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Layoffs, Layoffs, Everywhere You Look There Are Layoffs
Corporations are laying people off which will increase their profits and decrease the general growth of the economy. At the end of the last article I posted by Russ Winter, several seem to argue that corporations should not be paying taxes, and that might help them increase profits and spend their money more productively. Keep in mind that American companies that are moving operations overseas and getting out of paying taxes, do business in the U.S. and get considerable benefits from this country.
Here's a portion of a list provided by JW n FL (thanks):
3) General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States over the past five years and, thanks to clever use of loopholes, paid no taxes...
4) Chevron received a $19 million refund from the IRS last year after it made $10 billion in profits in 2009. (Source: See 2009 Chevron annual report here. Note 15 on page FS-46 of this report shows a U.S. federal income tax liability of $128 million, but that it was able to defer $147 million for a U.S. federal income tax liability of negative $19 million.)
7) Goldman Sachs in 2008 only paid 1.1 percent of its income in taxes even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion and received an almost $800 billion from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department...
8) Citigroup last year made more than $4 billion in profits but paid no federal income taxes. It received a $2.5 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury...
9) ConocoPhillips, the fifth largest oil company in the United States, made $16 billion in profits from 2006 through 2009, but received $451 million in tax breaks through the oil and gas manufacturing deduction...
Layoffs, Layoffs Everywhere You Look There Are Layoffs
Courtesy of Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse
The competition for jobs in the United States is absolutely brutal right now, and it is about to get worse. A new wave of layoffs is sweeping across America. During tough economic times, Wall Street favors companies that are able to cut costs, and the fastest way to "cut costs" is to eliminate employees.
After a period of relative stability, the employment picture in the U.S. is starting to get bleaker again. New applications for unemployment benefits have now been above 400,000 for 15 straight weeks. Finding a good job is kind of like winning the lottery in this economy. Our federal government and the state governments have made it incredibly complicated and extremely expensive to have employees on the payroll. It is getting harder and harder to get a large enough return to justify the time and expense that hiring employees requires. So many firms now find themselves trying to do more with the employees that they already have. Other companies are turning to temp agencies as a way to reduce costs and increase workplace flexibility. A lot of the big corporations are sending as much work as they can overseas where the wages are far lower and where the regulatory environment is much simpler. All of this is really bad news for American workers that just want good jobs that will enable them to provide for their families.
When we first started seeing huge numbers of layoffs a few years ago, I encouraged people to look into government jobs because I thought that they would be a lot more stable in this economic environment.
But today that is no longer true. In fact, state and local governments all over the United States are responding to massive budget problems by slashing payrolls in an unprecedented fashion.
Sadly, the reality is that the number of "secure jobs" is rapidly declining in America. If you have a "job" ("just over broke") right now, you might not have it for long. That is one reason why everyone should be trying to become more independent of the system.
Once upon a time the U.S. economy produced a seemingly endless supply of good jobs. This helped us develop the largest and most vibrant middle class in modern world history.
But now employees are regarded as "costly liabilities", and businesses and governments alike are trying to reduce those "liabilities" as much as they can.
This summer the pace of layoffs seems to be accelerating all over the nation. Just check out what has been happening over the past few weeks....
-Lockheed Martin has made "voluntary layoff offers" to 6,500 employees.
-Detroit is losing even more jobs. American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings has told the remaining 300 workers at its manufacturing facility in Detroit that their jobs will be ending in early 2012.
-Layoff notices have been sent to 519 employees of Milwaukee Public Schools, and more than 400 open positions are going to go unfilled.
-The Gap has announced that up to 200 stores will be closed over the next two years.
-Cisco has announced plans to lay off 9 percent of their total workforce.
-Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that 625 city employees will be losing their jobs as a result of cutbacks.
-Pharmaceutical giant Merck recently dumped 51 workers from an office in Raleigh, North Carolina.
-Perkins has revealed that they will be closing 58 restaurants.
-This week, Goldman Sachs announced that they will be eliminating 1,000 jobs.
-Cracker Barrel is rapidly reducing staff at its headquarters.
-Telecommunications and web marketing firm Crexendo has announced that it will be laying off about 30 percent of its workforce.
-Borders has announced that they will be shutting down their remaining 399 stores and that 10,700 employees will lose their jobs.
-Now that the space shuttle program has ended, thousands of NASA employees will be losing their jobs.
There are hundreds of more examples of recent layoffs and job losses. One website that tracks these layoffs daily is Daily Job Cuts. It is pretty sad when there are entire websites that are devoted to chronicling how fast our economy is bleeding jobs.
What is worse is that it looks like the pace of layoffs is going to keep increasing.
One report that was recently released found that the number of job cuts being planned by U.S. employers increased by 11.6% in June.
That is not good news.
Things don't look good for employees of state and local governments either.
State and local governments have eliminated approximately 142,000 jobs so far this year.
That is bad, but this is just the beginning.
UBS Investment Research is projecting that state and local governments in the U.S. will combine to slash a whopping 450,000 jobs by the end of next year. Ouch.
Barack Obama and Ben Bernanke keep trying to tell us that the economy is improving, but that simply is not the case. Yes, some of the largest corporations have announced big earnings, but that is not translating into lots of jobs for American workers.
Today, most large corporations only want to have as many U.S. workers as absolutely necessary. In a world where labor has been globalized, it just doesn't make sense for corporations to shell out massive amounts of money to American workers when they can legally get away with paying slave labor wages to workers on the other side of the globe.
So if it seems like it is far harder to get a good job in America today than it used to be, the truth is that you are not imagining things.
Our entire system discourages job creation inside the United States. Every single year, even more ridiculous job-killing regulations are being passed on the federal and state levels. It has become extremely expensive and ridiculously complicated to hire people.
So how are American families surviving? Those that still do have jobs are finding that wages are not going up but the cost of living rapidly is. Many American families are making up the difference by using their credit cards more.
In June, credit card purchases in the U.S. increased by 10.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago.
It looks like a whole lot of people have not learned their lessons about how bad credit card debt is.
Millions of other American families have fallen out of the middle class completely. Today, one out of every six Americans is enrolled in at least one government anti-poverty program. The level of economic suffering in this country continues to soar.
In fact, the number of Americans that are now sleeping in their cars or living in tent cities remains at staggering levels.
What we are witnessing in this country is not just a "recession" or an "economic downturn". What we are witnessing are fundamental economic changes.
Until there are fundamental policy changes in the United States, there will continue to be huge waves of layoffs and millions of jobs will continue to be shipped out of the country.
In the old days, one could go to college, get a good job with one company for 30 years and retire with a big, fat pension.
Now, that way of doing things is completely and totally dead. Today, there is virtually no loyalty out there. It doesn't matter how long you have been working at a particular job. When it becomes financially expedient to get rid of you, that is exactly what is going to happen.
It is a cold, cruel world out there right now. Don't assume that you will always have a good job. The world is rapidly changing.
Don't get caught in the trap of believing that the way that things were is the way that things are always going to be in the future.
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Don't forget that 1,000 jobs Goldman Sachs is offshoring to Singapore.
Sarg
Too bad all of Goldman wasn't offshored. Fucking Welfare Queens.
U6 close to 18%. And job one is profits, cold, hard profits. That is what shareholders want, no matter what it takes. Unemployment will continue to rise. Over 100,000 entering the job market each month, and we cannot even employ those that are in the market.
And job one for a worthless politician. Please as many by continuing to give away the store so they will vote for him or her. And we pay that bill. At some point it will change and get ugly, but not until the people wake up and care.
The unemployment rate jumped in SC from just under 10% in May to 10.5% in June. The single largest increase in the United States. Meanwhile, our Republican Governor takes credit for cutting the state budget and creating private sector jobs. The truth is that the State and local governments are laying off workers faster than the private sector can absorb and it shows not signs of letting up. That is one of the fallacies that cutting the size of government and lowering tax rates creates private sector jobs. It doesn't and it won't. If low tax rates were good for jobs and the economy then where are the good paying jobs (other than Wall Street) that have been created the past 30 years?
the truth is alot of them are "retiring" so they can grab their pensions before that ponzi scam crashes
I will see your 10.5% and raise you Nevada's state rate jump from 12.1% to 12.4%. Also if you live in boom to bust Las Vegas that doesn't have those booming mining sector jobs like the northern part of the state has, you can have a raise from 12.4% to 13.8%. Then take that these are highly fudged U-3 numbers, add 6 to it and get a more realistic U-6 number of 19.8% - or just call it 1 in 5 not working.
J in Vegas
End too big to fail, and crony [fraud] capitalism.
Just thought I would throw this in.
From the UK circa 1981, 10% unemployment,
Thanks unions and socialist overlords,
I am the 1 in 10 by UB40, oh happy day's, not.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ub40+1+in+10+video&aq=1&oq=ub40+1+in+10
Except that eviscerating unions only made the bankers stronger in the UK, and did nothing to reduce socialism.
cut all government employees
city state federal...
by 30 %...
for every 2 Government Jobs in the United States there is 1 Manufacturing Job.
this is backwards.. at the very least. it used to be 2 manufacturing jobs for every 1 government job.. before we gave Tax Breaks and Subsides to Corporations to move operations out of the United States!
why did we pay Corporations to undermine the Manufacturing Base of the United States and tax base that went with it as well?
We didnt! the Lobby Whores collected HUGE LOBBY DOLLARS!
We didnt Vote for this! and our Government did get Paid to vote for this!'
so?? Treason? seems to fit. but I am open to other lines of thought, as long as you are not a Government Plant!
Remember, it wasn't necessarily your business lobbiests, but over the last 40 years, the increase in environmental regulations (=$$). Essentially, the environmentalist don't want dirty manufacturing in the pristine US.
My MS is in Environmental Engineering.
Cisco.. is 6,500 jobs.. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-21/cisco-s-6-500-job-cuts-could-hurt-push-for-offshore-tax-holiday.html
Banking is laying off LOTS of Jobs! 6% cuts to IT! here come those on-line bank robbery's then we will need more Internet security!! http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/career-management/231001412
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/22/ubs-cuts-idUSLDE75L1M720110622
What's good for General Motors (and Exxon, GS, etc) is good for the people, right? Won't the bounty and fun "trickle down" as they say it will?
Immelt shipped over 25,000 American jobs overseas...is that true? Didn't Barry appoint him the Big Cheese to create jobs here in America?
As far as moving jobs overseas.....many see this as fair: we send Asia jobs and they send us trinkets and toys....mmmmmm...Fair and Balanced?....mmmmm.
"They" don't send us anything, chump, the corporations which have offshored those jobs then import those trinkets, placing a label on some of them and declaring them next to be "exports" thusly phonying up the export stats.
Every neocon Barry appointed was by design to end the American economy and bring on neofeudalism, as was the case with Geo. Weasel Bush, Clinton, Bushie #1, and Reagan.
GE also laid off 39,000 people since 2009 while telling other companies they needed to do their part in hiring more people
As far as GE is concerned, the kinds of actions they're doing now are the kind that started with Welch.
They chose to forsake the US once it was OK to do so.
Yeah... Jack Fucking Welch. "I am American Business", "I watch CNBullShit". A stooge for China while he destroyed his country. GE and the rest of the cancerous "outsourcers" are American Corporations in name only. What a bunch of Traitors.
Whatever happened to buy American?
Seems we could put a thumb in the eye of the globalists by simply refusing to buy shit we don't need from corporations that use slave labor.
You know, if we were united, and nationalist, or something.
Whatever happened to buy American?
Seems we could put a thumb in the eye of the globalists by simply refusing to buy shit we don't need from corporations that use slave labor.
You know, if we were united, and nationalist, or something.
--Agree 100% with this argument but will folks be willing to pay $25 for a 100% cotton t-shirt instead of $2.99 at Old Navy? Americans are completely oblivious to this fact. They just want their "stuff", even if it is fucking radioactive.
One question comes to mind:
Has anyone done a serious comparison instead of just thrown out old exaggerations? I'd think the difference would be a lot closer than that multiplier.
I gladly pay $25 for my favorite cigar over and over again.
Ironically, the guy that sells them was picked up traveling in Texas and shipped back to Mexico after living decades in Chicago -- you guessed it, no papers.
Chalk up another countless example where government separates buyer and seller.
"Whatever happened to buy American?"
They changed the laws so that as long as one label, or one spec of one box or package containing something that was manufactured overseas, then imported, only later to be fraudulently claimed as an export (usually only imported on paper, not physically), it could be declared as "Made in America."
That's what happened -- it's always about predatory jurisprudence and predatory legislation.
Buy American, buy local and buy from the guy you know who needs the money would work. I don't think this will happen anytime soon.
We are in a downward spiral, a workforce feedback loop. To break the cycle we would have to pay living wages to neighbors and locals. They in turn would buy from other locals thus reversing the spiral.
We are being taught to accept globalism as a good thing when it really enhances deparity of wealth and adversely mortgages our children's future.
A government of the people, by the people, for the people ...
At the moment you really have to ask, "Which people?" Do consider yourself an insider or are you out?
If this were a government by the people and for the people, then there would come a time in the not too distant future when certain transnational corporations were considered fair game and the US Navy and Air Force, after downing several ships and cargo planes loaded with goods, would quickly help those transnational corporations realign their allegiances and comply with US tax policy.
Pay up or get out. That should be the new phrase of the year.
Vaguely reminiscent of the robber barons of the middle ages who put up forts on the Rhein to exact their tribute from passing merchants.
+Infinity.
Trade isn't the problem, but when it is turned into a national security issue, solutions like that are fair game.
Perhaps you should go to Yahoo Finance or Google Finance and look at some of the income statements. Then you'll see how much these companies are really paying in taxes. The US has the second highest corporate tax rates in the world. Why do you think they're all getting out and taking their jobs with them?
Conoco Phillips paid $26 billion in taxes from 2008-2010
That's obviously not enough. They need to turn over more money so that Congress and 0bunghole can spend it all and then borrow a few trillion more.
You cite a list from JW in FL as proof? You can't take one data point as proof of anything without data point prior to and after that data point.
X fatally shot Y. Sounds like a horrible murder, right? What if prior to the shooting, Y had broken into X's house and threatened him with a gun?
The $451 million in tax breaks, what are those tax breaks? Do other industries receive the same "tax breaks"? Do you people understand that
taxable income = revenues - expenses
Many of these "tax breaks" that morons are screeching about are the expenses part of the equation? Tell me exactly what are those tax breaks that Conoco-Phillips received
still waiting for public employees everywhere to get layoffed
Open your eyes, shit for brains:
How about federal government you shithead?
2008 = 2,692,000
2010 = 2,776,000
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/HistoricalTables/TotalGovernmentSince1962.asp
History Repeats...What Started the French Revolution...
http://seenoevilspeaknoevilhearnoevil.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-started-...
OT: Hilarious 2 Min Vid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0Uju3tYS2s
Not much different than 21st Century US.
But wait. I thought the US Government could "increase revenues" with some kind of "compromise" thingy.
Does anyone know where I can buy a "compromise" because "increasing revenues" sounds like a great idea?
Pure genius.
"Keep in mind that American companies that are moving operations overseas and getting out of paying taxes, do business in the U.S. and get considerable benefits from this country."
Centrally planned statist bullshit. It's called making money. Doesn't matter if the tax comes from corporation, personal income, VAT, Sales etc. The entity of a corporation sole goal in life is to maximize profits therefore minimizing taxes. You are correct things in the future aren't going to be the way they were, and all of the socialist/marxist policies in the world aren't going to stop it. You either are competitive or you aren't, and America is becoming uncompetitive in a myriad of ways.
Competitiveness is just code for being the most subservient.
It wouldn't surprise me to see a large round of layoffs at Yahoo (their earnings report really stunk up the joint), Facebook and Google are trashing them badly. Carol Bartz must be desperate. Just saying.
Won't someone please put that shit-heap out of its misery? Clearly the "buy my crap company, please" plan didn't work. Do the humane thing; "Old Yeller" style.
They're still making money, unlike the government, which only takes money from producers. In fact, Yahoo paid over $700,000,000 in taxes the past three years. Of course a socialist jackass goon like yourself would want to shut them down. They're making a profit. You left-wing jackasses demonize any companies that make money while bailing out losers like GM, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac
Tarriffs to eliminate slave/ecological arbitrage.
And default on Ben's hoard of bonds.
Thus the scuttling continues. Shame that these multinationals aren't given an Icarus moment, given that governments like the US also have world reach.
That's not flexibility, it's disposability. What would happen if benefits & liability requirements were multiplied in a manner that discourages this very practice? To preempt the "no experience bar", make requirements have to be sane and reflective of the people we have vs. the unreasonable wants of these organizations.
Or where there are plenty of freedoms for business, but no freedoms for anybody else. In the long run, this does not bode well if a nation or few decides to punish regulatory arbitrage of this kind. A multinational versus a few developed countries would most certainly lose.
You mean if companies aren't allowed to lay off people when sales are bad? Well, they simply won't hire people. That's what is going on in France.
You mean force business owners to hire people who can't do the job? That's just wonderful. We'll have more businesses going bankrupt and everyone in the company will be laid off.
Before clueless assclowns like you make suggestions on how to run a business, perhaps you should start one up and see what it takes. Let's see you hire people you don't need. Let's see you not reduce your workforce when sales are down. Let's see you hire people who can't do the job. We'll see how long your business lasts.
I'm just advocating for cleaner practices, and to prevent the European slow-hire situation (as you describe) from happening here. If anything, this would be engineered against the European model such that slow hiring, disposable work and over selectiveness would be penalized.
Temporary work demonstrates an unhealthy lack of trust in the people doing the work. Besides, if the temporary work is so good then benefits and pay would have no problem being on that schedule.
Why is it OK for workers to be asked to take lesser returns while businesses are allowed to ask for unreasonably high returns? We have the people who can do the job, just that businesses are asking them to take Third World returns/conditions in non-Third World locales. It is not unreasonable to think that having workers shoulder all the risk (and receive none of the rewards) is something terribly wrong.
"Before clueless assclowns..."
Speaking of clueless assclowns, here's a good one...
"In May 2010, the job situation stopped improving. Employers created just 48,000 net jobs, and the trend in job creation changed. Starting in that month, private-sector hiring took a new course, improving by only 6,500 jobs per month—less than one-tenth the previous rate.[8]
This change in course is statistically measurable. Econometric testing shows that a structural break in job growth occurred between April and May 2010. The Heritage Foundation used the Bai–Perron breakpoint test to test for both the likelihood and location of a structural break in job growth. [9] That test showed that both the level of and the trend in job growth changed between April and May 2010.
The Obama Administration also altered its post–Obamacare economic estimates to forecast a significantly slower recovery. The Administration now projects unemployment of 9.1 percent at the end of 2011 and 8.2 percent by the end of 2012.[10] The widely expected labor market recovery never happened."
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2011/07/Economic-Recovery-Stalled-After-Obamacare-Passed
One can poo poo the messenger, but facts are facts.
Econometric testing shows that a structural break in job growth occurred between April and May 2010. The Heritage Foundation used the Bai–Perron breakpoint test to test for both the likelihood and location of a structural break in job growth. [9] That test showed that both the level of and the trend in job growth changed between April and May 2010.
The Heritage Foundation?? You're kidding right? A fuckin' 8 yr old can see when the structural break took place.
http://tinyurl.com/3dfqmnj
While THF's favorite sons Chimpy McFlightsuit and Shooter McBangbang were running lavishly unfunded wars and tax cuts, THF's fav One-Party Central, The Chamber of Commerce, and the Tom Delay K-Street Project were havng circle jerks behind closed doors to figure how they could get the maximum amount of capex and jobs out of the country, then pay the least and zero REAL corporate tax on the profits,, So they could then turn that cash around and kick up their capex in foreign countries even further.
In 10 years, what fuckin' conference call have you been listening to in which a US multi-national corporation has said they are going all-in on investment in the USA? From 2000-4, if a CEO got caught increasing one US headcount, WS and shareholders shit their pants. While it was carte-blanche to create jobs in any foreign country on the face of the Earth.
This whole Act III, Project for a New American Century as a Shithole, could not have been possible without their 10.5 on a scale of 10 fav Greenspan doling out the cheap capital.
Look at the chart. Since 2000, we first created 8 MM jobs, which was the worst job creation since the '70s, except this time it didn't keep up with population because we were importing 150K/yr high-skilled jobs. With the skill that they would do it for $20K.
That whole run of jobs were blown away in 14 months, plus about an avg state's worth of the workforce. Those jobs were created on cheap capital, credit, and bullshit coming out of obligarchies like THF. Their "greatest wealth in American history" fav Hank Paulson and his Posse Banks weren't creating new assets, they were taking existing assets and pumping them up. Hell, the outcome of that $3.7 Trillion bailout/debt generator, guarantees, and a shitload more to come as house prices head further south and another round of employment cuts off the next-tier-up's nuts off .... none of that had anything to do with employment.
Employment and household income in the USA has been systemically trashed on 8 different measures since 2000... and now THF "sees a structural break"?
And we've lost 35 yrs, and are back in the '80s in effective utilization and providing an economy for the population of the USA.... and now THF is absolutely sure, it's the colored boy's fault.
You deserve a nice long hunting trip with Cheney.
Maybe you'll be able to rub elbows with Scooter (who's a Fellow at, and felon signee, of The Project for a New American Century as a Shithole) and you can pass around Cindy Miller who after whoring front page, THF endorsed propraganda, was awarded a lifetime salary with THF.
I take it you've been sucked into the Hopium vortex as you seem to have an issue with space and time.
You disputed nothing within the time frame of the article. Why all the health insurance waivers to corporations (over a thousand now) if the law is not damaging to employment?
"You deserve a nice long hunting trip with Cheney."
LOL!!!...my chances of surviving a hunting trip with Cheney are 100% better than your survival rate of driving with a Kennedy ;-)
nmewn
my chances of surviving a hunting trip with Cheney are 100% better than your survival rate of driving with a Kennedy ;-)
I'm sending you the surgeon's bill for stitching my gut back up. ; )
;-)
The guy threw more shit on the wall than a Bwaney Fwank interview and winds up saying absolutely nothing to the substance, it was classic Alinsky...LOL!
Its like Wall Streets Bob Rubin combined with a Janet Reno enforcement arm along with the repeal of Glass-Steagall never happened...its Cheney's fault now?
Don't get me wrong, Bush came in as a social conservative and left as a conservative socialist on fiscal policy but to say the financial world started and stopped between the years 2000 & 2008 is fucking delusional.