Are Workers As Important as Profits?

The unemployment rate in the State of Florida in March 2008 was the highest it has been in over four years. According to the Agency for Workforce Innovation, 452,000 workers in Florida were without jobs. This works out to 4.9 percent of the total work force, and is slightly better than the national jobless rate which is at 5.1 percent.

In Marion County, Florida, the jobless rate is now 6 percent, up from 3.9 percent a year ago.

Oil has reached a record high $117 per barrel.

AT&T is planning to cut 4,600 jobs. Most of the people cut will be managers. Some corporate jobs will be eliminated.

Merrill Lynch & Co. just recently cut 1,000 jobs and announced yesterday it would cut 3,000 additional jobs.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported last Wednesday that it would reduce staff again in light of its aquisition of the investment bank, Bear Stearns, but did not specify the number. Bear Stearns has already cut 2,000 jobs since last year.

Washington Mutual Inc. said on April 8 it is planning to lay off some 3,000 people.

The biggie, however, is Citigroup, which cut 4,200 jobs in January and 9,000 more yesterday, and says more cuts are coming. Citigroup is still bleeding money. But, said chief executive Vikram Pandit, "We're very, very focused on efficiency." I wonder how much Mr. Pandit's annual gift from Citigroup amounts to and if that is counted as part of the company's focus on "efficiency"?


Try as I might, while researching the above facts, nowhere did I find the slightest indication that every single one of these job cuts, or workforce reductions or layoffs or whatever you want to call them, involved real, live human beings, most of which have mortgages, car payments, children to feed and clothe, and regular bills for all the other common household expenses.

When Florida has 452,000 people out of work, when Citigroup cuts 9,000 jobs, or another company lets thousands of people go, that means all these people--human beings--are suddenly thrown into a deep, dark void, a numbing and crushing whirlwind, a torrential rain of existential despair!

That's not all. Here's a complication. The data shows that the individual savings rate in this country is currently a minus. People are actually borrowing money to survive! That means that for most of those laid off, or thrown out, or "cut," the immediate question is: How will we get through tomorrow?"

I don't have a clue. I do wish, though, that someone cared a little bit. I wish that the workers were given the consideration that the CEO's are given. I wish that people would become at least as important as profits.