Posts
Will
The Bottom Fall Out? 15 Signs That Layoffs And Job Losses Are
Skyrocketing
Michael Snyder
25
October, 2012
If
you still have a good job, you might want to hold on to it very
tightly because there are a whole bunch of signs that unemployment in
the United States is about to start getting worse again. Over
the past several weeks, a substantial number of large corporations
have announced disappointing earnings for the third quarter.
Many of those large corporations are also loaded up with huge amounts
of debt. So what is the solution? Well, the favorite
solution on Wall Street these days seems to be to lay off workers.
In fact, it is almost turning into a feeding frenzy. Since
September 1st, we have seen more job cuts announced than during any
other two month period since the start of 2010. These
announcements represent future layoffs and job losses which are not
even showing up in the unemployment numbers yet. So needless to
say, things don't look very promising for the end of 2012 or for the
beginning of 2013. If this race to eliminate jobs becomes a
stampede, will we see the bottom fall out of the employment market?
If
you are concerned about whether or not you will still have a job 12
months from now, you might find the numbers posted below to be quite
alarming. We have not seen layoff announcements come this fast
and this furious since the gloomy days of the last recession.
North American companies have announced plans to eliminate more than 62,600 positions at home and abroad since Sept. 1, the biggest two-month drop since the start of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Firings total 158,100 so far this year, more than the 129,000 job cuts in the same period in 2011.
So
what happens if the economy really starts sliding rapidly and this
loss of jobs becomes an avalanche?
Can
the U.S. economy and the American people handle another major
economic downturn?
Some
of the biggest names in the business world have announced job cuts in
recent weeks. The following are 15 signs that layoffs and job
losses are skyrocketing...
1. Dow
Chemical has announced that it will be closing about 20 plants and
will be letting about 2,400
workers go.
4. Ford
has announced that it will be eliminating 6,200
jobs and
will be reducing production capacity in Europe by 18 percent.
9. Engine
maker Cummins Inc. has announced that they plan to get rid of about
1,500 jobs by
the end of 2012.
11. Zynga
(known for making video games for Facebook such as FarmVille) has
announced that they are reducing their workforce by
about 5 percent.
14. Siemens
AG has announced that the number of positions being eliminated may
reach 10,000 by
the end of the year.
Please
keep in mind that these job cuts do not show up in the unemployment
numbers yet. When big corporations announce the elimination of
jobs, it often takes a while before those job losses actually take
place.
Sadly,
I believe that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am
convinced that the layoffs and the job losses are going to get a lot
worse.
In
fact, 2013 is already shaping up to be a very difficult year for the
economy no matter how
the election turns out.
Those
of you that read my articles regularly already know that our economic
system is becoming increasingly
unstable.
We could literally plunge into another major recession at any moment.
Not
that we need any more economic trouble. Tens of millions of
American families are having to
fight tooth and nail just
to make it from month to month right now.
There
aren't enough jobs and the middle class is rapidly
shrinking.
Even if you do have a job, that does not mean that you are doing
okay. About a quarter of all jobs do not even pay enough to
lift a family of four above the poverty level, and entry level wages
for those with just a high school education have been steadily
declining over the past 40 years. If you doubt this, just check
out this
chart.
So
what is going to happen if we do have another avalanche of job losses
like we saw back in 2008 and 2009?
Will
even more of us end up dependent on the government?
We
are told that we are in the midst of an "economic recovery",
but the number of Americans that are dependent on the government just
continues to soar. In fact, at this point it is at an all-time
high.
If
the economy is getting better, then why does the number of Americans
on food stamps just keep going up? To get an idea of just how
massive the food stamp program has become, just check out this
infographic.
One
of the most frightening things about the possibility of another major
economic downturn is the loss of hope that it could bring.
At
this point, most Americans still believe that things will get better
eventually.
But
what is going to happen when large segments of our population lose
all hope?
How
desperate will they become?
When
people become desperate, they tend to do desperate things.
Just
check out what happened to a family down in Woodstock,
Georgia the
other day. They had just lost their home to foreclosure, and
they were getting ready to move out. So they posted an ad on
Craigslist for people to come over and get some things that they were
planning to get rid of. What happened next is a glimpse into
the kind of desperate behavior that we may see during the next major
economic downturn...
Their online post was just a well-meaning ad for a giveaway in their driveway outside the small house, a giveaway scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
But big crowds showed up and ended up taking practically everything inside the house, too.
Wednesday night, Michael Vercher walked 11Alive's Jon Shirek through his family's almost empty soon-to-be former home.
"Well, when we got to the house, I mean, pretty much -- this," he said as he stepped from the foyer into the living room.
Their home -- ransacked, ravaged, raked over.
Almost everything inside -- gone.
My
wife and I once used Craigslist quite a bit, but incidents like this
make one question the wisdom of inviting strangers to come to your
home.
Sadly,
the truth is that society is
rapidly decaying,
and the worse unemployment becomes the more desperate people are
going to get.
So
what do you think about all of this?
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