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October Jobs Report: How Bad Will it Be?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 6, 2008 Comment (3)Tomorrow’s jobs report is not likely to be pretty. Economists are expecting the tab of job losses in October will be the highest so far this year. Brian Wesbury and Robert Stein of First Trust Advisors are expecting we’ll see roughly 200,000 jobs lost in October. Goldman Sachs U.S. Economic Research upped their expectations to 300,000 from 250,000.
Here’s a look at the payroll cuts of 2008, as reported by the Labor Department:
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ADP Report: Small Businesses Cut Jobs, Too
Tweet Share on Facebook November 5, 2008 Comment (2)The ADP/Macroeconomic Advisors employment report released today did not bring glad tidings for Friday's official Labor Department report. The ADP report indicates that private, nonfarm employment dropped by 157,000 jobs in October—a much deeper cut than the 26,000 jobs ADP reports were shaved off payrolls in September. Job losses were spread across the goods-producing and manufacturing sectors as well as in the service-providing sector, which lost 31,000 jobs—the first decline in nearly six years, according to Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers.
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Job-Cut Announcements Jump in October
Tweet Share on Facebook November 5, 2008 Comment (1)The number of job-cut announcements employers made in October reached 112,884, according to a Challenger Gray & Christmas report. The number of cuts were 79 percent higher than a year ago—thanks to "heavy downsizing in the financial and automotive sectors," Challenger reports.
Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, wrote in a morning note:
In the first ten months of the year, total job cut announcements of 875,974 were 35% above the 650,708 reported in the same ten months of 2007 and marked the highest ten month total since 2003. This is further evidence of worsening labor market conditions, which is consistent with initial and continuing unemployment claims data. Moreover, the inevitable large wave of financial industry job cuts has mostly yet to be manifested in the Challenger data.
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What Shepard Smith Proved About Employees
Tweet Share on Facebook November 4, 2008 Comment (3)In his New York Times-lauded interview with Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith grilled the vaunted everyman on his take that a victory for Sen. Barack Obama would mean "death to Israel."
The appreciative response of liberals and conservatives alike is proof that individual employees can overcome the reputation of their employer. Do people see your company as stodgy and old? Do they think it's bereft of decent customer service?
You, at least, can prove 'em wrong.
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Guy Kawasaki on Innovation
Tweet Share on Facebook November 4, 2008 Comment (1)I've interviewed entrepreneurship expert Guy Kawasaki, and I'm a big fan of his online "magazine rack" Alltop.com. He's written a new book, Reality Check, and I loved what he had to say in his interview(s) with Marci Alboher of the New York Times . An excerpt:
Q. Everyone is consumed with the evaporation of the credit markets these days. Yet many experts say that small business will be the source of growth and new jobs in this economy. Do you agree?
A. This is populist, wishful pabulum. It's easy to say that entrepreneurs will create jobs and big companies will create unemployment, but this is simplistic. The real question is who will innovate. A 50-year-old company can innovate as well as two guys/gals in a garage. [end block]
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Should You Brand Yourself?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 4, 2008 Comment (5)Today in her CareerDiva blog, careers columnist Eve Tahmincioglu spars with personal branding guru Dan Schwabel over the merits of self-branding.
It's a good read. Tahmincioglu is a "brand management" doubter, Schwabel is an evangelist.
Here's an excerpt of their exchange:
Q. What if someone thinks this whole personal branding thing is bullshit, and wants to advance their careers the old fashioned way? My dad was a furrier. He didn't have a personal brand. My grandfather worked in a factory. He had no brand. My hubby's dad was an engineer at DuPont. He didn't have a brand. My mother in law was a X-ray technician. She didn't have a brand. My mom ran a boutique and also was a seamstress. She didn't have a brand.
A. Eve, as usual, you have great questions and are a great devil's advocate. I'm a little bias here, but when I present to schools and companies, I always explain that you are your Google results and people are wanting to find you online. If you aren't visible you don't exist, nor will get the opportunities you are working hard for. Another important factor is that you need to invest in your self (your personal brand equity), which means that you need to be a content producer, not just consumer. This is how you can command a premium price (higher salary) for your brand name.
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Deflation: 7 Facts to Shrink Your Fear
Tweet Share on Facebook November 3, 2008 Comment (1)Halloween is supposed to be spooky for the kiddos, but American adults seem to be embracing it, too. I scanned the most popular stories on NYTimes.com on Sunday and noticed that two top headlines had a common theme: "Fear of Deflation Lurks as Global Demand Drops" and "Obama Is Up, and Fans Fear That Jinxes It."
Lovely way to prepare for the week ahead. Folks, if you bathe in fear on Sunday, it'll be tough to lose the scent by the time you reach the office Monday morning.
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