More Jobs Than Layoffs

It seems every day news of another big corporate layoff makes headlines, reports CBS News Correspondent John Roberts. Boeing recently let 20,000 employees go, Exxon laid off 9,000 workers and MCI World Com scrapped 5,000 jobs.

The number of layoffs has been massive this year, but so has the rate of re-employment.

It's been eight months since the Thomson electronics plant closed its Bloomington, Ind., plant, leaving 1,100 adrift in the global economy.

"I'm probably making three to four dollars less than what I did at Thomson," says former employee Charlie Belden.

For Belden, that's a 30 percent to 40 percent pay cut - about average for Thomson workers who have been able to find new work.

Belden has a temporary job at the local fire department, filling in for an injured driver. His is wife, Ruth, works at a local pharmaceutical plant.

"It just kind of fell in my lap," says Ms. Belden. "Really, it was the only place I applied seriously."

Although her paycheck is smaller, Ms. Belden's short job hunt was not all that unusual.

Hi-tech and healthcare businesses like her new employer, Cooke Imaging, are expanding. Cooke has hired almost 200 new workers this year. Outplacement expert John Callan says it's something of an economic anomaly: while there have been more big layoffs this year, new job creation is still happening at a faster rate.

"The economy is so strong at this point that people are getting absorbed back into the economy at a very rapid rate when they re laid off," says Callan.

Thias year has been a record year for layoffs -- a projected 600,000 by Dec. 31. Yet, unemployment remains at historic lows: the U.S. economy added 2.4 million jobs over the past 12 months.

Pam Gray did a lot of heavy lifting at the Thomson plant, but she says going back to nursing school after 30 years is really hard work. Like others displaced in this economy, she's learning a new skill -- which she hopes will lead to a more secure future.

"I was afraid I was too old to learn," says Gray. "I don't like change, I like everything to remain the same."

Sharon Mills was determined to get a good paying job like the one she had at Thomson. After six months she landed a supervisor's position at a nearby Ford plant. She's one of 19 people hired out of 7,000 that applied. But Mills knows this job may not last. She's already lost three jobs to plant closings.

"It always come down to the dollar, no matter how good our quality, no matter how fast we could get it out," she says. "How much is too much for profit?"

Mills is keeping her skills fresh and her expenses down, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But others are more optimistic, believing that while they may have to make major changes, as long as the economy stays healthy, there will be somewhere else to go.

"I'd say don't let it get you down because you know there's jobs out there to find,"Mr. Belden. "...it may not be what you want, but you may have to take it until you find what you want."

Reported by John Roberts
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