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You may be a dedicated employee who has worked for the same employer for many years, yet you still may be susceptible to getting laid off. Sometimes getting laid off is inevitable, but rarely does a company lay off all of its workers. Usually, it retains those who are most valuable and offer the greatest benefit, sometimes at the least cost. Fortunately, there may be some things you can do to make the decision to lay you off a little harder.
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The Markets (as of market close November 8, 2019)
The Dow hit a new record high last week, and each of the benchmark indexes listed here posted solid gains as investors received encouraging news on the trade front. Both the United States and China sent signals out that an initial trade agreement would be signed in the near future, marking the first phase of the trade deal between the economic giants. As money flowed into stocks, long-term bond prices fell, pushing yields higher. For the week, the S&P 500 posted its fifth straight week of gains, while the Nasdaq advanced for the sixth consecutive week. The largest gainer last week was the Global Dow, which climbed over 1.50%.
Oil prices rose last week, closing at $57.39 per barrel by late Friday afternoon, up from the prior week's price of $56.14. The price of gold (COMEX) fell for the first time in several weeks, closing at $1,459.20 by late Friday afternoon, down from the prior week's price of $1,515.70. The national average retail regular gasoline price was $2.605 per gallon on November 4, 2019, $0.009 more than the prior week's price but $0.148 less than a year ago.
In September 2019, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which measures a wide variety of manufacturing data, fell to 47.8%, the lowest level since June 2009.1
A reading below 50% generally means that manufacturing activity is contracting. The August reading of 49.1% had signaled the beginning of a contraction, and the drop in September suggested that the contraction was not only continuing but accelerating. The index rose slightly to 48.3% in October, but this indicated the third consecutive month of contraction.2 Nearly two-thirds of economists in a Wall Street Journal poll conducted in early October said the manufacturing sector was already in recession, defined as two or more quarters of negative growth.3
