LESS CHECKS, LESS JOBS

The checkless financial world,although not yet totally here, is havingan effect on federal jobs. As Americanspay more of their bills electronicallyand buy more goods with creditcards rather than by check, the needfor check processing by the FederalReserve is plummeting. The fedrecently announced that it wouldclose 5 of its check-processing centersand no longer process checks at 8other centers. Some of the 1300employees at the sites will be reassigned,but there will be a net lossof 400 jobs. The number of checkswritten has dropped 20% since 1995,and checks now account for about60% of nonretail cash payment,down from 85% just 2 decades ago.