wearmanyhats

In an earlier blog, I mentioned a number of 22 million people being unemployed.  I arrived at that number erroneously and stand corrected.  The number I had calculated was dependent on the number of people in the United States and a 7% unemployment rate.  I forgot the people who are retired, children, and disabled. 

The true numbers of unemployed were listed today by the Labor Department at 6.7  million people.  (AP) This includes the number of people who have had extended benefits. 

It’s difficult to keep things into perspective, but it’s critical that readers do.  For example, there is a difference between a loss of profit and a loss in general.  Most companies are reporting a profit, but there is a loss in how much that profit is.  The media is reporting these losses in such a way, too, that makes it would very hyped.  For example, today Jay Alabaster, writing for the AP reported that Sony’s profit, “shrivelled to 10.4 billion yen…”

It’s never pretty to lose profitabiltiy.  It almost always means that labor costs must be trimmed, and that’s why so many people are getting laid off worldwide.  However, it is important that we keep profitability in perspective. Staying in the black is essential for a corporation to keep financially liquid.  Some of these companies, such as GM, can not continue to bleed red ink and stay in business indefinately, no matter how big they are.

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