Cintas Corporation’s (CTAS) announced its fiscal year 2009 results last week. Revenue for the year was down 4.1% year over year at $3.77 billion. The company reported a decline in revenue for the first time in 40 years.   Increasing job losses are adversely impacting the company’s revenue growth. The company has stated that many of its customers have been forced to reduce employment levels and consolidate facilities due to the challenging business environment.   According to the U.S. Department of Labor, job losses have exceeded $5.5 million in the last twelve months. The national unemployment rate rose to 9.5% in June 2009, the highest in more than 25 years. The impact on the company is even more drastic as approximately two-thirds of these job losses occurred in traditional uniform wearing industries.

As a result, the company’s Uniform Direct Sales declined 17.2%, while Rental Uniform and Ancillary Products revenue declined

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July 10, 2009 ndash; Another mixed week of economic data, which left Wall Street in doubt about whether the economy is going to rebound any time soon. Fridayrsquo;s downtick in consumer sentiment was a stark reminder that Main Street is not doing well and isnrsquo;t particularly optimistic. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Consumer Sentiment ndash; The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (preliminary) index decreased to 64.6, the lowest level since March, from 70.8 in June. The forecast was for a reading of 70. With respect to Americanrsquo;s perceptions about their financial situation, and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, the reading fell to 70.4 from 73.2. The index of consumer expectations for six months from now fell to 60.9, the biggest drop since October, from 69.2. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; US Import and Export Price Indexes - The U.S. Import Price Index rose 3.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of ...

The markets were off today as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the only major index to be in the black, up 0.15% to a level of 8,763.13.  The NASDAQ was down 0.03% closing at 1849.42 while the S&P 500 was down 0.25% ending at 940.09.  The 10-year once again saw price down ending with a yield of 3.83%.  A dollar gained strength today resulting with gold falling, settling at $962.60, and weaker demand saw crude prices fall to $68.44 a barrel. 

General Motors announced preliminary plans to sell its Saturn unit to Penske Automotive Group [PAG: 14.65, +0.05 (+0.34%)] which would put Penske in charge of Saturn’s parts, distribution, service, brands, and trademarks.  Mr. Roger Penske did not say how much the deal would be worth, but he said that the deal would allow for Saturn to retain 13,000 jobs in the corporation and the 350 dealerships.  The sale

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The End of the Recession: A New Indicator Predicts With Startling Accuracy

by Matt Weinschenk, Senior Analyst, The White Cap Report

What would you do if you knew exactly when the end of the recession would be?

Pour your cash back into the market? Hire a few new people at work? Or just sleep a little bit easier at night?

Every week, a government report is published that provides the only number needed to pinpoint the end of the recession. And in four of the last five recessions this number has peaked four to six weeks before the turnaround of the recession (and in the fifth, it was only two weeks late).

Don’t forget, the market is always ahead of the economy - but predicting the recession’s bottom four to six weeks ahead of time could be more of a profit-maker and less of a parlor trick.

It’s all available in

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Back in the 1950s, families were able to make a living with one income. Fathers would typically leave for a full day’s work while mothers would be taking care of their home and children. The 1970s ushered in the gradual shift towards both parents working. Our current economic situation has resulted in the need for at least five percent of all Americans to take on a second job. However, an issue occurs when people begin to take assets from their main employer for their own personal use or second job. This use results in more wear-and-tear on assets, which results in increased cost to their main employer. Universal Tracking Solutions, Inc. has a solution that empowers companies by allowing them to keep track of their assets.

Based on the findings of the U.S. Department of Labor, between 7 and 8 million Americans currently hold

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Friday March 6, 2009 Navivest

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor, non-farm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February, with the economy losing 651,000 jobs. As a result, the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1%. This is the highest level of unemployment in the U.S., since December of 1983.

On the bright side, if that can be said, the actual number of jobs lost, was not much worse than the forecasted 651,000 – 654,000.

According to government statistics, there are now 12.5 million Americans unemployed, after an 851,000 climb in February. In the last year, the number of those that are unemployed has increased by about 5.0 million, causing a 3.3% jump in the unemployment rate.

The job losses came from all major sectors in the economy, with education, healthcare services and the government sector being the only bright spots.

In February, manufacturing

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Employment Situation Summary

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employ- ment has declined by 2.6 million in the past 4 months. In February, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.

The chart below represents the year/year change in total employment.

Thursday February 19, 2009
Navivest

The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor today reported that the Producer Price Index for Finished Goods rose 0.8% in January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. This follows declines of 1.9% in December and 2.5% in November. The actual number was an upside surprise, as economists were forecasting that PPI for January would come in at 0.1%.

According to the BLS, “at the earlier stages of processing, the decrease in prices for intermediate materials slowed to 0.7 percent from 4.2 percent in the prior month, and the index for crude materials declined 2.9 percent after dropping 5.3 percent in December.”

The surprising increase was due mostly to a rise in energy related goods, which saw an increase of 3.7%, from a decline of 9.1% in December, while finished food prices rose 0.4%, after rising 1.4% in December.

Core PPI, which factors out

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Thursday February 5, 2009
Navivest

The U.S. Department of Labor said this morning, that the number of those filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped to 626,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 591,000. Economists had been forecasting that the number would come in at 583,000

Highlighting the drastic turn for the worse that the economy has taken, in comparison, for the week ending January 31, 2008, the number of those filing for new unemployment benefits, was only 351,000.

The 4-week moving average is now 582,250, an increase of 39,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 543,250.

Tags: Initial Claims  Recession  Economy

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported that nonfarm payrolls fell by a whopping 533,000 jobs in November, and the official government-approved unemployment rate rose from 6.5 to 6.7%.

There is more New Bad News (NBN) contained in November’s drop in payroll employment because, “Job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors in November.”

The New Bad News (NBN) to me personally is that this means that if I get fired again, then another job will be that much harder to find, especially since my job skills are apparently substandard, as I father from my current boss being sure that she can train a monkey to do my job and, as she said, “It will probably have better personal hygiene, too!”

Since experience has shown that I am not a “people person”, service industry jobs are especially difficult for me, and there always comes a

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