Companies are laying off employees at a level not seen in nearly a year..

[Wiseacre]

Not good. Not good at all. Hate to say it, but I don't see any easy or quick fixes. Our excesses have caught up with us, and it is now time to de-leverage our debt, both individually and colllectively.

 

[hortysir]

Company I work for is building new locations, some even internationally

 

[Annie]

Not good. Not good at all. Hate to say it, but I don't see any easy or quick fixes. Our excesses have caught up with us, and it is now time to de-leverage our debt, both individually and colllectively.

and some are just beginning to feel the pain and attempting to cope. Those of us on the front of the curve, well no credit left to make do:

Consumers in U.S. Relying on Credit as Inflation Erodes Incomes - Bloomberg

Consumers Use Credit Cards for Necessities as Inflation Cuts U.S. Incomes
By Anna-Louise Jackson and Anthony Feld - Jul 21, 2011

Consumers in the U.S. are increasingly using credit cards to pay for basic necessities as income gains fail to keep pace with rising food and fuel prices.

The dollar volume of purchases charged grew 10.7 percent in June from a year ago, while the number of transactions rose 6.8 percent, according to First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend report issued this month. The difference probably represents the increasing cost of gasoline, said Silvio Tavares, senior vice president at First Data, the largest credit card processor.

“Consumers, particularly in the lower-income end, are being forced to use their credit cards for everyday spending like gas and food,” said Tavares, who’s based in Atlanta. “That’s because there’s been no other positive catalyst, like an increase in wages, to offset higher prices. It’s a cash-flow problem.”

Rising costs of food and gasoline are leaving Americans less money to spend discretionary items, slowing the pace of the recovery, Tavares said. Household spending accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s largest economy.

After-tax income adjusted for inflation fell 0.1 percent from January through May, according to figures from the Commerce Department. The drop came as Labor Department data showed energy prices rose 8.2 percent and food climbed 2 percent during the same period.
...

 

[Douger]

Boston Scientific hiring, expanding operations in Costa Rica

Report: Boston Scientific to shutter Florida plant, laying of 1,400 | MassDevice - Medical Device Industry News
Just 2 examples out of dozens and just in CR. The same is happening all over the planet.
I call it all childs leff behine. It runs hand in hand with the war for drugs ( easier to ship in)

 

[Annie]

Depressing:

Return of Mass Layoffs a Grim Sign for U.S. Workers | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

Return of Mass Layoffs a Grim Sign for U.S. Workers
By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – 21 hours ago

Putting pressure on an already lousy job market, the mass layoff is making a comeback. In the past week, Cisco, Lockheed Martin and Borders announced a combined 23,000 in job cuts. (See: Another Retailer Bites the Dust: Borders Doomed by Amazon Deal, Davidowitz Says)

Those announcements follow 41,432 in planned cuts in June, up 11.6% from May and 5.3% vs. a year earlier, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Meanwhile, state and local governments have cut 142,000 jobs this year, The WSJ reports, and Wall Street is braced for another round of cutbacks. This week, Goldman Sachs announced plans to let go 1000 fixed-income traders.

If these trends continue, we may soon be talking about losses in the monthly employment data -- not just disappointing growth, says Howard Davidowitz, CEO of Davidowitz & Associates

"Everything in business is confidence," Davidowitz says. "You lose confidence and businesses can't deal with that [and] who could have confidence with what's going on in Washington?"

Davidowitz is bipartisan in his criticism, calling the U.S. political system "dysfunctional and deranged."

...

 

[uscitizen]

Yes depressing, but get used to it. regardless of the party in power.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

It's probably due to spending cuts by the government.

No fat government contracts.

No employees.

why yes of course, because people don't buy car insurance or read books when the gov. doesn't pay them too....


some of it probably is, which begs the Q, so thats that? No gov. spending no economy? what happened to the stimulus which was supposed to "prime the pump" of the economy?

so now we just keep borrowing money to to send it to states to pay for roads and bridges that ...oh wait there are no shovel ready jobs......or, keep union member's employed becasue well, the Federal gov will now pay their salaries since the states can't ...yea thats a real design for growth......

No shit.
It boggles the mind at how simple-minded people can still believe that a government can create/support/maintain a viable economy whatsoever when we have the entire course of human history that shows us over and over and over and over that government owned/operated entities have never - EVER built an economy wherein the population has a sustainable and reasonable quality of life.

PERIOD.


But at the same time let's not forget that the stock market has not only returned to pre-recession days - but has had the fastest period of growth in the history of the markets - thanks to what? GOVERNMENT HANDOUTS.

And people like Sallow still believe the government plays fair and would only invest in things that create jobs...
Just wow.

 

[william the wie]

All government mandated employee benefits such as 99 week unemployment insurance, Obamacare and so on lead to layoffs. The only wonder is timing.