acl65pilot

Employers Begin Rehiring the Laid Off
Published: Monday, 5 Oct 2009 | 11:32 AM ET
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By: Joseph Pisani
News Associate

With the economy showing modest signs of improvement, a number of companies that shed jobs during the recession are beginning to rehire the very same employees.

Twenty-six percent of employers who had layoffs in the past year reported that their company was planning to bring some of them back, according to a new CareerBuilder/USA Today survey of 2,924 hiring managers.

“It’s a good sign, but it doesn’t mean the labor market has turned around,” says Dan Seiver, professor in the finance depart of San Diego State University. “We are getting to the end of the recession.”

Of those rehiring, 23 percent said they have already started extending job offers to former employees in the third quarter of this year. Nineteen percent will begin to do so in the fourth quarter.

The majority, however, will wait until 2010 (21 percent in the first quarter, 15 percent in the second and 10 percent in the second half of 2010).

While the news is encouraging, experts say it will take a lot more to see a major improvement in the current 9.8 percent unemployment rate: “You still have a massive overhang of workers looking for work,” Seiver says.



Seeing an improvement, he adds, would require firms making new hires, too, “but we’re not seeing that yet.”

Instead, a number of positions are being refilled as business picks up.

Truck manufacturer Oshkosh [OSK 33.29 0.18 (+0.54%) ] has called back about 600 employees it laid off after being awarded a $2 billion contract in June by the U.S. military for their M-ATV vehicle, according to spokesperson Ann Stawski. Oshkosh reduced the workforce of its subsidiary JLG, which makes lift equipment, by 50 percent globally earlier this year.

Most of rehiring was based at the company's McConnellsburg, Pa. plant where the military vehicle is being produced.

Meanwhile, industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation [ETN 56.50 0.62 (+1.11%) ] rehired a total of 54 laid-off workers in September and October at a truck transmission factory in Schenandoah, Iowa.

And automaker General Motors recently announced that it would recall workers thanks to increased demand. The automaker filed for Chapter 11 this summer and cut thousands of jobs.

Though the trend is most pronounced in the manufacturing sector, Bernard Layton, managing director of global executive search firm Stanton Chase, says he is seeing rehiring in other areas, such as the food industry and engineering firms.

Companies are turning first to their laid off employees, says Seiver, because they’re “much cheaper” and less riskier than recruiting and training new hires.

Employment experts agree though that while some laid off employees may harbor hurt feelings about being let go, with unemployment at a 26-year high, many are just happy to get to work again.

“When times get tough hiring managers want to go back to people that they know and that will fit back into the culture,” adds Layton.

acl65pilot

Jobless Claims Fall, Fueling Fresh Hope For Recovery
Published: Thursday, 8 Oct 2009 | 8:49 AM ET
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By: Reuters

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless insurance fell more-than-expected to a nine-month low last week, data showed, suggesting the labor market was healing despite a setback in September.



Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 33,000 to a seasonally adjusted 521,000 in the week ended Oct. 3, the lowest level since early January, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new claims slipping to 540,000 last week from a previously reported 551,000. A Labor Department official said seasonal factors expected a decline in new claims at the end of a quarter and a rise at the start of a new quarter.

The U.S. stock index futures added to gains and the U.S. dollar pared losses on the stronger-than-expected data, while yields on U.S. government debt rose.

"The labor market is improving, but rather slowly," said Cary Leahey, economist at Decision Economics in New York. "Both the initial and continuing claims numbers suggest that October ought to be a better month for payrolls than September."

The claims report will help to calm fears of a deterioration in the labor market after data last week showed U.S. employers cut more jobs in September than had been anticipated by the market.


Data suggest the economy started growing in the third quarter after a recession that started in December 2007, but a persistently weak labor market is casting doubts over the strength and sustainability of that recovery.

The unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, a 26-year high. Economists reckon the Federal Reserve will probably refrain from raising interest rates, currently near zero, until the jobless rate peaks.

The four-week moving average for new claims fell 9,000 to 539,750 last week, declining for a fifth straight week. The four-week moving average is considered a better gauge of underlying trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility.

The number of people collecting long-term unemployment benefits fell 72,000 to 6.04 million in the week ended Sept. 26, the latest week for which the data is available. That was the lowest level since late March and was below market expectations for 6.1 million.

This measure has trended lower for three consecutive weeks. However, the decline could also indicate many jobless workers have exhausted their benefits.

The four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped 15,750 to 6.1 million. The insured unemployment rate, which measures the percentage of the insured labor force that is jobless, eased to 4.5 percent, the lowest since early April, from 4.6 percent in the week ended Sept. 19.

Bucking Bar

ACL - You noticed AirTran's comments about the C Series replacing the 2000 model Boeing 717's.

Any news on Delta's replacement of 1960's and 1980's vintage jets?

And is anyone else reminded of Doc Brown's DeLorean when they look at a MD88 flight deck? I keep wanting to enter a date in the FMA. All that thing needs is 1.21 Gigawatts from a garbage powered nuclear fusion reactor and a Flux Capacitor... Ahh, a Flux Capacitor, that's what makes time travel possible.

Back to the Future was the best documentary film, ever!

Bucking Bar

Here's the inner workings of the Flux Capacitor.

Next time they try to violate an MD88 Crew for an altitude bust, ALPA needs to ask, "What year?"

acl65pilot

Bar, you know the answer to that question.

Bucking Bar

That explains it. They keep going back to 1955.

cstudent

Mitsubishi has their groovy new plane complete with GTFs and available as a 100 seater. The only takers I saw was Trans States for a few of the smaller one. I'm sure Mitsubishi would love a big order for the big plane to a big US carrier. Any chance that other elements of the Japanese aviation world would act on their behest to encourage orders WRT to such things as Haneda or JAL? I love a conspiracy so I'm creating one out of whole cloth.

KC10 FATboy

So, did anyone take notice that Southwest's traffic was up 9% for September and ours was down rougly 5%? That really blows.

They keep chomping away at domestic market share.

Sink r8

More interesting, CAL was up as well. You expect AirTran and JetBlue to capture market share* when times are lean, but when you also see a legacy doing it, it tells you that yield discipline is potentially breaking down across the industry, and we're once again headed towards a free-for-all.

The flip-side for you and I: more flying. I would guess we'll see low profit margins next year, but a fair amount of traffic. I'm starting to believe that DAL is indeed planning for a "robust" schedule next year, as ACL said.

...

* I also wonder what "market share" means in our industry, since few passengers are ever loyal. It doesn't seem to me that we ever "capture" any market share for any length of time. If this industry was smart, we'd go for yields.

johnso29

All the stuff you mentioned was pretty much the problem. On the 320 we often got the Bridge Visual to the right side, & the 320 doesn't exactly slow down fast. It was important to be slowed to 170 kias by the time you turned to final otherwise things could get nasty quick.