The United States is on pace to record more job losses in 2001 than in the previous nine years, the job placement firm Challenger, Gray &Christmas said. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, U.S. companies have announced 624,411 job cuts, more than the 12-month totals for every year from 1993-1997, the job placement firm said. Through the end of November, companies had announced close to 1.8 million job cuts, nearly three times more than were announced in 2000 and the largest number since Challenger began tabulating such figures in 1993. The worst year prior to 2001 was 1998, when 677,795 job cuts were announced.
The Treasury Department sold three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.72 percent on Monday, down from 1.73 percent last week. Six-month bills sold at a rate of 1.85 percent, up from 1.84 percent. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors – 1.752 percent for three-month bills with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,956.50 and 1.893 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,906.50. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, the most popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 2.23 percent last week from 2.17 percent the previous week.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan’s largest heavy machinery maker, said Wednesday it will eliminate 4,000 jobs over the next four years in a bid to boost profits. The cuts, which represent more than 10 percent of the company’s 37,000 domestic employees, are to be completed by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, the company said. The maker of nuclear power plants and ships is the latest Japanese corporate giant to slash workers as Japan struggles to recover from its third recession in a decade and demand for the nation’s exports plummets amid a global slowdown.
A record $429 million arbitration award against a stock broker for embezzlement and fraud will likely never be fully collected, but the lawyer who represented investors in the dispute said Wednesday the decision is still a victory. An NYSE Exchange arbitration panel last month ordered the $429 million award after finding that Enrique Ernesto Perusquia had committed “fraud, forgery, breach of fiduciary duty, embezzlement, self-dealing, and other heinous acts” with “willful, wanton and gross disregard” for his clients. The award is the biggest ever against a broker or broker, said Ralph Ryder, editor of the Securities Arbitration Commentator in Maplewood, N.J.
From Herald news services
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