The Labor Situation

The employment rate continues to struggle out of the ditch. The Employment Situation Survey which was released the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday showed a slight slip in December from November.

Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unem-ployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis- tics reported today. Employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.

The feeling across the nation still is fairly pessimistic, although I think people feel we are over the worst of it.

About 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in December, an increase of 578,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not sea- sonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-13.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 929,000 discouraged workers in December, up from 642,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally ad- justed.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work be- cause they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.6 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

For those of you who do not get to see inside a vehicle assembly plant, here is a video from the Toyota Indiana plant.

The Princeton plant employs close to 4,000 workers who assemble the Tundra truck, Sequoia SUV and Sienna minivans.

Automotive plant closings continue.

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced it will end its Corolla and Tacoma production contract with New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI) on March 31, 2010 and shift production of those vehicles to Toyota wholly-owned facilities. Following the end of the contract, Tacoma pickups will be produced at Toyota’s manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A., which specializes in trucks. Corollas will be sourced from its Cambridge, Ontario, Canada plant, as well as Japan to meet near-term demand. This will enable an uninterrupted supply of vehicles to dealers and customers in North America.

Get Your Boots On!

The Toyota Philosophy has some many facets that you could, umm, write books about it.

Here is one facet that makes sense, but somehow the natural inclination is to discuss things in the conference room and not on the shop floor. From my old friend Wiki:

Genchi Genbutsu (現地現物) means "go and see for yourself" and it is an integral part of the Toyota Production System. It refers to the fact that any information about a process will be simplified and abstracted from its context when reported. This has often been one of the key reasons why solutions designed away from the process seem inappropriate.

Some stories about Toyota methods coming out of a conference in Kentucky:

At the Printing Industries of America Lean Conference in Lexington, Ky., a couple of weeks ago, I learned a new saying: “Get your boots on!” According to Mike Hoseus, co-author of “The Toyota Culture” and a former manager at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Ky. (TMMK), this is how “genchi genbutsu” is affectionately known by the team members at TMMK.

We Knew This

No surprise here, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the first quarter GDP data with some analysis:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009, (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to advance estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter, real GDP decreased 6.3 percent.
The decrease in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, private inventory investment, equipment and software, nonresidential structures, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive contribution from personal consumption expenditures (PCE). Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.

So, PCE was up?

Real personal consumption expenditures increased 2.2 percent in the first quarter, in contrast to a decrease of 4.3 percent in the fourth. Durable goods increased 9.4 percent, in contrast to a decrease of22.1 percent.
Non durable goods increased 1.3 percent, in contrast to a decrease of 9.4 percent. Services increased 1.5 percent, the same increase as in the fourth.

We are all waiting for the bottom to arrive. The slight increase in PCE was more than overwhelmed by real estate.

One interesting note, it looks like Federal expenditures have decreased in the first quarter as well?

Real federal government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 4.0 percent in the first quarter, in contrast to an increase of 7.0 percent in the fourth. National defense decreased 6.4percent, in contrast to an increase of 3.4 percent. Non defense increased 1.3 percent, compared with an increase of 15.3 percent. Real state and local government consumption expenditures and gross investment decreased 3.9 percent, compared with a decrease of 2.0 percent.

From Window Plant to EnergyEfficientWindow Plant

Remember the Republic Window factory near Chicago that was the site of a worker sit-in when they were told the plant would close immediately? Just before Christmas. The Chicago Tribune reports, "The new owner, Serious Materials, has started rehiring some of the more than 200 laid-off workers to make energy-efficient windows at the plant. "

Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace said his company is creating the green-collar jobs the nation needs to pull itself out of recession. "Highly skilled manufacturing work like this is a triple win. It will save families money by helping reduce their energy use, protect our environment by reducing carbon emissions and create new paths for economic growth and energy independence," he said.

Oh yeah, and Vice President Biden showed up for the reopening. which is cool.
Good luck on the venture.

Outsourcing

The trend takes its ultimate conclusion


More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas