Kabooming economy

More on that economy Bill Kristol thinks is going gangbusters:

A significant increase in electronics job cuts in the United States has raised a warning flag in the seemingly healthy industry, a report said Wednesday.

Companies have announced as many job cuts in the first half of 2007 as in all of 2006, said the report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the global outplacement consultancy based in Chicago.

The pace of job cutting among employers in the electronics industry has more than doubled, the report said. The firms announced 14,318 job cuts from January through June, 105 percent more than the 6,976 announced in the first six months of 2006.

A job-cut surge in the industry -- which provides many of the materials and components for computers, cell phones and other technology products -- could indicate increased weakness in the sector at large, the report said.