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The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.
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Meet Victor Brown, one of the remaining 450 workers at Buick City, GM's sprawling plants in Flint, where in the 1980's 27,000 workers built GM cars. Victor Brown of Clio, Michigan, and O.C. Cooper do not want to leave, and have repeatedly turned down buyout offers from GM preferring to stay with GM even if it enters bankruptcy, and take their chances. Since 2006, GM has persuaded 60,000 of its hourly employees- about half of the total hourly workforce at GM in the USA- to take cash buyouts and leave. Cooper says, this is the only life he knows, he is 64, a machine operator at Flint North, a run down engine plant in Flint, Michigan. Every day for the 42 years he has worked here, he gets up, washes up, and drives to the plant. He can't imagine anything else. If he leaves he will give up $60,000, for apension half that amount, with no guarantee that its secure after a GM bankruptcy. Victor Brown is 55, a repairman with 36 years at GM, he is divorced and putting a son through college. A year ago he and others turned down a buyout offer for $62,500 to retire with all benefits, now this is down to $20,000, and a car voucher for $25,000. GM needs an additional 21,000 jobs to be cut and closing of 13 plants in its latest restructuring under help and supervision from the Obama administration.
Unemployment and partime unemployment in the U.S. economy 2008 and beyond.
04/18/2008
How unemployment is shaping up and how the underutilization rate and partime employment is changing the picture of employment in the USA.
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Washington Post 06/06/2009
Workers Get Fewer Hours, Deepening the Downturn
New York Times 04/18/2008
Many Hispanics Are Hit Hard by Economic Slump
New York Times 05/13/2008
A Hidden Toll on Employment: Cut to Part Time
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Retail Losses Sap a Jobs Safety Net
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Labor Data Show Pain Across Economy
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The car market in the U.S. follows the shrinking car market in Japan and Germany.
01/08/2008
The car markets in the largest industrialized countries Japan, Germany, and now the USA are shrinking.The car markets in Japan and Germany reached their highest sales numbers earlier than the USA and now are in steady decline. Is the US going to see a similar decline. With fewer jobs there will be less immigration into the US, and population numbers may stabilize. And people are likely to hold onto old cars longer in this economy, to save the money on car purchases for other essential needs like tution for kids, food, housing and so on. This is likely in the years ahead as unemployment exceeds 10% and stays high.
Grouped Articles
The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.
New York Times 05/21/2009
Wall Street Journal 12/03/2011
Blowout Car Sales Will Shift to Lower Gear
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U.S. Auto Makers' Party Is Braking Up
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Volkswagen, BMW Get Lift From Luxury-Vehicle Sales
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Rapid structural shifts in U.S. job openings and a mismatch that will require greater job retraining effort.
04/30/2009
JOLTS and COnference Board job openings figures shows 3 million job openings in February 2009, with mismatch in qualifications of candidates from industries losing jobs (finance, retail, construction) and industries gaining jobs (health care, education, government, accounting). Is the US market becoming less mobile?
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Help Wanted: Why That Sign's Bad
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The new GM and the problems it will continue to face.
02/13/2006
GM faces intense competition in a shrinking market. And building appeal to younger demographics customers is critical to GM.
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Some G.M. Retirees Are in a Health Care Squeeze
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Detroit Auto Makers Need More Than a Bailout
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Skeptics Present Another Obstacle for GM
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Auto-Industry Crisis Tests Obama
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Fast structural shift from banking, autos and retail to health care, energy, government and education in the USA, makes equally rapid government assisted retraining and cost sharing enormously critical.
01/28/2009
Retraining will be critical to shift workers from downsizing to upsizing industries and fields of work. The danger is that a growing mismatch in qualifications and lack of a crisis mode in retraining efforts will leave large numbers of people permanently unemployed. The shift is ocurring with lightining speed. Would government sharing the initail cost of hiring and retrainng workers help as in the German example and the Harz reforms. See link.
Grouped Articles
New York Times 12/27/2011
Jamie Dimon’s harried JPMorgan Chase pushes campaign for worker training - The Washington Post
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Jobless Scars Will Outlast the Recession
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Help Wanted: Why That Sign's Bad
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Learning Labor Market Lessons from Germany
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The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.
New York Times 05/21/2009
Rising Unemployment in the U.S. in 2009.
01/31/2009
The number of people on unemployment benefits hit 5.56 million on March 14, according to the Labor Department, with 662,000 new claims filed since then.
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Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a Lifestyle
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Months After Plant Closed, Many Still Struggling
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Ex-G.M. Workers Try to Reboot Their Lives
New York Times 02/13/2009
Dead End in Detroit for White-Collar Workers
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Wall Street Journal 02/25/2009
Unemployment in Europe, Japan and the USA. Stimulus measures in the U.S. and safety nets in Japan and Europe: 2008-2010
01/05/2007
How safety nets in Japan and Europe do what the stimulus helps to do in the USA. Coping with high unemployment.
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New York Times 09/06/2011
Stimulus and the Depression: The Untold Story
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Japan Is a Model Not a Cautionary Tale
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The Next First (and Only) 100 Days
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New York Times 10/10/2010
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The wreckage in society, communities, arts, and culture, that failures in character of leaders in finance, industry and government leave behind- the global financial crisis 2009-2011
04/03/2009
The wreckage and devastation that failures in character, or failures in leadership, leave behind. Flint, Michigan, the arts and cultural scene in Israel, communities in Latin america depending on money transfers of immigrants in the US. Failures in regulation by leaders in government. Failures in policy overseas. In diverse and multiple ways this seeps through societies and communities.
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Finance and economics: What's wrong with finance
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President Obama clears way for federal aid in Flint, Mich., water crisis - The Washington Post
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Hillary Clinton just seized the political moment on Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/18/2016
How government officials failed the people of Flint, Mich. - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/21/2016
Scathing independent report blames state officials for Flint water crisis - The Washington Post
Washington Post 03/24/2016
New York Times 04/03/2009
Danger of increasing numbers of permanently unemployed workers in the U.S.
04/30/2009
The serious problem of the large proportion of long term unemployed in the total number of unemployed persons in the U.S., with the figure higher than 40% in 2012. More than any downturn in the postwar period the present situation presents the danger of increasing numers of permanently unemployed workers. Retraining become a big issue as some industries like autos are permanently downsized, and others like healthcare and renewable energy which are growing will require retraining.
Grouped Articles
Jamie Dimon’s harried JPMorgan Chase pushes campaign for worker training - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/03/2014
New York Times 04/05/2012
It's Still Bad for the Long Term Unemployed
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Yellen’s Not on Team Krueger When it Comes to Inflation and the Unemployed
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Falling Unemployment Doesn't Rate for Fed
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Elevated Level of Part-Time Employment: Post-Recession Norm?
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The nature of unemployment in this U.S. downturn as men, young people and the less educated are the worst hit groups.
03/11/2009
In this US downturn men are hit harder than women with job losses in manufacturing and construction, the less educated hit hardest, and young people also hit hard.
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New York Times 06/22/2013
Wanted: Jobs for the New 'Lost' Generation
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Women Reach a Milestone in Job Market
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Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs
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Wall Street Journal 10/02/2010
More Men in Prime Working Ages Don't Have Jobs
Wall Street Journal 02/06/2014
The huge downsizing in the auto industry creates the need for big government supported initatives in retraining.
05/21/2009
Vicotr Brown and the 60,000 former workers at GM's BUick City have worked at GM all their lives, and can't imagine anything else. How does one get them from joining the ranks of the permanently unemployed, is a challenge for the government. THe labor underutilization rate expected to reach 20% for 2010, could threaten the economic recovery, and put everything at risk.
Linked Articles
Stuck at Unemployed: When A Layoff Becomes a Lifestyle
Washington Post 06/06/2009
The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.
New York Times 05/21/2009
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