For Whom The Bell Tolls, Part 4
The U.S. employment situation looks increasingly bleak. From the CNBC website yesterday:
Planned layoffs at U.S. companies jumped 26 percent in July from June, depicting further deterioration in the labor market, a report showed on Monday.
Planned layoffs at U.S. companies totaled 103,312 in July, compared with June’s 81,755, employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc said.
Announced job cuts at U.S. companies last month were the second highest total so far in 2008, more than double the 42,897 a year earlier, the report said.
The transportation industry hurt by sky-high fuel costs accounted for the most planned cuts in July with 17,051. The financial sector battered by the credit crisis followed with 15,517 cuts. Retailers facing a pullback in consumer spending came next with 12,160 layoffs.
Employment data from the first half of the year was also dismal. According to CNBC:
From January to July, planned layoffs totaled 579,260, up 33 percent from the same period a year ago.
The outlook for Wall Street and the financial sector doesn’t look too good either. From the CNBC piece:
Financial companies, in particular mortgage lenders, have been slashing their payrolls, prompted by billions of losses and write-downs tied to soured investments on housing and mortgages.
So far this year, planned layoffs in the mortgage and subprime sector has reached 92,547, already surpassing the 2007 tally of 86,126.
With no end in sight, job hemorrhage in the financial sector could surpass the last year’s record total of 153,105 by the end of October, Challenger predicted.
Keep an eye out for those used Maseratis…
Source:
“Companies Step Up the Pace of Layoffs”
Reuters, August 4, 2008
August 6th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
“The U.S. employment situation looks increasingly bleak.”
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The flip side of this is that the prospects of the average working stiff receiving a viable pay raise are just as dismal.
That 2.5% annual wage increase is more than wiped away by the present inflation rate, which means that workers are, in reality, sliding backwards.
Unless a person is either a top performer, brown-noser or just plain lucky, the only way to achieve a meaningful pay raise is to ‘jump ship’ and find another job which pays more than the current one.
And with the increasingly bleak employment situation, this may prove quite difficult.
-Mammoth
August 7th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for the comment Mammoth.
“That 2.5% annual wage increase is more than wiped away by the present inflation rate, which means that workers are, in reality, sliding backwards.”
I hear you. Check out “Say Goodbye To Your Pay Raise” from July 29…