Reverse Spin – Take your pick: Jobless down, jobs too

Explain this little paradox: Unemployment is down, but worries climb.

The U.S. jobless rate fell to 6.2% in July, from 6.4% the month before, the Department of Labor said in a report issued Friday. The bad news is that the drop did not come from increased hiring. It came from an exodus of job hunters from the labor force.

Payrolls also plummeted as employers cut 44,000 jobs.

The drop in payrolls ran against private economists’ predictions that 18,000 jobs would be created in July.

“I think it’s a little disappointing,” Jay Bryson, an economist with Wachovia Securities Inc. of Richmond, Va., reportedly said. “We’re not generating job growth in manufacturing, and that’s where job losses were concentrated.”

Apparently, Mr. Bryson wasn’t the only one disappointed. The stock market fell 0.86% Friday partly as a result of the bad news.

Drugs, alcohol and a tough boss

* Despite being part of a bond shop, Cantor Fitzgerald LP’s London office doesn’t sound like a place where a lot of bonding gets done.

Steven Horkulak, a former senior managing director at the brokerage firm, won nearly $1.6 million in damages in the United Kingdom’s High Court on Thursday after charging he had been run out of his job by his allegedly foulmouthed boss, the company’s international president, Lee Amaitis.

“I hope that now, finally, Cantor Fitzgerald’s U.S. bosses will accept that there are deep-rooted problems within its London office concerning the treatment and welfare of its staff,” Mr. Horkulak reportedly said.

For its part, Cantor Fitzgerald plans to seek an appeal. “It is clear that Steven Horkulak sought the rewards of a senior position,” a company spokesman said. “It is unfortunate that his drug and alcohol use made him unable to cope with such responsibility.”

Mr. Horkulak, who admitted he abused drugs and alcohol while working at Cantor Fitzgerald, said Mr. Amaitis routinely bullied and shouted abuse at him over the six months prior to his June 2000 departure from the firm.

Janus unfazed by down quarter

* How’s this for a dose of reality? Janus Capital Group Inc., which is fond of saying perception sometimes lags reality with regard to the performance of its funds, posted a nearly 36% drop in quarterly net profit Wednesday.

Profits slipped in the second quarter to $47.5 million, or 21 cents a diluted share, from $73.7 million, or 33 cents a diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenues slipped to $250.6 million, from $310.4 million.

That, no doubt, is due to the fact that the Denver-based fund shop’s assets under management fell 7.4% to $149.8 billion, from $161.8 billion. “Obviously, having inflows into the quarter is clearly progress,” chief executive Mark Whiston reportedly said. “It’s been a couple years, so we are pleased with that trend.”

Oops! Consumers change their minds

* Despite recent declarations from many monogrammed muckety-mucks about how the economy is about to stage a dramatic recovery, U.S. consumers are fast losing confidence – according to one account, at least.

Consumer confidence took a surprising tumble in July, according to figures released by The Conference Board Inc. on Tuesday. The New York-based research group said its index had slid to 76.6 in July, from 83.5 in June.

“It’s a bit of a disappointment, like two steps forward and one step back,” said Jim O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Investment Bank in Stamford, Conn. “People are obviously concerned about jobs.”

Closing Quote

“We’re all trying to figure out where the puck is headed and skate to that spot.”

– Pershing LLC exec Jim Crowley, on the challenges facing his firm and other top players in the clearing business. Page 10