Multidisplay to layoff staff

By: CBW, 30. 04. 2007, More by this author

Multidisplay, formerly LG.Philips Displays CR, a producer of traditional TV tubes, won’t extend fixed-term working contracts to some 150 people at the end of April.

The decision was because of the unfavorable situation on the vacuum TV tube market, said Multidisplay spokeswoman Zuzana Fojtíková. The plant suspended production due to a lack of orders in the middle of March. It renewed operation two weeks later.

Employment rises by 48,000 in January-March quarter: MOM (SINGAPORE)

ob growth in Singapore in the first quarter of this year continues to be strong on the back of healthy economic growth. Latest figures from the Manpower Ministry show that 48,000 jobs were added to the economy between January and March this year.

The unemployment rate during the quarter stood at 2.9 percent as more people entered the labour force. Singapore's trade-driven economy grew at an annualised rate of 7.2 percent in the first quarter, slowing from the 7.9 percent pace of the fourth quarter, advance data showed.

The Manpower Ministry said all major sectors added workers and leading the pack was the services industry with 33,400 workers. The employment in the construction industry also picked up, with its workforce increasing by 5,000. - CNA/ch

TMC HealthCare lays off 100 workers

By Becky Pallack
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 04.26.2007

Around 100 workers at TMC HealthCare lost their jobs Thursday as the company announced a round of cost-cutting.

The layoffs come on top of the elimination of vacant positions from TMC's budget, totaling 150 full-time-equivalent jobs and saving the company $6 million by the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Frank Alvarez said.

Alvarez said the cuts won't affect patient care, and the positions don't include nurses and bedside caregivers. Those who were let go include managers and support staff members, many of whom transferred to Tucson Medical Center from El Dorado Hospital.

The nonprofit hospital group wasn't profitable in the first quarter of the year. Alvarez said that's because it has been over-staffed since it absorbed most of the 500 workers from El Dorado, which the company bought in 2003 and closed about eight months ago.
"Our costs have outpaced growth in our revenues, and so an immediate correction is necessary to keep the organization moving forward," Alvarez said in a prepared statement. "If we do not make these difficult decisions today, we will not be in a position to serve the community in the future."
Tucson Medical Center was budgeted for 5.5 full-time-equivalent jobs per patient bed, but it was employing about 6.1 positions per bed, and "the margins in health care are tight already," Alvarez said.
The hospital also is burdened by the number of uninsured people treated there, because the company often can't collect for emergency services, Alvarez said. Additionally, TMC started offering "call pay" for physicians who are on call to work, he said.
The news from TMC comes after bad news this week from two other local hospitals. University Physicians Healthcare asked for a higher subsidy from Pima County for its Kino campus, and University Medical Center is losing three of its trauma surgeons.
Stephanie Healy, president of the Hospital Council of Southern Arizona, said the events are "symptomatic of the challenges in health care" as an industry, including lower reimbursements, rising costs and costly work force shortages.
"What's happening at TMC is they're reacting to these market forces and doing what they can to assure they can continue to provide quality patient care, not just now but in the future," she said.

Because of the work force crunch, Healy said, many of those who lost their jobs may be picked up by other health-care employers in Southern Arizona.

TMC's job cuts, which were based on position and seniority, came in management and staff jobs including cooks, laundry workers, maintenance workers, and laboratory and pharmacy staffers. Laid-off workers received severance packages based on their years of service, Alvarez said.

"These are all good people that are impacted," he said. "We're sorry to see them go."

The company wanted to retain El Dorado's staff for the opening of its planned new facility, Rincon Community Hospital. It was scheduled to open next year, but that timeline didn't work out, and the company couldn't carry the extra overhead any longer, Alvarez said.

The planned opening of Rincon has been pushed back to 2011. The delay was made partly because the hospital has had a hard time recruiting physicians for the new campus, at South Houghton and East Drexel roads, he said.

The cuts represent 4 percent to 5 percent of TMC HealthCare's total staff of nearly 3,500. The cuts will return TMC to its 2005 staffing level, Alvarez said. The last staff reduction was in 2000.

TMC HealthCare is the 13th-largest employer in Southern Arizona, according to this year's Star 200 survey.

Contact reporter Becky Pallack at bpallack@azstarnet.com or 520-573-4224.

Rumors surface, detailing Sony Europe's future layoff plans

by GamePro Staff 04/25/2007 12:14:59 PM PST
By Eugene Huang

Although only the what, where, when, and why of the upcoming layoffs at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have already been answered for the most part by the staff at GamePro, that only leaves the question of "who". Apparently, developer blog Inner Bits claims to have the that part all figured out, as a recent posting offers a breakdown of the redundancies that will soon engulf the entirety of SCEE.

According to blogger "Raoul", the majority of the layoffs will occur within the confines of Sony UK, since most other countries in Europe have much more stringent labor laws regarding employee firings. Although he doesn't name any sources, the author claims that the job cuts will be scattered throughout a number of development teams across the company as opposed to the complete axing of a single studio.

Reportedly, 50 of the firings will occur in Sony Liverpool, the development team behind both F1 and Wipeout. Another 50 will be downsized from the studios at Sony London, which is the strongarm team behind many of Sony Europe's most successful projects, including Home, SingStar, and the EyeToy.

The smaller studios of Sony Cambridge, developers of Primal and MediEvil, could not escape unscathed, and will bear the brunt of 20 job cuts, comprising of a quarter of the team's total staff. As for the remainder of the cutbacks, Inner Bits reports that 30 jobs in sales, marketing, and PR will be lost, partitioned out to the various countries throughout SCEE.

A representative for Sony Europe has yet to respond to these allegations, but GamePro will update you as soon as an official statement is released.

High-tech job growth picked up in 2006, says AeA

By ESM Staff Electronics Supply & Manufacturing (04/25/2007 12:55 AM EST)

Demand for high-tech workers, including those in the engineering field, is rising so rapidly that employers are scrambling to fill vacancies despite being willing to pay well above private sector wages, according to the American Electronics Association.

The AeA's latest analysis of 2006 employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates most segments of the high-tech sector are in a state of full employment confirming recent comments by industry leaders that many critical high-tech positions are remaining vacant for far too long.

Engineers in the electronics industry who have complained about the relocation of manufacturing and design services to overseas locations will be surprised that the impact of outsourcing on employment in the sector has been negligible.

According to the Labor Dept. data, the unemployment rate for U.S. engineers in 2006 was 1.9 percent and 2.5 percent for computer scientists, both well below the national average.

Overall, high-tech companies added almost 150,000 net jobs in 2006, up 3 percent from the preceding year, to 5.8 million, according to the AeA, which observed that the software services sector accounted for more than half of the hiring. In 2005, high-tech employment rose 87,400.

"We have some serious challenges ahead," said William T. Archey, president of the AeA, in a statement. "Companies of all sizes continue to have problems recruiting highly qualified and educated individuals to work for them, whether those individuals are foreign or domestic."

The AeA noted that the 2006 average annual high-tech wage of $75,000 was "86 percent more than the average U.S. private sector wage," of $40,500.

That's not the only area where the high-tech sector is the clear leader. Venture capital investors are directing more of their resources to the sector, according to the AeA. In 2006, for instance, the high-tech sector received more than half of all U.S. venture capital investments or about $12.7 billion.

State's high-tech employment slips (Colorado)

April 24, 2007 --
BROOMFIELD - Formerly No. 1, Colorado has slipped to No. 3 in its concentration of high-tech workers, according to a study by AeA, the nation's largest technology trade association. In its report, Cyberstates 2007, AeA noted that Colorado's high-tech industry employment dropped by about 1,700 workers - or about 1 percent - to 158,100 jobs in 2005, the latest data available. Colorado had held the No. 1 ranking for nine years. It was surpassed by Virginia, where 8.9 percent of workers are in the high-tech industry compared to 8.6 percent in Colorado.

Massachusetts holds the No. 2 spot in the latest rankings. Jessica Wright, AeA Mountain States Council executive editor, said the news means Colorado needs to bolster its high-tech education efforts. "Colorado's tech industry remains a critical component of our state's growing economy," she said. "The recent increase in average tech wages demonstrates this sector is strong and contributes significantly to our economy. We should make it a top priority to maintain our high concentration of tech workers beginning with a heightened focus on math and science in our school curricula to ensure our university students have the background they need to go into engineering and science."

New reasons for concern about job-growth data (Kansas City)

By ARTHUR R. WILLIAMS and KARL F. JOHNSON
Guest columnists

On July 18, 2000, we published a commentary in Star Business Weekly titled “Job Creation and Employment Levels Merit Attention.”

We were very concerned at that time about possible misinterpretations by community leaders and the media of a recently released Brookings Institution report. This report indicated healthy job creation in Kansas City compared with 25 other metropolitan areas.

We pointed out that the Kansas City area was in fact “just above average” in terms of employment growth. However, our data also indicated declining rates of employment growth over the decades of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Decade-compounded rates of metropolitan employment growth were 2.17 percent, 2.15 percent and 2.08 percent, respectively. While these changes looked small, they implied creation of at least 17,000 fewer jobs in the metropolitan area in the year 2000 than if the average rate of growth of the ’70s and ’80s had been maintained.

Data then available also did not allow us to report separate rates of employment growth for Kansas City and the metropolitan area as a whole. However, since Johnson County job growth for 2000 had been recently reported to be 6.7 percent, we surmised that figures for the entire metropolitan area implied low rates of employment growth in Kansas City.

It is time to return to these data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has revised the 1990 data, we have separate data for Kansas City from 1990 through November 2006, and we have more than a half decade of additional data (2000-2006) for the metropolitan area. Our findings now are that rates of employment growth in the metropolitan area were as previously noted in the ’70s and ’80s, but the ’90s corrected employment growth rate was only 1.63 percent in the metropolitan area and 1.44 percent in Kansas City.

These figures suggest a much steeper decline in employment creation than we had previously noted. Even more troubling, growth rates so far in the current decade are 0.15 percent in the metropolitan area and -0.06 percent in Kansas City. The 1990 and 2000 growth rates suggest that fewer jobs are being created than are needed to provide employment for youths leaving school, for people losing jobs because of staffing reductions and firm closings, and, most likely, for those wishing to change jobs.

On the basis of the data used in our previous commentary, we concluded: “Some pride can be taken in the fact that employment growth in Kansas City has been just above average, but a stumble means less than average. While it is not time to panic, a testing of tornado sirens is warranted.”

We now think that tornado sirens should be sounding. If the current employment situation continues, it will have many negative consequences for the quality of life in Kansas City. Among these are increasing social tensions that accompany declining opportunities, such as increased homicides and crime rates and declining health and hygiene. Youths will have to seek employment outside the metropolitan area, thereby negatively affecting the family-friendly nature of the community.

Policies of the ’90s and the current decade pursued by Kansas City and other localities purportedly to stimulate employment show no evidence of having worked. In a story in The Kansas City Star on Sunday, March 4, 2007, it was noted that Kansas City Mayor Kay Barnes and City Manager Wayne Cauthen have argued that more than 19,000 jobs have been created in Kansas City because of tax increment financing. There is absolutely no evidence of such job creation in the BLS employment data.

From an employment perspective, a critical look at the economic development policy of Kansas City is justified by its frequent and injudicious use of TIF, business subsidies and funding in support of expensive and economically unsustainable projects. If current economic “growth” and “redevelopment” policies continue, resources will be transferred from needed public services as the tax base erodes and the viability of neighborhoods weakens, resulting in no net gains in jobs, economic growth, businesses attraction and overall quality of life. Current policies have not and will not work for working men and women or even the lower middle class, and it is time for a change.


Arthur R. Williams, Ph.D., is chairman, health care policy and research, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He was a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 1990 to 2002. Karl F. Johnson, is professor and director emeritus of the L.P.

Manufacturing tallied 34% of U.S. mass layoffs in March

In March, American employers took 1,276 mass layoff actions, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on April 20. Each action involved at least 50 persons from a single establishment; the number of workers involved totaled 130,687, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The number of mass layoff events decreased by four from the prior month, and the number of associated initial claims fell by 13,290.

During March, 420 mass layoff events were reported in the manufacturing sector, seasonally adjusted, resulting in 54,441 initial claims. Compared with the prior month, mass layoff events in manufacturing remained about the same and initial claims decreased by 9,631.

The national unemployment rate was 4.4 percent in March, essentially unchanged from 4.5 percent the prior month and down from 4.7 percent a year earlier. Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 180,000 over the month and by 2.0 million over the year.

Industry Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)
The 10 industries reporting the highest number of mass layoff initial claims, not seasonally adjusted, accounted for 36 percent of the total initial claims in March. The industry with the highest number of initial claims was temporary help services with 9,217, followed by food service contractors with 7,636, and automobile manufacturing with 5,746. Together, these three industries accounted for 18 percent of all initial claims due to mass layoffs during the month.

The manufacturing sector accounted for 34 percent of all mass layoff events and 40 percent of all related initial claims filed in March; a year earlier, manufacturing made up 31 percent of events and 40 percent of initial claims. In March 2007, the number of manufacturing claimants was highest in transportation equipment manufacturing (19,397, largely automobile manufacturing), followed by food manufacturing (6,087) and wood product manufacturing (2,674).

Administrative and waste services accounted for 13 percent of mass layoff events and 12 percent of initial claims in March, mostly from temporary help services. Retail trade comprised 9 percent of events and initial claims filed over the month, with the majority of layoffs in general merchandise stores. Eight percent of all mass layoff events and 9 percent of related initial claims filed were from accommodation and food services, primarily from food service contractors. Construction made up 10 percent of events and 6 percent of associated initial claims, primarily from the heavy and civil engineering industry.

On a not-seasonally-adjusted basis, the number of mass layoff events in March at 1,082, was up by 161 from a year earlier, and the number of associated initial claims increased by 12,136 to 123,974. The largest over-the-year increases in initial claims were reported in transportation equipment manufacturing (+4,439), general merchandise stores (+2,312), and professional and technical services (+1,972). The largest over-the-year decreases in mass layoff initial claims were reported in primary metal manufacturing (-1,691) and food manufacturing (-1,432).

Geographic Distribution (Not Seasonally Adjusted)Among the four census regions, the highest number of initial claims in March due to mass layoffs was in the West with 41,139. The administrative and support services, and motion picture and sound recording industries together accounted for 29 percent of all mass layoff initial claims in that region during the month. The South had the second largest number of initial claims among the regions, 34,812, followed by the Midwest, 33,410, and the Northeast, 14,613.

The number of initial claimants in mass layoffs increased over the year in three of the four regions – the South (+13,811), the West (+3,838) and the Northeast (+1,658). The Midwest region experienced the only decrease (-7,171). Five geographic divisions had over-the-year increases in the number of initial claims associated with mass layoffs, with the largest increases in the East South Central (+10,418), the Pacific (+4,018) and the Middle Atlantic (+1,857). The division with the largest over-the-year decrease was the East North Central (-5,618).

Among the states, California recorded the highest number of initial claims filed due to mass layoff events in March (33,172), followed by Illinois (8,754), Kentucky (6,623), Michigan (6,508) and Wisconsin (5,585). These five states accounted for 49 percent of all mass layoff events and associated initial claims for unemployment insurance.

Mississippi had the largest over-the-year increase in the number of initial claims (+4,288). States having the next largest increases in initial claims were California (+3,645), Kentucky (+3,313), North Carolina (+3,137) and Alabama (+2,713). The largest over-the-year decreases in claims occurred in Michigan (-2,887) and Ohio (-2,512).

U.S. MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES: EMPLOYMENT, SALES, & CAPITAL EXPENDITURES 2005

U.S. multinational companies (MNCs) employed 30.5 million workersworldwide in 2005, of which 21.5 million were employed in the United States by U.S. parent companies and 9.1 million were employed abroadby their majority-owned foreign affiliates.

The employment in theUnited States by U.S. parents accounted for almost one-fifth of totalU.S. employment in private industries. Worldwide capital expendituresby U.S. MNCs totaled $478.1 billion; capital expenditures in the UnitedStates by U.S. parents accounted for $340.8 billion and capitalexpenditures abroad by majority-owned foreign affiliates accountedfor $137.3 billion.

Sales by U.S. parent companies totaled $7,606.1billion, and those by majority-owned foreign affiliates totaled$3,761.9 billion.Majority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs employed 5.1 millionworkers in 2005, accounting for 4.5 percent of total U.S. employmentin private industries.

Capital expenditures by these affiliatestotaled $120.9 billion and their sales totaled $2,507.6 billion.Worldwide employment by U.S. MNCs increased 1.8 percent in 2005,following a 2.2-percent increase in 2004. Employment in the UnitedStates by U.S. parent companies increased 1.1 percent, following a0.6-percent increase. Employment abroad by the majority-ownedforeign affiliates of U.S. MNCs increased 3.6 percent, following a6.1-percent increase. Employment in the United States bymajority-owned U.S. affiliates of foreign MNCs decreased 0.7 percentin 2005, following a 2.0-percent decrease in 2004.

U.S. multinational corporations add more employees overseas, data show

WASHINGTON – U.S. multinational corporations hired workers overseas at a faster pace than in the United States in 2005, for the second year in a row, a Commerce Department report said Thursday.

U.S. multinationals – defined as U.S. companies, excluding banks, that own majority stakes in foreign affiliates – added 310,900 people to their overseas payrolls in 2005, an increase of 3.6 percent to 9.1 million.

Meanwhile, the same companies hired 238,000 workers in the United States, boosting their U.S. employment by 1.1 percent to 21.5 million.

The figures for 2005 continue a long-standing trend. U.S. multinationals increased their domestic employment by 0.6 percent in 2004, the report said, while boosting their overseas hiring by 6.1 percent that year. From 1988 to 2002, hiring by U.S. multinationals abroad rose by an average of 4 percent annually, while hiring by the same companies in the United States increased by 1.6 percent.

Seventy percent of the 30.5 million people employed by U.S. multinationals were in the United States in 2005, the department said, down from 78.8 percent in 1988.
In the area of capital spending, U.S. companies boosted their activity in the United States faster than overseas, the report found.

U.S. multinationals increased their spending on buildings, machinery and other equipment in the United States by 15.3 percent to $340.7 billion in 2005. Foreign investment by U.S. multinationals, meanwhile, increased 14.9 percent, to $137.3 billion, the department said.

The report, by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis, said that shifts in employment and capital spending by U.S. multinationals do not necessarily result from shifts in production overseas. Other causes could include different rates of economic growth between the United States and other countries, the report said, or the creation of new market opportunities abroad that cannot be served by exports.

The report, which is based on preliminary data, found that foreign multinational companies employed 5.1 million people in the United States in 2005, or 4.5 percent of total U.S. employment in private industries. That figure represented a slight drop of 0.7 percent from 2004.

But foreign-owned firms continued to increase their capital spending in the U.S., investing $120.9 billion, up 7.1 percent from 2004.

Positive prospects for the country’s tourism (GREECE)

Positive prospects for the country’s tourism

Tourism demand in Greece will increase by an annual rate of 6.5 percent by 2016, the World Tourism and Travel Council (WTTC) estimates in a report it delivered to the Tourism Development Ministry. Greece enjoys healthy growth in tourism, so it will easily exceed the global average of 4.2 percent and the EU average of 3.5 percent, the WTTC suggests. Employment in Greek tourism will rise by 152,000 jobs until 2016, maintaining its 10.3 percent share of all employment in Greece’s job market. For tourism in Greece to realize all its potential, it requires strong state support and well-planned strategies, says the WTTC.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to Layoff 160 Employees

SCEE examining layoffs to streamline its operations and become more cost effective; President of Sony Italia steps down

Despite the fact that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe just staged a relatively successful PlayStation 3 launch coupled with the development of the lauded PlayStation Home, it may surprise some to learn that the Sony division is laying off a portion of its staff.

"We have informed our staff that we are considering proposals that may result in a number of redundancies across the SCEE Group in Europe," Nick Sharples, SCEE's Director of Corporate Communications, told GameDaily BIZ. "Until those consultations are complete we will not know how many redundancies may be needed. We will not be providing any additional information on this process or making further announcements at the conclusion of the process."

"The reason for the proposals is that, although SCEE has successfully faced a number of challenges throughout its history to become a leader of the videogame industry, our industry is in the middle of a period of transition where some of the fundamentals of our business are changing," he explained. "Chief amongst these is that we are entering a future of increasingly networked and converged entertainment. In order to maintain our leading position in the market we sometimes have to make difficult business decisions. The management of the company has concluded that we need to change our structure, streamline and strengthen our business operations – and that our cost base needs to be significantly reduced."

According to information obtained by GamesIndustry.biz, SCEE will issue all members of staff with a letter informing them by close of business on Wednesday whether or not they are at risk of redundancy. Out of the current 1900 jobs at SCEE, up to 160 could be on the chopping block.
In seemingly related news, Corrado Buonanno, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Italia, has officially left the company after 12 years.

This comes just after news of Sony Corp. shares rising to a two-month high after Nikkei analysts expect profits exceeding original estimates.

Workers at Belgian General Motors plant protest layoff plans with work stoppage

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Workers at the General Motors plant in Antwerp on Wednesday shut down the production line to protest plans to phase out production of the Astra model in Belgium and lay off 1,400 people.

The labor action was expected to last until Wednesday afternoon and was started immediately after Tuesday's announcement in Germany that Belgium would not make General Motors' new Astra compact model after 2010.

The company said there were no plans at the moment to shut the factory, which currently employs 5,100 people. The phase-out would result in the layoff of 1,400 people. The company said it would look at options to produce other models to keep the Antwerp plant going afterward.

The Belgian national and regional governments said in a joint statement they were disappointed about the decision, noting the "numerous efforts made in recent years to make this (Antwerp) site one of the better performing ones in Europe."

ayoff-weary Eaton hopeful demand is stabilizing

Cleveland-based Eaton Corp. hopes the worst is over for its Auburn, Ind., plant, which experienced heavy layoffs as the result of lower sales in the North American heavy-duty truck market.

Eaton has idled 113 employees since Oct. 31 -- including 18 as of March 30 -- but expects to be able to keep its hourly work force at 105.

"We can't predict the future behavior of the market," said Donald E. Alles, manager, global communications. "I can't say the worst is over or we're done laying off. It depends on business conditions."

Eaton is one of several Indiana auto-parts makers that have cut back employment in recent months.

The Auburn facility is part of Eaton's truck components clutch unit and is a maker of clutches and clutch systems for large, semi tractor-trailers.

Other clutch facilities are located in Concord, N.C.; Greenfield, Ind.; and San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Eaton said Monday it expects a 3 percent to 4 percent sales decline in the industrial markets it serves. However, the company posted a 12.5 percent first-quarter profit gain on strong demand across its businesses and raised its full-year outlook.

It expects North American Class 8 truck production levels to begin to return to normal by year's end.

The Employment Situation from the BLS

To view the tables referred to in the report, go to the website referenced by the link


Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 180,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment increased in construction, retail trade, and health care. The number of manufacturing jobs continued to trend down. Average hourly earnings rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.


Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
In March, the number of unemployed persons (6.7 million) and the unemployment rate (4.4 percent) were essentially unchanged. The jobless rate has remained within a narrow range—4.4 to 4.6 percent— since September 2006. Over the month, the unemployment rate for most major worker groups—adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.8 percent), teenagers (14.5 percent), blacks (8.3 percent), and Hispanics (5.1 percent)—showed little or no change. The jobless rate for whites decreased to 3.8 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 3.0 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) In March, the number of unemployed job losers and persons who had completed temporary jobs declined by 215,000. The number of unemployed persons who had been jobless for less than 5 weeks also fell, by 273,000. (See tables A-8 and A-9.)


Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
Both total employment, at 146.3 million, and the employment-population ratio, at 63.3 percent, were essentially unchanged in March. Over the month, the labor force participation rate held steady at 66.2 percent, about the same as a year earlier. (See table A-1.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 1.4 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached to the labor force in March—essentially unchanged from a year earlier. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime during the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were 381,000 discouraged workers in March, down slightly from a year earlier. Discouraged workers were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them. The remaining 1.0 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in March had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-13.)

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)
In March, nonfarm payroll employment rose by 180,000 to 137.6 million, after seasonal adjustment. This increase followed gains of 162,000 in January and 113,000 in February (as revised). Over the year, total nonfarm employment rose by about 2.0 million. In March, construction employment rose sharply, following a large decline in the prior month. A sizable job gain also occurred in general merchandise stores in March, and job growth continued in health care and in food services. Manufacturing employment continued to trend down over the month. (See table B-1.) Construction employment increased by 56,000 in March, mostly offsetting a decline of 61,000 in February. Unusually adverse weather likely contributed to February’s decline. Overall, the construction industry has shown no net growth since employment peaked in September 2006. Over this span, job gains in the nonresidential components of construction have been more than offset by losses in the residential components.

Within retail trade, employment in general merchandise stores rose by 36,000 in March and by 81,000 in the first quarter of this year. Despite the recent growth, employment in general merchandise stores was little changed over the year. Elsewhere in retail trade, employment in building material and garden supply stores has declined by 15,000 since reaching its peak in October 2006.

Employment in health care continued to increase in March with a gain of 30,000; over the year, the industry added 348,000 jobs. In March, offices of physicians and hospitals added 9,000 jobs each, while nursing and residential care facilities added 7,000. Food services and drinking places also continued to add jobs in March (+19,000). Over the year, employment in the industry grew by 335,000.

Professional and business services employment was essentially unchanged in March and over the first quarter of 2007. The industry added half a million jobs in 2006. In March, employment continued to expand in computer systems design and in management and technical consulting services, but those job gains were offset by small job losses in accounting and bookkeeping and in employment services.

Manufacturing employment continued to trend down over the month (-16,000), with declines in furniture and related products (-4,000), computer and electronic products (-4,000), textile mills (-2,000), and paper and paper products (-2,000).

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)
The average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.1 hour to 33.9 hours in March, seasonally adjusted. The manufacturing workweek increased by 0.2 hour to 41.1 hours, and manufacturing overtime increased by 0.1 hour to 4.3 hours. (See table B-2.) The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.6 percent in March to 107.3 (2002=100). The manufacturing index was up by 0.2 percent over the month to 95.2. (See table B-5.)

Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)
Average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents, or 0.3 percent, in March to $17.22, seasonally adjusted. During the first quarter of 2007, average hourly earnings rose by 15 cents; in 2006, hourly earnings growth averaged 18 cents per quarter. Average weekly earnings increased by 0.6 percent over the month to $583.76. Over the year, average hourly and weekly earnings grew by 4.0 and 4.4 percent, respectively. (See table B-3.)

(Australia) West leads jobs boom

AUSTRALIA'S jobless rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 4.5 per cent in March to a 30-year low and plunged to just 2.7 per cent in Western Australia, reflecting the commodities boom.
The unemployment rate dropped from 4.6 per cent in February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

Total employment rose 10,500 to 10.370 million, seasonally adjusted, while full-time employment rose by 31,700 to 7.4 million and part-time employment fell 21,200 to 2.9 million.
The report follows a long run of data that suggests last year's three interest rates have not dampened activity in the economy, leaving open the risk of renewed inflationary wages and price pressures.

WA leads jobless rateAmong the states, the unemployment rate plunged to 2.7 per cent in Western Australia from 3.1 per cent. The state has led the nation's resources boom and the mining sector there has a particularly tight labour market.

The New South Wales unemployment rate fell to 5.0 per cent in March, compared with 5.2 per cent in February, while in Victoria it rose to 4.9 per cent from 4.8 per cent. The jobless rate fell to 5.3 per cent in Tasmania from 5.6 per cent. In Queensland the jobless rate remained at 4.0 per cent, but rose to 5.3 per cent from 5.2 per cent in South Australia. In the Northern Territory the jobless rate rose to 3.4 per cent from 3.0 per cent, while in the ACT it remained at 3.2 per cent.

Vacancies harder to fillThe managing director of recruitment firm Michael Page International Phillip Guest said jobs in the accounting, finance, non-building engineering, metal trades and nursing sectors were becoming harder to fill. A strong economy was also pushing jobs growth. “Generally speaking, that is backed up by the commodity boom that's going on and strong global economic conditions. “That's driving the strength of our economy, consumer and business confidence are up.''

More pressure on interest rates RBC Capital Markets senior economist Su-Lin Ong said the slightly lower unemployment rate would put pressure on interest rates. “Today's labour market data continue to highlight the very stretched nature of the economy with constraints evident in both goods and labour markets," she said. The data would make the Reserve Bank of Australia more likely to keep its tightening bias and raise interest rates. “It keeps alive the prospect of further tightening in the coming months. If there is a single indicator that flags such a move it is the downward trend in the unemployment rate,'' she said.

UBS senior economist Adam Carr said leading indicators of employment pointed to continued jobs growth in the short-term. Mr Carr said inflation data due on April 24 would need to be particularly soft or for there be a solid deterioration in the US economy to prevent an interest rate hike next month. "In the absence of either of those events, we think it likely the bank will tighten again in May,'' he said.

Job Growth Surged and Wages Rose in March Data

JEREMY W. PETERS
Published April 7, 2007

It just keeps going.

The job market showed little sign of losing its vigor last month as wages climbed and job growth rose, the Labor Department reported yesterday.

Economists said the numbers were consistent with an economy that was being supported by strong consumer spending, with considerable hiring in businesses like restaurants, bars, department stores and educational services.

In all, the Labor Department said that employment outside the farming sector grew by 180,000 in March. And in another sign of the job market’s resilience, employment growth in January and February was stronger than the government first reported.

The national unemployment rate also edged down last month to 4.4 percent, from 4.5 percent, matching a five-year low that it reached briefly in October.

With the economy showing signs of imbalance elsewhere — in the housing market, in business investment and in worker productivity — the job market has been the area that continues to show momentum despite a broader slowdown.

“Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit together the way you’d expect them to,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “And it’s the tireless American consumer who’s keeping the job market moving forward.”

The employment report offered a reason for consumers’ continued free spending: their incomes keep going up. The average hourly earnings for workers rose 4 percent in March compared with those a year earlier, to $17.22 an hour.

The jobs report appeared to confirm the Federal Reserve’s outlook for moderate economic growth, dimming hopes that interest rates will come down anytime soon. With wages increasing at a strong pace and the unemployment rate so low, the Fed is likely to continue to focus on rising inflation as the biggest threat to the economy. The yield on the United States Treasury’s 10-year note reflected this, rising to the highest level in eight weeks in a session that was shortened because of Good Friday.

While consumers are spending more, much of that money is borrowed. The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that consumer debt rose in February by $2.97 billion to a record $2.41 trillion. Americans are putting more of that debt on credit cards. The Fed’s measure of revolving debt, which includes credit cards, rose $2.494 billion, after rising $1.229 billion in January.
As the case has been for the last several months, the employment report was not only solid, but it showed that employers were even busier hiring in previous months than the government first estimated. The latest figures showed 32,000 jobs that were not included in the employment tallies for January and February.

“The fact of the matter is the job market is very, very healthy,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief economist of MFR. “And it’s not like this is a fluky one-off thing. There’s a whole host of evidence about the labor market that points to strength.”
Only a few pockets of the job market last month showed any softness. Manufacturing continued to shed workers, eliminating some 16,000 jobs. That was the largest of any sector, and the losses came primarily from the assembly line. Real estate renting and leasing services cut 5,200 jobs; telecommunications businesses cut 6,200.

But construction, which has been hit by a slowdown in residential real estate, added 56,000 jobs after cutting 67,000 the month before. Of those new jobs, 45,200 were in the specialty trade contractor business. And most of those — 34,200 jobs — were in nonresidential contracting.
Most of the hiring last month was in businesses that typically get a lift when consumers spend freely. Retail businesses added 35,900 jobs, almost all of those in department stores, discount warehouses and other general merchandise outlets. Gains in those businesses helped offset job losses in building supplies stores, furniture stores and automobile dealerships. Restaurants and bars hired 19,000 new workers.

Doctors’ offices, hospitals and other health care service providers added 29,500 jobs. New jobs in educational services totaled 15,800.
Economists said this level of job growth suggested that any spillover from the housing downturn had been limited so far.

“If businesses were really losing confidence in the outlook, and if we were heading for a major downturn, then they’d be pulling back across the board,” said Nigel Gault, chief United States economist for Global Insight.

Other measures of the job market showed signs of strengthening as well. The employment-population ratio, the percentage of Americans who are working, rose to 63.3 percent, from 63.2 percent in February.

But some economists pointed to possible anomalies in the data and suggested that the jobs numbers might not be as strong as they look. One factor that raised some eyebrows was that the strength in the retail sector was almost exclusively in general merchandise stores.
“That kind of sticks out like a sore thumb,” said Richard F. Moody, chief economist of Mission Residential, a real estate investment firm. “It’s hard to explain a jump that large in one month. And in terms of sustainable job growth, it doesn’t really fit the bill.”

Others pointed to possible distortions in the data for construction. “Employment in residential construction is down by only 3 percent over the last year, even though construction is down by almost 20 percent,” Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, said in a report. “Either productivity in the sector is crashing or, more likely, the data are not reflecting real employment trends.”

In general, however, economists took the Labor Department report as a sign that growth will remain steady, prompting the Fed to hold interest rates at 5.25 percent for the foreseeable future. After yesterday’s report, Goldman Sachs pushed back, to September, its estimate for when the Fed will lower rates. “It appears that it will take a bit longer to see the extent of weakening that would convince the Fed to ease,” a group of economists from the investment bank said in a research note.

US March layoff intentions down to 48,997 from 84,014 in Feb - Challenger Report

Wed, Apr 4 2007, 13:19 GMT
http://www.afxnews.com

LONDON (AFX) - Layoff intentions in the US fell in March compared with the previous month, according to a key survey published today.

The Challenger Job-Cut Report, a monthly report on the number of announced corporate job cuts, said total layoff intentions fell to 48,997 in March from 84,014 in February.

carlo.piovano@thomson.com

April, 2007

While suffering with sciatica for most of the past 3 weeks, I have been out of my office but still speaking with clients, reading emails and news, responding to requests and such.

It has slowed me down (I couldn't walk much for more than a week), yet throughout, I couldn't help but notice the very clear message of labor shortages for skilled workers.

Teachers, accountants, computer professionals and many more are finding that firms are clamoring to hire people with their experience. March unemployment added 180000 new jobs (I view unemployment numbers as trend lines , rather than concrete data; even so, we are now trending strongly).

I have been pretty active in some online discussions on www.ere.net between corporate and third party recruiters and am finding hr professionals discussing the possibility of using sign on bonuses to attract talent in several surprising industries (building services and construction).

I spoke a with a search professional from a major consulting firm who told me of the struggle to find Partner and Director level professionals for one of their practices; another , with a different firm shares more and more orders as their firm explodes with new business; a third just keeps sending out 50 new positions a day at a minimum.

That's 50 completely different positions per day, not 50 repeat positions.

H-1b applications for 2007 were filled within a day of being made available--65000 people will be absorbed into the US economy and we are still pleading for more.

Labor shortages and, in particular, skilled labor shortages offer the biggest threat (after terrorism, of course) to the US economy. In the future, shortages will force mergers and cause far more more havoc than the sub-prime scares that we are currently experiencing in the stock market.

Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2007 all rights reserved.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.

To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to http://www.jeffaltman.com. Job Search Universe is also available at www.jobsearchuniverse.com To add your firm’s career page to “The Universe” email the url to jobsearchuniverse@gmail.com.

If you would like Jeff and his firm to assist you with hiring staff, or if you would like help with a strategic job change, send an email to him at thebiggamehunter@cisny.com (If you’re looking for a new position, include your resume).

If you have a question that you would like me to answer pertaining to job hunting or hiring, email it to him at:
thebiggamehunter@gmail.com

Jobless Rate Falls; 180,000 Jobs Added

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you were looking for a job as a teacher last month, you were in luck. Same goes for health workers, retail clerks and building contractors. All told, the economy added 180,000 new jobs, dropping unemployment to a 4.4 percent rate that matched a five-year low.

The mostly positive snapshot of the nation's employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed that companies ramped up hiring and paid workers more. That's good news for employees and jobseekers, and bodes well for the national economy, too, which is suffering a sluggish spell and a painful housing slump.

"For most people, the job market is still hitting on a lot of cylinders, especially for people who are willing to upgrade their skills. It is not leaving a large number of people stranded," said John Challenger, chief of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an employment research firm. "But there are pockets where people are having a difficult time," he said.

Those include people looking for work at factories, where jobs in March were cut for the ninth straight month. Makers of autos, furniture, clothing and textiles all eliminated jobs last month. Another soft spot: residential construction, a casualty of the housing slump.

But there were many more job winners than losers. Construction jobs led the way, especially for contractors and for commercial building. Retailers, health care providers, educational services and leisure and hospitality companies were among those boosting their payrolls.

"Businesses have a very good appetite for hiring workers. The job market is sturdy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "It is a good time to be looking for a job, particularly if you have skills and education."

Against that backdrop, unemployment fell from 4.5 percent in February to 4.4 percent in March. That matched the rate in October - the lowest in five years.

Here, too, there were winners and losers.

The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped to 5.1 percent, a three-month low, while the rate for blacks climbed to 8.3 percent, a three-month high. The rate for women held steady at 3.8 percent. The rate for men declined to 4 percent.

The economy ended up adding 32,000 more jobs in January and February combined than the government estimated a month ago. Economists found that encouraging in assessing the health of the job market and the overall economy.

Workers' paychecks grew last month.

Average hourly earnings climbed to $17.22, up from $16.55 a year earlier. That represented a solid 4 percent increase.

Wage growth is good for workers and supports consumer spending, which is indispensable to the economy's good health. But a rapid pickup - if prolonged and not blunted by other economic forces - can raise fears about inflation.

Spiraling inflation would whittle away any wage gains, hurting workers' wallets. The Federal Reserve's biggest concern is that inflation could flare up.

Even so, many economists predict the Fed will keep interest rates where they are for much of this year.

In a separate report, the Fed said consumers borrowed less freely in February; they boosted their use of credit at a 1.5 percent pace, the slowest in four months. The moderation reflected less demand for auto, educational and other loans.

The new employment figures come as President Bush continues to cope with a lackluster job-approval rating of 35 percent from the American public, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. On the economy, just 38 percent approve of the president's stewardship while 60 percent disapprove, the poll shows.

Tapping into that discontent, Democrats are championing policies to close the gap between low- and high-income workers and make it easier for workers to form unions against company wishes. They're also taking a harder stance regarding the administration's free-trade deals.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, in an interview with The Associated Press, said the latest employment figures are a testament to the administration's economic policies and to the drive of the U.S. work force.

"These numbers show we are competing successfully in a very competitive global economy," he said. Addressing the weakness in factory employment, Gutierrez said: "Any job lost is painful. ... We need to stay focused on job training and preparing ourselves" for an even more competitive climate in the future.

In March, there were some challenges for jobseekers, too. For one thing, the job hunt got longer.

The average time that the 6.7 million unemployed people spent searching for jobs was 17.3 weeks in March, compared with 16.4 weeks in February.

"Opportunities are expanding, but it doesn't mean everybody's job search is easy," said Challenger. "But people who really want to look hard and stay at it are finding work."

Fannie Mae to Layoff Hundreds

By AP/MARCY GORDON

(WASHINGTON) — Mortgage giant Fannie Mae, remaking itself as it recovers from a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, is cutting its 6,500-person work force by several hundred employees by year's end.

The planned job cuts, the company said Tuesday, are among cost-cutting measures that Fannie Mae has undertaken to reduce its operating expenses by $200 million this year compared with 2006. The company confirmed the cuts following reports by the Washington Examiner and The Washington Post newspapers.

"Our objective is to bring costs in line following a period of significant increases in overall administrative expenses," spokesman Brian Faith said in a statement. He said the work force will be reduced by "several hundred" full-time employees by the end of the year. Details are still being discussed, Faith said.

Fannie Mae, which is the second-largest U.S. financial institution after Citigroup Inc., spent about $1 billion last year on the massive review of its accounting and preparing financial statements. The government-sponsored company finances one of every five home loans in the United States and is one of the largest private employers in the Washington area.
In December, the company announced a long-awaited restatement for 2001 through mid-2004 that erased $6.3 billion in previously reported profit. Fannie Mae has said that it expects to file its financial statements for 2005 by August and its 2006 report by year's end.

The accounting scandal that erupted in September 2004 brought the ouster of top company executives and a record $400 million civil fine in a settlement last year of federal regulators' allegations of a pervasive six-year accounting fraud. Fannie Mae also agreed to limit the growth of its multibillion-dollar mortgage holdings and make top-to-bottom changes in its corporate culture, accounting procedures and ways of managing risk.

Fannie Mae and its smaller government-sponsored sibling, Freddie Mac, were created by Congress to pump money into the $8 trillion home-mortgage market. The idea was to keep interest rates low and make home ownership affordable for low- and moderate-income people. Freddie Mac has been recovering from its own accounting scandal, which surfaced in mid-2003.

Lillian Vernon, Pier1 to Have Layoffs

High inventory prompts layoff of 240 at Bristol Compressors

BRISTOL, Va. -- Bristol Compressors will lay off about 240 workers and close for two weeks beginning Sunday because of unusually higher inventories.

The layoffs next month may be temporary, Darryll Fortune, spokesman for parent firm Johnson Controls, said Wednesday. Most of those affected will be production employees. "It has to do with demand for one product, which was overestimated what the manufacturer needed," he said.

Bristol Compressors, which manufactures reciprocating compressors used in air conditioning units and heat pumps, currently employs about 1,300 people. This will be the second round of cutbacks in about a year for Bristol's largest employer, which was acquired by Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls in December 2005.

The work force was reduced by about 290 last year. Johnson Controls has the plant up for sale. A share of the company's stock was trading at $99.10 Thursday morning on the New York Stock Exchange, after closing at $99.57 on Wednesday.

Pork plant employee layoff in Sioux City

Unfavorable market conditions have led John Morrell & Co to temporarily discontinue its second shift pig processing operations at its Sioux City, Iowa, plant, as from this week.

The discontinuation in the plant, a Smithfield Foods subsidiary, will result in the temporary layoff of about 485 workers who work the second shift at the plant.

Necessary "This is a difficult but necessary decision to discontinue the second shift," said Joseph B. Sebring, president of John Morrell. "We hope to resume second shift operations when market conditions become more favourable."

As a result of the shutdown of the plant’s second shift, the Sioux City plant will process about 7,000 pigs per day. About 900 employees will remain at work.

"We know that this is challenging for the employees affected. We will be working diligently to return them back to work as soon as possible," Sebring said.

He said that the company would notify state dislocated worker units so that they can promptly offer dislocated worker assistance and coordinate with the local unemployment office to assist employees with claims or job applications.

Triad unemployment rate drops slightly in February

The unemployment rate for the 12-county Piedmont Triad region was 5.1 percent in February, down slightly from 5.2 percent in January, according to data released Friday by the state's Employment Security Commission.

Rates fell in half of the 12 counties, while rising in four Triad counties and being unchanged in two. North Carolina had an overall unemployment rate of 4.5 percent in February, down from 4.6 percent in January and the lowest rate since January 2001. The state data was also released on Friday.

In the 12-county Triad, about 41,600 people were registered as unemployed during February of a total labor force of more than 820,000.

Among the Triad's three metropolitan areas, the Burlington metro had a higher rate than the Triad, at 5.3 percent. The Greensboro-High Point metro had an unmeplyment rate of 5.1 percent, while the Winston-Salem metro was at 4.4 percent. The Triangle region continues to boast the lowest unemployment rates in the state, with the Raleigh-Cary metro area having a 3.7 percent unemployment rate and Durham posting 3.9 percent unemployment in February.

Here's a county-by-county breakdown of unemployment rates for the 12-county Triad for February, compared to January:

Alamance: 5.3 percent, down from 5.6 percent;
Caswell: 7.4 percent, unchanged from January;
Davidson: 5.9 percent, down from 6.3 percent;
Davie: 4.5 percent, up from 4.2 percent;
Forsyth: 4.3 percent, down from 4.5 percent;
Guilford: 5.0 percent, up from 4.9 percent;
Montgomery: 6.6 percent, unchanged;
Randolph: 4.6 percent, down from 5.0 percent;
Rockingham: 6.8 percent, up from 6.7 percent;
Stokes: 4.9 percent, down from 5.1 percent;
Surry: 5.5 percent, down from 5.7 percent; and,
Yadkin: 4.6 percent, up from 4.5 percent.