Today’s Associated Press headline: “U.S. JOBS DISAPPEAR AT ALARMING RATE”

“WASHINGTON – Layoffs are spiking as the recession rips through the country, with retailers, banks, factories, and others cutting costs ever deeper this week. It’s inflicting a painful toll on workers, and there’s little relief in sight. The latest round of pink slips and cost-cutting measures came yesterday on the heels of tens of thousands of layoffs ordered by a slew of companies last week alone. … PNC Financial Services Group said it plans to cut 5,800 jobs. Aircraft manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft Corp. said 2,300 employees will lose their jobs by the end of the year and warned more layoffs may be coming. Liz Claiborne Inc. will eliminate 8% of its workforce …

“With jobs vanishing at a breakneck pace, it’s becoming increasing difficult for the unemployed to find new jobs … All told, economists, on average, estimate that at least 524,000 more jobs vanished in January alone, and some think the figure will total around 700,000.”

Because we’ve declared ourselves to be a “service-oriented” society (users), rather than a working society (producers), we should have been paying more attention to what’s being put into the supply chain by our (out)sourced suppliers. Although we failed to take notice, the pickings have been slim, and last weeks reports indicate that they’re getting slimmer … and that spells trouble.

• Pacific Northwest ports saw overall volume declines in 2008;
• Neptune Orient Lines reported sharp late-year volume declines;
• Korea’s Port of Busan reported a drastic volume decline during November and December;
• Port of Seattle warns of possible wage freezes, unpaid furloughs and layoffs;
• AXS-Alphaliner: East/West box trades down 15% since August 1, 2008;
• Horizon Lines reports an $ 18.8 million loss;
• Matson Lines reports a 30 percent fourth-quarter operating loss;
• Trailer Bridge, Inc. expects to report a fourth-quarter loss;
• Senator Lines announces that it will cease operations at the end of the month;
• Chinese authorities estimate that 20 million factory workers may lose their jobs this year.

Americans desperately need jobs but as a “service-oriented” society we are no longer inclined toward menial labor, like building ships for instance. But shipbuilding was always our strong point, and years ago our innovators gave our technology to the rest of the world. So overseas workers are now building low-cost, unsophisticated, profitable container ships and, believe it or not, we’re paying them to do it. Meanwhile, we’re building an exorbitantly priced, highly-sophisticated, unprofitable 313-ship navy, and we’re paying for that, too … but we get no return on our investment (ROI). For example, we’re building “cargo” warships for about $ 500 million per copy, and instead of getting a return on the investment, taxpayers get stuck with the annual operating costs of these vessels.

We could have built ten profitable container ships for that $ 500 million, and the ROI would have been considerable. And so would the weekly paychecks.