Donald Trump’s reckless rule is already devastating South Dakota agriculture; is Trump now sandbagging our manufacturing sector?
Chuck Clement reports that Madison’s Manitou-Gehl plant, which manufactures heavy equipment for construction and agriculture, has laid off 42 workers:
The Madison Daily Leader has been unable to confirm with company sources during the last several days that Manitou Group-Gehl terminated dozens of workers last week, but online social networks, state labor officials and the community grapevine indicate that a group of workers at the Madison plant are now unemployed.
Unofficial information from local sources indicates that 42 persons formerly employed by Manitou-Gehl in Madison are now unemployed. Reports have the company representatives handing out letters last Thursday, giving the former employees notice of their permanent termination.
…In Madison on Monday, Jim Baltzer, manager of the local South Dakota Department of Labor office, said his staff had met with former Manitou-Gehl workers since late last week to provide assistance regarding their employment status. Baltzer said the workers had come into the Madison offices with letters from Manitou-Gehl officials informing them of their termination from the company [Chuck Clement, “Manitou-Gehl Reduces Employees,” Madison Daily Leader, 2019.07.31].
That’s odd: at the corporate level, Manitou-Gehl expanded its executive team in February and just added two global production managers this week.
Nationwide, manufacturing output ticked up in May and June, mostly due to increased motor vehicle output, but still declined for the second quarter overall, just as it did in the first quarter of this year. Two straight quarters of decline—you know what economists call that, right?
42 people in Madison right now are calling it unemployment.
Mostly pickups are driving the economy, pun intended. Go to a dealer man, they will sell you one of those gas guzzlers with just your name on the dotted line, many times, 0 down. That is all we got going man, that is it. Farmers and ranchers, you can drive that King Ranch leather infested cab 1 ton to the poor house, just like Grapes of Wrath. Put granny in a rocker in the back and head on out to Californy and look for Tom Joad.
https://www.equipmentworld.com/manitou-group-grows-revenue-first-half-2018/
Manitou-Gehl experienced 17% growth in first quarter of 2018.
They make skid – steer loaders and not only farmers, but homeowners buy them to move snow and dirt and all kinds of stuff.
2 consecutive quarters of “negative” economic growth….not 2 quarters with slightly lower GDP growth than the previous moron. I also find it funny how you libnuts are hoping, praying even, for a bad economy.
Not a single conservative, regardless of President, would hope for a bad economy.
Pearson’s been grazing in the loco weed some more.
Unlike Steve, I don’t need to shout personal insults. I simply ask Steve to read the links, which say exactly what I said:
From the Fed: “For the second quarter as a whole, industrial production declined at an annual rate of 1.2 percent, its second consecutive quarterly decrease. In June, manufacturing output advanced 0.4 percent. An increase of nearly 3 percent for motor vehicles and parts contributed significantly to the gain in factory production; excluding motor vehicles and parts, manufacturing output moved up 0.2 percent…. Manufacturing output increased 0.4 percent in June after moving up 0.2 percent in May. Despite the gains in the past two months, factory production declined at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the second quarter, about the same pace as in the first quarter.”
Factories made less stuff than before in the first and second quarter, satisfying the technical definition of recession within that sector.
The fact that I say the bus driver is distracted by his Twitter and the bus is heading into the ditch does not mean that I want to go in the ditch. I just means I want some capable and responsible person to grab the wheel and keep us out of the ditch… and then throw the driver out.
Typical of most corporate re-organizations; increase “management” and layoff them what does the labor.
I saw this happen after 9/11 in the travel business. Then, the “suits” complained that sales were down, people had longer waits for agents and overall quality of service dropped. Naturally, the agents who cared and had a solid client base went elsewhere and took their clients with them. I know, I did.
If Economic Eunuch was even a little bit sane, could do basic math and comprehend supply and demand as well as other basics of economics, the USA would be in much better shape. It’s going to take the Democratic victor in 2020 some time to reset our economy. We’ll need a Democratic Senate too, or Moscow Mitch, aka- Pootie’s Bitch, will crash any recovery attempts.
BTW, if you want to help Kentucky get rid of their hated Russian senator, here’s the place:
https://store.kydemocrats.org/defeat-mitch/
Moscow Mitch’s approval rating is in the teens. Kentuckians detest him.
Mr. Pearson says:
Mr. H says:
Ms. Geelsdottir says, on this blogging:
And on other recent bloggings:
And on dozens of other bloggings, the disrespectful “woman-of-god” displays the kind of out-of-state name-calling and hate-speech that hinders Mr. H’s elect-ability in the Great State of South Dakota, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it teeters putting this blog on a hate watch-list.
I’m just sayin…
Grudzilla, yer buddy mangled apricot says yer check is in the mail. Then he will lie about it. And you will continue to attack commenter’s first amendment rights here, unless they are of the wingnut persuasion.
Mr. Pearson’s first amendment rights got the goats belonging to you and Mr. H and Mr. Pearson is no doubt licking the chislic grease off his greasy hamfists right now.
In 2008 when President Obama was sworn in he had to hit the ground running to rescue our economy. republicans crashed the economy and everywhere you looked people were scared and losing money and investments,
On the sidelines sat Rush Limbaugh hoping and praying that President Obama’s economic recovery would fail and he was very vocal about it.
Democrats don’t need to hope and pray that Trump’s economy will fail, at the rate he is giving the 1% our tax revenue and putting all of his spending on our credit card failure is inevitable.
Grudz, focus up: you’re responding to my defusing of Pearson’s attempt to distract us from the core of this article by trying to distract us with something else.
Manitou-Gehl laid off 42 employees. The entire manufacturing sector is showing signs of weakness. Trump isn’t just killing agriculture; he’s dragging down the manufacturing he says he’s trying to help. Trump’s policies are producing results exactly opposite to his promises.
That “division” of Manitou focuses pretty heavy on Ag. But here’s something for you, in speaking with the Plant Management team there it’s actually not just all about the Ag decline. There are quite a few employees that have really low production and they were putting for an initiative to reorganize. New purchasing will be happening as well for more efficiencies and better output at the Madison facility because the Ag decline won’t be forever but it does happen. It isn’t Trump’s fault in only that they are in a trade war and that does have short term negatives happening. July hiring increased another 165k and unemployment stayed the same. Except that labor participation continues to be less compared to other years and I’m still baffled at that. It’s on reason why I wish we registered unemployment numbers better with more than just the short term data they use.
Manufacturing is still humming. I see that in automation manufacturers and their continued huge growth, in addition to medical device manufacturing as well. Sure Ag is down and manufacturers related to that will have a hiccup but it won’t be permanent and it sure isn’t the result of one man in the White House. Unless you are talking over regulation which did exist prior to Trump in the WH.
Steve, can you tell us who exactly gave you that information about management’s reasons for the layoffs? Can you get them on the record?
The trade war is Trump’s fault. Manufacturing is not humming, according to the data from the Fed.
And you don’t get to claim that economic bad news is not the result of one man in the White House but then claim that economic good news is the result of that one man who you want us to trust and vote for.
No, they won’t go on the record. Manitou is a corporate client like many other manufacturing companies. The thing I love is seeing your articles like this and know that you truly don’t know.
I said Trump was the trade war. Manufacturing index is still above 50. It went from 51.7 to 51.2
Thank you for clearing that up so NONE of you can keep on with the BS attacks. I never claimed Trump was the reason for the economic boom. It comes from so many factors. Business does well when there aren’t so many constrictions that are not of real value along with so much more. Not a President.
If a tree falls in the woods but it’s not on the record, it has no weight in the debate.
I’m just making sure we agree that have forfeited any right next year to claim that a growing economy is a reason to re-elect Donald Trump. You are saying bad economic news (like layoffs in manufacturing, which really happened in Madison) are not the fault of the President. You are thus required to also give up any opportunity to give the President credit for good economic news. I’m happy to accept that deal from you.