Companies announce highest number of cuts since January, according to survey; hiring plans fall. October 5, 2004 NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers jumped to an eight-month high in September, while hiring announcements fell sharply, an outplacement firm said Tuesday. The report came just days before the government's critical gauges of unemployment and job growth in September, but did little to clarify how strong those measures would be. U.S. businesses announced 107,863 job cuts in September, up from 74,150 job cuts in August, a gain of 45 percent, according to Chicago-based Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which keeps track of monthly job-cut announcements. Meanwhile, companies announced plans to add just 16,166 new jobs, compared with 132,105 in August. http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/05/news/economy/challenger/index.htm?cnn=yes
As long as people's stocks benefit a little from this, there's no reason to be concerned for the unemployed.
September job growth weaker Gain of 96,000 jobs slows from August, misses economists forecasts. October 8, 2004 NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs in September while the unemployment rate stayed unchanged, according to a government report Friday that came in weaker than Wall Street expectations. The Labor Department's much anticipated reading on the labor market showed a slower pace of hiring than the revised reading of 128,000 jobs added in August. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com found a consensus forecast of 150,000 new jobs, while Reuters' survey found a range of estimates from a 10,000 job loss to a 200,000 gain. The unemployment rate came in at 5.4 percent, in line with economists' consensus forecast. http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/08/news/economy/jobless_september/index.htm?cnn=yes
It's official. Bush becomes the first president since Hoover to preside over a term with negative job growth.
Let's see how the President spins this... Between this and yesterday's Iraq report there is no reason for Kerry not to open up a lead in the polls.
Wow the job growth last month that we thought just matched the need for new jobs was revised downward. We lost jobs in manufacturing, and what jobs we did add, didn't meet expectations. I really hope we can turn things around.
This is good news, but not great news. Of course the usual suspects will liken it to the next great depression.
I think it's bad news but not the worst possible news. If the job growth rate isn't even 2/3rds of what we need to keep up with the amount of new people looking for jobs, and we actually lost jobs in manufacturing then I just can't see that it's good news.
Negative net job growth numbers are good news for the country in the same way that yesterday's WMD report was good news for Bush's pre Iraq war rationale. Some people are just optimists, I guess.
When it is a net job loss then yes, it is a bad thing. Despite the tax cuts that Bush and Co. claimed would create jobs, we are steadily seeing the new entrants into the job market being unable to find jobs. Add to that the fact that millions are underemployed as evidenced by declining incomes and millions more have simply left the job market altogether because of the lack of prospects and you have a situation that is not promising.
