Markets slumped again during trading Tuesday. The S&P 500 suffered the worst during the day dropping 1.72 percent (18.70 points), followed closely by a 1.54 percent (34.71 points) fall on the NASDAQ. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by a smaller amount relative to the other two (1.11 percent, 112.61 points), but it also threatened to fall below 10,000 toward the end of the day.

Stocks were expected to rebound at the opening bell, but the performance in the morning thus far has been lackluster. However, investors may rally as the day wears on simply to protect indexes from dropping below major benchmarks.

In other news, according to Bloomberg, American International Group has hit yet another bump on the long road to recovery. The embattled American insurance giant had hoped to sell its primary Asian unit to Prudential PLC for $35.5 billion, but London-based Prudential balked at the asking price.

Selling these tangential business units are the only way that AIG can streamine its business model and get back to making money. More importantly, it is the only way it can pay back the Treasury bailout and get regulators out of its board meetings. Reuters reports that the Asian branch, American International Assurance, may have to be spun off in a record initial public offering of up to $15 billion.

Back in the U.S., payroll and outplacement firm Challenger released data on projected May employment losses.

According to CNNMoney.com, the firm states that 38,810 jobs were cut last month – a 1.3 percent rise from April’s total. Government and non-profit jobs accounted for the brunt of the cuts (43 percent). They believe that massive budget deficits will claim even more jobs in the months ahead.

The news about the continued struggle of American workers is thrown into sharp relief when we compare it to Apple Inc’s most recent decision for its Chinese facilities.

According to Reuters, the American technology giant will offer workers at one of its Chinese manufacturing hubs a 30 percent raise. The decision comes after news broke of suicides among workers contracted by Apple to make their popular computers, phones and gadgets.

The idea that employees of a U.S.-based multinational corporation were in such dire conditions that they would rather kill themselves than show up at work the next day is rather startling. But at the same time it is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with the outsourcing complacency in this country. Our companies go overseas for the express purpose of exploiting the workforce to the fullest. Now the the repercussions of this exploitation are coming to light.

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