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U.S. Companies Cut Payrolls as Recession Lingers


Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

According to an ADP Employer Services report released today, U.S. companies cut payrolls by 23,000 in March, supposedly an unexpected event to some, but one which was easy to see coming when looking at the weak condition of the U.S. economy.

If you follow the release of economic data, you'll know that just about every time over the last couple of months it was released, the term unexpected is attached to it as if nobody could see it coming. This is a trick used to make it look like the economy is recovering, and that the data is an anomaly in the overall economic scheme of things.

The truth is we're still in a recession, and in spite of those attempting to spin every bit of data coming out which identifies the economic weakness we're still experiencing, the numbers, in the end, tell the story, and cutting back on jobs is a big part of that story, and it's still going on in an economy being touted as in the midst of a recovery.

This is why the Obama administration continues to talk about a jobless recovery. They know we're not in a recovery, and so must call it something cute to make it look like the recession is over. There's no such thing as a jobless recovery, and until there are jobs being created, we'll know we're still in a recession. There are obviously other factors involved, but job creation means people and companies are starting to buy again, and we can throw away all the consumer confidence garbage. Consumer confidence is evidenced by one thing: they are spending their money. If they're not spending money, they don't have confidence, no matter what a survey may say.

Another disingenuous tactic used by the mainstream media, which is in bed with Obama, is the weather factor. If you look over the last several months when jobs-related data is released or real numbers on consumer spending, we'll have the weather factor thrown in there as an excuse as to why it was down more than anticipated.

While there can be little blips in spending from temporary weather patterns, over a period of months it's a bogus argument, unless everyone thinks we're in a snowstorm or hurricane on a continuous basis.

To understand how damaging this report really is, most analysts on average thought the ADP report would show a gain of 40,000 jobs in the U.S. So to be that far below the consensus is a huge discrepancy which can't be explained or spun away, other than that a real recovery has yet to begin, i.e. we're still in a recession.

Industries cutting the most jobs included manufacturers and construction. Construction was the biggest losers, shedding 43,000 jobs, while manufactures cut 9,000. The service industry increased workers by 28,000.



Article by Gary B

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: job cuts , jobless recovery , recession , recovery