July 22, 2008

The Latest Business Headlines from WWJ Newsradio 950

Michigan Up for Grabs | A new poll shows 43 percent of Michigan voters back Democrat Barack Obama and 41 percent support GOP rival John McCain, with third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr picking up enough votes to be spoilers. | Story

More Ford Buyouts | The company is giving hourly workers at 17 facilities another round of buyout and early retirement offers in an effort to cope with slumping sales. | Story

GM Teaming With Utilities | General Motors has joined with more than 30 utility companies to work out electricity issues that will crop up when it rolls out new electric vehicle. | Story

Battery Breakthrough Coming | Panelists at the Plug-In 2008 conference predict the lithium-ion battery will be the answer to high oil prices and environmental concerns. | Story

Asian Village Closed | The barely year-old Asian Village restaurant and bar on Detroit's Riverfront shut its doors Monday amid mounting debt, The Detroit News reports. | Story

Stocks Close Lower | A rally in financial stocks, including Bank of America and Fannie Mae, lost steam late in Monday's trading session, and oil broke its losing streak. | Story

This Week in 'Your Career'

Garden Fresh Gourmet expects to keep growing.

Most job changers are moving on because they have to.

Majority of workers feel burned out, survey finds.

Social Security offers online benefits calculator.

WSJ: Value of college educations is declining.

Economists expect second-half growth to be anemic.

How to know when to jump ship.

Today's Worldwide Automotive Report podcast.

GARDEN FRESH GOURMET SEEKS TO KEEP GROWING THROUGH MERGERS, NEW PRODUCTS

So where do they go from here?

In a Michigan economy plagued by economic challenges, Ferndale-based Garden Fresh Gourmet – a company that not many years ago was a plucky upstart in the Michigan food industry – has grown into a sizeable operation. And going forward, the maker of salsa, chips, dips hummus and an assortment of other tasty products, expects to keep expanding.

In its next phase, owner and founder Jack Aronson (pictured) said, the company expects to keep growing via mergers and the addition of new products. But fresh salsa – the product Aronson launched to make enough money to fight off creditors and lenders of his small restaurant – will remain the heart of the operation, he says.

Annual revenue for the company is quickly approaching $100 million, thanks to the acceptance of the company’s products by such chains as Meijer, Costco, Kroger, Wegmans, A&P and distribution that now reaches 40 states. From manufacturing and distribution facilities in Ferndale, Detroit, and Inkster, the company produces 115,000 pounds of salsa each day with the help of nearly 315 statewide employees. More...

Feldman Report: People Changing Jobs Because They Have To

Most people who have changed jobs in the past two years say they were forced into it, according to WWJ Newsradio 950 and Fox 2 News reporter Murray Feldman says. He says a Right Management survey found that 54 percent of recent job changers did so because of restructurings or downsizings. Just 18 percent say they left to find better compensation and benefits. Forty percent of those who found new jobs found them through networking.

Majority of Workers Feel Burned Out, Survey Finds

Feeling uneasy on the job? Downsized staffs paired with increased workloads seem to be causing a rise in stress levels around the American workplace. According to a CareerBuilder.com survey of more than 7,600 workers nationwide, 78 percent reported feeling burned out at work. More...

SOCIAL SECURITY OFFERS ONLINE BENEFITS CALCULATOR: People planning for retirement got a new tool this week: a fast and easy online estimator for their Social Security benefits. The Social Security Administration unveiled its new retirement estimator on its Web site Monday. On it, it takes just a few points and clicks and some personal information to produce benefit estimates within a few minutes. The new calculator will be followed this fall by an updated online application for benefits that Social Security Administrator Michael Astrue promises will reduce application time from the current 45-minute process to 15 minutes and eliminate the need for follow-up visits to agency field offices. More...

VALUE OF COLLEGE DEGREES DECLINING: It used to be that going to college was seen as a ticket to a better life. These days, its an entry-level requirement for just about any kind of career, according to The Wall Street Journal. "College-educated workers are more plentiful, more commoditized and more subject to the downsizings that used to be the purview of blue-collar workers only," writes the Journal's Greg Ip. "What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college." To read more, click here.

2ND HALF GROWTH SEEN AS LIKELY TO BE ANEMIC: Call it the big fizzle. The hoped-for second-half economic rebound is looking to be lethargic, with the country straining under high energy prices and fallout from the housing and credit debacles. Forty-five percent of economists believe the economy won't log any growth or will clock in at a feeble 1 percent pace in the final six months of this year, according to a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics. One in ten think economic activity could actually contract during the period. Employers have cut jobs in each of the first six months of this year. Over the next six months, 51 percent said they expected to hold payrolls steady. Twenty-nine percent expected to boost them and 20 percent thought jobs would be reduced through layoffs or attrition. More...

REPORT SAYS HEAVIER PEOPLE NOT 'LAZIER': Are heavier people 'lazier' in the workplace than their slimmer counterparts? Not according to a new study from Michigan State University. The research finds that overweight people are just as effective in the workplace. More...

STAY OR GO? SOME POINTERS ON HOW TO DECIDE: When your company faces tough times, how do you know it's time to jump ship? It can be a hard decision. "There are costs to leaving your job and starting fresh as the newbie at a new firm," writes Forbes.com columnist Tara Weiss "Then again, do you want to be one of the many looking for work in your industry after a massive round of layoffs?" Weiss offers some tips on knowing when it's best to stick things out, and when it's time to look for employment elsewhere. To read them, click here.

HOW SMALL BUSINESSES ARE DEALING WITH TOUGH TIMES: According to the Washington, D.C.-based National Federation of Independent Business, that group's Index of Small Business Optimism is now at recession-level readings. Small business owners’ expectations for real sales gains and improvements in business conditions are as bad as in 1980-82, the worst recession period in recent years. Among the strategies they are using to cope: 20 percent of small employers have reduced, postponed or cancelled a planned investment or reinvestment in the last six months. More...

WORLDWIDE AUTOMOTIVE REPORT PODCAST: Is Ford going to convert three truck plants to small car production? Honda scaling back truck production. General Motors unveils the final production version of the new Camaro.

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