Well, today was a great day as far as job cut headlines go. It was a lousy day as far as economic reports go. First, the job headlines:
Air France to Cut 2,000 Jobs After EU505 Million Loss — Ok, this one was terrible. 3% of the unit’s workforce. I’m not at all certain how many units Air France has, but 3% doesn’t sound so bad given the dismal conditions of every other industry. On the other hand, 2,000 jobs is quite a reduction.
Wal-Mart to Close U.S. Returns Center, Cut 400 Jobs — I’m convinced these Wal-Mart jobs will add up. But given the number of people employed, 400 from the big retailer isn’t that bad.
Law Firms in U.S. Eliminate 700 Jobs as Economy Slows — I would think that people would get more litigious in hard times. This surprised me (technically, I read an article about it yesterday. It just didn’t have any numbers).
Haas Automation lays off 200 workers amid wave of Ventura County job cuts — Semi-local job cuts. Ventura was home to a large Countrywide office. Things have been looking pretty grim for Santa Barbara’s neighbor to the south. This isn’t going to help.
These job cut announcements barely made the radar. I had to search for these. In the end, the numbers (except for the Air France numbers) weren’t bad. Today was a good day as far as jobs go. On the other hand … Europe isn’t doing well. Check out these headlines:
I don’t think I need to comment on those. While looking through those, I found this little tidbit. Someone clearly has it in for the Swiss: You Never Stop Paying for a Luxury Watch as Repair Costs Mount. Really? That made news? Europe reports that their economy fell off a cliff and you are bitching about a watch you paid too much for?
The US had a bit of bad news themselves. U.S. Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Fell to 56.2. Close, but not as bad as November.
And, to close with some good news (although, check out this post at Naked Capitalism for a slightly more negative view): China’s Economy Shows Signs of Recovery on Stimulus.
I really did think the jobs news was good.
