OFF CAMPUS
Layoffs continue to increase
The New York Times
Issue date: 1/29/09 Section: News
As of Jan. 26, five high-employment American companies, Pfizer Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Home Depot, General Motors, and Caterpillar, released that they expect to cut over 30,000 jobs. Caterpillar alone, the largest maker of mining and construction equipment in the world, added 5,000 job cuts to their already climbing cutbacks, reaching totals of over 20,000.
Pfizer anticipates a total of 8,000 job cuts, and Sprint, which is the third largest wireless provider in the country, expects to cut 8,000 as well. Texas Instruments also said at the end of the day Monday that it would cut twelve percent of its workforce through layoffs and retirements.
These companies are merely a part of a worldwide increase in job cuts. This past Monday marked a total of more than 65,000 job cuts throughout the United States and around the world. These cuts are being seen as a dangerous sign that businesses, on the whole, are enduring a painful downturn.
Economic forecasters are thinking the worst; the latest report released from the National Association for Business Economics this week called for the worst business conditions in the United States since the early 1980s.
President Obama has acknowledged these layoffs, and addressed them through urging an 825 billion dollar economic stimulus package. The package consists of tax cuts, emergency benefits, and public spending projects.
Obama's administration has proposed to set aside 43 billion dollars to deal directly with the problem and to provide for new recipients of unemployment insurance as well as existing ones.
This proposal is largely based on estimates that the unemployment rate will reach 8.3 percent in 2010 and peak there, but many economist are expecting these rates to cross into the double-digits and are almost certain that this funding will not be enough. Unemployment rates have reached 7.2 percent in the past month.
"These are not just numbers on a page," the President said. "As with the millions of jobs lost in 2008, these are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold. We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency and common purpose. We can't afford distractions and we cannot afford delays."
Pfizer anticipates a total of 8,000 job cuts, and Sprint, which is the third largest wireless provider in the country, expects to cut 8,000 as well. Texas Instruments also said at the end of the day Monday that it would cut twelve percent of its workforce through layoffs and retirements.
These companies are merely a part of a worldwide increase in job cuts. This past Monday marked a total of more than 65,000 job cuts throughout the United States and around the world. These cuts are being seen as a dangerous sign that businesses, on the whole, are enduring a painful downturn.
Economic forecasters are thinking the worst; the latest report released from the National Association for Business Economics this week called for the worst business conditions in the United States since the early 1980s.
President Obama has acknowledged these layoffs, and addressed them through urging an 825 billion dollar economic stimulus package. The package consists of tax cuts, emergency benefits, and public spending projects.
Obama's administration has proposed to set aside 43 billion dollars to deal directly with the problem and to provide for new recipients of unemployment insurance as well as existing ones.
This proposal is largely based on estimates that the unemployment rate will reach 8.3 percent in 2010 and peak there, but many economist are expecting these rates to cross into the double-digits and are almost certain that this funding will not be enough. Unemployment rates have reached 7.2 percent in the past month.
"These are not just numbers on a page," the President said. "As with the millions of jobs lost in 2008, these are working men and women whose families have been disrupted and whose dreams have been put on hold. We owe it to each of them and to every single American to act with a sense of urgency and common purpose. We can't afford distractions and we cannot afford delays."