10,000 CALIFORNIA Jobs Cut in January

Source: San Francisco Business Times - by Steven E.F. Brown

Employers in California said they would cut 10,528 jobs in January, making the state No. 4 on a list of most layoffs in a report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

California came in behind New York (17,060), Arkansas (12,700) and Delaware (10,784).
In January 2009, California employers announced 14,883 job cuts.

Nationwide, employers planned 71,482 job cuts in January, up 59 percent from cuts in December. Retailers slashed many temporary holiday jobs, adding to the figures, the report said, but they also cut “many of the full-time, permanent jobs that existed before the holidays.”

January marked the first increase in the number of monthly job cuts since July, and it had the most since August, when employers planned to cut 76,456 jobs nationwide.

But it’s a much lower number than the whopping 241,749 job cuts planned in January 2009.
Retail led the list of industries shedding jobs, with 16,737 nationwide. Telecoms and drug companies followed, with 14,010 and 8,170 respectively.

THE DECADE IN REVIEW

A look at stocks, commodities and memories - good and bad!

Provided by Ed Nicolls

A turbulent ten years. The 2000s gave us remarkable opportunity and remarkable volatility. They tested our patience, and many investment strategies. They taught us to hold on, hang in there and diversify.

Stocks. Was it really a “lost decade”? It depends on how you were invested. Yes, the Dow ended the 1990s at 11,497.12 and ended the 2000s at 10,428.05, amounting to a 9.30% slip. The S&P 500 lost 24.10% in the same interval. If you had invested a lump sum into an index fund tracking the S&P 500 on December 31, 1999 and left those assets untouched for ten years, you would have ended up with a sizable loss.^1,2

Well, that sounds dismal - but how many of us actually invest this way? Very few of us make one lump sum investment and just watch it for ten years. Thanks to diversification, rebalancing and constant inflows of new money, quite a few investors were able to grow their assets and/or outperform the S&P 500 in the past decade.

The fact is, five sectors of the S&P 500 gained 10% or more across the 2000s – health care (+10.85%), utilities (+10.92%), materials (+24.91%), consumer staples (+31.84%) and energy (+102.12%).²

Few articles about the “lost decade” mention this notable factoid: the Russell 2000 advanced 23.90% during the 2000s.² Mutual funds that focused on buying undervalued small-company stocks gained an average of 8.3% annually in the 2000s.³

Outside America, developing stock markets shattered all expectations while the developed markets mirrored American performance. Look at the decade-long gains in key indices in some of the BRIC nations, as measured by CNBC.com: China, +72%; India, +249%; Brazil, +301%; Russia, +863%. Compare all that with the benchmark indices in Japan (-44%), France (-34%), Great Britain (-22%) and Germany (-14%) in the past decade.⁴ Emerging market mutual funds gained an average of 9.3% per year in the last ten years.³

Commodities. It was a decade of amazing gains in the broad commodities market. From the end of 1999 to the end of 2009, gold advanced 278.52%. How about silver and copper? Silver gained 208.91% and king copper rose 287.78%. Crude oil rose 210.00% during the 2000s.²

How great a decade was it for the commodities sector? Only one notable commodity posted a ten-year loss from 12/31/1999 to 12/31/2009. That was palladium, which retreated 8.98%. On the other hand, we know that 16 commodities gained 100% or more across the decade.²

The two biggest gainers during the 2000s were a pair of crops: sugar (+340.36%) and cocoa (+293.31%).²

Highs and lows. We are 10 years past the bursting of the tech bubble – March 10 will mark the 10^th anniversary of the NASDAQ’s all-time high of 5,132.50.⁵ And of course, a decade-defining geopolitical event rocked the markets 18 months later.

General Motors and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009; at the start of the decade, so did Enron - the company that Fortune Magazine ranked as “most innovative” each year from 1995-2000.⁶ In 2008, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and Washington Mutual either folded, mutated, or were bought up while AIG, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were bailed out. 

The Dow hit a new high of 11,723 in January 2000, a post-9/11 closing low of 7,286 in October 2002, and then ended 2003 at 10,453 (as the DJIA gained 25.32% that year while the dollar lost 14.67%). The Dow hit new peaks of 11,727 on October 3, 2006 and 14,164 on October 9, 2007. A close of 11,215 on July 2, 2008 officially marked the start of a bear market.⁷

From March 9, 2009 closing lows to the end of the year, the Dow shot up 59.28% and the S&P 500 advanced 64.83%.² This led to some to entertain tantalizing thoughts about the birth of a new bull market. Or it is simply a cyclical bull in a secular bear? The jury is still out, as the saying goes; we can hope for the best.

What did we learn? The 2000s taught us lessons about irrational exuberance (companies that had never made a dime were probably not worth billions) and lessons about the value of diversifying your portfolio. We also learned lessons in perseverance – those who stayed invested have seen their portfolios make a strong recovery.

The 2000s put investors through some seemingly unimaginable financial headlines. It was a rare decade, an aberrant one in stock market history – for example, the Dow hadn’t had a negative decade since the 1930s, and it had advanced 228.25% over the 1980s and 317.59% for the 1990s.⁸ Will we see it make a double- or triple-digit advance in the next ten years? We don’t know. Past performance is no indicator of future success. Yet the awesome potential of the stock market and commodities markets should not be dismissed – and with economies healing the world over, it is clearly time to look forward and stay invested.

Ed Nicolls is a Representative with World Financial Group and a member of the Y.E.S. Business Advisory Council. He may be reached at 559-226-6999 or enicollsz2528@wfgmail.com

These are the views of Peter Montoya Inc., not the named Representative nor Broker/Dealer, and should not be construed as investment advice. Neither the named Representative nor Broker/Dealer gives tax or legal advice. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however, we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If other expert assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional. Please consult your Financial Advisor for further information.

Join Y.E.S. at the Vanguard of Social and Economic Change!

Late breaking news on CNN!
Temple University Economist is interviewed on the BEST CAREER for 2010 and this recession economy! You might be shocked!

Fresno's First Shrink-a-thon! When we LOSE, Charities WIN!!

You've heard of a Walk-a-thon?
You've heard of a Jog-a-thon?
Well, now you've heard of a Shrink-a-thon!

In Fresno, Young Entrepreneurs 4 Success is sponsoring this unique, new 12-week healthy weight-loss program, based on the teachings of Dr. Ray Strand, MD in his life-changing book and online program, Healthy for Life. The Healthy for Life program has been clinically researched to be effective in two different third-party studies.

Additionally, Shrink-a-thon has been massively successful in other communities around the country! Our goal is to transform the health of people in the Fresno area community, by losing 3000 pounds and raising $100,000 for local charities by the end of 2010!!

Our first non-profit to join us and take advantage of the Shrink-a-thon fund-raising healthy weight-loss program is My Sister's Closet in Fresno.  My Sister's Closet is a Christian-based program sponsored by United Faith Christian Fellowship Church in Southeast Fresno.  The mission of My Sister's Closet is to help women in transition with professional clothing and training in various job skills, such as interviewing and resume skills.

Our FREE Introductory parties are scheduled to start in January and will run through March. Join us for a dinner party, try out some of the delicious recipes that we'll be losing weight with, and learn how it all works! During the 12 week program you will have fun, lose weight, earn prizes and raise money for charities all at the same time!

Contact us if you are interested in joining to find out how to
GET IT OFF AND KEEP IT OFF!
SEE YOU THERE!

P.S. For more info, please visit http://fresno.shrinkathon.com/

Job Seekers are Discouraged!

"In some U.S. states, nearly half of the job seekers who have stopped looking for work have done so because they simply don't believe they'll find anything. Indeed, the number of discouraged workers nationwide has more than doubled in the past year. This trend won't be reflected in the widely publicized unemployment rate, as discouraged workers aren't included among the unemployed. Still, in states as diverse as Mississippi, South Dakota, and New York, the span of this often invisible slice of workers signals a population losing its hope.

[Search for your best place to find a job.]

Most jobless people who have stopped looking for work are otherwise engaged--they're back in school, taking on family responsibilities, or too sick to search. They, along with workers who have stopped because they're discouraged, make up a group that the Labor Department calls the "marginally attached." They're included in some of the broader measures of unemployment, but they're officially not part of the workforce. While discouraged workers make up about a third of the marginally attached nationwide, their numbers have been increasing.

Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi averaged the highest percentage of discouraged job seekers among its marginally attached--nearly 50 percent, compared with 32.6 percent nationwide. South Dakota ranked second after Mississippi, with 48.5 percent of marginally attached workers classified as discouraged. Florida, Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia, and New York followed in ranking for the highest rates of discouragement.

Discouraged workers are characterized by their perceptions. They don't think work is available for them, or they believe they lack the necessary training to be hired. They may be convinced that employers think they're too young or too old, or they believe that they face some other kind of discrimination that prevents them from finding work. And while there are discouraged workers in healthy economies, in a prolonged recession such as this one, worker pessimism tends to skyrocket.

[See 10 cities with the most job postings per capita.]

The heights of discouragement in Mississippi are significant. "It says something about the situation in that state when half of the people with a relatively recent commitment to searching for a job have stopped because they believe nothing is available for them," says Thomas Krolik, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Between the third quarter of last year and the second quarter of this year, Mississippi's average unemployment rate was 7.9 percent. Add in all the discouraged workers, and the rate shoots up to 8.8 percent, a 0.9 percentage-point jump. Nationwide, the average difference between the unemployment rate and the rate of unemployed plus discouraged workers was about 0.4 percentage point. Michigan and New York also ranked high by that measure.

Charles Campbell, a professor of economics at Mississippi State University, says the state struggles with regions of particularly high unemployment, "where there really are no jobs." Many of the residents of those regions lack the skills and means to find work in outside areas, Campbell says, so they remain unemployed.

In other states, the situation may be more obvious. In Michigan, the demise of the domestic auto industry has brought job destruction far outpacing the national average. Michigan's unemployment rate for June topped 15.2 percent, compared with 9.5 percent nationally. Across the country, Florida has been hit hard by the housing bust, and unemployment in the state reached 10.6 percent in June.

But higher unemployment rates and lousier job markets alone don't explain the high rates of discouragement. Connecticut, New York, and West Virginia have seen their numbers of jobless workers rise during the downturn, but their unemployment rates are all below the national average.

Several things could nudge job seekers toward hopelessness: negative media coverage of the job market; unsuccessful job searches among friends and family; their own long-term unemployment. Also, men are more likely to give up their job search because they've become discouraged--they make up 63 percent of the total group. Younger workers, blacks, and Hispanics are also overrepresented in the discouraged-worker category, according to the Labor Department.

The housing bust could be partly to blame. Workers may simply give up because there are no openings matching their skill set within their geographical area, Krolik says. If workers own homes they can't sell, their ability to move for a new job is severely limited. The effect could be exacerbated by areas where homes are a particularly difficult sell or homeowners are disproportionately underwater, as those markets have also tended to see higher unemployment rates.

[See 7 lessons from a successful job search.]

Whatever workers' motivation, many economists are now focusing more on their results. Hoyt Bleakley Jr., a University of Chicago economist, says researchers are paying less attention to how many job seekers say they're looking for work and more attention to how quickly they are actually finding it. With 4.4 million job seekers nationwide out of work for more than 27 weeks or more in June, "those numbers are pretty grim," Bleakley says. "People who claim they're looking for work are not finding it." It's hardly surprising, then, how many have simply given up looking."

Source: (Sorry, unknown,)

Fresno Community Comes Together...

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Carol A. Anderson, LMFT
carol@acenter4growth.com
559-970-8350

Addressing Challenges Facing Young Adults

During Tough Economic Times

"The time is NOW to develop tomorrow's leaders!"

Fresno, CA - Job losses, a limited job market, skyrocketing tuition and epidemic proportion of health concerns are the biggest challenges facing young adults in our community and across the nation. But this is not news. What is news is the grassroots organization that has sprouted up to change Fresno's headlines.

"Just Say Y.E.S. to Freedom" was the theme of last Thursday's kick-off of Young Entrepreneurs for Success (Y.E.S.), a new organization bringing together community leaders in education, health, business and service to implement solutions for this ever-growing problem. The event was held at a private residence.

"These are critical times which require unique and creative solutions," stated Dr. Padilla, local Physician and member of the Y.E.S. Health Advisory Council. Dr. Padilla is a believer in health advocacy, mentorship and service.

"Y.E.S. has called on leaders in the community who have the expertise and the network to make success happen for young adults," said Carol Padilla-Shaath, educator and Director of Y.E.S. Business Development. "We are all stakeholders in the success of this generation and the time is now to develop tomorrow's leaders."

Y.E.S. is comprised of a Health Advisory Council and is currently in the process of inviting community business leaders to their Business Advisory Council. The next level in the tiered system are the professional mentors followed by the peer leaders. Y.E.S. will hold their first Leadership Retreat on July 17 and 18 at Huntington Lake and then begin recruiting Gen Y as members to their one-year program.

Y.E.S. is an "Earn-While-You-Learn" local organization whose mission is to develop Life, Leadership & Business skills in young adults living in Central CA, while supporting a healthy lifestyle and providing opportunities for service & social events. Membership is by referral only.

Membership benefits for young adults include:
1.) Networking with local community & business leaders;
2.) Building a personal referral and resource network;
3.) Giving back to the community through service;
4.) Participating in a Mentor / Mentee relationship for success;
5.) Receiving education and support for healthy lifestyle;
6.) Gaining life skills not received through traditional education; and,
7.) Building another stream of income to gain financial security.

For more info on Y.E.S. or to refer a young adult, please visit:
http://www.meetup.com/young-entrepreneurs-4-success

# # # #

MISSION: POSSIBLE! ACCOMPLISHED!

Congratulations to all the "Agents" who accomplished the "Mission" today! You filled a pick-up truck FULL of food for the Community Food Bank! 744# to be exact! JOB WELL DONE!

We hope you enjoyed yourselves and got plenty to eat for breakfast and lunch! For those who received movie tickets, ENJOY!!

We'll be hosting another project again soon! Watch our calendar for details!