Toy industry hiring continues to be red hot. Here at Toyjobs, May was the best single month (although only by a hair) in our twenty-five year history. We continue on a pace which would eclipse our best year ever (2000). Of course, this is ahead of the summer slowdown. Typically, June is a strong hiring month, but July and August are fairly slow.
There have been several significant China stories in the last month. Wall Street and the investment community seem to have finally woken up to the fact that the Chinese economy is highly vulnerable due to its enormous load of bad debt. Beijing has been fighting a “talking” war on this but the reality is that they are playing a version of the old shell game. They can’t make the mountain of bad debt disappear, but they had hoped to at least make it disappear from view. It’s not an easy trick and it seems that they have not been able to pull it off.
At the same time, we have seen the Bush administration diplomatically snubbing Chinese President Hu Jintao and the U.S. Defense Department releasing its annual assessment of China’s military warning of an increasing Chinese offensive threat. These were clearly messages intended for a very specific audience–the Chinese. Washington senses weakness and the squeeze is on. Beijing has not reacted in any major overt way…yet. The story is ongoing. Keep up to date by reading our China report.
Finally, with the approaching Licensing Show, the toy business is abuzz with crypto-tales of a top secret new toy building possibility. Meetings and tours will take place around the show. It is obviously important for as many toy companies as possible to participate. We at Toyjobs would strongly urge everyone to realize that there probably is no “perfect solution” but we sincerely hope that this one turns out to be “perfect enough.” See y’all at the show. Let the lunching begin.
All the best,
Tom Keoughan
