Employers cut 80,000 jobs in March

[liberal N proud]

WASHINGTON - Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.

At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking.

The new snapshot of the job market, released by the Labor Department Friday, underscored the damage that a trio of crises —in the housing, credit and financial sectors — has inflicted on companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23953769/

[lib2DaBone]

1. CNBC and Fox tell Sheeple..... "Economy is sound"

La-Z-Boy, Whirlpool Moving Hundreds Of Jobs To Mexico
Workers at Dayton, Cleveland Facilities Get Notices
posted April 3, 2008

La-Z-Boy and Whirlpool are moving jobs to new plants in Mexico, bringing job losses to hundreds of workers in Dayton and Cleveland.

La-Z-Boy employees in Dayton were told today that the cutting and sewing operation is being moved to Mexico.

Kathy Liebmann, La-Z-Boy spokesperson, said the Dayton facility has over 2,000 employees, but she did not have a breakdown on those in cutting and sewing. A La-Z-Boy employee said it was around 750.

Ms. Liebmann said La-Z-Boy is closing a plant at Tremonton, Utah, but will keep its other plants open, including the one at Dayton. She said the 400 production jobs at the Utah plant will be spread over the other five plants.

Meanwhile, some 350 Whirlpool employees are losing their jobs at the former Maytag facility in Cleveland.

Those jobs are also going to Mexico as well as to Oklahoma.

Ms. Liebmann said the transition will take place over the next 18-24 months.

La-Z-Boy makes recliners and other furniture.

Once these moves are completed, the company expects to realize in excess of $25 million in annual cost savings, with the full benefit beginning in fiscal 2011.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_125124.asp

[spooky3]

2. This just gives me one more reason not to buy Whirlpool/Kitchenaid

Their quality has declined greatly over the years, as they have moved jobs out of the country and as they have merged with other companies, reducing competition. I used to love their appliances, but in the past 10 years, I have had nothing but problems with them. Apparently, mgt. cares as little about their employees as they do about their products and their customers.

[liberal4truth]

4. No one is going to be buying such things in this economy, so adios to them.

It was all the companies like these that have destroyed the American economy.

[ticktockman]

3. Job Growth Under Bush and Prior Presidents

WASHINGTON - Employers buffeted by talk of recession slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses.

At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking.

The following table shows employment data at the beginning of each presidential term since Truman:

CHANGE IN POPULATION, LABOR FORCE, AND EMPLOYMENT BY PRESIDENTIAL TERM (in thousands)                                 

                     Monthly Average Change (in thousands)
                     --------------------------------------------          Unemploy-
                        Popu-    Labor Househld  Nonfarm  Private   No. of      ment
President    Mo Year   lation    Force   Survey Employed Employed   Months      Rate
----------- --- ---- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ---------                                                                                                                     
Roosevelt   Jan 1941                               154.6    117.4       48      
Truman      Jan 1945                                57.8     65.3       48      
  "         Jan 1949     63.9     55.6     71.4    114.0     95.2       48       4.3
Eisenhower  Jan 1953    104.8     62.3     42.3     57.1     39.9       48       2.9
  "         Jan 1957    136.0     83.7     44.7     16.6     -3.1       48       4.2
Kennedy     Jan 1961    156.1     65.0     87.9    122.9     94.3       48       6.6
Johnson     Jan 1965    159.9    124.0    141.8    205.3    158.0       48       4.9
Nixon       Jan 1969    258.3    165.9    132.4    128.8     97.9       48       3.4
Nixon/Ford  Jan 1973    249.3    202.5    141.0    105.7     77.2       48       4.9
Carter      Jan 1977    237.8    225.4    208.9    215.4    188.2       48       7.5
Reagan      Jan 1981    172.5    139.6    132.2    110.9    111.4       48       7.5
  "         Jan 1985    172.1    180.5    216.8    224.6    194.6       48       7.3
G.H. Bush   Jan 1989    173.3    104.4     49.3     54.0     30.5       48       5.4
Clinton     Jan 1993    173.4    147.0    192.1    239.7    225.3       48       7.3
  "         Jan 1997    241.7    173.8    197.5    234.1    208.3       48       5.3
G.W. Bush   Jan 2001    228.1     87.1     51.0      0.1    -18.8       48       4.2
  "         Jan 2005    215.5    145.8    155.9    149.1    132.1       37       5.2
            Feb 2008                                                             4.8

From the data, I noticed a disturbing fact. Counting Bush's 2nd term up until now, there have been 15 presidential terms since 1949. The table shows that the unemployment rate went down during almost every term of a Democratic president and up during almost every term of a Republican president over that period. The only exceptions were Carter (when the unemployment rate stayed about the same) and both terms of Reagan and the second term of G.W. Bush (when the unemployment rate dropped). And with the unemployment rate rising to 5.1 percent now, nearly equal to the 5.2 percent at the start of this term, the exception of G.W. Bush's second term may not hold. In any case, there is further discussion of the job numbers at http://usbudget.blogspot.com/2008/03/job-growth-under-bush-and-prior.html . Also, following is a graph created from numbers in the above table: