Friends - FYI - Linda ----------------------------------- Linda, Pat is the ONLY one acknowledging the true state of our "goldilocks economy." I am tired of hearing how great our economy is doing. All of the people layed off over these past 10 years or so are, in most cases, not only making far less than they were, but they aren't paying as much as they would have been into Social Security. For many, these would have been their highest earning years prior to retirement. Nobody is mentioning the fact that the downsizing of millions of middle class Americans has drastically reduced this source of Social Security revenues. Even though I have an engineering degree, nobody seems to want to employ a middle aged white male such as myself. One thing's for sure--I know I'm not paying anything close to what I used to pay into Social Security. Brian L. Please consider posting this web address: http://www.hrlive.com/local-bin/layoff.cgi Note all the aerospace, defense, and high-tech layoffs listed at the above URL! Also, here's an article you might want to post: http://www.msnbc.com/news/256945.asp US layoffs up 11 percent in March REUTERS NEW YORK, April 7 — US Layoffs outpaced job creation in March, rising 11 percent ahead of February to a total of 68,984 job cuts, the international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said Wednesday. The March layoff figures were 50 percent more than the 46,000 new jobs the government reported for the same period, according to the report. THE MARCH figures also capped a record-breaking six-month job-cutting binge, in which 456,860 cuts were announced, the report added. “While voracious consumer spending has helped maintain overall economic strength, companies are still hampered by stiff pricing competition from abroad,” said John Challenger, the company’s chief executive officer. “The inability to raise prices has cut into corporate profits which, in turn, has most certainly contributed to increased job cutting,” Challenger added. legacy of layoffs US. job cuts for the first two months of the year totaled 141,537, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The pace is faster than in 1998, which was the heaviest layoff year in a decade. This table shows selected worldwide layoffs back to November. Company Jobs to be cut Reason SOURCE: MSNBC news services Printable version Thirty-one percent of the cuts in March came from the financial sector alone, with mergers accounting for a significant number of layoffs, according to the report. Layoffs in the financial industry totaled 21,660 in March, followed by the aerospace/defense (8,520), health care (6,294), construction (5,061) and electronics (4,035) industries. By region, the West/Southwest saw the largest number of cuts last month, with a total of 25,559 layoffs. It was followed by the Midwest (15,877), East (15,428) and South (12,120). http://www.msnbc.com/news/wld/tables/layoffs.asp?child A legacy of layoffs U.S. job cuts for the first two months of the year totaled 141,537, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The pace is faster than in 1998, which was the heaviest layoff year in a decade. This table shows selected worldwide layoffs back to November. Company -- Jobs to be cut --Reason Mattel Inc. (4/15) 3,000 falling profits Storage Technology (4/15) 500 falling profits Sun Healthcare (4/9) 10,000 falling profits Bank One Corp. (3/30) 4,500 merger related Wells Fargo & Co. (3/28) 4,500 merger related America Online (3/24) 1,000 merger related Cabletron Systems (3/22) 900 sale of a unit CHS Electronics (3/22) 600 slipping profits Dimon Inc. (3/22) 200 weak tobacco demand First Union Corp. (3/19) 5,850 slipping profits Siemens AG (3/18) 1,800 restructuring Hexcel Corp. (3/17) 100 plant closing De La Rue Plc (3/16) 500 slipping sales Alcatel (3/11) 12,000 slipping profits Ingram Micro (3/11) 1,400 profit concerns Fluor Corp (3/9) 5,000 falling revenues Sony Group (3/8) 17,000 restructuring Advanced Micro Devices (3/8) 300 quarterly loss Republic New York (3/1) 560 restructuring Sheldahl Inc (3/1) 40 restructuring Medtronic (2/25) 1,600 plant closure Shell Oil (2/25) 300 weak oil prices Wellco Enterprises (2/25) 85 plant closure Cholestech (2/25) 20 cost cutting Carpenter Technology (2/25) 150 Asian impact Philip Morris (2/24) 1,400 plant closure General Motors Canada (2/24) 1,100 contract cancellation Marks and Spencer (2/24) 28 restructuring Bank One (2/22) 200 restructuring PRIMEDIA (2/22) 200 cutting unprofitable products Levi Strauss (2/22) 5,900 declining profits NEC 15,000 declining profits Applied Graphics Technologies 350 declining profits H.J. Heinz 4,000 restructuring ARCO Indonesia 900 weak oil prices Volvo Truck 650 weak demand Siemens Fossil Power 800 plant closure Microlog 30 restructuring BF Goodrich 160 restructuring T. Eaton Co. 200 restructuring Chevron 95 weak oil prices Boston Scientific 2,000 merger related ARCO Indonesia 900 weak oil prices Amoco Energy Company of Trinidad and Tobago 140 weak oil prices Asahi Glass 900 cost cutting Mitsubishi Chemical 2,000 cost cutting Star Multi Care 30 new computer system BP Amoco 10,000 merger related Bil Mar Foods 241 plant contamination Qualcomm 700 weak profits Unisys 130 plant closure Hybrid Networks 30 cost cutting Genesis Direct 150 restructuring Polo Ralph Lauren 250 weak profits Volkswagen AG 1,000 cuts Belgium plant Medtronic 1,600 merger related Apple Computer 450 cuts Ireland production Baker Hughes 2,450 weak oil prices Burlington Industries 2,900 inexpensive Asian imports Wyman Gordon 350 restructuring J.P. Morgan 35 falling oil prices Avery Dennison 1,500 cost cutting BP Exploration 600 falling oil prices Lego 1,000 earnings loss Provident Financial 500 restructuring USEC Inc. 250 restructuring Arcadia 170 restructuring Mercantile Bancorp 70 restructuring Universal Music Group 500 merger related Montgomery Ward 4,000 cost cutting Fleming Cos. 220 cost cutting Atlantic Richfield Co. 1,200 weak oil prices Shell Transport 400 restructuring Franklin Resources 560 restructuring Ford Motor 8,800 cost cutting Inco Ltd. 800 weak Asia sales Makino Machine Tool 50 falling sales Robert Mondavi Winery 36 cost cutting Willamette Industries 150 plant closing Lands' End 94 restructuring BankAmerica 18,000 merger related Revlon 1,200 falling sales Phillips Petroleum 1,400 weak oil prices Town & Country Fine Jewelry Group 260 falling sales Hayes Corp 250 falling sales Nissho Iwai Corp 1,000 restructuring Ford (Brazil) 2,800 falling sales General Motors 1,200 production shift Kitty Hawk 1,500 restructuring Conoco Inc. 975 weak oil prices SPX Corp. 1,000 merger Cooper Industries 1,000 raise earnings Halliburton Co. 2,750 weak oil prices Levitz Furniture Corp. 1,000 bankruptcy/restructuring Hercules Inc. 700 merger Case Corp. 3,400 weak farm sales Commercial Financial Services 1,800 bankruptcy Atlantic Richfield 900 falling oil prices Polaroid up to 700 weak foreign sales Citigroup 10,400 merger related RJR Nabisco 3,900 tobacco settlement The Los Angeles Times 500 restructuring Chevron Corp. up to 1,000 cost cutting First Union Corp 700 cost cutting BankAtlantic Bancorp 185 restructuring AB Ericsson 11,000 cost cutting MCI Worldcom up to 3,750 cost cutting Seagram expected 3,000 restructuring Northrop Grumman 1,100 production decline Boeing 48,000 production cuts Exxon-Mobil About 9,000 merger Kellogg Co. 765 cost cutting ITT Industries up to 1,200 restructuring Smurfit-Stone Container 1,660 restructuring Courtaults Textiles 1,125 restructuring United Dominion Indus 600 cost cutting Volvo 5,300 weak sales Deutsche Bank/Bankers Trust 5,500 merger Amway 542 declining sales SOURCE: MSNBC news services -----end ------ FOR MORE NEWS VISIT OUR SITE: http://www.theamericancause.org ***************************************************************** Please feel free to forward this email across the USA! ***************************************************************** Join our free "FTC" - FOR THE CAUSE - List!!! 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