Recent grads face lean, mean job market

It’s a tough time to be looking for a job, especially for those fresh out of college.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in June 2009, the unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was nearly 18 percent, more than double that of 25- to 54-year-olds (8.5 percent) and workers over 54 (7 percent). Not only are the country’s unemployment woes hitting this age group harder than others, but the trend isn’t likely to reverse anytime soon.

A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers expect to hire 22 percent fewer new college graduates this year than they hired in 2008. Equally discouraging is recent data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows that for every five job seekers, less than one job is available.

What does this grim news mean for new grads in East Tennessee? How are they coping as they face the worst job market in decades? Six area college graduates talk about their job search experiences and their outlook for the future.

n Graduated: University of Tennessee (Knoxville), May 2009 n Major: Child and Family Studies (Masters)

When asked about her dream job, Barr is quick to answer: “I can teach Pre-K through third grade, but I love working with preschoolers. My dream job would be in a preschool program in a public or private school.”

Currently Barr has a summer job working at Camp Wesley Woods in Townsend. If she does not have a teaching job by the end of summer, Barr hopes to gain experience by substituting for Knox County Schools this fall.

Full Story Here: www.knoxnews.com

Brunswick 2Q loss rises to $163M as boat sales sink

Brunswick Corp. continues to be hammered by weak demand for its boats and otherproducts. The parent of Knoxville-based Sea Ray Boats, said Thursday it lost $163.7 million, or $1.85 per diluted share.

That’s up sharply from a loss of $6 million, or 7 cents per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2008.

However, the Lake Forest, Ill., company said that its liquidity is strong, with more than $460 million in cash on hand, $100 million of which was generated during the most recent quarter.

Excluding a restructuring charge and tax benefit, the company lost $1.50 per share, which missed the $1.36 per share loss forecast by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Net sales for the quarter ended July 4 were $718.3 million, down 52 percent from from $1.485 billion a year earlier, primarily due to a 56-percent drop in marine sales.

“Global demand for our products continues to be constrained across all of our businesses and is consistent with the trends experienced in the previous two quarters,” said Brunswick’s Chairman and CEO Dustan E. McCoy said in a statement.

The company has closed several plants and laid off thousands of workers in the past year in an effort to manage costs and reduce inventory.

“We continue to successfully manage our operations for cash and maintain excellent levels of liquidity. At the end of the second quarter, we had more than $460 million of cash, a $144 million and $102 million increase from year-end and previous quarter levels, respectively,” McCoy said.

Full Story Here: www.knoxnews.com

98 of top metros suffer job losses

Ninety-eight of the nation’s 100 largest labor markets lost jobs between the midpoints of 2008 and 2009, according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Each of the five N.C. markets covered in the report posted job losses. Charlotte, with more than 53,000 jobs lost, was the hardest hit.

Greensboro lost 21,000 jobs, followed by Raleigh (15,800), Durham (9,500) and Winston-Salem (6,400).

The biggest losses occurred in the nation’s three largest markets — New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago — each of which lost in excess of 200,000 jobs.

Full Story: Charlotte Business Journal

Bank of America May Trim Branches…

July 29 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank, may cut branches over the next three years because customers increasingly rely on the Internet and mobile phones to manage their accounts, an executive said.

“We’re seeing a strong acceleration in our customers using our virtual channels,” Liam McGee, president of consumer and small-business banking, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “We are doing what you’d expect us to do, which is look at the business and be sure our combination of channels and services remain at the cutting edge.”

Bank of America, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, ranked first in the industry with 29.2 million Internet accounts as of June 30 and 3 million mobile customers, according to McGee. Half of customer deposits are made through automated teller machines, compared with a third six months ago, because ATM’s now let customers insert checks without using envelopes, he said.

The bank had 6,109 branches as of June 30, 22 fewer than a year earlier, according to a July 17 filing. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis has told investors he plans to shrink branches by 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lewis’s comment came in response to a questioner and was hypothetical “as opposed to anything definitive,” McGee said.

“We could possibly have fewer branches, but we have no specific plan around how many banking centers we will have,” said McGee, 54. “We have no target identified.”

Bank of America gained 25 cents to $13.34 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday. It has dropped 5.3 percent this year.

‘Key Capability’

The bank is pleased with the “hundreds of banking centers” added in recent years, McGee said. “Our banking centers will always be the key capability of our company.” The bank operates 18,426 ATMs, down 105 from a year ago.

Branch closings would be driven by a desire to cut costs after the purchases of Countrywide Financial Corp. in 2008 and Merrill Lynch & Co. in January, said Ken Thomas, a Miami-based banking consultant who analyzes branch locations.

“You need to trim your branch network periodically just as you would weed a garden,” said Thomas. “There is always excess fat to be removed.”

The bank is ahead of projections in achieving $7 billion in annual pretax savings from the Merrill acquisition, Chief Financial Officer Joe Price said on July 17. The savings include eliminating 35,000 jobs by 2011.

Net U.S. branch openings jumped to 3,475 in 2008 from 571 in 2000 as banks expanded with housing growth in suburban markets, Richard Bove, an analyst at Rochdale Securities Inc., said in a report yesterday. Bank of America has too many branches and needs to boost prices to improve profit and prepare for increased government regulation, he said.

Full Story: Bloomberg.com

Economy Stabilizing but Charlotte Region ‘Weak’

The economy is showing signs of stabilizing in some regions of the country – especially in parts of the Northeast and Midwest – bolstering hopes of a broader-based recovery this year.

Economic conditions in the Richmond, Va., district, which includes the Carolinas, however, remain “weak.”

A Federal Reserve snapshot of economic conditions issued Wednesday found that most of the Fed’s 12 regions indicated either that the recession was easing or that economic activity had “begun to stabilize, albeit at a low level.”

The economy is still fragile. But the fact that some Fed regions reported signs of activity beginning to level out raises hope that the recession, which started in December 2007, is drawing to a close.

Four Fed regions – New York, Cleveland, Kansas City and San Francisco – pointed to “signs of stabilization,” the survey said. Two regions – Chicago and St. Louis – reported that the pace of economic declined appeared to be “moderating.”

Five other regions – Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, Atlanta and Dallas – described activity as “slow,” “subdued” or “weak.” Only one region – Minneapolis – indicated that its downward slide in economic activity had worsened.

Combined, the assessments of businesses on the front lines of the economy appeared to be brighter than those they provided for the previous Fed report in mid-June.

Nationally, the residential real estate remained “soft” in most Fed regions, though “many noted some signs of improvement.” By contrast, commercial real-estate activity weakened further.

In the Richmond district, residential real estate agents gave mixed reports.

One Fairfax, Va., Realtor described the market for houses priced between $400,000 and $1.2 million as “hot,” while Realtors in Greensboro and Asheville reported sluggish house sales. The Asheville contact said his area was “buckling down and weathering the storm.” The district covers the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, most of West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Across the district, retail and service firms made less money, paid workers less and kept staffing levels stable or reduced ranks, according to the report.

Retailers were “fighting for a little piece of what money is out there,” one manager at a chain department store outside Washington, DC, told the Fed. Generally, big-ticket sales suffered. A few building supply stores in coastal South Carolina reported an uptick in sales. And while sales of US-made automobiles languished, dealers of foreign-made automobiles reported sales were soft to “pretty good.”

Hospitals, however, reported steady demand. An executive at a hospital in central North Carolina said the hospital was starting to see more unemployed patients.

Full Story: Charlotteobserver.com

Chamber sees Charlotte economy improving

Expanding and new businesses announced the creation of 7,316 jobs in Mecklenburg County in the first half of the year, a 15 percent increase from the corresponding period last year, the Charlotte Chamber says.

Business investment among the 446 new and expanding firms fell sharply to $564 million from $1.53 billion. The aggregate space requirements of new and expanded operations dropped to 6.7 million square feet from 16.6 million in the first half of 2008.

The chamber’s research is not adjusted for job losses and business closings.

Mecklenburg’s unemployment rate has risen sharply since the beginning of the year. The latest figure, for May, shows unemployment of 11 percent. The rate in December was 8.3 percent.

Business demand for real estate is also slumping. The vacancy rate for office space, for example, rose to 14.5 percent at midyear from 11.4 percent at year end, according to Karnes Research Co.

The chamber’s job figures include plans by Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America to hire more than 1,000 employees and Siemens Energy’s expansion by 226 positions.

The chamber concludes “although the Queen City isn’t in the clear, she certainly has turned the corner.”

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Yale Industrial to add 65 jobs

Yale Industrial Products Inc., a designer and manufacturer of material-handling products, will expand its operations in Wadesboro.

The company plans to invest $3 million and add 65 jobs over the next three years.

The Wadesboro plant has 136 workers.

The new jobs will pay an average $37,031 per year, excluding benefits. That exceeds the Anson County average of $28,288.

Yale Industrial Products is owned by Columbus McKinnon Corp. of New York (NASDAQ:CMCO), which makes hoists, trolleys, cranes and other material-handling equipment.

Columbus McKinnon also has hoist-manufacturing facilities in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.

The company plans to consolidate its Michigan operation into the other plants, including the Wadesboro facility, which will add a line of wire rope hoists.

Columbus McKinnon also owns Duff-Norton, a manufacturing facility in Charlotte.

The proposed expansion was made possible, in part, by a $116,300 grant from the One North Carolina Fund, according to the office of Gov. Bev Perdue. The state uses the fund to attract business projects that create jobs.

New employment positions will be posted at the N.C. Employment Security Commission/JobLink Center at 116 W. Wade St. in Wadesboro. Applicants must apply at the center.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

N.C. workers see more from stimulus

The flow of stimulus money to N.C. construction workers is increasing, according to data compiled by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

A total of 1,087 transportation construction workers received $846,018 in payroll from stimulus projects in June. Those employees worked a total of 46,357 hours.

Recently revised N.C. DOT statistics say 625 employees worked 19,355 hours on stimulus projects in May. They were paid $382,856.

“The stimulus is starting to help people,” says Berry Jenkins, the N.C. highway heavy division director at the Carolinas chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America.

Jenkins thinks North Carolina will see a peak in stimulus-funded transportation spending in the fall. But he worries that much of the work will be on short-term projects that will end within a year, meaning a long-term solution to the state’s transportation budget requirements still hasn’t been found.

April was the first month that the stimulus dollars got into the hands of employees. That month, 74 employees earned $22,751 for 994 hours of work.

N.C DOT received a total of $838 million in federal stimulus funds, including $735 million for road and bridge projects.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that every $1 million spent on transportation creates 30 jobs.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Mastercraft re-hiring 175 workers, resumes production

Mastercraft in Vonore has resumed production and began re-hiring 175 workers this week.

President and CEO John Dorton says some workers reported Monday, some Tuesday and more will come in on Wednesday.

Dorton says Mastercraft is building 2010 models. The plant has had sporadic production since February and no production in June. However, it’s now making five to six boats a day.

Last year, Mastercraft had 650 employees and made between 19 and 21 boats on a normal day.

Dorton says the problem this past winter was that dealers couldn’t get credit to buy the boats. Now, Mastercraft is backlogged with orders and he hopes production stays steady indefinitely.

Dorton also says the employees being re-hired are cross-trained and versatile and seniority is a factor.

Plus, management is looking at employees’ quality of work and attendance to determine who to re-hire.

Source: WATE

German manufacturer eyeing Alcoa for headquarters

Alcoa could be the site of a German manufacturer’s North American headquarters.

This comes after an announcement Friday about a plan to build Alcoa a city center on 350 acres of land near the Alcoa factory.

Economic Development officials in Blount County say it’s too soon to release the details or the name of the company, but they feel pretty certain the company is coming to Blount County.

The company’s eyeing two sites near the airport including a new business park called Base Pointe and an older one off Northpark Boulevard.

Bryan Daniels, Executive Vice President at Economic Development Board of Blount County, says his board has been courting the company since 2003.

In 2005, it announced it was moving to Charlotte.

Now the company has changed its mind.

One reason for the change is the major projects on the horizon for the region, such as the Alcoa City Center. Blount County has almost a billion dollars of private money invested in upcoming capital projects.

“With all those projects, they felt we were a progressive community they wanted to be,” said Daniels.

Daniels says he’s not sure how many jobs the headquarters will create but it will be a wide spectrum ranging from professional to manufacturing positions.

With layoffs at big employers such as Alcoa, the county’s unemployment rate is now ten percent and new jobs are needed.

“Any new jobs you can bring right now will help unemployment rate in these tough economic times. Any jobs we can bring will be beneficial to our community,” shared Daniels.

The German manufacturer hopes to make its decision in three to four months. It is waiting on cementing customer contracts before making its final decision.

In the meantime, economic development officials are traveling to Germany to meet with the company and other prospects.

Source: WATE