Unemployment at 4-year high
Unemployment rate hits 4-year high as job losses continue - Aug. 1, 2008
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers cut jobs in July for the seventh straight month, while the unemployment rate hit a four-year high, according to a government report released Friday.
This is not surprising at all. Locally I have seen way too many retail and fast food businesses going under. Part of this has been do to the rapid expansion in these areas and keeping them understaffed while overworking the few employees they maintain. Lack of insight into the human behavior, poor management and the general economic down turn has truly hampered many of these businesses. I expect the trend will continue.
The best example of how dense some of these companies are can be seen in my small 40k person town. Currently in a three mile radius There is a K-mart, Super Wal-mart, Target, and a Super Miejers. None of the stores show any outward signs of doing well, and I have inside information that both the superstores are losing money hand over fist. Despite those issues Target is planning a new superstore of their own right between the other two despite having just done a multi-million dollar remodel. If trends continue, the currently understaffed Target will add fifty percent more floor space yet not increase their staff. Any lay person can see this won’t work, but somewhere in the minds of mid level executives they obviously are too afraid of losing marketshares to understand you can’t build up when your base is a fragile house of cards.
If that wasn’t enough of an example of over reaching another local area will be getting three new McDonalds in a five mile radius. Inside that radius they already have two stand alone stores, and two more inside of Wal-Marts. Why might they think they need the extra stores? The reason is obvious to them, blot out your competetion. These new stores are all going in next to existing or new fast food restaurants. Maintaining market shares at the expense of profits and employee retention is short sighted and likely to result in the further economic of already depressed areas.
3 Responses to “Unemployment at 4-year high”
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I am not surprised by these numbers either. It is so hard to find a *good* job…one that pays you enough to drive there, buy food, pay your mortgage, and give you health insurance you can actually use…Kmart has already declared bankruptcy once & closed so many stores before being bought by Sears…all in all the economy just doesn’t look too great.
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I believe that the economy will come back after a bit as it is cyclical. It may take longer than we want it to but it will eventually turn.
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I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Too many big firms just don’t know how to quickly deal with a changing business model. They all keep saying we can adapt, but they don’t get that they can’t work from the same old plan, they have to scrap it entirely.
On the other hand the best thing I can see about democrats winning big in the fall is the passage of laws that makes unionizing these huge corporate stores so much easier. Walmart and McDonald’s will no doubt start closing stores when this happens thinking they can get away with it. In the end though it will expose for what they are and force them to stop treating workers as disposable douches simply hired to fill a hole and then trashed on a corporate whim.
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