America Faces No Greater Threat Than Joe Biden and the Democrat Party. Their Assault to Our Borders Is As Great As Their Assault to Free Speech and Free Elections
Thursday, June 18, 2020
THE TRUMP DEPRESSION - CORPORATE MONSTER AT&T PLANS TO CUT THOUSANDS OF JOBS AND CLOSE STORES - THEY DON'T SEE TRUMP'S RECOVER?
An AT&T store is seen on 5th Avenue in New York on Oct. 23, 2016. (Photo credit should read KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images)
AT&T plans to cut more than 3,400 technician and clerical jobs across the country over the next few weeks, the wireless carrier told its main labor union, the Communications Workers of America, on Tuesday.
The U.S. telecom and media giant also plans to permanently close over 250 stores, which would impact about 1,300 retail jobs, the union said.
AT&T said in a statement that the CCP virus pandemic and lockdowns to curb the spread of infections have changed consumer behaviors.
“With more customers shopping online, we are closing some retail stores to reflect our customers’ shopping practices,” AT&T said. “While these plans are not new, they have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The company said that most employees will be offered an alternative position within the company.
Executives, managers, and union-represented employees will be affected along with non-payroll workers outside of the United States, AT&T said. The company is offering severance pay and health care for laid-off employees for the rest of the year.
The company in April pulled its financial forecast for the year due to the COVID-19 crisis and warned the current quarter would demonstrate the full impact of the nationwide stay-at-home mandates.
Epoch Times staff contributed to this report
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People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Ark., on April 6, 2020. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)
Another 1.5 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits for the week ended June 13, an elevated number that, while marginally down from the previous week, suggests the road to economic recovery will be long.
The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report (pdf), released Thursday, shows that 1.508 million American workers filed initial jobless claims for the week ended June 13, down by 58,000 from an upwards revised 1.566 million in the week prior.
While the 11th straight weekly drop pushed claims further away from a record 6.867 million in late March, initial weekly claims remain roughly double their peak during the 2007-2009 Great Recession.
“People will say claims are coming down, but for an economy that is reopening, that is a huge number,” said Steven Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard in New York.
“The economy is losing workers and employment beyond the initial impact tied to businesses that shut down. There are a lot of industries that are getting hurt and that’s starting to cascade down, that is what those numbers are showing,” he said.
People who lost their jobs wait in line to file for unemployment at an Arkansas Workforce Center in Fayetteville, Ark., on April 6, 2020. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)
The weekly jobless claims report, which is the most timely data on the economy’s health, shows a picture of continued labor market distress even though employers hired a record 2.5 million workers in May as businesses reopened after shuttering in mid-March to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Continued layoffs amid weak demand and fractured supply chains are likely keeping new applications for unemployment benefits elevated, feeding into the view that the economy faces a long and difficult recovery from the pandemic-fueled recession.
“Something like close to 25 million people have been displaced in the workforce, either partially or through unemployment, and so we have a long road ahead of us to get those people back to work,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee in testimony Tuesday.
Powell told lawmakers that the Fed would use all available monetary policy tools to help the economy recover, but urged Congress to provide more fiscal support, which he called a “critical difference” in limiting long-lasting damage to the economy.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks at a press conference in Washington on Jan. 29, 2020. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
Powell renewed calls for fiscal measures in testimony Wednesday via a video link to the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
“We at the Fed need to keep our foot on the gas until we are really sure we are through this, and that’s our intention, and I think you may find that there’s more for you to do as well,” Powell said.
“It would be a concern if Congress were to pull back on the support that it’s providing, too quickly,” he said.
Robert Johnson, Professor of Finance at Heider College of Business, Creighton University, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the severity of the economic impact of the pandemic justifies extraordinary steps, even though some analysts may find them “alarming.”
“Monetary measures alone will not ensure that the U.S. economy will weather the pandemic. Coordinated monetary and fiscal measures are called for,” he said. “Given that I believe the recovery will be years and not months—and W-shaped and not V-shaped—I feel that more fiscal stimulus measures are warranted.”
The Labor Department figures showed that the largest increases in initial claims were in California (+27,202), Massachusetts (+17,512), and Oklahoma (+17,149). The biggest drops were in Florida (-95,546), Texas (-17,001), and Georgia (-13,909).
The number of continuing claims, which represent people who earlier filed initial claims and remain unemployed, was 20.544 million for the week ending June 6. This is down by 62,000 compared to the previous week, which was revised down to 20.606 million.
The seasonally-adjusted insured unemployment rate was 14.1 percent for the week ended June 6, unchanged from the previous week. The highest insured unemployment rate for the week ending May 30 was in hospitality industry-reliant Nevada (24.2 percent), followed by Puerto Rico (21.2 percent), and Hawaii (20.2 percent).
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