Auto sales downshift to slower monthly pace

U.S. auto sales slowed in September from their torrid August pace, but automakers on Wednesday said car and truck buyers shopped at a brisk rate last month, thanks to incentives, new models and a better economy.

Sales of cars and light trucks were up 2.1 percent from September 2002. On a seasonally adjusted annual rate, sales were 16.7 million, better than the 16.2 million of a year earlier but down from August’s 19 million.

General Motors’ sales grew 12 percent compared to a year ago, while Ford’s dropped 0.5 percent and Daimler Chrysler dropped 12 percent.

Above, Dale Koscielski, of Reseda, Calif., checked the price tag on a Ford F-150 truck Wednesday at a dealership in Los Angeles.

Overland Park

Sprint hopes to launch push-to-talk products

Sprint Corp.’s chief executive said Wednesday push-to-talk products remained a fourth-quarter opportunity for the company.

Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference, Gary Forsee said the Overland Park-based company was in talks with several national partners to introduce push-to-talk products, which are products that allow customers to use wireless phones much like a walkie-talkie device. Forsee said Sprint intended to launch multiple devices in conjunction with several manufacturers.

Telecommunications

SBC to pay FCC fine

SBC Communications Inc. has agreed to pay $1.35 million to settle a probe into whether it offered long-distance services before receiving federal approval, regulators said Wednesday.

On eight occasions, SBC told the Federal Communications Commission that it may have provided long-distance services prematurely in areas that required agency approval.

Kansas is one of the states in which SBC offers long distance service.

Forecast

Job growth expected for Kansas City area

The Kansas City area, which has shed many jobs during the past two years, should add 26,000 new jobs by the end of 2004, an area economist predicted Tuesday.

In the last three months of this year, the area should regain 5,000 jobs it lost during the past 12 months, economist Frank Lenk told about 450 people attending the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce’s 2004 forecast breakfast at the Kansas City Marriott Downtown. He said the area would add another 21,000 jobs next year, a 1.8 percent increase.

Personal income will grow at a 2.7 percent rate next year, said Lenk, an economist with the Mid-America Regional Council, but real wages will grow slower than they have been, indicating the new jobs will pay less than the ones that were lost.