by Angel Sosa

Created on: October 22, 2010

Extra, extra! Read all about it!

The United States job market has been a topic of concern for almost the past several years. With this comes the question: “Is our job market getting better or worse?” We constantly get pounded, whether we like it or not by news ads, about “different tax rates,” “more jobs opened,” “factories being cut down,” and the number one killer: “dealerships will be closing throughout the United States.”

Most of us have heard about the amazing “government boost” from Barack Obama to GM, and what exactly did that help? The government had actually loaned GM a stimulus worth over $52 billion, as of which only $6.7 billion was considered a loan according to ConsumerismCommentary.com. Well, had it actually increased the amount of GM’s production, the company wouldn’t have planned to close over 1,000 dealerships nationwide (HuffingtonPost.com), plan to shut down 13 of its plants for 11 weeks (Msnbc.Msn.com), and terminate  five of its major brands: Saturn (which was supposed to be sold to Penske), Pontiac (in 2009), Oldsmobile (in 2004), SAAB (in 2010), and the big surprise Hummer (in 2010), which had cost the company to lose 334,000 jobs in 2008 (DailyFinance.com). Now the company wants to turn its focus on its four remaining brands: GMC, Cadillac, Buick, and Chevrolet as represented in the top-left corner of its website www.GM.com.

As large of a downward spiral as the GM ordeal was, it was sadly not the only one to bear such a struggle. Ford Motor Company had sold two of its brands, Jaguar and Land Rover in order to “focus on its main brands,” says New York Times. Ford had actually bought the two brands for almost $5.2 billion, and is now selling them to Tata Motors Ltd. in India for $1.7 billion. As well as relieving Jaguar and Land Rover, Ford also plans to sell one of its three branches, Mercury. Though it is not official, according to TheStreet.com, Ford intends to vend its brand within the fourth quarter of 2010.

These two cornerstones of the American automotive industry (GM and Ford Motor Companies) aren't the only companies who have endured an illness of the recession. I've personally looked up some stock quotes through Google Finance and did research to see if my theory was at all correct. The following companies were the ones chosen: DOW Chemical Company, Ford Motor Company (famous car manufacturer), Google Inc.

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