Auto Industry On Its Knees

CBS

Transcript

The US auto industry is in dire straits and its leaders are asking Congress for billions of dollars in loans. CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers is in Dearborn, Michigan with the story. Cynthia, good morning. Good morning, Julie. Just moments ago, Ford became the first of the Big Three to divulge embarrassing third-quarter earnings. Pre-tax losses of nearly $3 billion over just the last 3 months. Things are expected to be even worse at GM. It is clear evidence of a very present danger, an entire industry on the verge of collapse. This picture tells a huge story. Americans aren't buying cars. Sales at Ford are down 19% this year. GM sales are off 20 and Chrysler down a staggering 26% and with GM alone burning through a billion dollars a month, there is a very real fear that without help, there may be no American car makers in the future. We are still going to see job cuts even if the government steps in, but we're going to see tens of thousands and thousands of job cuts if the government doesn't step in. So Thursday, the bosses at the Big Three and the United Auto Workers went to Washington on bended knee, begging congressional leaders for a $25 billion bailout to buy them time to ride out the current crisis. This on top of another 25 billion Congress has already set aside to retrofit factories to transition from gas guzzlers to fuel-efficient hybrids. They got support but no promises. I was pleased to join with the president of the United Auto Workers and together uh the CEOs of of the Big Three to see how we can work together. At stake, a 100-year-old industry that is the backbone of the US economy. It is estimated that every job in the auto industry supports 12 others. So the stakes are huge. Something that's been painfully clear for a long time to people who work in plants. Each and every person in America is going to affect us. So, we should just stop pointing fingers and try to put the blame on someone and uh get it turned around. And when you consider the worst-case scenario, if the big three went away, nearly 3 million US jobs would go away, too, in just the first year. That is enough to give pause even to a nation increasingly weary of and wary of big-time government bailouts. Julie? CBS's Cynthia Bowers. Thanks, Cynthia.

Economists: Worst Yet To Come

CBS

Transcript

as the economic crisis has spread the job market has collapsed with 240 thousand jobs cut in october and more than 280 thousand in september the economy has now lost 650 000 jobs just in the past three months and economists say the worst is yet to come well i think we're going to see this kind of number through the middle of next year david wiese of standard poor's expects the unemployment rate will continue to rise until the end of next year we're now looking for a peak up over eight percent we haven't seen those levels since the early nineteen eighties but layoffs continue to spread across the economy ninety thousand manufacturing jobs were eliminated last month forty nine thousand in construction thirty eight 000 in retail the company i worked for packed up moved back to italy and laid everybody off jacqueline hirsty who lost her job with a swimwear company 15 months ago has been living off her savings ever since as my savings have just sunk it gets harder and harder hursty lives in rhode island which now has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 8.8 percent this state job center in providence is installing more phone lines to meet surging demand and traffic at the johnny cake food bank in peacedale rhode island has tripled this year we are seeing lots of folks that have lost their jobs been laid off that are coming to us now because they have nowhere else to turn jacqueline hirsty swims to relieve the stress she's a world record holder in her age group who's now struggling to keep her head above water i'm not sure what it's going to take to put people like me to work but something has to happen but with americans increasingly worried about losing their jobs and their retirement savings many are spending less and less spending only leads to more job cuts that's why many economists are saying we need another stimulus package in a hurry katie anthony mason thanks anthony