US Manufactures Cutting Jobs As The Anemic Expansion Ends
$UBS, $HPQ
The number of announced layoffs by US-based companies spiked in September from the previous month, and Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE:HPQ) out sized job cuts raise a Red Flag.
One of the things you start to see as you get near the end of a period of expansion, but before it really turns, is you start to see major layoffs occurring, big mega-layoffs like we are seeing in here.
US HQ’d companies put 58,877 jobs on the block last month, up 43% from just more than 41,000 in August and the 3rd highest monthly total this year, a global outplacement firm reported.
Art Cashin, director of NYSE floor operations for UBS (NYSE:UBS), said the layoffs are part of the financial engineering market watchers have seen US corporations engage in.
“You buy back your own shares, you take a look around, you cannot get revenues up, and you start to pare back some of the help,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but we have been seeing it despite the quote, unquote recovery that we are in.”
Despite steady hiring in the US this year, international risks threaten to dent growth and depress inflation, as US Fed policy makers noted in September when they delayed raising interest rates.
The NFPs show that only 142,000 payrolls were created in September.
That 142,000 is the lowest monthly job growth since February 2014, when a just 135,000 jobs were added to the economy.
“Turmoil in financial markets and emerging economies seems to be having a negative knock-on effect on the US economy. Employment growth this month was much lower than the 241,000 jobs in August. Market volatility, modest job growth, and softness in manufacturing suggest the Fed will not raise rates December. The Fed will likely stay on hold well into next year,” an analyst’s research note said Friday.
Have a terrific weekend.
HeffX-LTN
Paul Ebeling
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