Manufacturers press for aid

More people are speaking out about the need for a federal stimulus bill, especially after Friday’s report showed the country lost 540,000 jobs in December, pushing the jobless rate to 7.2 percent, a 16-year high.

Of the job losses, 149,000 were in manufacturing. In the past 12 months, the United States has lost 793,000 manufacturing jobs.

Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, said “Only a substantial investment in infrastructure and in America’s productive enterprises, such as manufacturing, will ensure that this recession doesn’t become a 21st-century Great Depression.”

Creating and preserving manufacturing jobs is essential to the recovery. Manufacturing jobs support four or five other jobs in America’s communities and ensure that local and state governments have adequate funding for critical services.

“Congress should act now to pass a robust and sustained stimulus that focuses on rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure using American-made products. In the coming months, Congress and the administration should also take steps to reduce America’s trade deficit, which stands at over $700 billion and drives wealth and jobs offshore.”

Small businesses want their share

Small-business owners are also looking for their share of the stimulus money.

The National Small Business Association said with the economic outlook at an all-time low for small-business owners, the package should include specific provisions.

They include expanding SBA lending, particularly by eliminating the borrower and lender fees associated with some programs and increasing the government guarantee; requiring banks that receive any future federal funding to dedicate at least 25 percent of those funds to expand their small-business lending; and utilizing $3 billion of federal funds to purchase pooled securities — which already are guaranteed by the federal government — to address the lockdown of the secondary market.

The NSBA request apparently didn’t get the attention of President-elect Barack Obama, who did not specifically mention any small-business help when he talked last week about the stimulus package in his first speech since his election.

Online journal for R.I. philanthropy

The Philanthropists’ Journal, a new monthly online publication, debuted earlier this month with the claim as Rhode Island’s first and only online news source dedicated to philanthropy.

David F. Guertin Jr., publisher, said his goal is to expand Rhode Island’s online philanthropic community and to foster a greater level of knowledge, recognition, interaction and relationship-building within this community.

“Our mission is to deliver a dependable Internet-based media service with philanthropic and nonprofit news and information that serves the charitable marketplace more profoundly,” Guertin said.

The project is financed by advertising and the publication’s parent company, Vantage in Philanthropy Inc. The Web address is www.philanthropistsjournal.com

After the bell …

•David W. Cochran has been named president/CEO of the Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America. Most recently, Cochran served as president/CEO and director of The Robbins Co., in Attleboro.

•Ellen Alemany, chief executive officer of Citizens Financial Group and RBS America, was reappointed to serve a second one-year term as the Federal Advisory Council representative for the First Federal Reserve District.

•Cornerstone Adult Services and Saint Elizabeth Community have formed a partnership to provide services including independent living, adult day health, assisted living and nursing home options.

•Remember Jeff Skilling, the former Enron CEO who was convicted in 2006 for financial crimes committed during the meltdown of the energy-trading giant in 2001? Last week, a federal appeals court upheld the conviction, but ordered some time shaved off his sentence of 24 years and four months after finding fault with part of the trial judge’s sentencing calculation. How much may be shaved from the sentence is unclear. Skilling is serving time in a facility in Littleton, Colo.

John Kostrzewa is the Journal’s business editor. Share an anecdote from the world of business by sending it to pjbiz@projo.com.