Medical Device Maker and Drug Co. shipping jobs overseas

chanel

Silver Member
Jun 8, 2009
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People's Republic of NJ
Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since last year.

The company would not say how many jobs will be lost in Massachusetts, where fewer than 2,000 of its 25,000 employees are based. In February 2010, Boston Scientific said it would pare 1,300 jobs worldwide, but similarly did not say where.

Yesterday’s move, a day after Boston Scientific disclosed it was investing $150 million and hiring 1,000 people in China, raised fears that the company will gradually shift more work to foreign sites with less government oversight and lower costs than the United States.

Medical-device manufacturer to lay off 1400 … « Hot Air

The drug maker Merck, which is still trimming a workforce that ballooned after its merger with Schering-Plough in 2009, said Friday the job-cutting will go even deeper as the company eliminates as many as 13,000 more positions around the world to reduce costs during the next four years.

The U.S., where the company employs 35,000 people, will take a hard blow, absorbing as much as 40 percent of the cuts, according to Merck.

Caouette said the latest job cuts will be partially offset by hiring in high-growth areas, namely the emerging markets of China, India and Brazil. That’s where Merck and other drug makers are hoping to generate future growth.

Drug company Merck, which employs 12,000 in N.J., to eliminate 13,000 positions worldwide | NJ.com

"High growth areas" "emerging markets" :evil:

Obamacare or something else?
 
Obamacare or something else?

Hard to say without knowing more information, but this was predicted.

A large swath of the business community opposed the changes, arguing the legislation was too broad and had too many taxes. "This will make us one of the highest-taxed regions in the world, and that's going to have an impact on the appetite for people to invest in medical innovation," said Bill Hawkins, chief executive of Medtronic Inc., which makes medical devices. He said his company could cut at least 1,000 jobs to absorb a new 2.3% excise tax on medical-device makers.

Landmark Health Bill Goes to Obama's Desk - WSJ.com
 
This really saddens me. NJ is the pharmaceutical capital of the world. Losing these good paying jobs will hurt the entire state.

What could incentivize (sp?) these companies to stay in the U.S.?
 
This really saddens me. NJ is the pharmaceutical capital of the world. Losing these good paying jobs will hurt the entire state.

What could incentivize (sp?) these companies to stay in the U.S.?

I don't mean to reduce your argument, but what you are seeing is what the rest of us have been seeing ever since NAFTA passed.

Consider:
20 years ago in my area....

G.E. Plant....12-1300 jobs....now in Mexico.
Ford Plant....1100 jobs....now in Mexico.
Otis Elevator....600 jobs...now in India.
GM Plant....1800 jobs...now 500 jobs.
Carpenter Bus...450 jobs...now in Mexico.


That is 4,750 jobs that went overseas...and this is only 3 counties in one state.
Think of the tax revenue that disappeared both locally and federal.
 
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...What could incentivize (sp?) these companies to stay in the U.S.?
Managers of publicly held corporations are forced by law to ignore personal preferences and conduct operations to serve the owners. Voters are able to choose either policies class hatred or policies for a jurisdiction that makes the US an easier place to run a business.

This reality is the reason we see government revenue increase when tax rates are cut.
 
Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since last year.

The company would not say how many jobs will be lost in Massachusetts, where fewer than 2,000 of its 25,000 employees are based. In February 2010, Boston Scientific said it would pare 1,300 jobs worldwide, but similarly did not say where.

Yesterday’s move, a day after Boston Scientific disclosed it was investing $150 million and hiring 1,000 people in China, raised fears that the company will gradually shift more work to foreign sites with less government oversight and lower costs than the United States.

Medical-device manufacturer to lay off 1400 … « Hot Air

The drug maker Merck, which is still trimming a workforce that ballooned after its merger with Schering-Plough in 2009, said Friday the job-cutting will go even deeper as the company eliminates as many as 13,000 more positions around the world to reduce costs during the next four years.

The U.S., where the company employs 35,000 people, will take a hard blow, absorbing as much as 40 percent of the cuts, according to Merck.

Caouette said the latest job cuts will be partially offset by hiring in high-growth areas, namely the emerging markets of China, India and Brazil. That’s where Merck and other drug makers are hoping to generate future growth.

Drug company Merck, which employs 12,000 in N.J., to eliminate 13,000 positions worldwide | NJ.com

"High growth areas" "emerging markets" :evil:

Obamacare or something else?

Hey you cannot blame these companies for migrating to where the cost of labor is cheap. They really almost have NO CHOICE, thanks to the nature of capitalism.

If you have a complaint (and I think you have a reasonable complaint, for sure), it OUGHT TO BE with the dumb assed Ds and Rs who allow manufactured goods into this nation without tariffs.

Adam Smith would agree with me, on this one, incidently.

Nations have every right (and every responsibility) to see to it that their people have work.

Now if you want to end the existence of all nations, and if you also are prepared to allow all workers to come and go as they please, then by all means FREE TRADE would be a fine policy.

But as long as the American people are forced to pay taxes to support this nation, then this nation ought to be forced to PROTECT THEM from the percicuous effects of interantional trade.

This is NOT about left v right, this is about nationalism versus internationalism.
 
Boston Scientific Corp. said yesterday that it plans to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs worldwide during the next 2 1/2 years to free money for new investments, the Natick medical device maker’s second major round of cuts since last year.

The company would not say how many jobs will be lost in Massachusetts, where fewer than 2,000 of its 25,000 employees are based. In February 2010, Boston Scientific said it would pare 1,300 jobs worldwide, but similarly did not say where.

Yesterday’s move, a day after Boston Scientific disclosed it was investing $150 million and hiring 1,000 people in China, raised fears that the company will gradually shift more work to foreign sites with less government oversight and lower costs than the United States.

Medical-device manufacturer to lay off 1400 … « Hot Air

The drug maker Merck, which is still trimming a workforce that ballooned after its merger with Schering-Plough in 2009, said Friday the job-cutting will go even deeper as the company eliminates as many as 13,000 more positions around the world to reduce costs during the next four years.

The U.S., where the company employs 35,000 people, will take a hard blow, absorbing as much as 40 percent of the cuts, according to Merck.

Caouette said the latest job cuts will be partially offset by hiring in high-growth areas, namely the emerging markets of China, India and Brazil. That’s where Merck and other drug makers are hoping to generate future growth.

Drug company Merck, which employs 12,000 in N.J., to eliminate 13,000 positions worldwide | NJ.com

"High growth areas" "emerging markets" :evil:

Obamacare or something else?

"The company would not say how many jobs will be lost in Massachusetts, where fewer than 2,000 of its 25,000 employees are based."

Did the company JUST change their domestic/foreign jobs mix? OR, has this company outsourced jobs well before Obama was elected? AND, the Affordable Healthcare Act has not even been implemented, so how could legislation THAT DIDN'T EXIST affect this company's domestic/foreign jobs mix?
 
Jobs back as top concern...
:eusa_eh:
Job worries surge as debt-limit issue recedes
Aug 6,`11 : WASHINGTON (AP) -- Anger at the nation's leaders for taking so long to strike a debt-ceiling deal has turned into high anxiety over jobs and the economy amid growing fears of a new recession.
The news that credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the nation's credit rating a notch for the first time ever only added to the tension. The darkening clouds come in what should have been a good week for President Barack Obama. After all, he and Republican leaders finally ended a months-long game of brinkmanship with a bipartisan agreement to raise the government's debt ceiling and to trim spending. The deal kept the government from beginning to run out of cash last Tuesday, averting a first-ever U.S. default and a possible global financial meltdown. And there was a relatively good jobs report on Friday.

But applause for the debt-limit deal or the increase in jobs never came. In fact, stock markets around the world tumbled during the week as grim new economic figures suggested the U.S. recovery has stalled and as debt default tensions climbed in Europe. Terms of the deal to extend the U.S. government's borrowing authority and trim federal spending contributed to investor angst. Many economists suggest the debt-limit measure could even wind up making economic problems worse if belt-tightening spending cuts coincide with a new recession.

And the Standard and Poor's downgrade late Friday cast new doubts on the value of the U.S. debt-limit deal. The credit rating agency said it was cutting the country's top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress did not go far enough to stabilize the country's debt situation. As to that downgrade, economists suggested it might not have much actual impact, noting that the credit ratings of Japan, Canada and Australia had also been downgraded in recent years with few economic consequences.

And in the past few days, investors have been fleeing stock and commodity markets for the perceived safety of U.S. Treasury bonds and bills. That's a dramatic about face, since just a few days ago, global investors were worried that a U.S. default on its debt would end the longstanding status of Treasurys as the world's safest-haven investments. "Investors have voted and are saying the U.S. is going to pay them," Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. Despite the S&P downgrade Friday night, "U.S. Treasurys are still the gold standard," he said.

MORE
 
Unemployment doesn't show how bad the job market really is...
:eek:
Jobs: Worse than you think
August 8, 2011: The U.S. labor force is shrinking, as more Americans are giving up hope.
Last month, only 58.1% of Americans age 16 and over were employed, a significant drop from before the recession and the lowest since 1983. That's especially worrisome to economists, who say a steady increase in those dropping out of the work force and not being counted in the unemployment rate is disguising just how bad the labor market really is. "People are dropping out of labor force for all types of reasons," said Robert Brusca of FAO Economics. "And it's not a good trend. A good part of the wealth of a nation has to do with the proportion of population that works."

Some economists say that the employment-population ratio, or "e-pop," is a more accurate snapshot of the labor market than the unemployment rate, which fell to 9.1% last month from 10.1% in October 2009. "When we have a time when the labor force is not growing normally, e-pop provides the cleanest assessment of what is going on in the labor market," said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist with the Employment Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. "What you see is from '07 to '09 -- it fell off a cliff, and it hasn't recovered since then."

While demographic factors like baby boomers reaching retirement age and younger people staying in school longer are playing a role, Shierholz said, the economy is the biggest driver. Fewer Americans are working today than in recent decades because of the growing number of discouraged job seekers. The Labor Department estimates that there are 6.6 million people who want a job but have left the labor force for one reason or another. That's the highest reading in 17 years, and an increase of 1.9 million since the start of the recession. "That's a tremendous loss of human capital," said John Silvia, chief economist for Well Fargo Securities. "That means that the unemployment rate, even at 9.1%, is not as good as it seems."

Many of the unemployed are getting various forms of government support, like disability benefits and unemployment insurance. But some of those programs are masking the extent of the problem. For example, collecting unemployment gives the jobless a reason to keep applying, which can boost the number of workers looking for jobs. But once they've exhausted their benefits, they have little incentive to keep looking and suddenly fall off the rolls.

Disability benefits have a similar effect. In a good economy, workers with health problems might remain in the labor force and continue to look for work. But with few jobs available, the disability program gives them a reason to drop out of the workforce. The result is a shrinking pool of workers that isn't keeping pace with population growth. "If anything, we're likely to continue to see this ratio of those in the labor force go down further," said Gad Levanon, associate director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board.

Source

See also:

10 job killing companies
Could the jobs recovery actually be taking a step back? These 10 corporations recently announced layoffs in the thousands.
 
Sputterin' right along...
:eusa_eh:
Jobs recovery continues to sputter
August 31, 2011: Don't look to August for a robust jobs recovery. According to a report out Wednesday, the U.S. economy added jobs during the month, but not nearly at the momentum seen earlier this year.
Private sector employers added 91,000 workers in August, down from the 109,000 jobs added in July, payroll processing firm ADP reported. That number was slightly less than economists' forecasts for 100,000 new jobs, and pales in comparison to job gains seen in the first four months of the year. In each of those months, the ADP report showed private sector employers added at least 175,000 jobs. Small businesses continue to be the engine of job growth. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees added 58,000 jobs in August, while mid-sized firms added 30,000 jobs. Larger corporations with 500 or more employees, created only 3,000 jobs during the month.

A separate report showed the number of planned job cuts declined from a month ago, although they still remain at a high level. The number of planned cuts fell in August to 51,114 from July's 16-month high of 66,414, according to outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But year-over-year, job cuts are still 47% above last August's level. Government workers will take the biggest hit, the report said, accounting for 18,426 of the announced reductions. The retail sector will also feel the pain, accounting for 5,901 layoffs in August. Employers have now announced a total of 363,334 planned job cuts so far this year -- down only 2.9% from 374,121 cuts announced in the first eight months of 2010.

"July job cuts spiked as a result of a handful of surprisingly large job cut announcements in the private sector. It is too soon to tell whether those cuts were an anomaly, but they appeared to be driven by industry- and company-specific trends, as opposed to larger economic ones," John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a statement. The Challenger report and the ADP private sector jobs report typically set the tone for the government's highly anticipated monthly jobs report, due Friday for August. These reports do not however include the effect of 45,000 Verizon workers going on strike mid-month, which some economists think will distort the government's official tally. A CNNMoney survey of 19 economists forecasts the U.S. economy added 80,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate remained at 9.1% in August.

Source
 
But the Wall Street bankers got an immediate recovery...
:eusa_eh:
White House: Slower jobs recovery ahead
September 1, 2011: White House budget chief Jacob Lew said lower forecasts show need to "reinvest in economic growth and job creation."
Like most economists, the White House's budget experts have grown less optimistic about economic growth and jobs, having been sobered by recent developments such as the debt crisis in Europe and continued troubles in housing. The White House budget office forecast Thursday that the unemployment rate won't fall below 6% until 2017 -- two years later than it predicted in February, when President Obama delivered his 2012 budget proposal to Congress. The Office of Management and Budget also lowered its estimates for annual GDP growth by roughly a percentage point for this year, next year and 2013. Its forecasts for 2015 and 2016 are somewhat higher than they were.

OMB said in its "mid-session review" that it now expects the economy to grow at a 1.7% rate this year, down from its 2.7% forecast in February. Growth is expected to be 2.6% next year and 3.5% in 2013. Despite the downward revisions, "we are not forecasting a double-dip recession," said Katharine Abraham, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. In terms of unemployment, OMB said that it still expects the jobless rate -- currently 9.1% -- to gradually come down. But the pace of decline is now expected to be more gradual. For 2011, it forecast the rate will stay at 9.1%. At the same time, its forecast for unemployment this year is actually lower than predicted in February.

The Office of Management and Budget's mid-session review comes a week before President Obama is scheduled to deliver a series of proposals to boost employment and reduce deficits to a joint session of Congress. "The review largely underscores the need to get back on a sustainable fiscal path and reinvest in economic growth and job creation," said White House Budget Director Jacob Lew. The White House also lowered its 10-year Treasury interest rate expectations in the wake of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's pledge to keep rates low until mid 2013. The budget office also said it still expects inflation to be moderate, coming in around 2% for much of the next decade.

In terms of deficits, the administration now expects the deficit for this year to be $1.32 trillion, 20% below what it had forecast in February. A key reason for the improvement: more tax receipts and less spending than expected. Deficits over the next decade are also expected to be better than they were forecast to be at the start of the year. That's thanks in large part to the passage of the Budget Control Act, which has the potential to reduce the 10-year deficit by at least $2.1 trillion. While slower near-term growth will have an impact on people's lives, the effect on the budget outlook over 10 years isn't that substantial, the OMB said. That's because any resulting increase in deficits is largely offset by a narrowed gap between taxes and spending.

Source

See also:

A 'frustrated' President Obama looks to turn things around
WASHINGTON – "Frustrated." That was the subject line of an e-mail sent to millions of supporters late Wednesday night from President Obama's re-election campaign. It expressed his frustration with Congress' unwillingness to deal in bipartisan fashion with the country's economic problems.
While the message was aimed at Congress as Obama prepares to deliver next Thursday's speech on jobs, it just as easily could have summarized his plight during the past four months — perhaps the most frustrating of his presidency. Since his triumphant announcement on May 1 that Osama bin Laden was dead, the president has been blocked by Republicans at almost every turn, from cutting deficits to scheduling speeches. Along the way, the economy has sunk closer to a double-dip recession, the financial markets have tumbled, the U.S. credit rating has been downgraded, and the nation has only narrowly avoided default.

Even the things Obama has gotten right haven't seemed to affect his standing in the polls: the killing of bin Laden, the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi's government, the economic policies that even some conservative economists now say helped to avoid a second Great Depression. Then came Wednesday night, when the leader of the free world couldn't set his own schedule. He asked congressional leaders if he could address a joint session next Wednesday. The answer from House Speaker John Boehner: No. How's Thursday? "Welcome to the real world. This is how it works, guys," says John Feehery, who was a spokesman for Democrat Dennis Hastert when he was House speaker. "I think the president is losing" in his day-to-day battles with Republicans, Feehery says.

The trend began shortly after bin Laden's demise. In order to avoid a first-ever government default, Obama had to capitulate to Republicans on cutting spending without raising taxes on the wealthy or special interests, as he had urged. The deal didn't impress stock markets, which tumbled. One credit agency, Standard & Poor's, lowered the nation's credit rating. As the economy slid, so did Obama's approval ratings — down to a record-low 40% in the latest Gallup Poll, after having been above 50% in early May. Even so, Republicans fared even worse in the polls — Congress received only a 13% approval rating in a Gallup Poll last month. "This has been a tough four months for the country," not just the president, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer says. "We have had tough economic news; we've had the debacle of the brinksmanship over the debt ceiling; we've had natural disasters. "The country has been frustrated by inaction in Washington. The president shares that frustration. The people who are blocking action have been the Republicans in the House," Pfeiffer says.

The situation may be more difficult for Obama to overcome than it was for his predecessors. During the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt could count on a solidly Democratic Congress. An economic rebound helped Ronald Reagan recover from 35% approval ratings in 1983. When Bill Clinton lost Congress in 1995, he had a stronger economy. By contrast, Obama is faced with a weak economy, a Republican House and a GOP minority in the Senate that can bottle up action. "Is there a president who could be strong enough to turn those Republicans into pussycats? There is no strength a president could have to overcome that," says George Edwards, an expert on the presidency at Texas A&M University.

MORE
 
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If they're moving offshore to capture the foreign markets, no big deal.

If they're moving their production offshore and them expect to import those devices back into the USA, then screw them and screw the government that encourages this kind of behavior.
 
Granny says things not gonna get any better till the jobs market does...
:eusa_eh:
Markets fall on weak US jobs data
2 September 2011 - Stock markets have fallen sharply as weak US jobs data added to fears of a new global economic downturn.
The Dow Jones opened 2% lower, while European stocks closed down as the Department of Labor said the US economy added no net jobs in August. The jobs data follows manufacturing sector surveys released on Thursday which showed activity at factories worldwide dropped last month. Markets had already fallen steadily since Thursday afternoon in the US.

Banks hammered

London's FTSE 100 ended 2.3% down, and Frankfurt's Dax was 3.36% lower. In France and Spain, markets were more than 3% down, and Milan's exchange sank almost 4%. The London market was not helped by other data on Friday that pointed to a further slowdown in the construction sector in the UK. The slump began in late trading in the US on Thursday, where the Dow Jones ended the day 1% lower, before continuing in Asia on Friday morning, where Tokyo's Nikkei fell 1.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng 1.8%.

Banks across Europe were among the worst performers. In the UK, Barclays fell 8.4% and Lloyds 7.1%. In Germany, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank were down 6% and 5.5% respectively. In France, Credit Agricole fell 7.4% and Societe Generale was off 6.6%. In the US, where it has emerged that the banks will be sued by a US government home loans agency, shares in Bank of America were hammered, dropping 8% at the open, while Citibank fell 5.2%.

Seeking safety

The latest falls follow a highly volatile August, with markets globally rocked by a slew of weak economic data from the US and Europe. There were also fears over the impact of government austerity programmes, and concern at the implications of the downgrade of some governments' credit ratings, including that of the US.

More BBC News - Markets fall on weak US jobs data
 
Most of us will soon have to travel abroad to afford healthcare. So it only makes sense to have the meds there.
 

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