Business Highlights

A dried-up IPO market matters because stock debuts aren't just a chance for tech whizzes to become overnight billionaires and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Companies use the cash they raise to grow ⿿ and that means hiring people.

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Netflix loses 800,000 US subscribers in tough third quarter

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ⿿ Netflix's video subscription service lost 800,000 customers in the third quarter ⿿ its biggest exodus ever ⿿ even as its earnings rose 65 percent.

The losses were larger than management had warned they would be. The unwelcome surprise, contained in financial results reported Monday, was compounded by a forecast calling for millions of Netflix Inc.'s DVD-by-mail subscribers to cancel the service in reaction to dramatic price increase that took effect last month.

Netflix lost its luster among consumers and investors by raising prices as much as 60 percent in the U.S. and bungling an attempt to spin off its DVD-by-mail rental service.

The company, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., ended September with 23.8 million U.S. subscribers, down about 800,000 from June. Netflix had predicted it would lose about 600,000 U.S. subscribers in a forecast released last month.

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Government job losses a growing drag on recovery

WASHINGTON (AP) ⿿ Conservative Republicans have long clamored for government downsizing. They're starting to get it ⿿ by default.

Crippled by plunging tax revenues, state and local governments have shed over a half million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. And, after adding jobs early in the downturn, the federal government is now cutting them as well.

States cut 49,000 jobs over the past year and localities 210,000, according to an analysis of Labor Department statistics. There are 30,000 fewer federal workers now than a year ago ⿿ including 5,300 Postal Service jobs canceled last month.

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