>>>Note that this is not a relating of isolated situations. When Bill Jeff
cites the number of jobs created, I have yet to hear how many have been
deleted, and to where the deleted jobs' workers go to find replacement jobs.
The key issue is the value of lost jobs and replacement jobs: sure one job may
have paid $X but does the next one found compare to the previous one? Why this
is key is a possible massaging (never manipulating) the unemployment figures.
Hmmm. A<>E<>R <<<
>From www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : North America : US Economy
US job cuts hit truck manufacturing, banking and Internet companies
By Joseph Kay
19 August 2000
Back to screen version
The first weeks of August have seen a continuation of corporate downsizing as
the US economy continues to show signs of slowing. There was a surge of layoffs
in July, when job cuts totaled 63,967, a 17 percent increase over layoffs in
July of 1999, and a 370 percent increase over the statistics for June of this
year. This trend is affecting a wide range of sectors, from manufacturing to
new Internet startups, as corporations move to increase efficiency and maintain
profits through layoffs and restructuring.
Freightliner, a truck manufacturer owned by DaimlerChrysler, announced this
week that it would cut 3,750 jobs�almost 20 percent of its workforce�at its
plants in the US and Canada. The company anticipates that heavy-duty truck
sales will decrease by 25 percent in the next quarter, and cites rising
interest rates and high gas prices as reasons for the cuts.
Only a day later, on August 15, another manufacturer of trucks�Navistar
International�announced that it would cut 1,100 white-collar jobs after a fall
in earnings. The corporation also referred to high interest rates and gas
prices, as well as an oversupply of used trucks, as sources of declining sales.
�To continue as a strong company, we must continue to deliver strong financial
results regardless of market conditions,� said Navistar CEO John R. Horne,
saying the layoffs were necessary.
In other sectors, First Union Bank announced that its layoff projections for
the year had risen from 3,500 workers, as announced in June, to 5,291. First
Union Corp. is in the midst of a massive restructuring plan involving the
shutting down of its home equity loan subsidiary, The Money Store. The layoffs
would represent over 7 percent of its workforce, which currently numbers
72,800.
Agilent Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of test and measurement equipment,
reported that it would cut 650 jobs as part of a restructuring process of its
health care unit. The company, a spin-off from Hewlett Packard Co., has been
troubled by its health care unit, which has not been profitable. These problems
transferred into declining stock value, which has recently sunk to less than a
quarter of its 52-week high. In order to improve efficiency, Agilent has also
begun moving operations outside of the United States. The news of layoffs was
greeted with enthusiasm on Wall Street, with the company's stock rising by more
than 5 percent.
After a merger with US West Communication Inc., Qwest Communications
International Inc. announced that it would lay off between 2,000 and 4,000
workers by the end of the year. The layoffs are part of a general restructuring
plan enacted after the $85 billion merger. Dow Corning Corp., maker of silicone-
based products, said it plans to cut between 600 and 800 jobs in an effort to
increase profitability.
As a result of the slowdown of the Internet company stocks, layoffs have been
widespread throughout the sector as companies restructure in order to remain
competitive. Komozo.com, an Internet company that provides home delivery of
various consumer products, will be laying off over 300 workers�over 10 percent
of its workforce. The company has introduced new technology and cross-trained
many of its employees so that they can cover for workers who are laid off. In
an attempt to become profitable, medical service provider Healtheon/WebMD Corp.
has begun a series of layoffs, reportedly cutting 100 jobs in the first wave,
though more layoffs are expected.
Other new technology-related layoffs this month include 430 workers at software
maker Informix, 18 percent of the workforce at business software maker Infinium
Software Inc., 34 employees of Internet company eHobbies, 50 employees of ePods
and 170 jobs at NBC's web division. In addition, FedEx Corp. reported that it
may eliminate up to 200 jobs in its information technology section.
Copyright 1998-2000
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
A<>E<>R
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational
tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the
State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate
repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the
"democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist
by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse
of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of
taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between
the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that
the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State
has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to
accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a
share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded
subjects.
[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard,
Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]]
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