Bear Stearns Announces New Round of Job Cuts

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 29, 2007

The Bear Stearns Companies, the investment bank, said yesterday that it would cut 4 percent of its staff in further fallout from mortgage-related turmoil.

The bank will cut 650 jobs in all departments from its work force of about 15,500. This would be the third wave of layoffs at the bank, which as of last month had cut about 900 positions.

Bear Stearns has been among the hardest hit on Wall Street as investment banks reel from deterioration in the subprime mortgage and leveraged loan markets. The biggest global investment houses and major banks collectively wrote down some $80 billion worth of assets because of the market crisis this summer.

Earlier this month, Bear Stearns said that in the fourth quarter it would write down another $1.2 billion linked to losses from its mortgage-backed securities business. The reduction will result in a quarterly loss for the company.

The latest round of job cuts puts even more stress on James E. Cayne, the chief executive, whose leadership has been under scrutiny since Bear Stearns announced the collapse of two hedge funds in July.

The investment bank said in a memorandum distributed to employees that the current round of job cuts was part of an ongoing review “to best position Bear Stearns for 2008 and beyond.” Employees affected would get severance, benefits and outplacement services, the memorandum said.

Russell Sherman, a spokesman for Bear Stearns, said the jobs cuts would come from across the company and were not restricted to one particular business. In October, Bear Stearns cut 300 jobs from areas including its equity trading business. The company, which is one of the country’s largest underwriter of mortgage bonds, also cut about 600 positions from its mortgage-origination unit.

Shares rose $4.07, to $99.50.

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Holiday hiring picture not jolly

Holiday Layoffs a Cruel Scare Tactic, Teamsters Tell New Era Cap

Mass layoffs up in Q3 for Mo., Ill.

Missouri reported 18 mass layoffs and 1,625 initial claims for unemployment insurance during the third quarter of 2007, according to numbers released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).

That compares to 10 mass layoffs and 3,462 initial claims in the third quarter of 2006. The DOL's third quarter is defined as July 1 through Sept. 30.

A mass layoff is described as an unexpected layoff of at least 50 people at one company.

Illinois had 70 mass layoffs and 8,899 initial claims in this year's third quarter. That's up from 60 mass layoffs but down from 11,304 claims during last year's third quarter.

There were 931 mass layoffs in the U.S. in the third quarter, with 136,234 initial claims for unemployment insurance.

The national unemployment rate averaged 4.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted, in the third quarter of 2007, unchanged from a year earlier. Private non-farm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased by 1.4 percent, or about 1.6 million, over the year.

The Mass Layoff Statistics program is a federal-state program that identifies, describes and tracks the effects of major job cutbacks using data from each state's unemployment insurance database. The data represents the private, nonfarm sector.


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Rheem Announces Job Layoffs

By Tara Muck

TIMES RECORD • TMUCK@SWTIMES.COM

Rheem Heating and Cooling Division announced late Thursday that it will lay off 125 workers at its Fort Smith plant effective Nov. 26, according to a news release.

The layoff comes on the heels of a previously announced temporary layoff that will affect nearly all of the 1,225 workers at the plant. Earlier this month, Ed Raniszeski, the division’s director of market development and communications, said the facility will shut down its operations during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays.

Raniszeski could not be reached for comment late Thursday to clarify the difference between the two layoffs.

The latest layoff will affect second-shift employees who assemble gas furnaces for Rheem. The Fort Smith plant manufactures residential and commercial heating and cooling products for the Atlanta-based company.
According to the news release, “The continued downturn in the nation’s housing industry coupled with unseasonably warm weather has resulted in an untenable inventory build up of gas furnace supplies.”

In an earlier interview regarding the temporary layoff, Raniszeski said by the time the weather turns cold, most of the furnaces have already been built for the first major wave on the market.

“A lot of times people don’t realize we begin building air conditioning products right after the first of the year,” Raniszeski said.

But the housing market slump has caused low sales figures for the company’s heating and cooling division, which has caused inventory to build up. To lower inventory, Rheem planned its first layoff over the holidays, of which six days would be paid holidays.

While both layoffs begin at the same time, whether that shift will return this year is yet to be learned.

Jeff Hammond, an analyst with Key Banc Capital Markets in Cleveland, Ohio, told the Times Record earlier this month that extended production shut downs in the heating and air industry are happening nationwide in the fourth quarter.


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Progressive Corp. to layoff 341 people

Associated Press - November 15, 2007 11:15 PM ET

MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio (AP) - Progressive Corporation says its laying off 341 employees as part of a companywide reorganization.

The auto insurer based near Cleveland says 263 jobs are being cut from its information technology group.

Another 78 jobs are being eliminated from its personal lines group, where the layoffs are affecting mostly supervisors and managers in the company's sales and customer service call centers.

Progressive CEO Glenn Renwick says the company will try to find jobs for those who have been laid off.

The layoffs won't take effect until November 30th.

Progressive says most of those affected are based in Cleveland.

The company is the nation's third biggest auto insurer and has more than 26,000 employees nationwide and almost 10,000 in northeast Ohio.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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JOB CUTS AT USA TODAY

Bloomberg

November 16, 2007 -- USA Today, the largest US newspaper by circulation, plans to cut 45 newsroom jobs, or about 9 percent of the editorial staff, because of declining revenue at Gannett Co.'s flagship publication.

Employees with more than 15 years experience or fewer than five years of online experience will be eligible for a buyout, USA Today Editor-in-Chief Ken Paulson said yesterday in a memo to the staff.

Involuntary cuts would occur only if too few people apply, he said. The paper has around 500 editorial employees.

USA Today posted a 6.6 percent decline in third-quarter advertising revenue in the third quarter as newspaper companies lose sales amid a shift by advertisers shift dollars online.


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Scandinavian Airlines announces 230 layoffs after grounding its turboprops

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: Scandinavian Airlines announced Thursday it would lay off 230 pilots and cabin staff in the wake of a recent decision to stop flying its 27 turboprops.

"I can't give an exact breakdown but there are about twice as many cabin staff as pilots," said Mikael Lindberg, a spokesman for SAS Sweden.

Negotiations between the airline and the pilot and cabin staff unions are expected to begin next week.

SAS — the joint flag carrier of Sweden, Denmark and Norway — dropped the Bombardier Q-400 turboprops from its fleet on Oct. 28 after three crash landings.

The decision came a day after one of its planes made an emergency landing in the Danish capital of Copenhagen with a landing gear malfunction — the third such incident in seven weeks.

There were no serious injuries, but the SAS board said the accidents had affected passengers' confidence in the planes and that continuing to fly the turboprops could damage the airline's reputation.

The turboprop, also known as Dash 8, crash-landed twice in September — in Aalborg, Denmark, and Vilnius, Lithuania.

The airline said that dropping the planes would cost it up to 400 million kronor ($63 million) during the remainder of the year.

SAS has replaced the turboprops, which represented about 5 percent of its seat capacity, with other planes in its fleet as well as with leased aircraft.

The carrier demanded 500 million kronor ($78.25 million) in compensation from Bombardier for costs and lost income for the first two accidents involving the turboprops.

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by Bill Mooney/The Times
Thursday November 15, 2007, 11:12 AM

PLAINSBORO -- GPC Biotech, a German pharmaceutical company with offices here, has laid off workers locally for the second time this year.

The company, which withdrew its application for Food and Drug Administration approval of cancer drug candidate satraplatin this summer, announced it will lay off 43 people at its Plainsboro office on the heels of cutting 46 jobs at that site in August.

GPC also will cut 60 jobs in Munich for a total of 103 job losses this month, or about 44 percent of its total work force. The move will leave GPC with 58 people in Plainsboro and 56 in Munich for a total of 114 employees.


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Livermore Lab Warns of Layoffs

Betsy Mason writes on InsideBayArea.com:

Just six weeks after a new manager took charge, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced Monday it will lay off of as many as 500 employees due to increasing costs.

At an all-hands morning meeting, lab director George Miller told employees that 2,000 of them would be given notice this week that they are among those whose jobs are in jeopardy.

Those laid off will be temporary workers with fixed-term contracts known as flex-term employees and supplemental labor workers hired through contractors including IAP Worldwide Services.

In addition to the impending 500 layoffs, at least 50 of these employees have already been let go, triggering the Warn Act which requires management to notify employees of the possibility of a mass layoff.


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Blue Chip Layoffs

New Casino Has Drawn Boat�s Customers

Editorial

The layoffs announced by Blue Chip Casino last week ought to be a warning to Michigan City about its dependence on gambling money.

For more than a decade, Michigan City has come to view the casino as a reliable source of income that can simply be folded into its budget for capital projects and operating expenses.

And while Boyd Gaming's $130 million investment in a 22-story hotel that's under construction is proof the company doesn't have any plans to shutter Blue Chip Casino, the fact is that between 60 and 70 people lost their jobs because revenue and attendance have declined since August when Four Winds Casino opened in New Buffalo Township some 10 miles away in Michigan.

Since July, the last month without competition from Four Winds, monthly revenue at Blue Chip has fallen from $26 million to $17 million. In October, 54,000 fewer people visited Blue Chip than they did in September. Boyd Gaming officials were clear that they expected a decline in both revenue and attendance, but the fact is Blue Chip has had to make adjustments, just as any other business would.

David Strow, the spokesman for Boyd Gaming, said the layoffs were something the company did not want to do. "This was a last resort. This was a very difficult decision," he said.

No one doubts that.

Even though the expectations are that attendance and revenue will start to go up again at Blue Chip, there is no guarantee the levels will return to where they were before Four Winds Casino opened.

With that in mind, Michigan City - which gets more than a quarter of its budget from Blue Chip Casino - needs to review its dependency on casino revenue.

More and more, Michigan City has used casino money to pay the insurance costs of city employees. That expense ought to be figured as part of the city's operating costs with money that comes from the city's tax draw. Casino funds should be used on capital projects like fire stations and sewer projects.

Relying on casino dollars as day-to-day operating funds is a dangerous proposition.



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Mass Layoffs? In Booming China?

Shu-Ching Jean Chen, 11.13.07, 7:47 AM ET


HONG KONG -

Looking at the latest wave of mass layoffs made by China’s locally owned and multinational corporations alike, you wouldn’t know the country is in the midst of an unprecedented economic boom.

China’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, has proposed dismissing more than 5,000 employees. Last month, Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) laid off 110 staff in its global procurement center in Shanghai. At the same time, mass layoffs were reported from across the country, from angry workers at a kindergarten in Beijing to hundreds of teachers recently dismissed in Shenzhen and many more at local private enterprises. That follows earlier actions taken in August by the nation’s largest television station, China Central Television, which sent home 1,800 of its temporary employees, making up 20% of its workforce, and in July by South Korea’s LG Electronics (other-otc: LGEAF - news - people ), which after a 14-year presence in the country retrenched, lopping off 11% of its China head count.

What’s going on? Earlier, such layoff announcements looked like isolated incidents. As trickles turned into tidal waves, China’s media and analysts started to find a common denominator in these mass layoffs, pinpointing the high-risk groups: certain temporary workers, whom employers now must sign on at a greater cost, and staff that have served long tenures, who will soon receive almost ironclad terms of employment, all thanks to a new national labor law, effective January 1, 2008.

The new law, which threatens to raise the cost structure of many companies operating in China, is also blamed for the decision this week by the world’s fourth-largest digital camera maker, Japan’s Olympus (other-otc: OCPNY - news - people ), to locate a new production plant in Vietnam rather than adding to its existing two in China.

Proponents of the new law, including China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, point to the better protection it offers to the country’s long-disadvantaged low-income workers, whereas corporations and business owners are concentrating on the increased difficulty and higher cost of any future downsizing initiatives.

The new labor law, passed in June after it spent three years in the drafting stage, dictates that employers provide employees that have worked ten consecutive years with the company a contract of permanent employment that would protect them from redundancies except under certain extreme circumstances spelled out in the legislation. Huawei and LG Electronics, not coincidentally, targeted for job cuts staff members who were approaching the ten-year limit.

Another big beneficiary of the new law will be long-term temporary workers, who currently are not covered by formal contracts. They should be hired as formal staff if they have signed temporary contracts with a company more than twice or if the duration of their temporary status exceeds ten years. Recent layoffs at CCTV and the Shenzhen schools involved workers falling under this heading.

The new law also introduces benefits such as mandatory employer-paid insurance for contracted employees, layoff compensation payouts to be pegged to inflation and new compulsory paid holidays to be given to Chinese laborers.

Corporate employers across the country are watching closely how other competitors respond to the new law as a guide as to what wiggle room they might have to protect their bottom lines, while wary employees are waiting to see whether they might be the next to go.

Hence, employees at state-owned or quasi-state companies are particularly pleased by the intervention by the nation’s powerful umbrella labor organization, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, in the situation at Huawei, a company growing in good part from the support of the People’s Liberation Army. In a dispatch issued on Saturday, the official Xinhua News Agency said Huawei must shelve its current layoff action and to seek approval from its company labor union as part of a compromise reached between the company and the nationwide union federation.

Employees previously dismissed by Wal-Mart and LG Electronics won’t be so lucky. Even though Wal-Mart last year took the unprecedented step of allowing labor unions to function within its China retail operations, its 1,000-member global procurement center in China, which operates as a separate unit, has not been unionized and thus would not be shielded from job dismissals. Former LG workers, though, have been seeking remedy in the form of arbitration from their local government labor bureau.


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AT&T loss prompts job cuts at GSD&M Idea City

GSD&M Idea City could lay off between 100 and 200 workers in the wake of the loss of AT&T Inc.'s media account, according to a published report this week.

In an interview in Advertising Age, Roy Spence, chairman and CEO of Idea City, would not confirm the number of employees that will be cut. However, he told the magazine that the layoffs largely stem from the advertising agency's loss of AT&T's media business. The communications company consolidated its $3.4 billion media account with advertising firm Mediaedge:cia last month.

An Idea City spokesperson said that employees were notified today. The cuts will largely affect those employees who worked on the AT&T account. The published report said the layoffs could affect between 100 to 200 employees companywide.

At one point, the AT&T account represented about 40 percent of the advertising firm's business, insiders say. It is not known how significant those billings are presently.

Idea City employs about 700 people. The advertising agency has lost more than 100 employees in the past few months.

In the past year, Idea City has parted with longtime clients Chili's Grill & Bar and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

This story originally appeared in the Austin Business Journal, an affiliated publication.


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Layoff's Coming at Monticello?

November 13, 2007

Losing $1 million a month and customers in an alarming trend, officials at Empire Resorts, the owner of New York's Monticello Raceway, have indicated that staff layoffs may be on the way to stop the bleeding.

An article posted on the recordonline.com has quoted Empire's senior vice president Charlie Degliomini as saying, "We have been deeply affected by an economic tsunami that has damaged both our racing and VGM [video gaming machine] businesses."

The article goes on to state that Empire's revenue fell by $6.2 million to $22.5 million in the quarter ending September 30 compared with last year's summer quarter. Harness racing was off by $2.1 million, or nearly 50 per cent; video gaming machines dropped by $3.9 million, or 17 per cent; and food, beverage and other revenue decreased by approximately $398,000. Empire reported a net loss of $2.5 million for the quarter. It lost $197,000 in the year-ago quarter.

Degliomini went on to say, "…as fiscally responsible managers of a public company, we will be obligated to consider various alternatives. These would include scaling back our work force, as well as reducing the racing operation to an abbreviated resort season."

Degliomini noted that Monticello has lost VGM and racing revenue to Pocono Downs, Yonkers and Tioga Raceway and that the facility has yet to realize the impact from the new Mount Airy casino.

"It is virtually impossible for any rural business to even survive, much less thrive, by giving away 70 per cent of gross revenue [in taxes], while shouldering nearly 100 per cent of the operational and capital expenses," said the vice president.


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Hedge Fund Blamed for German Exchange’s Layoffs

by Paula Schaap, Reporter , November 12, 2007

Deutsche Börse, the Frankfurt-based stock exchange, is once again under fire to return money to investors from U.K.-based hedge fund firm The Children’s Investment Fund, according to one report.

The exchange will lay off about 200 employees, according to a report in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

The report attributed the layoffs to pressure from activist hedge fund manager Chris Hohn, founder of TCI to streamline operations and return as much money as possible to stockholders.

Hohn is known for buying up stakes in exchanges, as well as other companies, and then taking an activist stance. In 2005, TCI along with hedge fund firm Atticus Capital, was one of the leaders of a shareholder revolt against Deutsche Börse’s planned merger with the London Stock Exchange. Werner Seifert who was the head of the exchange at the time, engaged in a public war of words with Hohn, but then left the exchange after the deal went south.

Germany has a strong antipathy to hedge funds, best exemplified by the term used to characterize them: “locusts.” Last month, the country’s cabinet approved a bill that would require hedge funds’ financing terms. The proposed law also requires hedge fund firms to reveal their plans for a takeover target if they acquire more than 10% of its stock.

The German parliament still has to approve the bill, but observers say that it is likely to pass early next year.

A call to Deutsche Börse was not returned by press time.

Corbis Laying Off Another 125 Employees

November 14, 2007

By Daryl Lang

Updated 3:50 p.m. ET

Stock photo agency Corbis plans to eliminate 125 jobs and close offices in eight markets in the first half of 2008, the company announced Wednesday. Among the casualties are Corbis's Chicago office.

The reductions are part of a plan to consolidate customer service and sales operations into two major centers, one in New York and another in London.

A Corbis spokesperson says the company will close eight of its 24 offices by June 2008. Offices are closing in Amsterdam, Brussels, Hamburg, Madrid, Chicago, Montreal, Melbourne and Singapore.

Corbis will maintain salespeople who work from home in these markets, as well as several others including San Francisco, Atlanta and Dallas. "In broad terms, our geographic reach is expanding," says Ivan Purdie, Corbis's senior vice president, sales and service.

The layoffs are related to the office closings and affect a variety of geographic locations, Purdie says.

This is the second round of layoffs at Corbis this year. It follows the announcement in June of 160 job cuts, or about 15 percent of the Corbis work force. The company closed its commercial assignment division earlier this year as new CEO Gary Shenk took over and began a restructuring effort designed to make the company profitable.

"Transforming our sales organization and customer service operations are critical to making us a more competitive player in the market," Shenk said in a statement Wednesday.

Last week Corbis announced that it is acquiring Veer, a competitor based in Calgary, Alberta. The layoffs announced Wednesday will not affect Veer, Corbis says.

Based in Seattle, Corbis is privately owned by Bill Gates and has always lost money. The company's four major brands now include Corbis, Corbis Rights Services, micropayment site SnapVillage, and Veer.

Stock photography agencies are feeling pressure from low-priced micropayment stock photo Web sites. Corbis rivals Getty Images and Jupitermedia have reported soft or declining revenues in some categories of stock imagery.

Boston Scientific starts planned layoffs of workers

Boston Scientific Corp., which recently said it will eliminate 2,300 jobs worldwide, has begun letting workers go. But both the Natick medical device maker and the state have declined to say how many of the cuts are being made in Massachusetts. The state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development rejected a written request from the Globe to release records related to the cuts, saying it promised to keep the data confidential. Spokeswoman Linnea Walsh declined to say why the state made the promise. Walsh said the agency is working with the company's outplacement firm to help workers who lose their jobs, but declined to name the firm. (Todd Wallack)


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Moravia likely to be spared from Visteon layoffs

By: Erich Handl, 12. 11. 2007, More by this author

U.S.-based automotive part supplier Visteon Corporation, which has three plants in the Czech Republic, has announced extensive international work force reductions.

Last week, Visteon’s office in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., released a statement saying it would cut hundreds of jobs by mid-2008, both in the U.S. and across Europe. The layoffs are a part of a cost limiting plan. “We have informed our employees that as part of our continuing effort to improve the company’s performance, we are taking a number of actions, including the elimination of 500 salaried positions globally,” Kimberley Goode, vice president of corporate communications at Visteon, said in U.S. newspaper Crain’s Detroit Business. The affected employees will learn within half a year whether their positions have been eliminated, she said. “We will reduce positions in management, in particular in areas such as human resources, finance, legal and accounting. We want to reduce our overall cost structure,” she added.

In the Czech Republic, the corporation has some 4,000 employees at three plants—the former Autopal factory in Nový Jičín, North Moravia, and two more plants in Rychvald, North Moravia, and near Uherské Hradiště, South Moravia.

But Czech plants seem to be safe. “Our plants are not being considered for the reductions,” Jana Prudilová, spokeswoman for the Nový Jičín plant, told CBW.

That statement is in line with Visteon’s strategic plan to cut jobs in what it considers “high-cost countries.” The Czech Republic does not rank among these, as it is still considered a country with cheap labor.

As part of this new strategy, Visteon has sold its Chennai, India, drivetrain plant, which employs 800 people. It also announced the closure of branches in Connersville and Bedford, both in the U.S. state of Indiana. In October, Visteon also reached an agreement to sell its plant in Swansea, Wales.

These sales did not stop Visteon’s economic losses. For the third quarter of 2007, the company reported a loss of $109 million (Kč 1.9 billion/€ 73.9 million), on revenue of $2.4 billion. The loss was a year-on-year improvement of $60 million. The company management may need to extend its restructuring program. “We will come out trumps up in the end,” said Michael Johnston, CEO of Visteon, at a recent meeting with analysts. The turning point will come in 2009, Johnston said.

“We are making progress in every aspect of our improvement plan by implementing our restructuring actions as planned and continuing to improve and grow our operations to position Visteon for long-term success,” he said in a company statement.

Visteon Corporation is a multinational automotive supplier that was spun off from Ford Motor Company. It develops components for car air conditioning, interiors, electronics and lights for various carmakers, and is a supplier for the spare parts market. The corporation has its headquarters in Michigan, U.S., and has more than 170 plants in 24 countries around the world. The company employs approximately 43,000 people, and its annual sales revenue in 2006 was $11.4 billion, according to company figures. Its customer base includes the 19 largest vehicle manufacturers in the world.

From Ford to Visteon

Visteon entered the Czech Republic by acquiring the Autopal plant in Nový Jičín in 2000 from Ford. Autopal was a traditional domestic company until 1993. The company had grown from a small tinsmith shop, founded on Oct. 4, 1879, by Josef Rotter. At the beginning of the 20th century, production focused on car plugs, kerosene and acetylene lamps, carriage lamps, and lamps for motor vehicles and train engines. Autopal, a national enterprise, was established in 1949, and manufactured lights and cooling technology for all domestic manufacturers of passenger cars, trucks, coaches, tractors, trams, train engines, railway vehicles, vans and special vehicles until 1992. A significant milestone in the history of the company came on July 13, 1993, when the enterprise was acquired by Ford. Autopal became a part of Visteon in April 2000.

The number of company employees rose to more than 4,000 and annual revenue approached Kč 12 billion. The parent corporation has also built two research and development centers in the Czech Republic, increased the number of customers from three to 22 global carmakers and restructured plants in Hluk, near Uherské Hradiště, and in Rychvald, and built a new plant in Slovakia.

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Tyson and Cargill announce layoffs

As part of its new corporate streamlining initiative, Tyson Foods Inc. is laying off managers at facilities across North America.

According to company spokesman Gary Mickelson, Tyson Foods Inc . plans to lay off almost 200 managers, with about half of the positions eliminated in northwest Arkansas where Tyson employs about 22,000 people.

The initiative, entitled FAST (focus, agility, simplify and trust), was announced earlier this year. "The goal is to place greater emphasis on doing only value-added activities and encouraging faster decision-making," said Mickelson, adding that no hourly production or maintenance jobs were affected.

Cargill Meat Solutions, citing challenging livestock markets, rising commodity costs and disruptions in key export markets, has announced it will lay off 48 employees at corporate offices in Wichita, Kan., and at production facilities nationwide.

"We had tried to hold out, hoping that market conditions would improve, but they have continued to be negative," said company president Bill Rupp, adding: "We did not want to do this."

Lear to close; GM lays off 200

By TONY TAGLIAVIA

GRAND RAPIDS - More layoffs and job losses hit West Michigan Tuesday with the announcement from two area auto-related companies.

More than 100 workers will be cut from the Lear plant in Walker. Employees told 24 Hour News 8 the auto supplier announced the gradual cuts this week. They'll lay off employees until the plant is shut down next year.

"I know a lot of people are really upset after today and everything," employee Michelle Bosowski told 24 Hour News 8. "It's just, this is Michigan, this is the automotive industry. This is what's happening, unfortunately."

Reached by phone, a Lear vice president wouldn't confirm or deny the layoffs and closure, and said the company makes those announcement to the workers.

The Walker city manager told 24 Hour News 8 she hasn't gotten official word on this closure.

The General Motors plant on 36th Street in Wyoming will begin schedule layoffs during a slow period for the company. Fewer than 200 employees will be temporarily laid off during the holidays, beginning November 20. GM will start with volunteers for the layoffs, then move to those with the least seniority in production and skilled trade jobs.


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Symantec cutting staff as cost reductions continue

Symantec Corp. is laying off an undisclosed number of employees this week, according to reports.

Dow Jones said the Cupertino-based company (NASDAQ:SYMC) confirmed the layoffs but said they aren't connected to a $200 million cost-cutting initiative announced in January.

Symantec didn't provide specifics about the layoffs.

The company has been trying to expand its sales to businesses, bolstering its consumer products such as the Norton line of security software.



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Mich. unemployment rate rises to 7.7%

Bad news on the automotive front pushed Michigan’s October unemployment rate up to 7.7% during October.

The rise was two-tenths of a percentage point higher than September’s rate, and almost certainly guarantees that Michigan will continue to post the worst state unemployment rate in the nation.

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“The October unemployment rate increase reflects short-term layoffs in the auto industry,” said Rick Waclawek, director of the state’s Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. “October layoffs in the auto sector were associated with reduced production schedules.”

The national jobless rate in October was unchanged over the month at 4.7%.


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Economy hit by slowdown in growth

Nov 12 2007 by Aled Blake, Western Mail
Wales one of three UK areas to see employment go down

A SLOW down in growth and falling confidence in business owners is beginning to hit the Welsh economy, new research suggests.

According to the October’s PMI Business Survey Data, produced for the Royal Bank of Scotland, Wales was one of three areas of the UK to register a fall in employment.

The research found growth of private sector business activity slowed markedly in October, reflecting a moderation in the rate of expansion of new orders.

The seasonally adjusted Business Activity Index expanded for the 55th consecutive month in October, but the rate of expansion fell to a four-and-a-half year low of 51.3, from 54.7 in the previous month.

Slower growth of activity reflected a similar weakening in the rate of expansion of new orders during October.

Panellists, particularly those in the service sector, reported that a softening of market demand conditions was the principal factor driving the rate of new business growth down to a 52-month low.

RBS senior economist Robert Gardner said, “Business activity in the Welsh private sector extended the current period of expansion to 52 consecutive months, but the rate of growth was at its slowest since April 2003.

“Growth in business activity and new orders was positive in October but slowed markedly reflecting a softening of market conditions, particularly in the service sector.”

Weaker growth of activity and new orders prompted firms to make cutbacks to their staffing levels in October for the first time in three months.

There were a number of reports linking redundancies to cost-control initiatives. Although only modest, the fall in employment in Wales contrasted with a solid expansion of staffing levels across the wider UK private sector economy.

The PMI survey recorded “lacklustre” expansion of new work freed up a greater degree of operating capacity to be utilised for the completion of existing orders. Backlogs of unfinished work declined at the fastest pace for six months.

Meanwhile data from the CBI reported that demand for goods from small and medium-sized manufacturers has flattened after nine months of solid growth.

And firms have become more pessimistic about the business environment, according to the CBI’s latest quarterly SME survey published today.

The experiences of small and medium-sized (SME) firms differed over the last quarter however. Medium-sized manufacturers hit a 12-year high in export order growth while reporting a moderate decrease in domestic orders. Meanwhile, small firms saw slight growth in domestic orders and stable export orders.

Steve Sharratt, chairman of the CBI’s SME Council, said, “The nine month run of growth that the sector has enjoyed has cooled off, but the detail is more mixed, with medium-sized firms enjoying very strong overseas demand.

“The supply of skilled labour continues to worry SME firms, but it is heartening that they have reacted by expanding and upskilling their workforces.

“However, looking ahead, businesses are less optimistic and overall demand is forecast to weaken, so it is vital the Government supports this sector.”\\\\



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Swanson to lay off 150 workers

By Greg Stiles
Mail Tribune
November 10, 2007
Regional lumber company Swanson Group of Glendale on Friday said it will lay off 150 workers at four mills Dec. 1.

Swanson said it eliminated a sawmill shift and a planer shift at its Roseburg studmill, Glendale sawmill and Noti sawmill. The boiler and kilns at the Glide mill will cease operation. The layoff is dispersed across operations, sales, forestry and administration departments. The sawmills will continue to operate on a reduced basis until market conditions improve.

President Steve Swanson said the decision was a result of significantly reduced demand for lumber products following the housing market slump.

"Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of a market downturn like the one we are now experiencing," Swanson said in a statement. "So long as supply significantly outpaces demand, due in large part to the continued dumping of subsidized Canadian lumber, the softwood lumber industry will continue to see job losses and downtime."

Annually, the curtailments will remove approximately 270 million board feet of softwood lumber from the marketplace. The company, which employs 1,110 in southwestern Oregon, said no changes are being contemplated for the company's veneer and plywood operations in Glendale and Springfield.

Earlier in the week, roughly 50 workers at Timber Products' Grants Pass hardwood and softwood operation were laid off, while another 75 were put on a reduced schedule.

It's the second go-around for William Johnson, 59, a mill worker from Kerby, who was laid off 14 years ago when the same plant was operated by U.S. Forest Industries.

"I'm going to sit back for a couple of days and see what's going to happen," Johnson said. "I'll possibly go back for further education and look for some other work."

Johnson went through retraining as a displaced worker, but preferred more active employment.

"I need physical work," he said. "I can't stand sitting at a tiny bench. I've got stubby fingers and my eyes aren't as good as they used to be."

Calls to Timber Products' Grants Pass offices weren't returned and at the company headquarters in Springfield, a spokesman said there would be no comment before Monday.

Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.



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Wal-Mart to Lay off 100 Employees in China

Mingpao News Nov 07, 2007


Wal-Mart plans to lay off its employees in China, possibly due to substantial increase in future labor costs. (Getty Images)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest U.S.-based retailer, will lay off about 100 employees in China as a part of its restructuring plan to adapt to the global procurement trend.

According to a report from the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald, Mr. Hu, a retrenched employee at Wal-Mart's Shanghai branch, received a notice of Wal-Mart on October 22 saying: "We regret to inform you that your contract with the Wal-Mart Global Purchasing Center in Shanghai will be terminated as of November 30, 2007."

Another layoff employee said the branches of Wal-Mart's Global Purchasing Centers in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Putian and Dongguan, all issued similar layoff notices on the same day.

A human resource manager from a large foreign enterprise, while commenting about the reason for this sudden employment cut, said that after the enforcement of China's new Labor Contract Law, labor costs would be significantly increased, and would also make future layoffs more difficult. Wal-Mart cutting employment now, is probably based on the consideration of reducing future labor costs.

Another thing worth mentioning is that signs indicate Wal-Mart's huge purchasing is showing a trend towards other lower cost countries and regions.

Dong Yuguo, supervisor of public relations of Wal-Mart China, said the layoffs at this time are part of the resource optimization and restructuring plan of Wal-Mart's Global Purchasing Centers, not exclusive to China.

He added, the optimization and restructure of Wal-Mart's labor force will help adapt to changes in current global procurement trend. More than 200 employees will be laid off globally. About half of them will be in China.

Dong said the layoff decision was made by Wal-Mart's Global Purchasing Centers and detailed actions would be implemented based on local labor laws.

Mingpao, however, quoted a veteran lawyer by stating Wal-Mart's layoffs have broken China's Labor Contract Law at least in terms of operating procedure.


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Local KeyBank center will lay off 185 workers

By Kristin McAllister

Staff Writer

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

DAYTON — Cleveland-based KeyCorp, parent to KeyBank, on Tuesday filed notice with the state that beginning Jan. 1, 2008, and ending Dec. 31, 2008, it will lay off 185 employees at its call center and help desk at KeyBank's downtown headquarters at 34 N. Main St.

KeyBank's district headquarters at that location are not affected by the layoffs, said KeyBank spokeswoman Deanna Lepsky, noting that "our headquarters will remain in Dayton."

She said 160 employees will remain there.

KeyBank in mid-September announced the pending layoff of 50 to 200 employees.

Businesses anticipating the layoff of 50 or more employees at the same facility during any 30-day period are required by federal law to file with government labor officials under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

In Tuesday's filing, dated Nov. 1, KeyCorp Executive Vice President Thomas Helfrich said the 2008 layoffs and closure of the call center and help desk are necessary to improve KeyCorp's "productivity and operating efficiency."

Helfrich said total layoffs are "expected to be less due to normal attrition and our internal reassignment program."

He added that employees are receiving assistance with internal reassignment and outplacement programs.

Employees whose positions are being eliminated are receiving separation pay, plus benefits for those who qualify, Helfrich said.


Contact this reporter at (937) 225-9338 or kmcallister@DaytonDailyNews.com.


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Jefferson County Firm to Lay Off 100 Workers

Pine Bluff - The decline in the housing market is impacting another Arkansas company, forcing a layoff.

Starting next week more than 100 employees with Central Moloney in Jefferson County will be without a job.

The company, which manufactures transformers and transformer components, says as soon as business picks up again they will do everything possible to rehire those who wish to return.

Last month, Central Maloney went to four-day work weeks in an attempt to avoid the move, but says orders have slowed too much because of the downturn in housing.


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Employment over the last three years

Employment over the last three years
Lawrence Zammit

The economic data emerging in the last months show a strong performance of the economy. Employment data are always a key indicator of how the economy is performing. In fact the last Labour Force Survey (covering April-June 2007) is proof of this strong performance.

There are many, including myself, that credit this performance to Malta's membership of the European Union. We have been capable of exploiting the opportunities that EU membership has presented us with and now we are reaping the benefits.

We can see the extent of this by comparing the April-June 2007 Labour Force Survey with the April-June 2004 survey, and assess what developments have taken place over this three-year period. It might be worth remembering that April-June 2004 is the time when we joined the EU (May 1, 2004) and we started to feel the full impact of membership. There is no doubt that there will be those who would claim that more could have been achieved on the employment front, but it needs to be stated these people are the same as those who did not believe in the opportunities and benefits of EU membership.

Over this three-year period, the Labour Force Survey (which is distinct from the records of the Employment and Training Corporation) shows that the total number of persons in employment increased from 146,044 to 155,580. This represents an increase of 9536 persons; reflecting a percentage rise of 6.5 per cent. It also means a net increase in the total number of jobs of just under 3,200 per year. The employment rate among all persons aged 16 and over went up from 45.4 per cent to 47.3 per cent, an increase of 4.4 per cent.

The labour force grew from 157,573 to 166,653, an increase of 9,080 (+5.8 per cent), indicating a higher participation rate. In effect the labour force as a percentage of the population of working age (15 to 64 years) increased from 57.6 per cent to 59.6 per cent; admittedly still below the European average but getting there. With regard to participation rate in the labour force, our country has always had an issue with the female participation rate, in that it is way below what you would find in other economies with a level of gross domestic product and a social structure similar to ours. Over these three years the female labour force as a percentage of total number of females ages 15-64 years rose from 34.5 per cent to 40.3 per cent.

These positive results reflected themselves in a falling unemployment rate. The total rate of unemployment as defined by the Labour Force Survey stood at 7.3 per cent in 2004 and it fell to 6.6 per cent this year. The male unemployment rate fell from 6.9 per cent to 5.6 per cent during the same period, while the female unemployment rate rose from 8.3 per cent to 8.7 per cent. Some explain this rise in the female unemployment rate as a sign that females are today more confident of finding a job and so they would consider themselves to be active in the labour market, even though they would not be in employment. Youth unemployment (covering persons aged 15-24 years) dropped from 18.3 per cent to 14.8 per cent between 2004 and 2007, while the unemployment rate for persons aged 25 and over rose from 4.4 per cent to 4.6 per cent.

The growth in employment that has taken place has been within both the full-time employment segment and the part-time employment segment, thus killing the claim that the increase in jobs has been driven by part-time employment. The data show that full-time employment increased from 135,499 to 140,984 between 2004 and 2007.

This reflects an increase of four per cent (+5485). The increase in part-time employment has been from 10,545 to 14, 596, an additional 4,051 jobs. Self-employment went up from 20,606 to 21,492.

Our economy has not only experienced an increase in employment, but also an increase in income from employment. Again this proves that the growth that we have had in our economy has not been achieved through cheap labour, but through higher value-added activities. The average gross annual salary for employed persons for the period April-June 2004 stood at Lm5,043. The average gross annual salary for the period April-June 2007 stood at Lm5,503. This represents an increase of Lm460 over three years, an increase of 9.1 per cent.

This data evidently show that the economy has generated more jobs since the country joined the EU. This growth in jobs is supported by other positive economic data such as growth in the gross domestic product, a reduced level of inflation and a sustainable fiscal deficit.

We should not take all this for granted because EU membership alone does not guarantee jobs; it is sound economic policies that exploit the opportunities of membership that generate job creation.


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New Zealand's unemployment rate at 21-year low of 3.5 percent

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: New Zealand's unemployment rate fell in the third quarter to 3.5 percent — the lowest rate in the 21 years that the figure has been tracked, official data showed Thursday.

Statistics New Zealand said its Household Labor Force Survey showed that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, from 3.6 percent in the second quarter.

It was the lowest jobless rate recorded since the survey started in 1986, the state-funded bureau said.

However, the overall level of employment fell off from a record high the previous quarter.

Seasonally adjusted employment declined 0.3 percent in the third quarter, Statistics New Zealand said. The decline was led by a 0.6 percent fall in full-time jobs, dominated by a 1.2 percent fall in female employment — but part-time employment was up 1.3 percent.

On a seasonally adjusted basis 2.15 million New Zealanders had jobs in the third quarter, down 7,000 from the previous quarter, when the country had its highest level of employment since tracking of the figures started in 1986.


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Jobless rate rises despite booming market - ABS data

Gerard McManus and John Ferguson, with wires

November 08, 2007 11:45am
UNEMPLOYMENT has increased slightly to 4.3 per cent in October despite a booming jobs market, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

The unemployment rate inched up from 4.2 per cent in September, which was a 33-year low.

The male unemployment rate increased by 2 basis points to 4.0 per cent and the female unemployment rate rose 1 basis point to 4.8 per cent.

Total employment rose a seasonally adjusted 12,900 jobs to 10,533,800.

Economists had expected total employment to rise by 20,000 jobs and a jobless rate of 4.2 per cent.

But the jobs market is booming. Full-time employment increased by 70,600 to 7.59 million and part-time employment fell 57,700 jobs to 2.95 million.

The participation rate in October was unchanged at 65 per cent.

The latest economic data came as John Howard and Peter Costello have apologised to millions of Australians hit by the sixth interest rate rise since the last election.

The Government worked frantically to prevent a voter backlash over the latest rise, the first during a federal election campaign, as economists warned of more ahead.

Its efforts included an unexpected promise to offer up to 12 months' "grandparent leave" when a grandchild is born, the chance for workers to double their holidays by taking them at half pay, and a year's unpaid parental leave for both mums and dads.

But the main focus yesterday was on mortgages. Both the PM and the Treasurer acknowledged the latest 0.25 point rate rise would hurt.

"I would say to the borrowers of Australia who are affected by this change that I am sorry about that, and I regret the additional burden that will be put upon them as a result," Mr Howard said.

Labor leader Kevin Rudd attacked the Government, repeating that the PM had broken a 2004 poll promise to keep rates low.

The Reserve Bank announced it had lifted its official cash rate to 6.75 per cent. The standard variable rate will be 8.57 per cent, adding just over $50 a month to the repayment on an average Victorian new home loan of $300,000.

Banks are expected to pass on the rate rise as soon as this week.

In December 2004, the average monthly repayment on a $300,000 loan was $2133. Today it is $2429 - a difference of $296 a month.

Treasurer Peter Costello also apologised for interest rates being at an 11-year high.

"Of course I'm sorry that people have to pay more on their mortgages," Mr Costello said.

"It's not something I enjoy, and I know they won't enjoy it."

But Mr Costello said Labor had not offered a single idea on how to keep inflation low, which was the key to keeping a lid on rates.

He said interest rates were still lower than at any time under the previous Labor government.

But Mr Rudd described the latest rate rise as a personal "breach of trust" by the Prime Minister.

"Mr Howard today was still arguing the toss about whether in fact his promise to Australians back in 2004 was seriously meant or not," Mr Rudd said.

"Well, working families did take Mr Howard seriously.

"They voted for him, and he has breached trust with them on the core undertaking on interest rates."

Shadow treasurer Wayne Swan said the Government had ignored 20 Reserve Bank warnings in three years that Australia was suffering from a skilled labour shortage.

"The Government has been inactive and complacent about skills shortages and infrastructure bottlenecks that are putting upwards pressure on inflation," Mr Swan said.

Mr Howard said a statement by RBA governor Glenn Stevens that labour costs had been contained was an endorsement for the Government's workplace laws.

"That to me is a big tick for the Government's industrial relations policy, and a big warning sign to any change in that industrial relations policy," the PM said.

The surprise policy softening of WorkChoices enraged business groups but won grudging support from unions.

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey unveiled the policy without fanfare yesterday during a debate in Canberra with Labor's IR spokeswoman Julia Gillard.

Under the new workplace plan, grandparents working in firms of more than 100 employees would be entitled to take up to 52 weeks' unpaid leave.

ABC radio presenter Jon Faine claimed yesterday that earlier this year, in an off-air conversation, Mr Costello told him rates would not rise in November.

But Mr Costello dismissed the claim saying anything he had said on rates was all on the public record.

Small businesses fuel modest October job growth

Employment at small businesses in the U.S. increased by 63,000 jobs in October.

According to the ADP Small Business Report, small businesses - defined as less than 50 employees - in the service sector added 64,000 jobs from September to October. However, the report found there were 1,000 fewer jobs in the goods producing sector.

Macroeconomic Advisers LLC conducted the research using an anonymous subset of 500,000 U.S. businesses. Macroeconomic Advisers Chairman Joel Prakken says the 63,000 small business jobs added accounted for 59 percent of the 106,000 jobs added in October.

"This month's ADP Small Business Report suggests small businesses continued to hire at a moderate rate. The three-month average change in nonfarm private employment from August to October is 50,000, so October's number represents a slight firming of employment growth among small businesses," Prakken says.

The ADP Small Business Report is a monthly estimate of private nonfarm employment conducted by Automatic Data Processing Inc. and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC. Data is collected and processed with statistical methodologies similar to those used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to compute employment from its monthly survey of establishments.

ADP is worldwide business outsourcing company that generated nearly $8 billion in revenues from 585,000 clients.


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Employment and Unemployment in the Czech Republic

The Czech jobless rate fell to what for the Czech Republic in recent times was the unprecedently low level of 6.2% in September (or around 5% if we use the ILO rather than the Czech MLSA methodology). This was the lowest recorded level for the Czech Republic since the new data series was introduced in January 2004, and was the result of the rapid rate of job creation which has accompanied the third consecutive year of substantial economic growth. But the rapid rate of economic growth and job creation which has been taking place in the Czech Republic is at the same time starting to give rise to fears about ensuing labour shortages and a concern that these may lead to the sort of wage-increase driven inflation we are currently seeing in some other parts of the EU10. Indeed Czech Central Bank Governor Zdenek Tuma recently explicitly warned that a shortage of available labor may fuel wage growth, and that this in turn would fuel inflation.

In an attempt to maintain inflation under some sort of control the central bank has already raised interest rates three times so far this year, and only really decided to leave it's two-week repo rate unchanged at 3.25% at the October meeting because it took the view that the administrative fiscal-tightening measures the Czech government has now started to introduce following the fiscal expansionary measures of 2006 - and which will themselves not be bereft of some inflationary consequences, since they involve raising taxes and untility prices - were likely to have an overall restraining effect on demand such that it would be both unnecessary and undesireable to further tighten monetary policy at this point in time. This, and of course the increased external risk which follows from the financial market turmoil of last August.





Despite this consideration, several members of the monetary policy committe did voice their concerns that while demand side inflationary pressures seemed reasonably benign, labor market tightening may become a major factor in the Czech situation, and the non-inflationary effect of real wage increases that the comittee in fact took was conditional on fairly optimistic assumptions regarding labour productivity growth. All-in-all there was an expectation that inflation maywell be driven up towards the upper end of the 4 percent target range sometime early next year.


"The tension on the labor market is relatively significant....pressures on wage growth can be expected...If inflation is low, relatively significant pressures on the labor market can be expected."
Zdenek Tuma, Governor of the Czech National Bank speaking in Prague last month



Increases in regulated prices have pushed headline inflation closer to the 3 percent target in 2006, but the underlying inflationary pressures have remained subdued. Lingering slack in the labor market and inflows of migrant workers kept wage inflation moderate, which, coupled with strong productivity gains, helped contain labor costs. There are no apparent signs of the second-round effects from increases in energy and other regulated prices, which, together with well anchored expectations, underscores the strong credibility of the Czech National Bank (CNB).
IMF, Executive Board Concludes 2006 Article IV Consultation with the Czech Republic, February 28 2007



Czech GDP growth - which has hovered around the 6% mark - has certainly been strong, but not excessively so, in recent years, and the problems which currently exist in the Czech republic are certainly a far cry from the overheating issues which are arising elsewhere in the EU10, and in particular in the Baltics and Bulgaria.



The Czech economy grew at exactly an annual 6 % rate in Q2/07, with this growth being principally pulled by increases in domestic demand. Household demand is estimated to be likely to grow at around 6% this year, and investment at around 19%, while government demand is only forcast to grow at around a 1% annual rate. According to central bank estimates GDP is currently growing at roughly 1 % above its noninflationary potential, while overall monetary conditions remain broadly neutral. What all this means is that the Czech economy is now moving into tricky territory, with what is known as the output gap - which is really a rule of thumb measure of how fast an economy can grow without producing inflation, since the "gap" in question is a general measure of spare capacity - having turned negative around the end of 2005, as can be seen in the chart below which was prepared by a staff economist at the Czech National Bank. So basically the Czech economy is now dependent on flows of funds, and in particular on FDI (to pay for the current account deficit) and on inward migration of workers to meet all the labour supply needs.




Nominal wage growth has accelerated up towards 8 % mark in recent months while nominal uniit labour costs are now growing at around 3 %. This - if you like - is the "productivity gap". What it means is that real wages are no longer in "anti-inflationary" mode, since the ongoing decline in unemployment (which is now evidently below the level which any reasonable estimate of NAIRU ought to give us) means that supply side pressures emmanating from the real economy have become pro-inflationary.






I have commented separately on the fiscal situation in this note, but it is evident that structural reforms in government spending are essential if Czech finances are to achieve longer term sustainability. Even making full allowance for the impact of the new fiscal reform introduced this year, the government deficit is likely to be around 2.5 % of GDP in 2008, which is a strange posture to find in an economy running a negative output gap, ie in an economy which is already expanding at a rate which on many estimates would seem to be above its real capacity. However, it should be stressed that such measures of capacity are only that, estimates. Given the ease and facility of capital and migrant labour flows in todays global economy, a judicious leveraging of such a position can allow an economy to grow at well beyond what might seem to be the normal capacity rate. But this possibility is conditional on simply this, a judicious leveraging of the available resources.

One part of the current fiscal adjustment measures are, however, only temporary in nature, since further tax cuts are already envisioned for 2009. So without further measures, the government deficit will start to increase again in 2009. The previous government record here does not inspire excessive confidence, since fiscal gains which were achieved in 2005 were then relinquished in 2006, when fiscal policy turned expansionary, with the general government deficit having risen to something like 3.75 percent of GDP, reflecting pre-election tax cuts and increases in social transfers for pensions and health care. A large social spending package in the budget for 2007 is expected to raise mandatory spending in the coming years.


The procyclical fiscal stimulus which was implemented in 2006, at a time when the economy was set to register another year of robust growth, was untimely to say the least. In particular, the decision to increase mandatory social spending in the 2007 budget worsened the longer term fiscal position, and an opportunity was lost to consolidate fiscal gains in what were effectively the good times. The authorities have declared, however, an intention to achieve an annual reduction in the structural deficit by 0.25 percent of GDP per annum in their forthcoming Convergence Program.



Nevertheless, weaknesses have emerged in the process of implementing the medium term budgetary framework. The upward revision of the spending limits in the medium term budget during the 2006 and 2007 budget process and the abandonment of the 2005 Convergence Program targets suggests that the fiscal framework needs to be strengthened to increase fiscal discipline in good times. Given the current environment of political uncertainty, the fiscal framework takes on added importance as a disciplining device.
IMF Selected Issues, February, 2007


Certainly the current rate of growth in the Czech Republic - as elsewhere in the EU10 - is creating jobs and reducing unemployment at an unprecedented rate. In Q3 2007, total employment in the Czech Republic grew by 102,800 year-on-year and reached the highest level of employment achieved at any time over the last ten years, according to data from the Czech Statistics Office released at the end of last week. The number of employees rose by 87.3 thousand, and the number of self-employed by 17.5 thousand. The number of unemployed according to ILO methodology was down by 98.3 thousand year-on-year, the number of long-term unemployed dropped by 62.3 thousand. The general unemployment rate fell by 1.9 percentage points to the lowest level since the end of 1997 (5.2%).

The employment rate (the proportion of first (main) jobholders in the number of persons aged 15-64) reached 66.3% and was 0.9 percentage points up year-on-year. The male employment rate grew by 1.3 percentage points to 75.2%, while the employment rate of women grew by 0.5 points to 57.3%.




The seasonally adjusted average number of employed persons increased by 25.5 thousand (+0.5%) quarter-on-quarter.



The average number of unemployed according to the ILO methodology decreased by 17,900 quarter-on-quarter (seasonally adjusted). The number of unemployed fell to only 266,700 (of which 146.900 were women), and this is the lowest level of unemployed which has been registered since the end of 1997. In comparison with Q3 2006, the total number of unemployed decreased by 98,300 and has dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year (26.9%). Generally, unemployment dropped faster among persons in the young and middle productive age. Unemployment dropped more among the female population (by 53,600), especially in the five-year age group 20-24 (by 13,700). The total number of unemployed men fell by 44,700 year-on-year, most of this in the 20-24 age group (by 14,100). A majority of the unemployed (71.1%) are persons either with secondary education without GCSE (the leaving certificate) or with only basic education.







According to the Labour Force Survey results, the general unemployment rate according to the ILO methodology (derived for the 15-64 age group) reached a ten-year minimum of 5.2% in Q3 2007. Compared to Q3 2006 it decreased by 1.9 percentage points.


The different methodology use in the Labour Force Survey is what gives rise to the difference between the general unemployment rate using ILO criteria and the registered unemployment rate by provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the CR (MLSA CR), but it is important to note that the development trend is the same whichever rate you use. The registered unemployment rate by the MLSA CR reached 6.3% in Q3 2007 and decreased by 1.6 percentage points year-on-year.






The regional unemployment rate ranged from 2.3% in the Hl.m.Praha Region and 3.2% in the Jihočeský region to 7.9% in the Karlovarský Region and 9.0% in the Ústecký Region. The drop of unemployment showed itself in all of the regions of the CR, with the greatest declines being registered in areas with high or above average unemployment rates i.e. in the Moravskolslezský, Karlovarský and Ústecký Regions.


Much lower unemploy­ment rates are being recorded for university graduates (2.1%) and persons having full secondary education with GCSE (3.1%). A high unemployment rate continues to be observed among persons with basic education (18.8%) and an above-the-average unemployment rate (5.6%) is still in the large group of persons with secondary education without GCSE including those with vocational education.

Czech inflation accelerated to the fastest in 13 months in September, closing in on the central bank's target and suggesting interest rates may rise again as early as this month. Consumer prices rose an annual 2.8 percent, up from a 2.4 percent in August, according to the Czech statistics office.



Obviously a number of factors are at work in the way the Czech economy is assimilating this drop in numbers of unemployed without stoking inflation, but could one of the important details which "mark the difference" between the Czech Republic and some of its neighbours could be the fact that the Czech Republic far from losing workers on a net-basis through out-migration, has actually been acting as a magnet which attracts inward migrants in significant numbers.

The number of foreigners legally working in the Czech Republic grew by 38,000 at the end of September 2007 in comparison with December 2006, with the total rising to 223,000, and most of the newcomers arriving from either Slovakia (100,000), Ukraine (57,000) or Poland (22,000), according to statistics issued by the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry. Tens of thousands of non-Czech nationals also work in the country illegally, according to numerous estimates.

Lingering slack in the labor market has helped contain wage inflation. Despite strengthening demand for labor, suggested by rising vacancies, wage pressures have remained subdued, as rising inflows of immigrant workers have helped offset the impact of population aging on labor supply. Recent employment gains have been concentrated in industry and private services, including real estate, and do not yet appear broad-based. Unemployment has fallen, but remains around 7 percent, as continued geographical and skill mismatches have kept structural unemployment high.
IMF Selected Issues, February, 2007

Many Czech companies would be unable to operate without the foreign labour force according to HVB Bank analyst Pavel Sobisek. The share of foreign workers in the total labour force already exceeds four percent. The share of value added created by them is around 3 percent, according to Sobisek, while in some sectors, like construction and retail, the share is much higher.

So while some Czechs have left their country to work elsewhere since the turn of the century, the Czech Republic has been more than able to compensate for this by attracting workers from elsewhere. Obviously all of this is not completely problem free, in that wage pressures are nonetheless building up. But the situation is certainly strikingly better than in many other EU 10 countries. So, is there a lesson here for anyone?


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Job growth in services and resources offset losses in manufacturing

TORONTO - It's a trend that has been reinforced in each month's jobless report and hit home last week when Chrysler Canada revealed it would chop an Ontario assembly shift, putting another 1,100 workers out of a job in the province's battered manufacturing sector.

Despite impressive job growth and the lowest unemployment rate in more than three decades, Canada's booming economy is firing on only five of six cylinders. Yet, it's still delivering enough horsepower to push the unemployment rate down to 5.8 per cent and the loonie to record highs.

However, the prospects are for much more difficult times ahead as the earnings squeeze in Corporate Canada puts downward pressure on private sector job growth into 2008.

In recent years, the energy, resources and services sectors have been on fire, especially in the oil-rich West, where high demand is driving up wages and income. Yet, layoffs are starting in the the natural gas sector because of low prices and weakened drilling numbers.

Meanwhile, manufacturing remains under siege, especially in automotive, forestry and textiles industries. The pain that began with restructuring in the auto sector and slumping demand in U.S. housing, has worsened because the soaring loonie is squeezing exports significantly.

Blue-collar unions call for government support and an industrial policy to deal with the erosion in manufacturing, but the economic shift in Canada mirrors changes in all western industrial countries, as their economies move towards services and goods production shifts to low-wage countries in Asia, Latin America and elsewhere.

In Canada, that shift has been painful in Ontario and Quebec's manufacturing sector, but appears to be offset by a boom in jobs in energy, mining, financial services, health care and education.

Overall, job growth continues in every province, pushing up consumer spending. Meanwhile, provincial governments are putting billions of dollars back into education and health care, creating thousands of new jobs every month.

In last week's mini-budget, the federal Conservative government noted that more than 280,000 jobs were created in Canada so far this year. That's almost as much as the manufacturing sector has lost in the last five years.

The economic statement noted that since 2005, when the rising dollar began to hit exporters hard, manufacturing output has shrunk by three per cent with a loss of 130,000 jobs.

But at the same time, financial services grew by more than 10 per cent, construction by nine per cent and retail trade by eight per cent.

"Certainly we've seen in the large developed economies like Canada, a shift from manufacturing to service," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said after a speech in Toronto last week. "This is always a matter of degree. That's why when you look at the Ontario numbers, you see strong employment numbers . . . even though Ontario and Quebec are the major places for manufacturing industries in Canada. We're seeing significant job gains for example in the financial services sector . ./ . with relatively well-paying jobs. Regrettably, some Canadians are losing their jobs in the manufacturing sector. The good news is, they are able to obtain jobs in other sectors."

Doug Porter of BMO Capital Markets says as the economy changes, growth in services offsets troubles in manufacturing, even in Ontario and Quebec, where job growth continues despite the manufacturing weakness.

"I don't want to downplay the Chrysler announcement," Porter said. "We're talking a little more than 1,000 jobs. Ontario just created 32,000 jobs last month.

"And they aren't all McJobs by any means. People tend to downplay the public sector or service sector jobs but a lot of these jobs can be relatively high skilled, high paying and stable. From a consumer spending standpoint, those jobs count every bit as much as a manufacturing job."

Buzz Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, says the strong job-creation growth data "hides a really soft underbelly, especially in Ontario and Quebec."

"It's something that concerns me as a person that's dealt with manufacturing all my life that we can't turn over the economy and somehow think that financial services or the oilpatch are going to solve the problems of Canadians," he said in an interview after meeting with Industry Minister Jim Prentice in Ottawa.

"We can't all move to Alberta. They don't have the infrastructure to get us there to start with, let alone look after us after we get there."

Ted Carmichael, chief economist with JPMorgan Chase Canada, questions whether the employment gains seen in September (51,000) and October (63,000) are providing an accurate picture of the strength of the economy.

Of the 137,000 jobs added in the last three months, 126,000 have been in the public sector, primarily education, health care and government work," he said in a research note. At the same time, private sector employment has dropped by 12,000 and self employment has risen by 28,000.

"In past economic downturns, private sector employment has been a better guide to the direction of the economy than total employment," he said. "In the 1981-82 recession cycle, both private and public sector employment turned down at the onset of recession in June 1981. In the 1990-91 recession cycle, private sector employment turned down at the onset of recession in March 1990, but public sector employment had another growth spurt into July of 1990, but this only sowed confusion about what was really happening to the economy."

JPMorgan forecasts that job growth will slow sharply over the next six months, with inflation falling below two per cent, and it believes the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates to pull down the value of the soaring loonie.

"In the current cycle, private sector employment growth has already weakened sharply since the (dollar) began its rapid ascent last spring," Carmichael says. "Meanwhile, public sector employment has continued to surge as governments have enjoyed healthy fiscal balances and provincial elections have boosted temporary employment.

"A severe profit squeeze, triggered in large part by CAD strength, has developed in the private sector that will put further downward pressure on private sector employment in the months ahead."


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Govn't accounts for more than one third of new jobs

China Unicom Denies Rumors of Big Layoffs

BHEL to hire 20,000 in 11th Plan period

BHEL

8% UNEMPLOYMENT IN SYRIA

Eurozone unemployment down to record low in September

Singapore's jobless rate at decade low of 1.7 pct in Q3

Zanzibar's jobless rate at 7 pct

U.S. job growth doubles expectations

US employment data better than expected

Ashley Seager
Friday November 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The number of jobs created outside the volatile agricultural sector in the United States jumped by 166,000 last month, data showed today, double what Wall Street pundits had predicted.

The figure was the strongest in five months and cast doubt over the likelihood of further interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve after it reduced borrowing costs to 4.5% earlier this week.

The strong non-farm payrolls data follow surprisingly robust figures for third-quarter economic growth out yesterday.

"Overall, a strong report that suggests the labour market is still holding up despite the recent credit crunch," said Paul Ashworth, analyst at Capital Economics.

"We still expect to see more signs of weakness in the coming months, but those signs might not arrive in time for a December rate cut - we think January is still marginally the more likely time."

Bond prices in the US and Britain fell back on the news while the dollar fell to a record low against the euro. But stock markets trimmed earlier losses on relief of some signs of strength coming out of the world's largest economy.


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Germany hits EU workforce targets

According to The Financial Times, Germany hit its employment goals two years early.


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ADP Sees Rebound In U.S. Employment

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Market Scan
ADP Sees Rebound In U.S. Employment
Andrew Farrell, 10.31.07, 8:58 PM ET

Job growth is on the rise just in time for the holiday season.

An analysis of October payroll data showed job growth picking up in the United States, suggesting that the Labor Department will announce better-than-expected nonfarm payroll growth later this week.

Nonfarm private employment grew by 106,000 positions during October, according to an analysis of payroll data from Automatic Data Processing (nyse: ADP - news - people ). The October growth represents a notable rebound. From July to September, nonfarm employment grew an average of 43,000 per month.

The growth was largely attributable to the services sector, where companies hired 134,000 more employees during October.

One area of weakness, unsurprisingly, was construction. Residential builders have cut back on hiring amid a weak housing market. Employment in the construction sector fell by 16,000. It was the 13th decline in the last 14 months.

Joel Prakken, Chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, which performs the ADP analysis, said the sluggish housing market was also evident in a decline in employment in the financial serives sector. The sector includes mortgage companies which have cut back sharply on originations this year.

The housing problems, however, seem to be contained. "There isn't evidence yet that hiring in other sectors seems to be affected by the housing fallout," said Prakken.

The ADP data comes ahead of the Labor Department's October nonfarm payrolls data, which will be released Friday. Economists are expecting a growth of 80,000.

The ADP data and Labor Department data are not perfectly comparable. The Labor Department data will include government hiring, while the ADP is limited to private employment. Still, the strong ADP numbers suggest better-than-expected Labor Department numbers.

Also Wednesday, the Commerce Department estimated gross domestic product rose to an annual rate of 3.9% during the third quarter. Economists had been expecting only 3.1%. GDP measures the output of goods and services produced in the U.S. and is used as a gauge for overall economic activity.

The data comes ahead of the Federal Reserve's eagerly awaited decision on the federal funds interest rate. The Fed is widely expected to cut the rate by 25 basis points to 4.5%, in a statement to be released this afternoon.

The strong economic data pushed up equities. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1.0%, or 137.54, to close at 13,930.01; the Standard & Poor's 500 rose 1.2%, or 18.36 points, to 1,549.38; and the Nasdaq composite put on 1.5%, or 42.41 points, to 2,859.12.

One of the bigger gainers was Sirius Satellite Radio (nasdaq: SIRI - news - people ), which gained 2.1%, or 7 cents, to $3.36, rebounding from a sell-off Tuesday that followed the company's third-quarter earnings release.


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PNM to Lay Off 15 Percent of Work Force

PNM to Cut 15 Percent of Work Force Over Next Year for Cost Savings; Affirms 2007 Outlook
November 02, 2007: 08:57 AM EST

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - PNM Resources Inc. will cut about 15 percent of its work force over the next year, including 150 positions immediately, the energy company said Friday.

The layoff is part of PNM's restructuring plan to cut costs and improve efficiency. The plan will save PNM about $35 million before taxes each year, not including costs. A portion of those savings will be reported in 2008.

The 165 jobs to be eliminated on Friday represent 5 percent of the company's 3,000 employees.

"The decision to reduce our work force was made after a comprehensive cost structure and process analysis," Chief Executive Jeff Sterba said in a statement. "The results showed that we excel in certain areas but there are other areas in which we can do a better job managing future costs."

The company is also automating some functions, like customer service, and streamlining areas like credit and collections, billing and meter reading.

PNM also affirmed its outlook for 2007 profit from ongoing operations of $1.30 per share to $1.40 per share, though said management expects results to be "in the lower end of the range."

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect earnings of $1.37 per share, on average.

Ongoing earnings exclude the impact of nonrecurring items and net unrealized mark-to-market gains and losses on economic hedges. Beginning in the fourth quarter, PNM will exclude hedging results from its ongoing earnings figures unless they are settled during the reporting period. The year's outlook does not include about 65 percent of 2007 hedging activity that will be realized the following year, Chief Financial Officer Chuck Eldred said in a statement. Top of page
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