I Called It: Productivity Over People

Back in May, I said this:

"The economy can be doing fairly well, as can the stock market, while employment can be in relatively bad shape. The Democrats drove home this point a few years back with their incessant lamentations of "jobless recovery." We can certainly have one. Looking at the landscape holisitically, the incentives for companies to invest in hiring US workers over the next couple of years are underwhelming. ... The upshot of all this is that US corporations will be struggling to maintain their level of profitability, and when they do contemplate growth the incentives are for them to invest in productivity tools rather than people or to invest in workers abroad rather than domestically.

Ford Motor today: "Ford Plans $155 Million Plant Upgrade, No New Hiring"