The hard-boiled crime writer Dashiell Hammett was a Pinkerton's alumnus. Although some U.S. manufacturers are being hurt badly by weakness in Asian and Latin American markets and many U.S. farms are in crisis, the U.S. economy as a whole is continuing to grow and American companies are set to continue hiring as Cynthia Ingle reports from the Washington desk. With the unemployment rate at a 28-year low of 4.3 percent, firms are already complaining that they have trouble finding skilled workers. Nelson Liechtenstein teaches labor history at the University of Virginia. That includes all of those middle managers and factory workers who've been laid-off.
Studies show about two-thirds of downsized workers take new positions for less pay and benefits.
Beth Buehlmann with the Center for Workforce Preparation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce advises businesses to expand who's in their job pools. Big enough to bring two groups, usually arch-enemies, Labor and Business together to develop new training programs. In Washington, I'm Cynthia Ingle for Marketplace. A very angry-sounding federal judge today slapped two members of the Clinton cabinet with contempt citations in a case involving Native American trust funds. Judge Royce Lamberth says Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin should be held in contempt for their departments failing to supply key documents as ordered by the court twice before.