Formula for Stimulus
April has arrived with just a bit more positive energy on the job front. I have actually seen some hires made in the past few weeks and a handful of employers have indicated they are close to adding additional staff to their very depleted ranks. At the same time, a fair number of hiring managers have shared stories of all time lows in new orders for their goods and services. Trying to analyze which industries are hot has been puzzling as the results of my unofficial canvassing are not showing a steady trend.
My opinion is that the success of a company is driven by some factors they cannot control such as overall demand for what they produce or distribute, transportation costs to get their goods or even their service people to their customers, competition from foreign markets, and the public's perception of the economy. The areas I believe a company can control are quality of product, level of customer support and service, turnaround time for delivering the order, and ability to offer their product at a competitive price. Where some companies appear to be struggling is a reluctance to modify their product or service to the current expectations of their customers. Most consumers are looking for a bigger bang for their dollar and feel entitled to additional bells and whistles at little or no increase in cost to purchase.
This is where the job market could be impacted. Companies that stand by their original concepts and are unwilling to be flexible look to be the ones struggling the most right now. There are many talented individuals on the job market. I suggest that this is a great time to look for talent with innovative ideas, offer them a job, perhaps on a contract to permanent basis initially, and see if they can identify some tweaks to your process which could bring in additional revenue. The old adage that sometimes you have to spend a little money to make money definitely applies here.
Stimulus packages can appear in subtle ways and I think this is one of them. Imagine this, if every employer added 1-2 percent to their workforce to try to bring in creative minds, the national unemployment rate could possibly drop under 8 percent. All those people who were re-employed would have money in their pockets to pay off debt and perhaps do a little shopping which would help fill the empty storefronts and put even more people back to work. Feel free to let me know if you think I am dreaming but I truly think this could go somewhere!
Steve
9:35 am on Thursday, April 5, 2012
Not sure why companies are still reluctant to hire. I just got word today that a job I was in contention for that they decided not to fill this position at this time.
Mike
9:29 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
One reason is all the uncertainty foisted on us by Obama and his minions...on things like taxes, Obamacare, etc. Just do a search on "obama hiring uncertainty" for a gazillion stories to support this argument. Of course, things are not so uncertain so as to prevent the Dow 30 from cracking 13,000.
The simple answer, Steve, is "because they can."
Harold Levin
8:57 pm on Thursday, April 5, 2012
Steve, It seems that hiring managers get everything in place but are then vetoed by upper management. There is still a culture of making do with less until the need to add staff becomes absolutly essential. I wish you all the best in your search.
Curt Carnes
7:38 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012
You must be an Obama fan. Yeap, the entire mess our economy is in can be fixed by giving Curt enough cash in his pocket to go out and buy a pizza. However Harold, as you mentioned, there are a large number of external forces a company can’t control that impact companies ability to grow or be profitable, and doddering around with a company's internal forces, (ones they can control) by adding an unnecessary 1 or 2 percent to their work force, will only make it harder to gain an upper hand on the external forces that are pushing so many American companies into bankruptcy today.
As a side note, I have in hand a really nice 35,000 piece order for fabrication of some parts that need to be made on 00 Swiss Screw Machines, a machine that used to exist in abundance in American Machine shops, however, thanks to the impact of liberal forces like excessive OSHA, EPA, Unions, Departments of Labor and tons of other government regulations or taxes, along with other society driven forces like NIMBYers, these machines owners have shipped them off shore, where they can once again be operated profitably, because at the EOD Harold, we American consumers still demand Wallmart type rock bottom prices.
Get the government out of the hair of the American manufacturer and Harold, you'll be busier than a one armed paper hanger in a F5 tornado!
PS, best hurry about getting government out, as it is really almost too late even as we speak!
Harold Levin
8:37 am on Saturday, April 7, 2012
Curt, Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Best of luck in getting your 35,000 piece order filled, glad to hear someone is busy!!
Curt Carnes
6:33 pm on Saturday, April 7, 2012
You are so correct Harold, and thank you for posting yours. I will get that order filled, sadly, it will come from China. 15 - 20 years ago, I could have had it filled in Manville, and if he was busy or couldn’t give me the price I needed there was a shop in Randolph, or another in Flanders, who could. Today? Gone, gone and gone!
Bruce Springsteen says it best in his song “My Hometown"
Now Main Street's white washed windows and vacant stores. Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more. They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks. Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back to your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Your hometown
Mike
9:31 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
Curt: too bad that order didn't come in before Jan 20, 2009.
dubious
1:27 pm on Sunday, April 8, 2012
Let's see Curt. The current problem is OSHA. Wait, that's been around for over 40 years (signed into law by NIXON). No, the problem is unions. Wait, they've been around for over 100 years, during the time of the greatest manufacturing growth in history. Perhaps the problem is with the EPA, also a NIXON sponsored idea. I guess we'd be doing better of our water was undrinkable and the air was too foul to breathe. I guess it would be fine to fill your order in Manville, even while it was one of the worst cancer hotspots in the nation (thanks Johns Manville). I got it. It must be taxes, even though the tax rates for corporations and the wealthy are the lowest they've ever been. No Curt, the problem is that under Bush (and to some extent under Clinton), the big corporations were INCENTED to move jobs overseas because their costs couldn't be taxed in the U.S. If you want to bring jobs back, and who doesn't, you need to change the tax laws to do so. That's want Obama wants to do. It's actually a Republican idea (from the Heritage Foundation, like healthcare), but since it's Obama's idea, it must be bad.
Curt Carnes
8:39 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
I’m glad you understand we are indeed in serious trouble in terms of manufacturing because the vast majority of it has been shipped off shore, and manufacturing equals jobs, good jobs, lot of them, and good pay too.
Tell you what, I’ll vote for Obama, heck, I’ll even go knock door to door begging people to vote for him, if he actually puts together a real plan to bring manufacturing back to this country, however, to date all he’s offered on that front is lip service and or government take over.
Speaking of government intervention, a lobbying group is currently trying to get the NJ government to raise your electric rates even higher, so we (yes you and I) the rate payers can pay their buddies to build windmills off the Jersey Coast!
FYI, I have a list as long as my arm of companies that have either moved out of Jersey, or shut their doors because of their extremely high power bills. Are you familiar with demand power billing?
VietNam Vet
12:40 am on Wednesday, June 6, 2012
dubious, you are so wrong, Odumbo is destroying this country. Odumbo{Osama} wants to increase corp. tax to over 35% thats why companies are leaving the country and shifting jobs overseas. Have you ever called in to Verizon and you got a Hindu on the line and he puts his supervisor on the phone and he to is one of them, well thats because Verizon like many others have shifted all the calls over to India, they are NOT here anymore. Yea, I had a business to and it was destroyed by EPA, who just loves to stick their nose into something they have no right in. They aprove something one day and then take it back later and fine you for it also. The Feds. stink starting with Osama in there. Sure there are jobs out there like Harold says, if you want to work for Mc Donald's, or Wendy's slinging bugers all day long for $7.00 per hour. Just ask the kids coming out of college just how many jobs they have been able to get. They can't find one just like the 4M Americans put on unemployment by Osama the Muslim maniac thief. He has lied to us from the first day, unemployment is not going down like he says, it just people who can't collect anymore because their benefits have run out, my cousin is on unemployment and his benefits will run out soon, and they'll say he went back to work, he wishes he can go back to work. Get your facts straight before opening your trap, this jerk is a JOKE and everyone knows it except you and a few democraps.
Curt Carnes
9:16 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
Dubious, just for your information. Recent Headlines. Sony cuts 10,000 jobs, Yahoo cuts 2,000, Lockheed Martin cuts 500, JC Penny’s cuts 600, PPG Industries cuts 2,000, AT&T cuts 100, Raymond James Financial cuts 200, Dow Chemical cuts 900, Saxson Mortgage Service cuts 680, QVC cuts 600.………
And the list goes on and on.
Steve
9:24 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
Curt, I don't think most of those cuts are in manufacturing.
Mike
9:32 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
All since Jan 20, 2009. Need I say more?
Curt Carnes
10:34 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
Steve, There are no manufacturing jobs to cut anymore! LOL!
Curt Carnes
10:37 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
Mike -- My list! Mostly in the last couple of weeks!
Steve
9:58 am on Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Curt, that 10,000 jobs at Sony is world wide, not sure how many will be in the US. That is about 6 percent of its workforce. It has to do with their flat panel TV division. Since no TVs are made in the US that cut will probably have little impact on Sony jobs in the US.
Also it is not the manufacturing jobs that are not here anymore, it is the white-collar ones that have been going away as well as call center service jobs.
Mike
9:39 am on Monday, April 9, 2012
@dubious: Damn you and your silly facts! And yes, if it's an idea out of the Obama administration, it must be malarkey.
We should give more tax cuts to all those companies who sent the jobs overseas...look how well it's worked so far. And since most of these jobs go to China, we should adopt the Chinese approach to wages, collective bargaining, environmental protection, etc., so we can compete. We already nailed one element: insane compensation for those at the very top.
Mike
12:44 pm on Monday, April 9, 2012
It's more about demand than taxes, regulation, etc.
Smash the middle class (via increasing health costs and declining real wages) and you decimate demand. Decimate demand and jobs will be cut, which further decimates demand by reducing disposable income. Most Americans want goods at Chinese-made prices but they want the manufacturing jobs to stay here. That simply is impossible. The decision makers at companies (especially the behemoths) get huge PERSONAL financial incentives to be ruthless and results-driven (it wasn't always that way), so they send the jobs...wherever...and giggle all the way to the bank. Better to have hundreds of families earning millions of dollars than ONE family earning the same money (how many dishwashers can one family need?).
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