In a statement from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) last week, the effect of the global economic slowdown was clearly seen when they announced a 13.5% drop in international cargo movement in November. Air freight moves 35% of products internationally and a 13.5% drop is the largest since 2001.

North American carriers reported a drop of 14.4%, but the situation is worse for Asia-Pacific carriers, who control 44.6% of global freight, reporting a drop of 16.9%. European and Latin American carriers reported reduction in freight traffic of 11% and 15.7% respectively. As freight movements continue to fall a reduction in airline capacity is likely to follow resulting in significant job losses across the aviation industry.

Small businesses appear to be hit hardest in this current economic downturn according to the latest National Employment report by ADP. In December 2008, small businesses, which ADP defined as those with fewer than 50 workers, lost 281,000 jobs out of a national total, for all businesses, of 693,000.

As labor makes up approximately 80% of a small businesses total cost, these figures show that the small business owner is having to make drastic cuts to survive. As the downturn continues, this acceleration of job losses will be seen in medium sized as well as small businesses.

I was surprised to see an item on CNN reporting that the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Non-Manufacturing Index rose to 40.6 from 37.3. The headline was how the service sector was improving. However, when I looked at the detail of the ISM’s Report of Business the overall picture is somewhat less optimistic.

Only one industry showed an increase in business, Retail, which is not surprising with the recent holiday season. Four industries showed no change and 13 were in decline. The ISM’s New Orders Index contracted in December for the third consecutive month and employment activity in the non-manufacturing sector contracted in December for the 11th time in the last 12 months.

Logitech, the computer peripherals company, announced a 15 percent reduction in salaried work force as a result of reduced demand and the continuing economic downturn. With this in mind I am very interested in hearing the top executives who will be speaking at the High-Tech Forecasting and Planning Summit in San Francisco on April 22nd and 23rd. The event is aimed on solutions that will help high technology businesses in this economic slowdown by focusing on innovative strategy, Sales and Operations Planning and business forecasting.

The event is headlined by Bindia Hallauer, the Chief Technology Strategist from Microsoft who will be discussing how the current economic uncertainty can produce new business opportunities. Other speakers include; Karl Braitberg, the VP of Demand Management and Planning at Cisco Systems, Si Gutierrez, VP of Supply Chain at Netgear, Stephen McHenry of Google and Tom Rucker of Intel.