coming!!!

and the Republicans made it!!!

[area51]

34. "... U.S. economy to keep growing..."

Alan Greenspin said "...U.S. economy to keep growing..."; he forgot to add the word negatively.