More layoffs coming. I thought the economy was on the upswing?

[gofaster]

AT&T announced that it was going to reduce its workforce by another 8%.  That's almost 20% reduction in 18 months.  They're also selling off their wireless company for $41billion.  AT&T's plans to generate revenue?  Re-sell someone else's wireless service.  Ok, so why should I buy from AT&T at a mark-up when I can get the service from the original supplier?  

By the way, the announcement is timed so that they can get the employees off payroll before the bonus checks are paid out.  Oh, and no raises are planned for this year, either.

[Frogm4n]

GO CORPRATE AMERIKKKA!!!!

[ra]

AT&T is a dinosaur.  All that copper wire.

[gofaster]

Yeah AT&T is saying that they want to move into managed IT services and away from the long-distance business.  C. Michael Armstrong even tried to tie in cable tv as a way to carry tv, internet, and telephone on the same cable.  Unfortunately he kept paying too much money for every company he acquired.

[capt. apathy]

last I heard, this admistration thinks the lack of jobs is good for America.
 I don't think they live in the same America I do.

[Torque]

Originally posted by capt. apathy
last I heard, this admistration thinks the lack of jobs is good for America.
 I don't think they live in the same America I do.

Cap, you're talking about people that have the word "mortgage" deleted from their dictionaries.

[Udie]

That's wierd my company is talking about hiring more draftsmen because we're just about to have more work than we did at the beginning of the slowdown.  What do land developers know though they're probably just spending money out of denial

[MrsRoo]

Thats no suprize ... 18 months ago AT&T merged with Comcast ... right afterwards I got laid off .... worked for a cable constrution outfit that contracted with AT&T to build fiberoptics. They are cutting costs to the bone but raising rates.
Don't ya just love those money hungry corprate types?

[Boozer2]

I called Dell for support and got some Indian guy I didnt understand, called back again and got a mexican that didn't understand me...

[BB Gun]

All I know that 4 guys I know who have been out of work for a year +/-  (different jobs for all of them) now have jobs.  Two of them got multiple offers.

Boeing is laying of some people in one program, but hiring a bunch in other programs.

Things seem to be looking up from evidence around me.

BB

[SirLoin]

I've been laid off since Feb 9..Was getting ready to go back next week when got word we laid off again(I work at Ford)....Don't tell me the economy is picking up.

[Pei]

That sucks!

But let me pre-empt miko:
Just remember outsourcing your job to some slave-wage earner in Bangladesh is good: their low wages will force companies to lower prices so your can buy more with the dollars you don't have anymore because you lost your job!

[Eagler]

so in for an "economy on the upswing", there are zero lay-offs/downsizing?

wow - tell me when you wake up from that one ..

[Kieran]

Originally posted by SirLoin
I've been laid off since Feb 9..Was getting ready to go back next week when got word we laid off again(I work at Ford)....Don't tell me the economy is picking up.

My father worked GM for 30 years- layoffs are normal and periodic. The past two or three years of low interest rates have encouraged folks to go out and buy new. It can't last forever. Don't worry, you will be called back. You have to remember to put money back for these spells when you are working. You should do that until you build enough seniority to avoid the bite.

[Toad]

'Zippies' pose challenge


Thomas L. Friedman: 'Zippies' pose challenge
Thomas L. Friedman
Published: 02.25.2004

I have just arrived in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, to meet the zippies on the receiving end of U.S. jobs.

Judging from the construction going on on every block here, the multiple applicants for every new tech job, the crowded pub scene and the families of four you see zipping around on a single motor scooter, Bangalore is one hot town.

Taking all this in, two things strike me about this outsourcing issue.

One, economists are surely right: The biggest factor cutting old jobs and creating new ones is technological change - the phone mail system that eliminated your secretary.

As for the zippies who soak up certain U.S. or European jobs, they will become consumers, the global pie will grow, and ultimately we will all be better off.

As long as America maintains its ability to do cutting-edge innovation, the long run should be fine. Saving money by outsourcing basic jobs to zippies, so we can invest in more high-end innovation, makes sense.

But here's what I also feel: This short run could be a real bear - and politically explosive. The potential speed and scale of this outsourcing phenomenon make its potential impact enormous and unpredictable.

As we enter a world in which the price of digitizing information - converting it into little packets of ones and zeros and then transmitting it over high-speed data networks - falls to near zero, it means the vaunted "death of distance" is really here.

And that means many jobs you can now do from your house - whether data processing, reading an X-ray, or basic accounting or lawyering - can now also be done from a zippie's house in India or China.

And as education levels in these overseas homes rise to U.S. levels, the barriers to shipping white-collar jobs abroad fall and the incentives rise.

At a minimum, some very educated Americans used to high salaries - people who vote and know how to write op-ed pieces - will either lose their jobs or have to accept lower pay or become part-timers without health insurance.

I think he sums it up reasonably well.

Enjoy the new world economy.