With the Dow Jones industrial average flirting with a record high, the split between American workers and the companies that employ them is widening and could worsen in the next few months as federal budget cuts take hold. That gulf helps explain why stock markets are thriving even as the economy is barely growing and … Continue reading
The chart clearly illustrates the savagery of the last recession. It was much deeper than the closest contender in this timeframe, the 1973-1975 Oil Embargo recession. While we’ve yet to set new highs, the trend has collectively been upward. But a closer look at the average shows a clear slowing of the trend in 2012. … Continue reading
Insisting that job creation was the bottom line in administering the country, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that if no jobs are created, there would be no capital investment, no education, and no health services. Speaking in Senglea in a PN event, Gonzi said “jobs are the be and end all,” underpinning his government’s achievements … Continue reading
Hewlett-Packard (HP) CEO Meg Whitman said this week that the company has reached the halfway point in its restructuring, with 15,000 employees left to cut to meet its layoff target. HP last May announced plans to reduce its workforce by some 27,000 people out of a staff of 350,000. The company is using layoffs and … Continue reading
In January Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell announced plans to take “decisive action,” including selling its Harmony remote division, to turn the company’s fortunes around — and today we’re seeing the first results of that. Logitech will lay off 140 people, or about 5 percent of its non-direct workforce, as part of an organizational shuffle aimed … Continue reading
The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.9% in January 2013, up from 11.8% in December 2012. The EU271 unemployment rate was 10.8%, up from 10.7% in the previous month. In both zones, rates have risen markedly compared with January 2012, when they were 10.8% and 10.1% respectively. These figures are published by Eurostat, … Continue reading
As bad as the current job recovery has been — and it’s by far the weakest since World War II — the recovery in wages has been far worse. Five years after the recession began in December 2007, total wages in the economy have yet to fully recover in real terms, Commerce Department data show. … Continue reading
Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N), the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, plans to cut 1,400 jobs at a plant near Charleroi in Belgium due to high costs and the weak European economy, the group’s Belgian unit said on Thursday. The cuts will come at the Gosselies site just outside of Charleroi, one of the largest Caterpillar … Continue reading
A major healthcare software firm will expand in Atlanta, bringing 500 highly-paid jobs to the city in a deal that will help jump start redevelopment of the former City Hall East, a person with knowledge of the deal said. Massachusetts-based Athenahealth, a player in the growing industry of healthcare information technology, will become the lead … Continue reading
Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S. automaker majority owned by Italy’s Fiat (FIA.MI), will invest $374 million in four Indiana plants to support production of its more fuel-efficient eight- and nine-speed transmissions by the end of the year. The move will create up to 1,250 jobs in Indiana, including as many as 850 jobs at the … Continue reading
One of the more tragic outcomes of the euro crisis has been the gut-wrenchingly high youth unemployment rates. More than half of the young people in Greece and Spain are looking for work. “Europe is facing an often-cited “lost generation” which experiences long periods of unemployment or unstable jobs during their first working years, with … Continue reading
Unemployment in France shot up by 43,000 in January. That brings the total number of unemployed to 3.16 million, just shy of the 3.19 million record set in 1997. After he was elected, the administration of socialist President Francois Hollande decided to raise taxes rather than cut spending. Rates on the wealthy were raised to … Continue reading
Most government books are closer to being balanced. Budget deficits will shrink below the 3 percent limit in the Stability and Growth Pact, while the commission estimates that the eurozone will run a current account surplus of over 2 percent in 2014. The commission also expects Spain to run a current account surplus in 2013. … Continue reading
The Chicago region has experienced a steep decline in private research and development spending over the last decade, according to a report released Tuesday by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. In reducing R&D spending and jobs from firms that focus on innovation, the region has lost ground to San Diego, Boston, Silicon Valley and … Continue reading
JPMorgan is trimming about 4,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its work force, becoming the latest big bank to shrink its staff. The bank said the cuts will be focused in consumer banking and mortgages. Many of the cuts would come through attrition, but the bank will lay off workers as well, a bank … Continue reading