There’s plenty about the debt-ceiling talks in the Morning Jolt, as well as a surprising development in the race to replace Anthony Weiner in Congress. But there’s also some easily overlooked economic news:
Alas, Cisco Did Not Kid About This. He Was No Friend Of Mine.
Recovery Summ- oh, fudge. “Cisco Systems Inc., the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans. The cuts include as many as 7,000 jobs that would be eliminated by the end of August, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t final. Cisco is also providing early-retirement packages to about 3,000 workers who accepted buyouts, the people said.”
Tech analyst “The Snitch” observes, “The numbers will be large enough — reportedly, 7,000 jobs will be cut in August — to noticeably affect the Labor Department’s monthly employment reports This is obviously not good news for an economy beset by a seemingly intractable unemployment problem. On the other hand, it’s not really representative of the economy’s overall problems. Cisco has done this to itself. Most other big tech firms, including Cisco’s direct competitors like Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks, are doing pretty well. Same deal with other companies, like Microsoft, Google, and Apple, as well as social-media companies both public and private, like Facebook and LinkedIn.”
Anecdotally, a couple readers said that Friday’s job news seemed to hit harder than the two previous months. If it’s four in a row, what then? Will that be enough to knock the 30some percent who still reflectively say Obama is doing a good job handling the economy?