Business Is Great -- You're Fired
This was my 1995: I made some money in the stock market (who didn't?) as Wall Street hit a Cal Ripken-like streak of record highs. And I graduated two children (one from graduate school) who have yet to find jobs that justify the tuition outlays.</br></br>The Raspberry household is not exactly a microcosm of the U.S. economy, but it does serve to make a point about it: It is possible to do very well and quite badly at the same time.</br></br>The newest evidence is the announcement a few days ago that AT&T plans to eliminate 40,000 jobs. That cut, according to the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., puts the communications behemoth in the No. 3 spot on the Top 10 list of corporate downsizers since 1993. IBM, which cut 63,000 jobs, leads the pack, followed by Sears, with 50,000.</br></br>That, any way you cut 'em, is a lot of jobs. And yet, as I say, the stock market has been roaring. Corporations have been making good money. Productivity is up. Inflation is holding steadily low, and interest rates are trending down. The economy is going great guns while people are losing their jobs hand over fist. The outlook is for more good economic news (as measured by the Dow) -- and for less security for workers and bleaker prospects for next year's graduates.</br></br>"I truly wish we didn't have to do this downsizing," AT&T's chairman, Robert Allen, told his employees. "But the actions we are announcing today are absolutely essential if our businesses are to be competitive. . . . Regrettably, unlike other downsizings at AT&T, when we've been able to place people in other jobs within the company, this time we won't see as many internal opportunities because the reductions are across the board."