Hiring Logjam Breaks as CEOs Plan Fastest U.S. Growth Since 2006

[Richardo]

Hiring Logjam Breaks as CEOs Plan Fastest U.S. Growth Since 2006
Thomas Black, ©2012 Bloomberg News

Friday, January 13, 2012

Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Companies from General Electric Co. to yogurt producer Chobani are adding U.S. workers, accelerating a rebound in hiring, as chief executive officers prepare for greater demand in a strengthening economic recovery.

Boeing Co. is bringing in more than 100 union machinists a week for a 60 percent boost in output by 2014. Nissan Motor Co. will expand in Tennessee with 1,000 people making lithium-ion batteries. And a GE executive was at a Kentucky appliance plant before dawn this month to greet some of 500 new employees.

"The next few years are going to be a different picture than what we saw in the last few," said Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO and founder of South Edmeston, New York-based Chobani, which is building a 300-worker plant in Twin Falls, Idaho. "To get ready for this, we need to have our manufacturing capacity in place."

The hiring reflects optimism among CEOs that the economy will continue to strengthen and more workers will be needed to meet demand. It may signal an end to a lockdown on job growth following the financial crisis that lingered even after the recession ended in June 2009, with economists estimating more new jobs created this year than any time since 2006.

Manufacturing, whether for GE refrigerators or Greenbrier Cos. rail cars, is a bright spot in a labor market still so weak that December's unemployment rate of 8.5 percent was the lowest in three years. U.S. factory payrolls expanded by 225,000 jobs in 2011, more than double the total from a year earlier.

<snip>

Lots more here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/01/13/bloomberg_articlesLXPL1I0D9L3501-LXPQR.DTL

I'm in procurement in the chemicals industry and I can verify that we're ordering tons (literally!) of heavy equipment, rolling stock, pressure vessels, etc.

[msongs]

1. and items you are ordering are made where? nt

[carla]

3. Sounds like war

preparations to me. Be very careful.

[Richardo]

5. Nope.

Sorry to disappoint.

[carla]

11. In the past

societies ramped up production after the start of hostilities. With the tensions against Iran being ramped up, it would only be logical to get a jump on production. No amount of consumer confidence could make CEO's across the board choose to invest massively in the USA. This is troubling because it seems to indicate that the PTB have sent notice to the captains of industry to prepare for something massive. Richardo, you offer nothing to dissuade me and at age 70, I can say I have seen a lot in my lifetime. I hope you are correct, but you seem to be so adamant that I doubt you know much about history.

[AlecBGreen]

12. you are wrong Richardo

America has developed a 500-lb Greek yogurt bomb that will end the War on Terror quickly and with minimal collateral damage. The key is to simultaneously bombard the enemy with granola cluster bombs. Cleanup will be easy and delicious

[hootinholler]

18. I heard Feta was teh bomb

Time will tell I suppose.

[AlecBGreen]

25. excellent sig line!

[Richardo]

4. US for the most part

... on the three categories I mentioned. Which is why I specifically mentioned them.

[cheapdate]

20. Our engineering business is booming in Tennessee

Mitsubishi Chemical is building a plant in Memphis, TN to produce electrolytes for use in Nissan's new Leaf electric cars. The plant is going up as fast as it can be built. We've done all of the detailed design for the plant and we're now substantially involved in the construction support. On the other end, we're now working on several projects for Nissan to support the construction of their new electrolyte plant at the Nissan facility in Smyrna, TN. All of this work was made possible by US government loans to support energy investment in the US.

But it's not just green energy. Companies that had put projects on hold in 2008 are restarting projects. One example is a project for a manufacturer of vinyl ester resins to expand their production capacity. The resins are used in a variety of building products. The project had been put on hold in 2008, but they are going ahead with it now. We're swamped, actually.

[JDPriestly]

2. I hope that businesses are realizing just how valuable the American work ethic is.

I have lived in other countries. The Germans work more efficiently than Americans (as a general rule) and are better trained, but nobody works harder, no workers are more enthusiastic, than American workers.

We are the nation of workaholics.

The Japanese work very hard too, but there are a lot of problems in the Japanese society and economy these days.

[cstanleytech]

10. There hasnt really been a problem with the work ethic rather the problem is pure greed

usually at the corporate level with the higher ups giving themselves the money and the perks and pissing all over the common workers it seems.............or in other words its trickle down economics as usual.

[Art_from_Ark]

38. There are all sorts of problems with American society and economy as well

The main problems in Japan are dealing with 3 horrible and extremely costly disasters, dealing with a way overvalued currency that is killing exports, dealing with increasingly unstable supplies of imported raw materials, and dealing with the fact that the population of an advanced society in a relatively small group of islands cannot continue to grow forever.

[peacebird]

6. I hope that this guy has it right. If companies start hiring again then people can start to feel saf

and the economy will begin to recover....

[1monster]

26. I will never feel lL"safe" again, if I ever did. I will, however,

be looking for ways to soften and repair the next blow that capariciously huffs and puffs and knocks holes in my house.

[orpupilofnature57]

7. All this talk of hard rain is great..

Who are we selling all these products to ,China?

[DCBob]

8. This probably depends on whether Europe implodes..

which it might.

[orpupilofnature57]

13. Maybe the S&P downrating is timely.

[DCBob]

14. One would hope the rating agency idiots are not playing politics..

but one never knows these days.

[airplaneman]

32. Does anyone take S&P seriously?

S&P rated CDO's and MBS's back when they must have known they were junk AAA.
If S&P was honest we never would have had the mess go as far as it did. Or was it the government that forced them to call junk AAA. I for one have no faith in them or in wallstreet or CEO"s
-Airplane

[Art_from_Ark]

36. All of the Big Three companies were overrating subprime bonds

And I, too, have no faith in either them or Wall Street in general.

[Atypical Liberal]

9. Thanks for the glimmer of good news!

It's refreshing to hear that we might be coming out of the dip!

[jpak]

15. This is terrible - Obama must fail - he must, he must !!!!1 - there can be no recovery.

Let us hope the Teabaggers and their allies try to crash the economy (again) by putting the nation into default.

And let's hope the Eurozone crashes - and takes the US with it!!!1111

No recovery for you

yup

Oh yeah - this is sarcasm - I'm sick of the Doomers....

[Gormy Cuss]

21. It's really a shame that industry couldn't wait until after the election.

It's gonna look like Obama's doing something right.

Of course, I fully expect the GOP candidates to credit the Republicans in Congress for saving us from the administration.

[Hotler]

16. Now that people have been hurting for the past 4-yrs.

The corporations can bring people back for crap wages. I see jobs for certified welders for $10.00 an hour. I was welding for $10.00 an hour back in 1974. Meanwhile CEO wages have gone through the roof.

[OrwellwasRight]

22. Yup. There is a smaller share of the GDP going to wages today

than any time in our history. "Labor" is just another input to squeeze.

[whathehell]

28. These companies are unionized, are they not?.

I'm not a friend of crap wages -- believe me -- I voted for Nader in '96

because Clinton was doing nothing on wage stagnation.

[Art_from_Ark]

37. It might depend on what state you're in

In Arkansas, at least, most companies that hire welders are not unionized.

[ThomThom]

17. I guess they finally decided it was time to make some money

and stop sitting on it. They see that rethugs are not going to win and Obama is not that bad.

[EC]

19. Maybe after seeing what the repubs were offering

they figured to get on the Obama bandwagon and get the economy going so he'll get reelected. Maybe the repubs scared them.

[thelordofhell]

23. The fix is in

Massive voter fraud in 2012

[arely staircase]

24. good news nt

[whathehell]

27. Yes we can and we ARE!!!!

[sendero]

29. Yea!

The "recovery" is here for the first out of 5 times.

Before getting excited, I'd look at the raw numbers. There is nothing to get excited about.

[cascadiance]

30. I just had two interviews the last three days of this last week and one on Monday...

Each with separate companies. The most action I've ever had at the same time.

Though all of them are for contract jobs. So I'm guessing a lot of this ramp up is going to be trying to staff up with more contractors to catch up on the work that's been building up over the last year or so with smaller staffs. Would be interesting to see the breakdown of how much of these hires are contractors vs. permanent employees.

Still contract jobs are better than nothing. Hopefully we can get single payer health care coverage soon and the necessary state wavers to get them going in states that want them soon to make up for the big hole of health coverage that many of these contractor positions will have.

[Dawson Leery]

31. k/r

[proud patriot]

33. excellent

[Beartracks]

34. But Rush sez zero job growth is one of Obama's Achilles' heels!

How weird is THAT, eh?

Wait, you don't... You don't mean that he's... that he's... LYING... do you?

===================================

[Honeycombe8]

35. This is great news. I feel like I've had a drink of water after a long dry spell.

Oh, and...cute doggie!

[bemildred]

39. Perhaps they have given up on defeating Obama, and are hoping to save control of Congress. nt