raising4daughters

U.S. Unemployment: Is Media Hype Missing the Point?

You are definitely correct, not out of a limb. Technology and better management methods are providing better and more responsive capacity (human resource) and inventory planning tools. Wholesale and retail inventories are going through the floor, and not just due to a lack of credit. Better systems and methods allowed companies to respond to the downturn much more quickly than in the 1980, 1990, or 2001 recessions. The adjustment will be similar to past adjustments in depth, just quicker.




On Dec 22 11:20 AM NaiveOptimist wrote:

> I'll go out on an optimistic limb here, but isn't it possible that
> businesses reacted much more quickly to this recession than to others
> and laid off an appropriate number of people in the first year so
> that deeper cuts can be avoided in subsequent years?
>
> It was commonly accepted that the financial crisis would lead to
> an economic crisis and that demand would diminish. Instead of a slow
> build up of inventory signaling a recession and a late recognition
> that companies were overstaffed, companies cut early and deep. For
> instance, experiences with the dotcom bubble caused a large number
> of tech companies and startups to let go of people very early in
> this cycle to conserve cash.
>
> I know we're in a negative feedback cycle where layoffs lead to more
> layoffs, but I'm inclined to believe that each subsequent round (in
> the US) will be a little smaller than the preceding over the next
> couple of years.