Focusing on the Job Market

While there is euphoria in the stock market today, the key indicators to watch are the quantity and quality of jobs.
Some stories today...

More Americans Vault Overseas to Search for Jobs. Asia, Europe attract financial pros as woes in the U.S. take a toll

How Toyota treats its full-time employees (compared to the US Auto Gia..., oops, Auto Dwarfs). Toyota Keeps Idled Workers Busy Honing Their Skills For years, Detroit's Big Three car makers have paid their workers even when they aren't needed on the assembly line. This year, as the industry's downturn intensifies, Toyota Motor Corp. finds itself doing the same thing. Instead of sending the workers home, as the Detroit makers often do, Toyota is keeping them at the plants, though. The employees spend their days in training sessions designed to sharpen their job skills and find better ways to assemble vehicles.

GM to Stamp Out factory in Grand Rapids, MI. General Motors Corp.'s efforts to hoard cash and outlast a prolonged economic slump claimed the jobs of more than 2,700 workers Monday as the automaker announced the demise of factories in Michigan and Wisconsin. GM said it would shutter a metal stamping factory in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming by the end of next year, and it also sped up the closure of its Janesville, Wis., sport utility vehicle plant, with most of that facility shuttering Dec. 23.

International Business Machines Corp. is opening its first research facility in about a decade, inaugurating an operation in Shanghai that will work to build new applications for the Internet and small businesses.