Bank of America adding 1000 jobs in Jax

[spuwho]

Per the Times-Union:

http://jacksonville.com/business/2010-12-02/story/bank-america-will-add-1000-jobs-jacksonville-mayor-says

Mayor Peyton reports that BAC will be adding 1000 jobs at the Southside Campus as part of its remodeling effort.

This report may need some clarification from BAC due in part that the Southside remodeling project is being done to transition former Merrill Lynch staff from their Deer Park campus @ Gate & Southside. Also there were some recent layoffs and significant additions to consultants.

So it needs to be clarified if these are net new jobs above and beyond, transitions of former Merrill Lynch people into new roles, or should the recent staff reductions be subtracted from the 1000.

[ChriswUfGator]

Of course it's not new jobs, it never is. Marketing hype.

[Ocklawaha]

So cheer yourselves with this news. New Jobs can't be too far behind this news... In fact the railroad's are hiring again.

OCKLAWAHA

AAR Reports U.S. Rail Freight Traffic Continues to Post Gains Over 2009 Levels
Fourteen of 19 Carload Commodity Groups Up Year-Over-Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. â€" Nov. 24, 2010 â€" The Association of American Railroads (AAR) today reported for the week ending Nov. 20, 2010, U.S. freight railroads continue to post weekly rail traffic gains, originating 297,990 carloads, up 3.9 percent compared with the same week last year. Intermodal traffic for the week totaled 235,999 trailers and containers, up 10.6 percent compared with the same week in 2009, with container volume up 11.7 percent and trailer volume up 5.2 percent.

Fourteen of the 19 carload commodity groups increased from the comparable week in 2009. Commodities posting double digit gains in loadings included: metallic ores up 76.7 percent; metals up 22.3 percent; crushed stone, sand and gravel up 21.1 percent, and farm products other than grain - up 14.5 percent.  Among commodities reporting declines were nonmetallic minerals, off 26.1 percent, and motor vehicles and equipment, down 12.4 percent.  After 46 weeks, all 19 commodity groups are cumulatively ahead of where they were at this point year ago.

Carload volume on Eastern railroads was up 2.9 percent compared with last year. In the West, carload volume was up 4.5 percent compared with the same week in 2009.

For the first 46 weeks of 2010, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 13,207,976 carloads, up 7.2 percent from last year, and 10,064,446 trailers or containers, up 14.4 percent from the comparison week in 2009.

Canadian railroads reported volume of 75,649 cars for the week, up 5 percent from last year, and 48,521 trailers or containers, up 12.8 percent from 2009. For the first 46 weeks of 2010, Canadian railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,373,097 carloads, up 17.4 percent from last year, and 2,185,299 trailers or containers, up 15.7 percent from last year.

Mexican railroads reported originated volume of 12,997 cars, up 6.3 percent from the same week last year, and 6,547 trailers or containers, up 1.8 percent. Cumulative volume on Mexican railroads for the first 46 weeks of 2010 was reported as 632,008 carloads, up 19.1 percent from last year; and 312,934 trailers or containers, up 24.2 percent.

Combined North American rail volume for the first 46 weeks of 2010 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 17,213,081 carloads, up 9.4 percent from last year, and 12,562,679 trailers and containers, up 14.8 percent from last year.

Note: AAR no longer reports 2010 weekly rail traffic with 2008 weekly comparison data since October 2008 marked the beginning of the recession-related downturn in rail traffic.
SOURCE: http://www.aar.org/NewsAndEvents/Freight-Rail-Traffic/2010/11/2010-11-24-railtraffic.aspx

Delta ups international flying

26-Nov-2010

BUOYED by the outlook of a relatively stable year ahead, Delta is moving to step up its international capacity in 2011 with a number of new routes.

Lately the Pacific has been the least robust market for Delta Cargo. Nevertheless it will be the main arena for expansion in the coming year, with three routes to China planned. The airline wants to launch a daily Detroit-Beijing service next summer, return to Guangzhou with flights from its Asian hub in Tokyo-Narita and resume operations on the Atlanta-Shanghai sector. In addition, there are two new flights to Tokyo, taking advantage of the opening of Haneda airport to international service.

The peak season out of Asia this year has been decidedly lacklustre, but Delta has managed to maintain high load factors and kept yields “at respectable levels” thanks to its network, which enables it to carry cargo beyond the major gateways, said Neel Shah (right), vice-president of cargo.

“It’s been a struggle out of Asia, whereas Europe has been strong and Latin America has been very strong,” he observed.

“I think overall 2011 will be a steady year. The global economy is recovering,” he continued. “We, as a company, are quite bullish. That’s why we are expanding.”

Delta will deploy 777 aircraft on the Detroit-Beijing and Atlanta-Shanghai routes, while Guangzhou will be served with 767-300 equipment.

While the Detroit-Beijing route is new for Delta, marking the emergence of the US city as the carrier’s main Pacific gateway, Atlanta-Shanghai and Narita-Guangzhou are revisits of routes that were abandoned earlier. The former will be just twice weekly and may be increased later, depending on results, Shah said
SOURCE: http://www.aircargonews.net/News/Delta-ups-international-flying.aspx

International Passenger Demand

    * The 10.1% growth in passenger demand in October is slightly below the 10.7% recorded in September, but both months are an improvement over August.
    * North American airlines posted a 12.4% demand increase over October 2009. October represented the fastest growth rate for the year. With a capacity increase of 11.9%, the load factor for North American airlines was pushed to 82.5%, the highest among all regions. Compared to pre-recession levels of early 2008, the region’s airlines are carrying 2% more traffic.
    * European carriers showed a 9.6% increase over October 2009. This is significantly better than the 8.6% growth reported for September.  European airline traffic grew by 1.5% from September to October and is now 4% higher than the pre-recession levels of early 2008.
    * Asia-Pacific carriers posted a 7.3% demand increase, ahead of a 5.3% increase in capacity. Volumes remain 1% below pre-crisis levels of early 2008.
    * African airlines recorded strong growth (13.3%) compared to October 2009. With a capacity increase of 8.9%, load factors improved to 71.8%.
    * Latin American airlines posted a comparatively weaker performance with a 4.9% increase in demand and a 0.7% drop in capacity. The region’s results remain skewed because of the bankruptcy of Mexicana.
    * Middle East carriers recorded the strongest growth for the month with an 18.0% increase in demand. This is despite the earlier Ramadan dates, which negatively skewed the numbers with a 1% fall in October traffic as compared to September. The region also had the largest capacity expansion at 13.7% compared to October 2009.

International Cargo Demand

    * The 14.4% year-on-year increase in freight traffic for October was marginally weaker than the 15.5% recorded in September. Nonetheless, international freight volumes actually improved slightly from its September level on a seasonally adjusted basis.
    * Asia-Pacific airlines reported a 14.9% year-on-year increase in international freight demand, down from the 16.2% recorded in September. October’s growth translates to an impressive 22% annualized growth rate for the region’s carriers, reflecting the strong economic recovery particularly in China and India. With a 44% share of total freight traffic, the growth experienced by Asia-Pacific airlines played a large role in the uptick seen in overall industry freight volumes during October.
    * European airlines recorded a 12.1% year-on-year demand increase in October. North American carriers saw a slightly larger improvement of 12.2%. For both regions, October freight volumes represented a 6% improvement on freight volumes carried in December 2009. Relative weakness in the Euro and dollar is helping export activity and boosting freight traffic.  Even so, traffic remains 12% below pre-recession levels of early 2008 for European airlines and just 2% higher in North America.
SOURCE: http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/pages/2010-11-25-01.aspx

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle more than 40% of the nation's imports. That makes the duo's operations an important bellwether for the U.S. economy.

The economy, as reflected in the trade numbers, has been growing sporadically but is improving, Sidhu said.

"The numbers wiggle, but they still go up and up," she said. "Things are better."

At the Port of Los Angeles in October, 349,545 containers brought imports from Asia, up 3% from the 338,735 import containers received in October 2009. Exports rose less than 1% to 151,049 from 150,657 a year earlier. Overall, including empty containers, traffic in October was up more than 5% to 682,385 from 647,424 a year earlier.

For the first 10 months of the year, much of which compared against some of the worst times of the global recession in 2009, traffic at the Port of Los Angeles rose almost 17% to 6.6 million containers.

"The bigger picture is that we have had a better-than-expected recovery so far this year," said Phillip Sanfield, spokesman for the Port of Los Angeles.

At the Port of Long Beach, which ranks second in the nation only to Los Angeles, the numbers were even stronger, in part because that port hadn't begun to recover from the recession in October 2009. Long Beach's October statistics were the best year-over-year results for the port in any month since October 2007.

Long Beach imports last month hit 303,168 containers, a nearly 34% jump from the 227,064 containers logged a year earlier. Exports through Long Beach rose to 150,581 containers, up 26% compared with the 119,194 containers in October 2009.

Including empties, Long Beach's traffic soared 36% overall in October to 613,621 containers from 452,418 a year earlier. For the year, Long Beach's cargo traffic was up nearly 25% to just under 5.2 million containers.

Those numbers could look even better, according to some local business owners, if more companies focused on exporting.

"People want American products, said Jim Ajmal, owner of Valley of the Sun Cosmetics in Carson. Ajmal said his scrubs, lotions and other cosmetic products have enjoyed strong sales in China, India, Singapore, the Middle East and, more recently, Africa. The company's revenue has grown to $5 million in this, its 10th year of operations, from $10,000 in sales its first year, while the staff has increased to 30 from five, he said.

"If you only sell in this country, you are missing out on about 3.5 billion customers," Ajmal said. "That's pretty much the whole buying world," Ajmal said.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/16/business/la-fi-ports-20101116

[mtraininjax]

http://jacksonville.com/business/2010-12-04/story/layoffs-announced-bank-america

Classic Jacksonville Irony, gotta love this town!

Bank of America has laid off workers in its global technology and operations division, including at its Jacksonville office.

Bank of America did not disclose the number of affected workers but said it is a “small percentage” of the Jacksonville workforce.

The layoffs have occurred at Bank of America operations in other cities as well, the company said.

Separately, it was announced this week that Bank of America plans to add 1,000 jobs in Jacksonville in coming months.

[ChriswUfGator]

http://jacksonville.com/business/2010-12-04/story/layoffs-announced-bank-america

Classic Jacksonville Irony, gotta love this town!

Bank of America has laid off workers in its global technology and operations division, including at its Jacksonville office.

Bank of America did not disclose the number of affected workers but said it is a “small percentage” of the Jacksonville workforce.

The layoffs have occurred at Bank of America operations in other cities as well, the company said.

Separately, it was announced this week that Bank of America plans to add 1,000 jobs in Jacksonville in coming months.

Well naturally, BOA wanted to scam something, be it grants, tax incentives, or just good press for creating "new" jobs, then they come along later and eliminate others to bring the total numbers back down. Corporations have been playing this game for at least a decade, and BOA as a corporate citizen is particularly awful with a lot of the things they do. There won't be any real sustainable job growth until the larger economy turns around. These two news stories aren't irony, just an intentional strategy and a good publicist.

[CS Foltz]

Pretty much "Marketing Spin" no matter how its worded!

[mtraininjax]

These two news stories aren't irony, just an intentional strategy and a good publicist.

Don't forget....a gullable mayor.