California Prepares To Eliminate 10,000 Jobs Today

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After a frustrating holiday weekend that failed to yield the one vote needed to end California's budget stalemate, the state is poised to begin layoff proceedings Tuesday for 20,000 government workers.
In addition to the layoffs, the state also plans to halt all remaining public works projects, potentially putting thousands of construction workers out of jobs.
"We are dealing with a catastrophe of unbelievable proportions," said state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach and chairman of the Senate transportation committee.
Senate leader Darrell Steinberg announced late Monday that lawmakers had failed to find the final vote in his chamber as Republicans refused to support tax increases. He called a session for Tuesday and said he would put the tax provisions of the budget proposal up for a vote, even if they would not pass.
Steinberg warned lawmakers to bring their toothbrushes, saying they would not leave until that vote was secured.
"One member," Steinberg said. "One more member to put the interest of the state ahead of ideology and ahead of any parochial concern."
Like other states, California faces plunging tax revenue that has imperiled state services. The proposal put before lawmakers this weekend was negotiated by Schwarzenegger and the four legislative leaders and appeared to have support of the required two-thirds majority in the state Assembly.
However, it was falling one Republican vote short in the Senate, a situation that had not changed throughout a weekend marked by long hours and uncertainty over the state's future.

The plan includes $15.1 billion in program cuts, $14.4 billion in temporary tax increases and $11.4 billion in borrowing. The package also would send five ballot measures to voters in a special election to be held May 19.
The stalled effort prompted Schwarzenegger to make good on an earlier promise to begin the layoff process for thousands of state workers.
The governor had delayed releasing the notices on Friday when it appeared lawmakers would pass a compromise plan to close the state's $42 billion shortfall. But with marathon weekend sessions failing to produce the necessary votes, Schwarzenegger's spokesman said the administration had no choice.
"In the absence of a budget, the governor must do everything he can to cut back on state spending," spokesman Aaron McLear said.
The notices will start going out Tuesday to 20,000 workers in corrections, health and human services and other agencies that receive money from the general fund. Administration officials are seeking to eliminate up to 10,000 jobs as part of the governor's order to cut 10 percent from the government payroll.
Despite the warnings of impending fiscal calamity, most rank-and-file Republicans have refused to agree to higher taxes. Republican lawmakers blamed Democrats for years of overspending.
"You're not going to go back to the people's pocketbooks to fuel that spending," said state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula.
During a lively floor session Monday night, state Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, defended his colleagues' stance against tax hikes and said his constituents were pleading with him to vote no on the budget proposal.
He accused Democrats, who hold majorities in both houses, of using the recession to drive an agenda of tax increases.
"You want this emergency," Runner said, drawing jeers from Democrats in the chamber. "Listen, you may not like to hear what we have to say, but it's what we believe."
Steinberg, the Senate president pro tem, acknowledged that tax increases were difficult for all lawmakers to swallow but said the Legislature had no choice.
"Nobody likes that idea, but remember the reason we are in this crisis is because we are in a national and international crisis," he said.
Lawmakers broke the record for longest legislative session in state history over the weekend before disbanding Sunday night. The Assembly was at one point in session for 30 hours.

Employers Slash Nearly 600,000 Jobs--Most Since 1974

WASHINGTON — Recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. The grim figures were further proof that the nation's job climate is deteriorating at an alarming clip with no end in sight.
The Labor Department's report, released Friday, showed the terrible toll the drawn-out recession is having on workers and companies. It also puts even more pressure on Congress and President Barack Obama's administration to revive the economy through a stimulus package and a revamped financial bailout plan, both of which are nearing completion.
Obama decried as "inexcusable and irresponsible" the delay of his economic recovery legislation in Congress with an estimated 3.6 million Americans losing their jobs since the recession began in December 2007. About half of them have lost jobs in only the past three months.
Obama acknowledged the $900-billion-plus stimulus plan was not perfect and pledged to work with lawmakers to refine the measure, which he called "absolutely necessary."
"These numbers demand action. It is time for Congress to act," Obama said bluntly. "That's 3.6 million Americans who need our help."
The latest net total of job losses was far worse than the 524,000 that economists expected. Job reductions in November and December also were deeper than previously reported.
With cost-cutting employers in no mood to hire, the unemployment rate bolted to 7.6 percent in January, the highest since September 1992. The increase in the jobless rate from 7.2 percent in December also was worse than the 7.5 percent rate economists expected.
Vanishing jobs and evaporating wealth from tanking home values, 401(k)s and other investments have forced consumers to retrench, which has required companies to pull back. It's a vicious cycle where the economy's problems feed on each other, perpetuating a downward spiral.

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"Companies are in survival mode and are really cutting to the bone," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "They are cutting and cutting hard now out of fear of an uncertain future."
If part-time employees, discouraged workers and others are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 13.9 percent in January, the highest on record.
Many economists said the job losses for February are likely to be just as bad, and they don't expect the labor market to return to decent health until 2011 at the earliest.
But on Wall Street, investors pushed up stock prices on hopes that the miserable jobs report would get Congress to move quickly on the economic revival package. The Dow Jones industrials gained about 225 points in afternoon trading and broader stock indicators also rose.
Factories slashed 207,000 jobs in January, the largest one-month drop since October 1982, partly reflecting heavy losses at plants making autos and related parts. Construction companies got rid of 111,000 jobs. Professional and business services chopped 121,000 positions. Retailers eliminated 45,000 jobs. Leisure and hospitality axed 28,000 slots.
Those reductions swamped employment gains in education and health services, as well as in the government.
Employers are slashing payrolls and turning to other ways to cut costs _ including trimming workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay _ to cope with shrinking appetites from customers in the U.S. and overseas, who are struggling with their own economic troubles.
The average work week in January stayed at 33.3 hours, matching the record low set in December.
With no place to go, the number of unemployed workers climbed to 11.6 million. In addition, 7.8 million people were working part time _ a category that includes those who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back, or those who were unable to find full-time work.
For example, more than 200,000 state government employees were expected to stay home without pay Friday in California, which began its first-ever furlough to save money during the ongoing fiscal crisis.
Job hunters also are facing longer searches for work.
The average time it took for an unemployed person to find any job _ full or part time _ rose to 19.8 weeks in January, compared with 17.5 weeks a year ago, underscoring the increasing difficulty the out-of-work are having in finding a new job.
Workers with jobs saw modest wage gains.
Average hourly earnings rose to $18.46 in January, up 0.3 percent from the previous month. Over the year, wages have risen 3.9 percent.
An avalanche of layoffs is slamming the nation from a wide swath of employers.
Caterpillar Inc., Pfizer Inc., Microsoft Corp., Estee Lauder Cos., Time Warner Cable Inc., and Sprint Nextel Corp. are among the companies slicing payrolls. Manufacturers _ especially car makers _ construction companies and retailers have been particularly hard hit by the recession. Talbots Inc., Liz Claiborne Inc., Macy's Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are all cutting jobs. So are Detroit's General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.
For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.9 million jobs, according to revised figures. That marked the biggest annual loss on record and was worse than the 2.6 million initially estimated last month.
Americans cut back sharply on spending at the end of last year, thrusting the economy into its worst backslide in a quarter-century. The tailspin could well accelerate in the current January-March quarter to a rate of 5 percent or more as the recession drags on into a second year, and consumers and businesses burrow deeper.
Many economists predict the current quarter _ in terms of lost economic growth _ will be the worst of the recession.
With fallout from the housing, credit and financial crises _ the worst since the 1930s _ ripping through the economy, analysts predict 3 million or more jobs will vanish this year even if lawmakers quickly approve Obama's stimulus plan.
Obama has repeatedly pressed Congress to swiftly enact a package of increased government spending, including big public works projects and tax cuts, to revive the economy and create jobs. He says his plan will save or create more than 3 million jobs in the next two years.
But the recession has proven stubborn. Despite record low interest rates ordered by the Federal Reserve and a raft of radical programs, including a $700 billion financial bailout, consumers and businesses face high hurdles to borrow money. Foreclosures are skyrocketing, home prices are sinking and Wall Street remains on edge.

Creating Jobs Is Not "Wasteful"

By Sen. Jeff Merkley

U.S. Senator from Oregon

This week the Senate is debating whether to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a bill we absolutely need to help arrest our economic freefall. Economic policies championed by the Bush Administration largely focused on tax cuts for the big corporations and the wealthiest among us. Not only did these policies fail, they helped create the crisis we now find ourselves in. Yet many in Congress believe we should go down that road yet again in hopes that this time it will be different. Even worse, they are obstructing a recovery package focused on creating jobs, investing in our future economic competitiveness, and providing middle-class tax relief. Indeed, provisions aimed at working Americans are now characterized as "wasteful spending."
It is as if the Bush team set a house on fire and then blocked the fire trucks trying to put that fire out.
On Monday, Republican leaders in the House put out a list of items in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act they deemed to be "wasteful spending." Many of the projects they demonize create jobs, invest in our children and protect our citizens.
One project they're attacking hit close to home. They're calling funding to restore forest health and prevent wildfires in National Forests wasteful. Coming from Southern Oregon, I can tell you firsthand they are dead wrong.
I grew up in Southern Oregon. My father was a sawmill worker and a logger and his job put food on the table. Right now Douglas County, where I was born, has an unemployment rate of 12.8 percent. That's the highest it's been in decades and well above the current national average. Douglas County is home to many of Oregon's timber workers and they need the stability of a good paying job. The money that would be allocated to counties like Douglas to restore forest health and prevent forest fires would put these folks back to work.
Let me explain. Due to federal mismanagement, there are millions of acres of choked and overgrown second-growth forests. These forests are a complete menace. They are diseased and are very little use for strong ecosystems. Moreover, they are a huge fire hazard. Thinning these neglected forests is essential for restoring forest health and generating thousands of rural jobs.
Let me emphasize this: this provision will create thousands of rural jobs. This is a win-win for our rural economies and our ecosystems.
Preventing wildfires is something that desperately needs to be done in any economic condition and now has the added benefit of providing jobs in areas that need them most. How Republicans can call job creation for hardworking millworkers like my dad "wasteful spending" is a mystery to me. To the contrary, like school or bridge repairs or broadband internet access, thinning overgrown forests is the best kind of economic recovery investment: it creates jobs in the short-term while addressing a critical and long-neglected priority. The funding would improve the health of dangerously overgrown second-growth forests, helping protect our forests from disease and preventing wildfires that are devastating to rural communities and enormous sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
Funding the protection of our forests isn't the only thing critics are calling wasteful spending. They are attacking funding for Amtrak, which is underfunded, has recently increased ridership, and is a major economic engine of the East Coast in particular. They are attacking funding for public computer centers at community colleges, programs which create jobs now and provide workers with the skills they need to compete in a technology-driven economy. They are even attacking funding for flood reduction projects off of the Mississippi River - just three and a half years after Hurricane Katrina and inadequate levees led to devastation in New Orleans.
Whether motivated by a knee-jerk opposition to anything the government does or a desire to play politics and try to give the new Obama Administration a black eye, the opponents of this bill are opposing job creation and repeating the mistakes that led to the Great Depression. Economists across the political spectrum recognize that government spending is vital to create economic activity in a recession, and many even say the price tag is too low. Whether it's logging to reduce wildfire hazards, teaching children, laying new light rail tracks, or preventing floods along the Mississippi, people will be paid to do these jobs - that's not wasteful spending, that's the whole point.
For eight years, we weren't investing in our economy. We were running up record debt but we weren't creating jobs or bringing families into the middle class. Some in Congress see the past eight years and think we were on the right track, all current evidence to the contrary. I vehemently disagree.
I believe the key to putting our economy back on track is to put Americans back to work by investing in infrastructure and green energy jobs and building a pathway for our children and economy to compete and innovate through education. We can address the short-term crisis and re-build our economic foundation for the future. America voted for a change of direction last November, not more of the same. Republicans should listen to the American people and work in a bi-partisan fashion to help get our country on the road to recovery.

Total 2008 job loss: 2.6 million

http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/09/news/econo...

"Another sobering government labor report released Friday showed the economy lost 524,000 jobs in December, bringing 2008's total job loss to just below 2.6 million.

Last year's steep drop in employment marked the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945, the year in which World War II ended.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 525,000 jobs in the month."

Sad.

Good luck to you all that are unemployed.

'Bush shoe' creates 100 new jobs in Turkey

London, Dec 23 : The world's most notorious pair of black leather shoes, that made history, has even generated 100 jobs in Turkey.

The footwear that robbed George W Bush of his dignity and landed its owner Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi – who hurled them at the US President at a press meet in Baghdad – in prison, has yielded an unexpected bonanza for its maker.

Ever since the incident, Ramazan Baydan, the owner of the Istanbul-based Baydan Shoe Company, has been swamped with orders from across the world.

In fact, Baydan has recruited an additional 100 staff to meet orders for 300,000 pairs of Model 271, more than four times the shoe's normal annual sale, following an outpouring of support for Zaidi's act, 'The Guardian' reported.

Orders have come mainly from the US and Britain, and from neighbouring Muslim countries, he said.

Around 120,000 pairs have been ordered from Iraq, while a US company has placed a request for 18,000. A British firm is said to have offered to serve as European distributor for the shoes, which have been on the market since 1999 and sell at around 28 pounds in Turkey.

A sharp rise in orders has been recorded in Syria, Egypt and Iran, where the shoemaker's federation has offered to provide Zaidi and family with a lifetime's supply of shoes.

And, to meet the mood of the marketplace, Baydan is planning to rename the model "Bush Shoe" or "Bye-Bye Bush".

"We've been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy. We've even hired an agency to look at television advertising," he was quoted by the British newspaper as saying.