Some good news on the economy front....

[Rob67]

Bad news for the Kerry camp....


Bloomberg report on jobs

Interesting...

Rob

[strandinthewind]

I know CNN is running a similar story. Good News!!!! But then I read where Gate way is shutting down all of its stores this week at a cost of over 2,000 jobs.

So . . . .

Personally, I think the economy is recovering, but just not fast enough for the Bush White House or at least as fast as they promised before they gave away the farm and spent like they still had it

[Rob67]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
I know CNN is running a similar story. Good News!!!! But then I read where Gate way is shutting down all of its stores this week at a cost of over 2,000 jobs.

So . . . .

Personally, I think the economy is recovering, but just not fast enough for the Bush White House or at least as fast as they promised before they gave away the farm and spent like they still had it

This is true…I think they have gone a little overboard with spending. But, I would think most liberals would be happy about that based on historical perspective. All in all with everything that has happened, most importantly 9/11, the economy is making a pretty strong return to form.

Gateway and the computer industry is a monster unto itself. (I should know! I work for a smaller “niche” computer manufacture.) The computer industry is undergoing an interesting transition. Traditionally, hardware had been the largest investment and the tech sector where all the “money” was. This is not so much the case anymore with more and more companies switching their software from traditional “client-server” models which require onsite hardware and technicians to ASP models, which basically is web based hosting. Utilizing ASP allows for a much lower hardware investment on the client side (although you give up some control and performance).
This, compounded with the price (and, IMHO quality) wars between Dell, Gateway, HP and IBM, has made hardware a commodity. And, Gateway is losing the PC battle.

Gateway is moving towards the home electronics and entertainment market and away from computer hardware as a result. (i.e. Plasma TV’s) They are closing their stores but are currently negotiating with major electronics chains like Best Buy to resell their systems for them. This eliminates a lot of the overhead of maintaining their own retail outlets while, at the same time, improving their geographical footprint. They recently purchased eMachines, which is a cheap PC maker, for, I believe, $1.1 Billion. eMachines has 138 employees. That means that their revenues equal roughly $8 million per employee. This compared to about $440,000 per Gateway employee before the retail store closings. Obviously Gateway is trying to improve their profitability by looking at the eMachines business model (no storefront & sell at Best Buy).

I wouldn’t necessarily blame the economy on this as much as a change of market focus on the part of Gateway.

Rob

[gldstwmn]

80,000 grocery workers coming back from a strike in California is not new job creation. These numbers are skewed. Also, the increase in constuction jobs is to be expected with the weather. Unemployment ROSE to 5.7%. They've thrown the bond market into a complete tizzy today.

[dissention]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
80,000 grocery workers coming back from a strike in California is not new job creation. These numbers are skewed. Also, the increase in constuction jobs is to be expected with the weather. Unemployment ROSE to 5.7%. They've thrown the bond market into a complete tizzy today.

[strandinthewind]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
80,000 grocery workers coming back from a strike in California is not new job creation. These numbers are skewed. Also, the increase in constuction jobs is to be expected with the weather. Unemployment ROSE to 5.7%. They've thrown the bond market into a complete tizzy today.

FOUL The bond market is in a tizzy mostly because investors have flocked to the accelerating staock market. But, the econoimc dtate did partially influence it.

[gldstwmn]

Originally posted by strandinthewind
FOUL The bond market is in a tizzy mostly because investors have flocked to the accelerating staock market. But, the econoimc dtate did partially influence it.

Partially? I have never and I mean NEVER seen the 10 year note accelerate like it did this morning. At one point it was up to 4.13. It closed at 3.88 yesterday.

[strandinthewind]

touche'

Lord - I used foul and touche' next to each other

[Rob67]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
80,000 grocery workers coming back from a strike in California is not new job creation. These numbers are skewed. Also, the increase in constuction jobs is to be expected with the weather. Unemployment ROSE to 5.7%. They've thrown the bond market into a complete tizzy today.

I find it interesting that the unemployment numbers don't include people who start their own business or are self employed. (There are a lot of those in the computer industry...most of them were people who lost their jobs in the dot.com burst in the late 90's

ROb

[Rob67]

Originally posted by gldstwmn
80,000 grocery workers coming back from a strike in California is not new job creation. These numbers are skewed. Also, the increase in constuction jobs is to be expected with the weather. Unemployment ROSE to 5.7%. They've thrown the bond market into a complete tizzy today.

The Unemployment number itself is skewed because it doesn’t take into account people who have recently become self employed by starting their own businesses.

Plus, the “80,000” grocery workers you mention subtracted from the 308,000 jobs cited by the report would still be much more then initially thought.

The economy IS improving and things are getting better…Woo-HOO!!!

Rob

[GypsySorcerer]

Originally posted by Rob67
I find it interesting that the unemployment numbers don't include people who start their own business or are self employed. (There are a lot of those in the computer industry...most of them were people who lost their jobs in the dot.com burst in the late 90's

ROb

Right on!! The dot.com burst in what gave the false appearance that the economy was strong, but that wasn't the case - it was on the downslide just as Clinton left office. Just the natural ups and downs.

By the way, happy birthday, my fellow middle-of-the-road Republican!

[gldstwmn]

Originally posted by GypsySorcerer
Right on!! The dot.com burst in what gave the false appearance that the economy was strong, but that wasn't the case - it was on the downslide just as Clinton left office. Just the natural ups and downs.

When Clinton took over from George I, the unemployment rate was 6.6%.

[sparky]

The statistic I would like to see is how much money these new jobs pay. Are these Wal-Mart jobs ? The retail and banking jobs have got to be 7-10 bucks an hour. I can't imagine anyone could support a family on those wages - and would struggle supporting themselves.
This article was interesting - the average weekly wage is 500 bucks and change ? Call me out of touch, but I was making more than that on my college summer job in a stupid box factory(many years ago). Perhaps living in LA or NY one cannot have a realistic gauge when assessing these numbers. If I got a job making the average wage, I would have to live a sorry slummy apartment in the depths of the San Fernando Valley. Among making a number of other depressing lifestyle changes. The money is the big missing piece in this report.

[DeeGeMe]

The unemployment numbers also don't count folks whose eligibility for unemployment has run out but still can't find a job. All I know is that the state I live in has one of the four worst unemployment rates in the country. Even McJobs are hard to find here.

[Rob67]

Originally posted by GypsySorcerer
Right on!! The dot.com burst in what gave the false appearance that the economy was strong, but that wasn't the case - it was on the downslide just as Clinton left office. Just the natural ups and downs.

By the way, happy birthday, my fellow middle-of-the-road Republican!

Why thank you kindly! I had a very enjoyable day with some unexpected visits by friends and family...good times.

Rob