Analysis: Companies churn out profits but jobs don't follow

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Source: Reuters
By Steven C. Johnson
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=755aca54-5d42-4373-b864-e84a3cdaf179

The sluggish pace of hiring may be hobbling the economy, but it's not been holding back big U.S. companies' profits thanks to growth overseas and cost controls at home. And that's bad news for the more than 14 million Americans without jobs.

Big businesses would normally be desperate for surging job growth as it would feed into domestic demand but these aren't normal times. Massive growth opportunities overseas, especially in China and other buoyant Asian economies, have some of the largest American companies on track for record profits, even if they're businesses are mostly treading water in the U.S.

The message last week from the chief financial officer of one of the nation's industrial giants couldn't be clearer.

"We've driven all this cost out. Sales have come back, but people have not," said Greg Haynes, chief financial officer at United Technologies Corp. "It's the structural cost reductions that we have done over the past few years that have allowed us to see strong bottom-line results."

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1. Recommend.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. k&r

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3. "Job Creators" my ass