Here is the real news

[Spence]

While Higgybaby and other right-wingers were announcing what they thought was real news about the economy, they missed what is actually the story. Here you go:

Nov 4, 2003

Job Cuts Announced by U.S. Corporations More Than Double in October
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Job cuts announced by U.S. companies more than doubled in October from the previous month, providing more evidence that the nation's economy is in a period of jobless expansion, according to a report from an outplacement firm.
Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Tuesday that in October companies announced plans to eliminate 171,874 positions, compared with 76,506 jobs in September. It was the highest monthly level since October 2002, when 176,010 job cuts were announced.

The surge in October ended a streak of five months when job reductions fell below 100,000 per month. The lowest figure during that time was in June, with 59,715 jobs cut.

Hardest-hit was the automotive industry, which announced plans to eliminate 28,363 jobs in October. That was followed by the retail sector, which plans to cut 21,169 positions, and the telecommunications industry, which said it would slash 21,030 jobs.

"While perhaps shocking to some, the October spike follows a trend of heavy year-end downsizing that has occurred since we began tracking job cuts in 1993," said CEO John A. Challenger. "In 2001 and 2002, October was the largest job-cut month in the fourth quarter."

He added that companies' increasing productivity has made it easier for them to further delay hiring plans. The migration of jobs offshore as well as increasing consolidation also have stunted job growth.

"I don't think that this expansion has the potential to create 150,000 jobs a month - a number to get unemployment to go down," he said. "I think that this will be a meager job expansion."

Challenger, Gray & Christmas's monthly report focuses on companies' planned cuts, not actual reductions. The data is based on tracking figures from the news media and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a new poll of human resources executives conducted by Challenger, 78 percent did not expect to see any significant upturn in hiring until the second quarter of 2004. None of the respondents forecast an upturn in the first quarter. Eleven percent said hiring would pick up in the third or fourth quarter.

Eleven percent of those polled said that there would be no hiring rebound at all in 2004.

Source (http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAUJ53BMMD.html)

COMMENT: It's all about jobs, people. A jobless expansion is great for corporate accountants, lousy for about 95% of the population. We were in a jobless recovery in 1992 and see what it got W's daddy. No one loved the Clinton era because of the economic growth, they loved it because of the 22 million jobs created. People don't care about abstract numbers [or they'd never believe Mr Bush's hilarious and constantly-changing budget predictions], they care about jobs. Do they have one? Do members of their family have them? And is the labor market tight enough to force healthy pay increases for workers? That's what people care about.

Jobs.

Republicans never figure that out.

[Skins57]

Ifthe economy is good but they are no new jobs where is that extra money( from the improving economy) going? oh yea to the upper 3 percent of the rich people must likely.

So if the economy is improving where is the jobs it should create?

[higgybaby]

Here is the real news that you fail to mention in your post, October is traditionally the worst economic month in terms of job cuts and it only fits that this has not changed in 2003 either. Yes, the economy is cyclical, but the leading indicators are pointing in the direction of a major upswing cycle in our economy.

Job increases, historically, have been the last indicator that follows. There is news today that manufacturing is in a sharp output rise of 5.5% growth which all indicators are showing that to carry over into the next quarter. All indicators are showing that the markets performance and 401k returns due out mid november will spurn an even better consumer output, and in turn increasing the consumer confidence factor. It seems that once the consumer confidence has increased, even more spending will occur.
I think that the key to increasing the job growth, is in consumer confidence. Of course that would be the last thing in the world that liberals want to see right now, is any good economic news because they know that if this were to happen they can forget 2004!

[Spence]

Originally posted by higgybaby
Here is the real news that you fail to mention in your post, October is traditionally the worst economic month in terms of job cuts and it only fits that this has not changed in 2003 either. Yes, the economy is cyclical, but the leading indicators are pointing in the direction of a major upswing cycle in our economy.
Republicans have been saying that for a year or more. Just like they say we're on the verge of finding Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and a single country in the world where people still like us.

[higgybaby]

I guess that all economists are republicans, since they are the ones who say that October is traditionally the worst economic month.

[IowaSkinsFan]

Originally posted by Spence
While Higgybaby and other right-wingers were announcing what they thought was real news about the economy, they missed what is actually the story. Here you go:

Nov 4, 2003

Job Cuts Announced by U.S. Corporations More Than Double in October
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Job cuts announced by U.S. companies more than doubled in October from the previous month, providing more evidence that the nation's economy is in a period of jobless expansion, according to a report from an outplacement firm.
Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Tuesday that in October companies announced plans to eliminate 171,874 positions, compared with 76,506 jobs in September. It was the highest monthly level since October 2002, when 176,010 job cuts were announced.

The surge in October ended a streak of five months when job reductions fell below 100,000 per month. The lowest figure during that time was in June, with 59,715 jobs cut.

Hardest-hit was the automotive industry, which announced plans to eliminate 28,363 jobs in October. That was followed by the retail sector, which plans to cut 21,169 positions, and the telecommunications industry, which said it would slash 21,030 jobs.

"While perhaps shocking to some, the October spike follows a trend of heavy year-end downsizing that has occurred since we began tracking job cuts in 1993," said CEO John A. Challenger. "In 2001 and 2002, October was the largest job-cut month in the fourth quarter."

He added that companies' increasing productivity has made it easier for them to further delay hiring plans. The migration of jobs offshore as well as increasing consolidation also have stunted job growth.

"I don't think that this expansion has the potential to create 150,000 jobs a month - a number to get unemployment to go down," he said. "I think that this will be a meager job expansion."

Challenger, Gray & Christmas's monthly report focuses on companies' planned cuts, not actual reductions. The data is based on tracking figures from the news media and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a new poll of human resources executives conducted by Challenger, 78 percent did not expect to see any significant upturn in hiring until the second quarter of 2004. None of the respondents forecast an upturn in the first quarter. Eleven percent said hiring would pick up in the third or fourth quarter.

Eleven percent of those polled said that there would be no hiring rebound at all in 2004.

Source (http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAUJ53BMMD.html)

COMMENT: It's all about jobs, people. A jobless expansion is great for corporate accountants, lousy for about 95% of the population. We were in a jobless recovery in 1992 and see what it got W's daddy. No one loved the Clinton era because of the economic growth, they loved it because of the 22 million jobs created. People don't care about abstract numbers [or they'd never believe Mr Bush's hilarious and constantly-changing budget predictions], they care about jobs. Do they have one? Do members of their family have them? And is the labor market tight enough to force healthy pay increases for workers? That's what people care about.

Jobs.

Republicans never figure that out.

You know, as a shift production manager in the private sector, I find this laughable at times. Any production oriented professional knows that the key to keeping the doors open on any successful operations facility is to do the same amount of work with fewer people. It's called continuous improvement. Do it faster and cheaper than last year. If you did it with 10 people last year, find a way to do it with 9 this year. In my industry, it is a seller's market. The only way you survive is by beating the competitor's price. You have to maintain a competitive position in the market, and the way to do that is to become less dependant on labor from a labor market that is dwindling all the time.

Maybe, just maybe Spence, there are jobless claims that are due to companies becoming more efficient at their work. Layoffs are layoffs, call them permanent reductions in force or whatever you will. Politicians have nothing to do with the amount of people we hire or terminate in the course of a year. Every year we hire a minimum of 200 employees. We have to do that because turnover is a constant. Where are these people going? Surely they are not drawing unemployment so people like you have a statistic to bash Republicans, are they?

When you post like this, it is obvious you have been covering politics too long and seem to have forgot how the private sector works, how running a competitive production oriented facility is accomplished. In my particular place of employement, we are doing the same volume we did 10 years ago with 20% fewer employees due to enhancements in technology. Those reductions in cost were passed on to the customer who in turned passed those savings on to their customers. That is how you survive in the 21st century. That is a fact of business.