Four Day Work Weeks
Thursday, July 03, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: Oil hit another record today, closing at $145.29 a barrel in New York. The run-up in oil prices is worsening the outlook for the airline industry. This morning, veteran airline analyst Ray Neidl of Calyon Securities revised downward his forecast for the industry. He now expects the airlines will lose $800 million in the second quarter and $6.5 billion for the year, largely because of soaring jet fuel costs. But Neidl says capacity cuts will help keep the carriers flying.
RAY NEIDL, AIRLINE ANALYST, CALYON SECURITIES: As a result with the drastic capacity cuts the airlines are taking, I think the 10 major publicly traded airlines that we follow can make it through this year if oil prices do not go significantly higher than they are right now.
GHARIB: Neidl says smaller, privately held carriers are at the greatest risk of going out of business in the near term. Separately, Moody's Investor Services said today the outlook for the U.S. airline sector is negative because of high fuel costs and weakening consumer demand.
PAUL KANGAS: Airlines aren't the only ones hurting from higher energy prices. The nation's cities and counties are also in a bind. Faced with higher energy bills and leaner sales and property revenues, many are looking for ways to trim costs. One way is by having employees work longer hours and fewer days. Jeff Yastine has more on four-day work weeks.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: South Florida's Coconut Creek has 50,000 residents and a city hall staff of about 200 people. But its workers like Pamela Stanton, the city's landscape architect, keep to a different schedule than many Americans, working Monday through Thursday.
PAMELA STANTON, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, CITY OF COCONUT CREEK, FL: We still work a 40 hour week. So it's just adapting from eight-hour days to 10-hour days. And I work nine-hour days, then I do some telecommuting at home on the weekends. So it's really not that much of an adjustment. I used to, in the private sector, I would work a 10-hour day anyway.
YASTINE: No one knows how many cities and counties are using four-day weeks, but it's a trend that's catching on. For tax-funded agencies, a four- day week offers a chance to cut power consumption by keeping the lights and computer systems off for an additional day. It also gives employees a break on their weekly gasoline bills, according to Jacqueline Byers of the National Association of Counties.
JACQUELINE BYERS, DIR. OF RESEARCH, NAT'L ASS'N OF COUNTIES: It kind of helps the employees make their ends meet and that cutting back on the commuting costs. The average commute for county employees around the country is somewhere around 16 miles a day. So you do the math. If you cut 20 percent of your transportation costs for your employees, that's like giving them a little bonus.
YASTINE: Still, four-day work weeks are not a miracle cure for Coconut Creek's rising energy bill. The humid Florida summers mean buildings stay air-conditioned all the time or risk mold damage. Of course, emergency services like police and fire remain seven-day-a-week operations. But what began as an experiment here three years ago is now permanent. City manager David Rivera says opening city hall earlier and closing the doors later gives residents and businesses more time to pay utility bills or pull building permits.
DAVID RIVERA, CITY MANAGER, CITY OF COCONUT CREEK: After about a year, we did some survey work, found out we had like an 86 to 88 percent approval rating from the community on this change in hours and our employees are loving it. We've got a 96 percent approval on a study we've done on the employee base. So there's lots of positive signs.
YASTINE: Now four-day weeks don't always work. The state government of Ohio recently went back to a five-day week after complaints about a lack of service on Fridays. But experts predict that more public agencies and even some private employers will experiment with four-day weeks as long as energy prices continue to rise. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
