Your daily source for layoff announcements and unemployment news
I haven’t updated The Layoff List in some months due to posting of unemployment extension and Tier 5 updates at my Examiner.com site. If you are looking to stay informed about unemployment extensions and Tier 5, please visit Rochester Unemployment Examiner.
Once at Rochester Unemployment Examiner you can review the latest news and information as well as comment about your unemployment situation. I hope to see you there! Mike
Mike: Good morning to all and thanks for visiting The Layoff List.
I am moving The Layoff List postings to http://www.layofflist.org/. So please take the time to visit the new location of The Layoff List and be sure to bookmark it. I hope to make the site a more enjoyable experience for its readers. The new location of The Layoff List should load faster and allow me to offer you more options that aren’t allowed at WordPress.com.
Later this week I’ll have a site redirect enabled and you will sent directly to the new location of The Layoff List, but until then I thought this note would allow for a more comfortable change.
Let me know what you think should be added or omitted from The Layoff List. Do you want more hiring news, more outside commentary, or more information about government programs? Your comments are always welcome as well as your layoff stories and tips. If you have any news about layoffs that I’ve not posted, send them along and I’ll make sure they are given some attention. Thanks. The Layoff List
He points to one indicator in particular with a remarkable track record: the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits. In past recessions, it has hit its peak about four weeks before the economy hit a trough and began to grow again. As of right now, the four-week average of new claims hit its peak of 650,000 in the week ended March 14. Based on the model, “if there’s no further rise, we’re looking at a trough coming in April or May,” he said, which is far earlier than most forecasts currently anticipate.
via RGE - Initial unemployment claims and the end of recessions.
New Claims for Unemployment - (4-week averages)
Mike: The US imprisons more people per capita than any other country in the world and the prison population isn’t even considered when tabulating unemployment. Why not save the taxpayer a bunch of money and give some model prisoners the ability to do some work? We give tax cheats and dishonest bankers great government gigs, so why not give some petty criminals a mop? What are your thoughts?
- COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio wants to use prisoners to replace Statehouse janitors and groundskeepers who were laid off because of budget cuts, angering a labor union.
The state board that operates the building says it will probably use two inmates to do grounds work and another five for night cleaning.
via The Associated Press: Ohio to give prisoners laid-off janitors’ jobs.
- As of year-end 2007, a record 7.2 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.3 million were incarcerated.[7] More than 1 in 100 American adults were incarcerated at the start of 2008.
US and some Canada Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
- Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News -
- HP extended its lead in the worldwide PC market while Dell slipped a few points and Acer gained a few others to finish the quarter in a virtual tie for the number two spot. The U.S. market in particular held up better than others, with shipments dipping somewhere between 0.3 and 3.1 percent depending on who you ask. But while the worldwide ranking stayed unchanged from last year, Dell’s shipments dropped precipitously in the United States, which cost them the number one spot in the country after a 10-year run as the top shipper of PCs.
Consumer Sentiment
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9:55 AM ET
- The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its preliminary April reading of consumer sentiment rose to a level of 61.9, up from 57.3 in March and was the highest since 70.3 recorded in September.
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- Consumers would receive vouchers worth as much as $5,000 for trading in models from 2001 or earlier for a new vehicle, under the legislation Sutton proposed March 17. The program may spur sales by more than the 21 percent increase witnessed in Germany in February, Sutton has said.
via U.S. ‘Cash-For-Clunkers’ Proposal May Cover Cars From Overseas – Bloomberg.com .
Mike: The crooks and tax dodgers that have been part of the initial Obama administration is staggering. I’m sure there are a few honest, ethical and trustworthy individuals running his economic teams, but the people who show a complete lack of those positive traits seem to increase in number on a regular basis.
- NEW YORK (AP) — An investment company run by the head of the Obama administration’s auto task force has been accused of paying more than $1 million to an aide to New York’s former comptroller in a bid to win a lucrative deal with the state pension fund.
via Obama’s auto adviser linked to NY pension probe - Yahoo! Finance.
- ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines Inc. no longer is outsourcing reservation calls to India after years of complaints from customers who preferred to speak to someone in the United States.
Stuart Carlson - Apr 17
- But now a study highlights another area where workers laid off from companies with fewer than 20 workers get pinched: The 65 percent government COBRA subsidy to help people extend their health insurance is either not available to them or not as comprehensive in many states.
- Fifty jobs will be lost after the state Department of Corrections announced the October closing of the annex portion of the Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility, a minimum security prison in Brocton.
- The President of Plattsburgh State University says job cuts are coming.
via WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Job Cuts Coming to Plattsburgh State.
- BROCKTON – City firefighters have given up $150,000 in overtime pay to save 20 jobs.
via Brockton firefighters give up overtime to save jobs – Brockton, MA – Wicked Local Brockton.
- More than a dozen city employees lost their jobs this morning as North Port continues to adjust to the recession. City Manager Steve Crowell announced 24 job cuts this morning, 14 in jobs that are occupied and 10 unfilled positions.
- The new 32-hour work week begins Monday. It affects 84 employees in 11 departments,
- US and some Canada Layoff News -
- Teradyne Inc. will eliminate 350 jobs and further reduce its executives’ annual salaries as part of ongoing plans to lower expenses as demand for chip making equipment continues to decline, the chip testing equipment maker said in a regulatory filing.
- And with that, 622 jobs are set to expire between June 24 and July 8, according to a plant-closing notice the company filed with the state Department of Labor on Monday.
via Microchip maker sets shutdown date | PoughkeepsieJournal.com | Poughkeepsie Journal.
- The Richmond, Va., company also said it cut its work force by nearly 300 jobs in the week of March 31 and plans to freeze its pension plan at the end of May.
- MOUNT VERNON, Ill. – Anheuser-Busch says it will close its facility in southern Illinois later this year, costing about 80 jobs.
- CARNEYS POINT TWP. – Feeling the pinch of the tough economic times, the Salem Community College Board of Trustees has approved the elimination of seven positions and reworked over a dozen others in order to close a budget shortfall.
via Seven jobs cut at SCC – NJ.com.
- LEWISBURG — A weakened global and domestic economy has forced a Lewisburg recreational equipment manufacturer to lay off 38 employees.
via The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA - 38 lose jobs at Playworld.
- NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times is cutting sections and trimming its budget for freelance contributions in another round of belt tightening aimed at coping with a steep decline in ad revenue.
via The Associated Press: New York Times to cut sections, freelance budget.
-Country Fresh management told TV5 the closing is due to economic conditions, excess product and the need to shift production.
The facility has 180 employees, but 110 jobs will be directly affected.
via Country Fresh Dairy Plant In Flint To Close - News Story – WNEM Saginaw.
- The move will affect 79 workers, according to data submitted to the state.
via Shelbyville factory to close – Business – Kentucky.com.
- Vale Inco employs about 5,000 workers in Ontario mostly at the two operations. It also has a major presence in northern Manitoba and in Labrador, where it operates the Voisey’s Bay mine.
via Inco closing for eight weeks - The North Bay Nugget – Ontario, CA .
- Workers at the Clarksville plant lost their jobs, some of whom had worked here since the plant opened in 1967. Mac Betts has put in 35 years of his life working here. Now he doesn’t know what to do.
via Holcim closed, community faces uncertainty : News : KHQA .
- DHL Express’ decision to reactivate its Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky (CVG) facility will mean the movement of about 180 full-time positions and 650 part-time positions from Wilmington to the Northern Kentucky airport, a DHL spokesman said this morning, April 17.
via DHL decision means loss of 830 jobs total.
- The Suncadia resort near Cle Elum laid off 40 employees Wednesday, according to the Ellensburg Daily Record.
via Business & Technology | Suncadia lays off 40 employees | Seattle Times Newspaper.
- More than 500 ABX Air employees are getting laid off in the latest round of job losses announced Thursday.
via ABX to lay off 518.
- UAW Local 122 president Doug Rice said 450 to 500 employees will be laid off starting April 20. Rice said those laid off include assembly plant and maintenance workers as well as skilled trades workers.
via Twinsburgbulletin.com – Twinsburg Chrysler to lay off 450-500 .
- Three employees have been laid off from the admissions and financial aid office as part of the effort to trim $72 million from the College’s budget by 2011, according to Dean Maria Laskaris.
via TheDartmouth.com | College lays off three from admissions office.
- Sixty of the 120 employees of the third-generation, family-owned iron castings company are on temporary layoff, said Jim Kirsh.
-GARY | About 40 U.S. Steel Corp. workers were recently laid off, some permanently, because of problems with a blast furnace, local union officials confirmed Thursday.
via U.S. Steel lays off some workers, terminates other / nwi.com.
- Rocked by the financial markets and by donors also rocked by the markets, the UND Foundation and its sister organization, the UND Alumni Association, earlier this week laid off four of its 44 employees, spokeswoman Leanna Ihry said.
- CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Doner is the latest ad agency to undergo major staff cuts amid the economic downturn.
The Southfield, Mich.-based independent shop laid off more than 100 people this week,
via Advertising Agency Doner Lays Off More Than 100 Staffers - Agency News – Advertising Age.
- Boeing today will issue about 300 layoff notices companywide.
About 120 of those will go to employees in the Puget Sound region, about 100 of them in the Commercial Airplanes division.
via Business & Technology | Boeing issues 300 layoff notices | Seattle Times Newspaper.
- Three months after eliminating dozens of jobs at its Kansas City plant, Harley-Davidson will lay off 70 more local workers in response to sluggish sales.
via 70 more layoffs coming at Harley-Davidson plant in KC - Kansas City Star.
- At a joint meeting Wednesday night, leaders of two local railroad unions, the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) told members to prepare for big layoffs in Buffalo.
via wgrz.com | Buffalo, NY | Railroad Workers Preparing for Layoffs In Buffalo.
- Seventeen non-clinical employees at Jackson Hospital were laid off this week, representing about 1.5 percent of the total work force at the Pine Street hospital, said hospital spokesman Peter Frohmader.
- The company will cut 3,900 contract workers in Japan by March of next year, according to spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida. That is in addition to the 4,500 Japanese contract workers it previously said would be cut by last month.
- STOCKHOLM (AP) — Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday posted a euro293 million ($387 million) net loss in the first quarter on falling sales and said it would slash an additional 2,000 jobs to cut costs.
via Sony Ericsson posts loss, to cut 2,000 jobs - Yahoo! Finance.
- The entire workforce of the Rousse Shipyard is being laid off until further notice as of April 27, the press service of the company has said, as reported by Dnevnik daily.
- AN INVERNESS building firm is to cease trading with the loss of 22 jobs, making it the latest casualty of the recession in the Highlands
via Building firm ceases trading with loss of 22 jobs - Press & Journal .
- Howard Kennedy has kicked off a redundancy consultation with 40 jobs at the West End firm under threat.
- ALLENS Arthur Robinson has become the latest big firm to impose a pay freeze to deal with what is expected to be one of the most testing years for the legal services industry.
- Groundwork and demolition specialist Keltbray has said it will be forced to lay off staff as medium-sized commercial jobs dry up
via Commercial drought forces Keltbray to plan redundancies - Building.
- LONDON — Printed circuit board manufacturer Ruwel GmbH (Geldern/Pfullingen, Germany), which filed for insolvency earlier this year but continued to operate at a reduced level, is now planning to commence redundancies amongst its 600 staff.
via Redundancies to start at insolvent Ruwel.
- A Newcastle holiday firm is to close down with the loss of 108 jobs.
via BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne | Jobs lost as travel agent closes.
- TYNEDALE’S unemployment blackspot has suffered a further blow with the announcement that 28 jobs are to go at one of its factories.
via Hexham Courant | News | News at a Glance | 28 jobs lost at Haltwhistle factory .
- ISLAMABAD: As many as 308 non-gazetted government employees are being laid off from the Statistics Division by July 30, 2009, The News has learnt.
- Hiring News and News You Can Use -
- RALEIGH — Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed a new program Thursday designed to quickly retrain people and match them with jobs where there are shortages.
At a news conference at WakeMed, Perdue said she would use $13.4 million in federal stimulus money to start accelerated six-month training programs for 12 occupations. She called it “12 in 6.”
via Training to match workers to open jobs - Local & State – News & Observer.
- The projects, which total $956 million, are expected to add 1,300 jobs, according to estimates. It will also repair electric lines and replace many of the state’s 2,500 miles of aging gas pipes.
via $956M in utility projects to add 1,300 jobs – NJ.com .
- April 16 (Bloomberg) — Research In Motion Ltd. Co-Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis plans to keep hiring to spur the flow of new BlackBerry models, signaling the phone maker is withstanding a recession that forced rivals to trim payrolls.
via RIM Plans More Hiring as Rivals Cut Jobs in Recession (Update1) – Bloomberg.com .
- BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – Help is wanted at the New Embassy suites. They’re looking to hire up to 90 people as they prepare to open this summer, and a popular theme park is looking for 400 workers.
via Hundreds of jobs available in WNY | WIVB.co
- ADS Inc., a company that supplies special operations gear to the military, announced Thursday that it plans to hire 10 workers after winning a contract worth at least $153.6 million to sell flame-resistant garments to the U.S. Army.
via Beach company will add jobs after winning Army contract | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.
- Faneuil said it will hire about 180 full-time employees and additional support staff for the project. It currently employs 2,400 at 12 offices statewide.
via Florida unemployment offices adding jobs, new call center - St. Petersburg Times.
- Jobs are hard to come by these days, but Live Nation is offering an opportunity to pick up one for the summer. The concert promoter/venue operator has nearly 1,500 seasonal jobs at The Gorge, in Eastern Washington, and Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre. Positions range from stagehands to T-shirt sellers, and pay around $9 to $15 per hour.
- Job creation, economic investment and the development of renewable energy will be the key points highlighted by Vice President Joseph Biden and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke during an event at the ABB manufacturing facility in Jefferson City, Mo., today, where they will join representatives of Wind Capital Group (WCG), Associated Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI), ABB, GE Energy, United Auto Workers (UAW) and RMT to announce the development of the Lost Creek Wind Farm. This new project is expected to create over 2,500 jobs.
- Census Bureau officials want to count you — and they want you to count.
Mike: A relatively quiet day again for layoff announcements of the larger kind. Hopefully this latest week is not merely a lull in the action. I’m going out this weekend to test my new Canon camera, so if I shoot anything of interest, I’ll post for comment. I hope you all have a fine weekend.
Just a reminder, I’ll be moving this site to http://www.layofflist.org/ over the next couple of days, so don’t be surprised when you see a redirect notice when accessing this current version of The Layoff List. The new and improved Layoff List will load quicker and allow me to offer some additional items, which are not allowed at WordPress. Please visit http://www.layofflist.org/ and let me know what I can do to make your visits more rewarding. Thanks ………….
Gary Markstein - Apr 17
The 610,000 new claims for unemployment insurance was 53,000 less than the 663,000 seen in the April 4 week; Labor initially reported 654,000 new claims that week.
The four week moving average in the current week fell 8,500 to 651,000, the first decline since mid-January.
via US ECON: Jobless Claims Fall to 610,000, Lowest Since Jan – Forbes.com.
The number of people claiming benefits for more than a week increased to 6 million, the highest on records dating to 1967.
via The Associated Press: New jobless claims fall unexpectedly to 610,000.
Chan Lowe - Apr 16
US and some Canada Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
- Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News -
- The layoffs, the first since Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz joined in January, could be formally announced Tuesday, when the Sunnyvale Internet company reports first-quarter earnings.
- Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is planning a new round of job cuts according to the reports as the company continues to cope with the aftermath of a downturn in online advertsing sales.
The New York Times and Reuters, citing several people with knowledge of the plans, said the layoffs could affect several hundred employees and may be announced as early as Tuesday when Yahoo reports its first-quarter earnings.
via MediaFile » Blog Archive » Yahoo planning more job cuts | Blogs | .
- The Silicon Valley company is seeking buyers for the HotJobs employment site, people familiar with the company’s plans said on Wednesday, adding that other acquisitions could follow HotJobs out of the door. Yahoo struck a deal to buy the site in 2001 for $436m in cash and stock.
8:30 AM ET![[Star]](http://bloomberg.econoday.com/images/bloomberg/star.gif)
8:30 AM ETInitial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits fell 53,000 to a seasonally adjusted 610,000 the week ended April 11 from a revised 663,000 the week before, the Labor Department said. The slowdown of new claims for jobless benefits would be a good sign, if it continues.
In a second report, the Commerce Department said housing starts fell 10.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 510,000 units, second lowest on records dating back to 1959, from February’s downwardly revised 572,000 units.
via Mixed signals as jobless claims and housing starts both drop - USATODAY.com.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of American households threatened with losing their homes grew 24 percent in the first three months of this year and is poised to rise further as major lenders restart foreclosures after a temporary break, according to data released Thursday.
The big unknown for the coming months, however, is President Barack Obama’s plan to help up to 9 million borrowers avoid foreclosure through refinanced mortgages or modified loans. The Obama administration expects its plans to make a big dent in the foreclosure crisis. But it remains to be seen whether the lending industry will fully embrace it, despite $75 billion in incentive payments.
via US foreclosures up 24 percent in 1st quarter - Yahoo! Finance.
- With unemployment at 9.4 percent in Florida and nearly 50,000 new applications for food stamps each month, the state has paid JPMorgan Chase nearly $50 million over the past three years to provide food stamp program services, which include customer service call centers in Bangalore and Gurgaon, India.
“She’s got every right to be incensed,” said state Rep. Juan Zapata, R-Miami, chairman of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee. “I can understand why she would feel that this is just not a good policy. We’ll definitely look into it.”
Spokesmen for Gov. Charlie Crist and Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon declined a request for comment.
via Florida food stamp jobs in India aggravate recipients, officials.
- LOS ANGELES (AP) — The nation’s second-largest shopping mall owner, General Growth Properties, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday in a tough bargaining move to restructure it’s $27 billion in debt.
- ELYRIA, Ohio — Ten Elyria firefighters are now out of work, laid off because of budget cuts.
via City Cuts 10 Firefighter Jobs - News Story – WEWS Cleveland.
- The Interim Louisiana State University Public Hospital in New Orleans is planning to cut 300 jobs in response to $24 million in state budget cuts, according to the Times-Picayune.
via New Orleans Hospital to Cut 300 Jobs – The Hospital Review.
- San Jacinto Unified School District trustees voted Tuesday to eliminate almost 30 nonteaching jobs, effective July 1.
- PORTLAND, Ore. — Administration will be downsized. Teacher in-service and possibly even class days will be lopped off the school year. Staff positions will be cut. Classes will be larger. And those working for the public schools system will pay higher premiums for health care.
- US and some Canada Layoff News -
- MILWAUKEE (AP) — Harley-Davidson Inc. said Thursday it expects to cut up to 400 more jobs as its first-quarter profit tumbled 37 percent due to a sluggish motorcycle market.
- TACOMA, Wash. — Downtown Tacoma’s biggest employer, Russell Investments, is giving layoff notices Wednesday to about 400 of its 2,000 workers.
- About 40 workers will lose their jobs when the Beaver plant closes at the end of the month. Da-Tech is helping workers to find other jobs.
via Da-Tech to close WVa plant | AP | 04/15/2009.
- SPOKANE – The local medical community is bracing for more job losses after Sacred Heart Medical Center announced it was laying off 19 positions Wednesday afternoon.
- New York–Ultra Stores Inc., the 181-unit chain that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, will close a dozen underperforming stores in six states and two territories as the chain moves forward with its plan to reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy.
via Ultra Stores to close 12 locations.
- OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Qwest Communications announced Wednesday it will close its customer service call center in Omaha, which employs 176 people.
- The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has joined the list of organizations announcing layoffs, by eliminating 83 jobs, or about 3 percent of its workforce. The Seattle-based nonprofit research institute said in a statement that it made the budget cuts to offset the drop in charitable giving that it counts on.
via Hutch Cuts 83 Jobs To Cope with Drop in Philanthropy | Xconomy.
-Declining revenues have the Kansas State University foundation downsizing. The foundation announced Wednesday it will eliminate 13 staff positions.
via KSU Foundation Cuts 13 Jobs / Kansas News Leader .
- Melba Industries, which supplies protective fabrics to the armed services and firefighters, has been in voluntary administration since February and is now likely to go into liquidation.
via Vic textile company to shed 170 jobs.
- PMP Print has announced a restructure at its Clayton print site in Victoria that will see the loss of 67 jobs.
via PMP cuts 67 jobs in Victoria > News > ProPrint .
- Postal officials confirm they’ll cut 26 jobs on Staten Island
via Postal officials confirm they’ll cut 26 jobs on Staten Island - SILive.com .
- MADISON (WKOW) — Land O’Lakes will close its butter manufacturing plant in Madison, leaving around 120 workers out of a job.
- RIVERBANK — The long-planned closure of a 66-year-old Army ammunition plant has begun, with pink slips going out to 30 of its employees.
via Layoffs begin at ammo plant - Business – The Modesto Bee.
- GRAMBLING, La. (AP) – Grambling State University will make about 30 personnel cuts as it responds to a scheduled 16% budget cut for the state’s next fiscal year.
via WXVT-TV Delta News – More Local News and Weather WXVT.com | Grambling planning about 30 staff cuts.
- Cambridge-based provider of engineering data and design software, Aveva, has announced that it will be reducing its workforce by 10 per cent amid difficult market conditions.
via Aveva staff cuts - News – The Engineer.
- Officials of the union that represents about 200 Indianapolis Star staff members last night agreed to what amounts to a 12-percent pay cut this year in contract negotiations with the newspaper’s struggling parent company, Virginia-based Gannett Co. Inc.
IBJ.com – Indianapolis Business Journal – Story Detail.
- DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines Co. reported a surprisingly large loss in the first quarter due to weak traffic in the recession, and the company said it was freezing hiring and offering buyouts to employees to trim its work force.
via Southwest Airlines posts 1Q loss, plans buyouts - Yahoo! Finance.
- A reorganization that consumer-electronics retailer Best Buy Co. is rolling out will lead to job cuts and lower pay for thousands of Best Buy store employees, an analyst said Wednesday.
via Best Buy cuts wages, jobs in its stores - BusinessWeek.
- GREENSBORO — The News & Record is cutting 25 jobs in its latest step to reduce costs resulting from the recession and its impact on advertising revenue.
- Last November, fiberglass manufacturer PPG announced plans for a multimillion-dollar plant expansion and the addition of 120 jobs in Shelby.
Instead, now PPG is cutting 90 current positions by next month.
via Cleveland County plant cutting 90 jobs | CharlotteObserver.com.
- Officials of the society, the keeper of the state’s historic sites and treasures, announced this afternoon that 94 full-time and part-time employees wwould be laid off July 1, the beginning of the new fiscal year.
via Historical Society may slash jobs, hours, close 3 sites.
- The University of Florida will consider eliminating 748 jobs and closing several academic programs to save about $75 million if the next state budget requires cuts approaching 10 percent, university President Bernie Machen said today.
via UF considers eliminating 748 jobs, closing several academic programs — OrlandoSentinel.com.
- Reading Hospital plans to reduce its workforce by 3.9 percent or 250 positions through attrition and layoffs, according to a hospital news release issued this morning.
via Reading Hospital cutting 250 jobs – themorningcall.com.
- There have also been layoffs at Electra’s largest employer. Coming with the fire that burned down the Agriboard plant there, this is just more salt on the wound. NATCO won’t give us a number — a spokesperson only says that the layoffs amount to half a percent of its worldwide staff.
- HONG KONG, April 15 (Reuters) – Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc has cut another 50 investment banking jobs in Asia, excluding Japan, sources close to the matter said on Wednesday
via UPDATE 1-Nomura cuts 50 investment banking jobs in Asia – Forbes.com.
- April 16 (Bloomberg) — Shinsei Bank Ltd. plans to cut “hundreds” of jobs at the consumer lending unit it bought from General Electric Co. last year as it closes branches to weather an industry contraction, the head of the division said.
via Shinsei to Cut Jobs at Former GE Japan Lending Unit (Update1) – Bloomberg.com .
- T-Mobile is overhauling its customer service division by cutting a UK based and outsourced call centre company, which may risk an expected 500 jobs.
via T-Mobile restructure risks call centre jobs - Mobile Today.
- Hong Kong’s biggest port operator has sacked 28 staff, and a trade union claims the company will sack a total of 80 under a plan to reduce costs by 20 percent, the South China Morning Post reported.
via Welcome to CargonewsAsia.com.
- Piling and foundation engineer Roger Bullivant is to cut up to 95 more jobs and reduce employees’ pay by 10%.
via Roger Bullivant to cut pay 10% and cut up to 95 jobs - 16/04/2009 – Contract Journal.
- NEW DELHI: Private airline Jet Airways is restructuring its business operations that would trim its workforce and enhance efficiency.
- German auto parts company Schaeffler Group KG said Thursday that it will cut 195 jobs at a French unit and end production at a plant there as it struggles with weak demand for cars.
via Schaeffler cuts 195 jobs in France - Forbes.com.
- The Hong Kong-based airline is requesting its staff to take unpaid leave over the course of the next 12 months, it said in a statement.
- Sputnik Communications has made three staff redundant, including MD Penny Porter, who had been in the role for just eight months.
via Sputnik cuts more staff - PRWeek UK.
- Struggling print and distribution group, PMP Ltd, will axe up to 67 jobs from its Victorian operations as market conditions worsen.
- Hiring News and News You Can Use -
- Sen. Jack Reed said, “These projects are shovel-ready and will put an estimated 150 Rhode Islanders to work upgrading runways and lighting to make these airports safer and more efficient.”
via Airport renovations mean 150 jobs | Business | projo.com | The Providence Journal .
-State regulators delivered a booster shot to the state’s economy this morning, approving nearly $1 billion in utility infrastructure spending that will create about 1,300 new jobs.
via State OKs $1 billion in utility projects, creating 1,300 jobs | APP.com | Asbury Park Press.
- Fifty-five new natural resource conservation projects in 20 states — many having to do with building and sustaining conservation initiatives on cropland — will bring up to 1,500 new jobs into the U.S. economy in the coming months, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Thursday morning.
Mike: Have a great evening and I’ll see you tomorrow.…………….
Don Wright - Apr 16
Mike: Wednesday proved to be an active layoff announcement day, especially for a number of international firms, including UBS and Air France. US layoff announcements were also active and it appears that municipalities are finally having to disclose job cuts. Some of those cuts, such as LAs 5400 cuts will be painful to the citizens.
Tomorrow brings the all important Jobless Claims report, which is expected to show jobless claims rising slightly form last week to 658,000. They will also likely report the revised numbers from the previous week and it will be interesting to see if those numbers are revised up or down.
Don’t forget that today is the last day to file your taxes in the US! Although banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and auto makers can delay and renegotiate their government bailout terms and they can refuse to disclose how TARP funds are allocated, you need to show that you are more responsible than those corrupt institutions. If all else fails, at least file for an extension by midnight tonight. Remember, it’s easier for the IRS to drag down and audit the average taxpayer than it is for them to go against the corrupt banks and firms that have the capacity to throw expensive and talented lawyers against the overworked and underpaid IRS legal teams. While the IRS is here to serve you, you don’t want it to serve you a subpoena.
Mike: One of this blog’s readers sent the following note to me this past weekend. He personally knows the situation at NYC Health and Hospitals Corp. and wanted to share his views. It shows the more personal side of layoffs and not just the number of layoffs reported by the media:
FYI: This concerns layoffs in the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp., i.e. public hospitals. At Coney Island Hospital, for example, 4 school based psychiatric programs and a busy satellite medical clinic are being closed. Staff that are no longer “needed,” of course, will be laid-off. The mayor uses the threat of layoff to press unions to negotiate contract reductions. Similar layoffs are threatened in the Board of Ed. Aside from a few notices there is very little specific information being reported.
The original announcement for NYC H&H:
- Nearly 400 jobs will be lost and community clinics that serve more than 11,000 patients will close, according to Aviles.
Mike: If you live in the NYC area or you just want to comment about some of the draconian cuts to NYC Health and Hospitals Corp., you can write the following people:
Alan Aviles, president of New York’s Health and Hospitals Corporation: http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mailhhc.html
You can go to DEPUTY MAYORS AND TOP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS and see a list of contacts.
Remember, that with your input your elected and appointed officials will merely do as they please and you know that their decisions are not always based on what’s best for the community they serve………….
Marshall Ramsey - Apr 15
US and some Canada Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
- Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News -
Mike: Take your pick from the Cisco stories below. If you have any additional Cisco layoff information, pass it along to The Layoff List in the comments sections or by emailing me at Mike@layofflist.org:
- Maybe not. In a note summarized by TheStreet.com, JPMorgan analyst Ehud Gelblum predicted today that Cisco could announce a 10% headcount reduction, which could save the company $900 million a year. Cisco could announce layoffs as part of its earnings report next month, another analyst told TheStreet.
via Cisco Could Cut 10% Of Staff (CSCO).
- Cisco Systems has dismissed predictions of a 10 per cent reduction in headcount from a JPMorgan analyst.
Ehud Gelblum has gone out on a limb and said Cisco “could” announce the 10 per cent cut and “could” save the company about $900m (£600m) a year through the move according to report by the Silicon Alley Insider. The Insider cites TheStreet.com. Let the whispering games begin.
via Cisco dismisses ‘hefty’ layoffs rumor • The Register.
- The exodus of some more Yahoo employees might continue as Yahoo is said to be planning on announcing another round of layoffs during its first quarter financial report on Tuesday.
- Still, the drop in March was steeper than expected. The Federal Reserve said production at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent, matching February’s decline and worse than the 1 percent decline analysts forecast.
via Industrial production drops more than expected - Yahoo! Finance.
MBA Purchase Applications
![[Report]](http://bloomberg.econoday.com/images/bloomberg/byreport_butt_new.gif)
7:00 AM ET
- April 15 (Bloomberg) — The number of mortgage applications in the U.S. fell last week for the first time in more than a month, indicating any stabilization in housing will be slow to materialize even as borrowing costs drop.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan decreased 11 percent to 1,113.2 in the week ended April 10, the lowest level in a month, from 1,250.6 the prior week. The group’s refinancing gauge and purchase measure each dropped 11 percent.
via U.S. MBA Mortgage Applications Index Fell 11 Percent Last Week - Bloomberg.com .
8:30 AM ETThe Labor Department said its closely watched consumer price index fell 0.1%, after increasing 0.4% in February. On a year-over-year basis, consumer prices were down 0.4%, the first 12-month decline since August 1955.
via Consumer prices dip in March, post 1st annual drop since ’55 – USATODAY.com.
- (CEP News) – Manufacturing activity in the New York region continued to decline, but at a slower rate than previously thought according to a survey from the New York Federal Reserve on Wednesday.
The New York Fed’s Empire State Manufacturing survey rebounded to -14.65 in April from the previous month’s record low reading of -38.23. The results are better than the consensus forecast for a -35.0 reading.
The reliability variance of the index is +/- 8.6 points. A reading above zero indicates growth in the manufacturing sector, while a negative reading indicates slowdown.
via Pace of New York Manufacturing Decline Slows Sharply in April | CEP News.
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- - Autoblog reports, “As GM teeters on the brink of insolvency, it’s become clear that Saturn will get no new vehicles sourced from within GM and some dealers have decided to close up their stores. Since January 1, two dozen Saturn outlets have shuttered bringing the current total down to 394 with four more in Wisconsin due to close this week.”
via Many Saturn Dealers Closing Shop - U.S. News Rankings and Reviews .
Mike: The following story shows Michigan’s deteriorating unemploymeny numbers. But what needs to be addressed is that those numbers are not the “true” unemployment numbers. When adding the other unemployed to the equation, the unemployment rate in Michigan is more likely near 17%.
- Michigan’s unemployment rate jumped to 12.6 percent in March, but job losses have slowed in recent months, good news for the hard-hit state.
Still, the rise from 12 percent in February to 12.6 percent announced Wednesday is likely to keep Michigan in the spotlight as the state with the nation’s worst unemployment rate. The national unemployment rate in March was 8.5 percent.
via Mich. unemployment rate jumps to 12.6% in March – Forbes.com.
Jack Ohman - Apr 15
Mike: I get a kick out of these reports, such as the one below, where they headline that something “soars,” yet when you look at the numbers it’s more bad news. It’s like the kid coming home from school with his latest report card and he goes, “Mom, my report card numbers soared!” After further investigation, the score soared from 9 to 14 in the scale of 50 being passing. While 14 is better than 9, soaring is a bit of an overstatement. Improved, increased, or rose might be more appropriate. While exploded upward, skyrocketed, or soared is misleading.
- LOS ANGELES (AP) — The National Association of Home Builders says its housing market index posted its biggest one-month jump in five years in April as many homebuyers seized on lower prices and incentives.
While still near historically low levels, the Washington-based trade association said Wednesday the index rose five points to 14, it’s highest reading since October.
Index readings lower than 50 indicate negative sentiment about the market.
via Homebuilder sentiment index soars 5 points - Yahoo! Finance.
Mike: Government departments and agencies are starting to cut the jobs that they had to in order to balance their budgets. The stimulus package will eliminate some job loss, especially at schools, but most states and cities will be cutting jobs, and with that, services.
- LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Board of Education has voted to lay off as many as 5,400 teachers and support personnel for the upcoming school year.
The vote came Tuesday as employees protested raucously outside the meeting. The board had voted hours earlier to save the jobs of 1,996 elementary school teachers using federal stimulus funds.
via LA school board votes to lay off 5,400 employees.
- The Enlarged City School District of Troy plans to remove a total 62.8 fulltime equivalent positions by the end of its fiscal year to balance a proposed $95.11 million budget, which the public will vote on in May.
- The Clark County Superintendent calls it a “sad day” for the school district. Tuesday, trustees approved massive budget cuts that call for the elimination of about 850 full and part time positions.
via Las Vegas Now | CCSD Trustees Pass Budget with 850 Job Cuts.
- The Utah Department of Corrections will eliminate as many as 160 full-time jobs — more than 6 percent of its work force — by July 1.
via Corrections to cut 6 percent of jobs – Salt Lake Tribune .
- Governor Deval Patrick cut an additional 750 jobs from state government yesterday and said he will furlough 5,000 executive branch employees for up to five days, a response to relentlessly plunging state revenues that have forced the governor to make an unprecedented series of spending reductions.
via Patrick cuts another 750 jobs, orders furloughs – The Boston Globe.
- On Monday, the Kaneland Community Unit School District 302 Board of Education voted to eliminate 11 teacher assistant positions in the district.
via The Chronicle | Kaneland cuts 11 teacher aide jobs.
- SOUTHFIELD — Facing declining enrollment and rising costs, Southfield Public Schools expects to lay off some 150 employees before the 2009-2010 school year, according to Ken Siver, deputy superintendent for the district.
via 150 to be laid off from Southfield Public Schools.
- Four South Redford teachers will be told they will be laid off for the 2009-10 school year as part of a budget reduction program to deal with an anticipated $1,185,759 budget shortfall.
- BATON ROUGE (AP) — The Louisiana Department of Revenue is laying off 29 workers, but not until after tax day.
via La. tax agency laying off 29 | theadvertiser.com | The Advertiser.
- BOULDER, Colo. — In response to a recession that has hit medical providers across the country, Boulder Community Hospital is cutting expenses and hoping voluntary staff departures will help it avoid layoffs while maintaining top-notch care.
via Boulder Community Hospital facing hiring freeze, cuts : County News : Boulder Daily Camera.
- By a 4-2 vote, the City Council agreed to lay off the remainder of its already downsized staff, saying development was not generating enough fees to support it.
via Petaluma council cuts city planners | Petaluma360.com | Petaluma Argus-Courier | Petaluma, CA.
Mike: More people out of work equals more crime, but cities don’t seem to get the connection. Layoff some administrators or contractors for a couple years, but keep the police and protective services intact – you will need them…
- KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A broadcast report says cuts to the Kansas City budget could take as many as 100 police officers off the street.
- US and some Canada Layoff News -
- The University of Washington will eliminate about 1,000 employee positions — including a yet-to-be-determined number of layoffs — by the beginning of May, the school’s president said Tuesday.
via UW to eliminate about 1,000 jobs by May 1.
- PITTSBURGH (AP) — ArcelorMittal SA, the world’s largest steel maker, plans to idle a plant in Indiana and lay off about 400 workers due to global economic turmoil that has dampened demand for the metal.
- The Chronicle has reached a tentative agreement with a major union that could allow for the elimination of more than 80 driver positions as part of the newspaper’s campaign to cut costs in order to stay afloat.
via Chronicle, Teamsters agree on job cuts.
- The company said it eliminated about 10 percent of its jobs, placed some workers on short weeks, and cut down on spending to cope with challenging economic conditions. It is also looking to end some supply chain contracts it signed late last year.
At the end of 2008, Lufkin employed about 3,000 people.
via Lufkin says 1Q profit dropped, makes job cuts - Forbes.com.
- MOORESVILLE — UST Inc., which was bought by Altria Group Inc. in January, said yesterday that it was eliminating 74 jobs at its operations at 124 Bandit Lane in Mooresville.
via UST plans to cut 74 jobs at its plant in Mooresville.
- The company also said it cut 25 jobs in recent weeks, in addition to reducing its worldwide headcount by 17 percent to about 285 employees at the end of last year.
via UPDATE 1-Cynosure sees Q1 loss, cuts 25 jobs | Industries | Healthcare | Reuters .
- Russell Athletic, once a dominant Alabama company and a huge employer, has said it plans to close an Alexander City plant and eliminate the 250 jobs there.
- Reed Business Information is to cut 7% of workforce, including around 15 staff at Variety magazine, a week after long-time editor Peter Bart was moved aside after 20 years running the venerable Hollywood trade title.
via Variety to lose 15 jobs as Reed Business Information cuts 7% of staff | Media | guardian.co.uk .
- HERNANDO – Kawneer officials said Tuesday that 250 employees at the Kawneer aluminum manufacturing facility in Hernando will lose their jobs when the plant closes in June.
via Desoto Times Tribune > Archives > News > Kawneer to close; 250 to lose jobs.
- SHELBY — Bernhardt Furniture said Monday that it plans to close a plant in Shelby by June 12, cutting more than 100 jobs, unless there is a dramatic change in furniture sales.
via Bernhardt Furniture to close plant in Shelby, cut 100 jobs.
- POCATELLO, Idaho — Administrators at Idaho State University plan to lay off 73 employees because of a $17 million shortfall expected during the next fiscal year.
via ISU to lay off 73 workers to help shore up budget | Idaho | Idaho Statesman .
- All 31 University employees who were scheduled to be laid off by June 30 have now been informed of their termination, according to an e-mail sent by top administrators to faculty and staff Tuesday morning.
via The Brown Daily Herald – Layoffs of 31 U. employees made official.
- WICHITA – Hawker Beechcraft’s new chairman and CEO told employees Tuesday that more layoffs are in store as the planemaker reduces its production rates this year and next.
Bill Boisture, who replaced Jim Schuster last month, said in a memo that work force reductions will extend across all levels of the company and will occur in stages throughout the year.
via Hawker: More layoffs coming | Aviation | Wichita Eagle.
- About 50 people lost their jobs this month at Gentex Corp., a company spokesman said. The Simpson contractor has laid off about 100 employees since the beginning of the year.
via Gentex expands layoffs | Business | citizensvoice.com | The Citizens’ Voice .
- The latest law firm layoff announcement hit five offices of Seattle-based Perkins Coie this week with the cut of a dozen associates and 26 nonlawyer staffers.
via Law.com - Perkins Coie Cuts 12 Associates, 26 Staffers .
-Ingersoll-Rand has laid off another 25 employees at the Southern Pines plant, again attributing the move to the economic slump.
via ThePilot.com : Ingersoll-Rand Lays Off 25.
- A company spokesman has confirmed that Finning Canada, headquartered in Edmonton, will lose jobs as part of 170 total layoffs in Western Canada.
via Finning Canada to lay off 170 Western Canadian workers – Daily Commercial News.
- SPOKANE, Wash. — Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane will eliminate about 90 jobs, adding to what is already the highest unemployment rate in Spokane County in years.
via Spokane hospital announces 90 job cuts.
- CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Raleigh County electronics manufacturing plant is closing at the end of the month, leaving about 40 employees without jobs, a company official said this week.
- LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Texas-based company will be closing its Meadow Gold dairy plant in Lincoln, costing about 60 people their jobs
via Dairy plant closing | dairy, plant, dean – NOW – Odessa American Online.
- CAMBRIDGE – Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences faces a projected recurring annual deficit of $220 million within two years if it does not cut spending substantially and reshape its academic ambitions, Michael D. Smith, the group’s dean, warned yesterday.
via Harvard dean of Arts and Sciences details need for spending cuts - The Boston Globe.
- The move will mean closing the company’s current headquarters on Soldiers Field Road in Boston and reducing the company’s staff by 12 to 15 employees.
via Mascoma to Cut Staff, Leave Boston | Xconomy.
- In reports the carriers file with the Surface Transportation Board, the railroads said that as of mid-month they employed 156,997 workers, down 2,500 or 1.58 percent from a month earlier. That was also 6,100 workers fewer than at the same point in 2008, for a 3.74 percent year-over-year drop.
via Big Rails Cut More Workers | Journal of Commerce.
- More than 130 workers at Ecolab in Licking County recently learned that they will soon be out of jobs.
via The Columbus Dispatch : 131 to lose jobs as Ecolab closes Hebron plant.
- St. Edward Mercy Health System announced Wednesday (April 15) that 64 full-time
jobs will be cut immediately. Hospital officials said a “vast majority” of the jobs cut were non-direct care givers.
via St. Edward cuts 64 jobs | The City Wire .
- BUFFALO LAKE, MN — A high level of arsenic in the well water of a beef slaughtering facility here has forced the plant to close, costing more than 200 workers their jobs, according to an April 15 Star Tribune article.
via Water Technology Online :: Brought to you by Grand View Media.
- EDMONTON — Petro-Canada is chopping 200 staff from its oilsands operations, mostly in Calgary and Fort McMurray.
- Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, has said it will seek to cut costs by shedding 8,700 jobs by next year.
via BBC NEWS | Business | Swiss bank UBS to cut 8,700 jobs.
-Air France-KLM has said it plans to cut between 2,500 and 3,000 jobs over the next two years.
via BBC NEWS | Business | Air France-KLM to cut 3,000 jobs.
- Atkins spent about £10 million on 1,200 staff redundancies in the last quarter of the financial year, the firm revealed today.
- The company has begun consultation with employees at the Rugby plant over making up to six redundancies out of a total of 120 employees.
via Rapak Europe plans small number of redundancies | Business | packagingnews.co.uk.
- Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, yesterday launched a job optimization and regrouping program to reduce labor costs in China.
Under the program, the company plans to relocate some of the mid-management staff at its stores to similar posts in the new stores that are being opened in China.
via Wal-Mart rejigs jobs in China.
- HONG KONG, April 15 (Reuters) – Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings Inc (8604.T) has cut another 50 investment banking jobs in Asia, excluding Japan, sources close to the matter said on Wednesday
via UPDATE 1-Nomura cuts 50 investment banking jobs in Asia | Deals | Private Capital | Reuters .
- BRUSSELS (AFP) — US aluminium maker Aleris, in bankruptcy protection since February, has informed unions of plans to cut 770 out of 1,500 jobs at a plant in northern Belgium, local media reported Wednesday.
via AFP: US aluminium maker Aleris to cut jobs in Belgium.
- Xilinx, a Dublin-based technology firm, is to make more than a quarter of its workforce redundant over the next nine months due to the outsourcing of some operations from Ireland.
via Xilinx to let go 130 employees – The Irish Times - Wed, Apr 15, 2009.
- THE communications union says 2000 jobs may be lost from Telstra before the end of June as the company steps up redundancies ahead of chief executive Sol Trujillo’s departure.
via Telstra unions 2000 jobs may be lost | Herald Sun.
- On Monday Viking Window laid off 18 production workers, Postimees.ee cites Kuma Raadio.
via balticbusinessnews.com – Viking Window laid off 18 people .
- Johns Manville Slovakia, a producer of glass fibre, will probably lay off 56 more employees from its plant in Trnava.
via Radio Slovakia International.
- Trowers & Hamlins has made a third round of job cuts since the start of the year, with 17 fee earners and support staff laid off from the firm’s London office.
- VIENNA, April 15 (Reuters) – Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine (VOES.VI) said on Wednesday it will cut working hours for thousands more of its staff as the global downturn cripples demand for steel.
- CEBU CITY, Philippines – About 30 more workers of the Sauna World Philippines Inc. (Sawo) are expected to lose their jobs before the month ends.
via Sawo to cut 30 more jobs by end-April - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos.
- BUDAPEST, April 15 (Reuters) – Hungarian steel maker Dunaferr, one of Hungary’s biggest employers, said on Wednesday it would lay off 400 workers and offer early retirement to several hundred more to survive the financial crisis.
via Hungary’s Dunaferr to cut hundreds of jobs By Reuters
- IN A further economic blow for Kerry it has been announced that car component manufacturer Beru is seeking 20 voluntary redundancies at its Tralee plant.
- Hiring News and News You Can Use -
- The top of the complete ranking–which, for ease, we have broken down into the two smaller lists, of the best big and small cities for jobs–is dominated by one state: Texas. The Lone Star State may have lost a powerful advocate in Washington, but it’s home to a remarkable eight of the top 20 cities on our list–including No. 1-ranked Odessa, a small city in the state’s northwestern region. Further, the top five large metropolitan areas for job growth–Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Dallas–are all in Texas’ “urban triangle.”
via Where are the Best Cities for Job Growth? | Newgeography.com .
- More than 2 dozen new jobs are headed to central Nebraska. Governor Heineman Tuesday awarded a $406,000 grant to Covenant Doors and Millwork Incorporated in Central City.
Tomorrow brings the all important Jobless Claims report, which is expected to show jobless claims rising slightly form last week to 658,000. Till then.…………………
MADISON, Wis. - A Dean Health System nurse was called out of surgery so a manager could tell her she was being laid off.
Dean Health says the surgery was minor and the patient wasn’t affected, but the manager who summoned the nurse from surgery violated medical protocol.
via Nurse called out of surgery and laid off -- chicagotribune.com.
Marshall Ramsey - Apr 14
US and some Canada Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
- Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News -
- Microsoft will offer 30,000 vouchers for free software training to help people in Washington get learn how to use Microsoft software.
- President Barack Obama on Tuesday told Americans to brace for “more job loss, more foreclosures, and more pain” in 2009, saying the recession isn’t over yet despite some early promise from the government’s massive spending on bailouts and economic stimulus.
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Confidence among U.S. small businesses was stuck at 35-year lows in March, with employers stepping up layoffs even as the recession-hit economy shows some signs of improving, according to a survey.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said in a survey released on Tuesday that its index of small business optimism fell 1.6 points to 81.0 from February, the second-lowest reading in the organization’s 35-year history.
via Small business sentiment stays gloomy in March - Yahoo! Finance.
- The employees left the 370-strong division because they were fed up with being the target of popular anger. In some cases, children were harassed and clubs asked AIG staff to leave, according to the boss of the financial products arm, Gerry Pasciucco. “It doesn’t surprise me that some senior people said ‘you know what, I’ve had enough’,” said Pasciucco in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
via Bonus backlash drives AIG staff out of jobs | Business | guardian.co.uk .
Tom Toles - Apr 14
- Using that methodology, Citigroup Inc CEO Vikram Pandit made $38 million in 2008, compared with the roughly $11 million reported in the company’s compensation section in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Citigroup collected $45 billion in government bailout funds in 2008.
via More CEOs got pay hikes than cuts in ’08 - Yahoo! Finance.
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7:45 AM ETTABLE-US chain store sales rise 0.8 pct last week-ICSC
via TABLE-US chain store sales rise 0.8 pct last week-ICSC | Reuters .
10:00 AM ETThe Commerce Department said Tuesday that business inventories dropped 1.3 percent in February, matching the January decline and close to the 1.2 percent fall that economists had expected.
via The Associated Press: Business inventories fall 1.3 percent in February.
- Mayor Alvin Parks Jr. said Monday the city must cut 20 to 23 jobs as part of an effort to address a $2 million deficit.
via East St. Louis must cut up to 23 jobs - Metro-east news – Belleville News-Democrat.
- MANATEE COUNTY – About 75 one-year contract teachers and teaching assistants will be looking for work this summer because their contracts were not renewed by the Manatee County School District.
- BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington’s budget is approved with a 6 to 3 vote, but with the approval comes job cuts for city workers. Bloomington City Manager David Hales says 40 to 60 city workers will be laid off in order to help balance the budget.
via Bloomington Passes Budget, Cuts Jobs.
- The Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School Committee unanimously approved a budget Monday night that will result in 66 pink slips being issued June 15.
- The college cut will 70 jobs, phase out its nursing program over several years and suspend admissions to several graduate education courses in the coming semester to make up for a $6 million budget shortfall under the state’s new budget.
via SUNY to cut jobs, programs - recordonline.com – The Times Herald Record.
- Administrators say the district will have to eliminate more than 200 teachers, custodians and campus supervisors in order to offset a 15-million dollar budget deficit.
- US and some Canada Layoff News -
- Michelin North America said Monday it will permanently close its BFGoodrich Tire plant in east Alabama because of declining demand, a move that will cost about 1,000 jobs.
via BFGoodrich closing Ala. plant that employs 1,000 – Forbes.com.
- NEW YORK (Reuters) – Discover Financial Services (DFS.N), the fourth-largest U.S. credit card network, will cut 500 jobs, or 4 percent of its workforce, in May, hurt by mounting credit losses, the company said on Tuesday.
via Discover Financial to cut 500 jobs in May | Reuters .
- KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hallmark Cards Inc. on Tuesday said it will cut its U.S. work force by up to 8 percent as the nation’s largest greeting card-maker struggles with falling sales.
The Kansas City-based company told employees it will lay off between 550 and 750 of its 9,200 full-time U.S. employees over the next six months.
via Hallmark cutting up to 8 percent of US work force - Yahoo! Finance.
- Ply Gem Industries said it will shutter most operations at its Kearney, Mo., vinyl siding plant, eliminating 146 jobs by early June.
- - MARION — Tegrant Corp., a manufacturing plant that employs about 50 people will close, said Al Herold, operations manager.
via Marion Tegrant plant to close | marionstar.com | The Marion Star.
- The plant now employs only 38 production workers. But as Zollner Piston, the company employed more than 1,200 in its heyday and was the namesake of the Fort Wayne Pistons basketball team that later became the Detroit Pistons.
via .End of an era: Piston plant closing
- About 20 people were laid off by Lightning owner OK Hockey, including Matt Hitchcock, who played ThunderBug. That brings the number of layoffs this year to about 27. Not hugely surprising given the state of the economy, but noteworthy nonetheless.
via Some layoffs at OK Hockey, including ThunderBug .
- As part of a widespread and deep cost-cutting effort, ArvinMeritor Inc. laid off 250 people in February and March, including 100 at the company’s light-vehicle business.
via Business briefs: ArvinMeritor cuts 250 jobs | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press.
-The Homac Cos., which manufactures electrical connectors at two Ormond Beach plants, plans to lay off another 54 workers by June 5.
via Business & Technology – newsjournalonline.com.
- Brenda Stenta, Essar Steel Algoma Inc.’s manager of corporate communications, says the number of employees on indefinite layoff, as of Sunday, had reached 600 — an increase of about 100 layoffs from the previous week.
via 100 more laid off at Essar - The Sault Star – Ontario, CA .
- MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Deere & Co. plans to combine its agricultural equipment division and its commercial and consumer equipment unit, resulting in the elimination of about 200 salaried jobs.
via The Associated Press: Deere to combine divisions, cut 200 jobs.
- A subsidiary of Gardner Denver Inc., a manufacturer of industrial equipment, will consolidate one of its divisions in Monroe, a move that will quadruple the number of jobs the company has in the Louisiana city.
- Canada-based Quebecor World Inc. has notified state officials that the commercial printing company is closing its Memphis facility and as many as 111 workers will lose their jobs. The facility is at 828 E. Holmes Road.
via Memphis Daily News – Quebecor to Slash Up to 111 Jobs .
- The privately owned firm, which says it has about $100 million in annual revenue, eliminated 50 of the company’s 350 jobs. The laid-off workers were primarily in marketing, said Mike Hoch, vice president for marketing.
via Xiotech lays off 50 people as recession slows business.
- The implosion of one of America’s leading regional dailies continued Monday with the revelation that The Chicago Tribune will cut its newsroom staff by 20%, or roughly 90 employees, over the next couple of weeks.
via MediaPost Publications ‘Chicago Tribune’ To Cut 20% Of Newsroom 04/14/2009.
- North Country Health Services announced it will extend wage reductions to its approximately 170 non-union staff members. These individuals will receive a 4 percent cut in pay effective early May 2009.
- SHAWNEE — Superior Fibers LLC in Shawnee went into a “curtailment” with about 40 employees losing their jobs.
- April 14 (Reuters) – Telecom equipment maker Soapstone Networks Inc (SOAP.O) said it is slashing about 40 percent of its workforce to cut expenses.
- Raven Industries, Inc. (RAVN: News ) said on Tuesday that over the past two weeks, it has reduced staffing levels by 29 employees in its Applied Technology Division, located in Sioux Falls. This cut represents 4% of the company’s Sioux Falls employee base and 3% of its total base.
- Qantas will cut 500 managers and may axe 1250 other staff as its profits come under pressure from the financial crisis.
- TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Qantas Airways said Tuesday it is cutting its fiscal 2009 earnings expectation by as much as 80% and plans to lower its flying capacity, reduce spending and eliminate up to 1,750 jobs in response to a major slump across the air travel industry.
via Qantas slashes profit estimate, plans mass job cuts – MarketWatch .
- SINGAPORE (AFP) — Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS said that 240 jobs will be cut from its wealth management division in the Asia-Pacific region as part of a cost reduction exercise.
via AFP: UBS to cut 240 jobs in Asia-Pacific: bank
- SOUTH Africa’s largest textile and clothing group, Seardel, has announced what could be only the first round of retrenchments at the company, which will leave 1400 workers without jobs.
- April 14 (Reuters) – Philippines-focused nickel miner Toledo Mining Corp Plc (TMC.L) said on Tuesday it stopped all capital expenditure beyond necessary maintenance during the quarter ended March 31 and cut more than 600 jobs at its Berong nickel mine.
- Finnish wood-processing group UPM-Kymmene said in a statement Tuesday it had decided to end plywood processing operations at its Lahti mill in southern Finland with the loss of some 110 jobs.
via NewsRoom Finland.
- Some 440 jobs are being cut worldwide by Gloucestershire-based engineering group Renishaw, it has been announced.
- April 14 (Bloomberg) — Qimonda AG’s Portuguese unit, which last month filed a declaration of insolvency, said it’s reducing its workforce to 1,000 and suspending the contracts of 800 of the remaining employees for six months.
via Qimonda Portugal to Lay Off 800 Workers, Cut Temporary Jobs – Bloomberg.com .
- LIHIR Gold has announced 200 job cuts at its Ballarat mining operation.
via 200 jobs go at Lihir Gold – Local News – News – General – The Courier .
- HELSINKI, April 14 (Reuters) – Finnish papermaker UPM-Kymmene (UPM1V.HE) said on Tuesday it would cut 110 jobs and temporarily lay off 320 more staff due to “further weakened” plywood market conditions.
via UPM to says to cut Finnish plywood jobs | Global Industries | Autos & Transport | Reuters .
- General manager Sam Lee said rumours Snow Park, in the Cardrona Valley near Wanaka, would not open this season were false, but the business would be scaled back after visitor numbers dropped 30 per cent last season.
via Ski area to cut 60pc of jobs in scaledown | Stuff.co.nz.
- Says to cut 200 jobs in its korean subsidiary -filing
- Hiring News and News You Can Use -
- DRS Technical Services will receive approximately $1.2 million in state grants if the defense contractor is able to create 100 new jobs in Pasquotank County and then keep them for nine years, state officials announced Monday.
via DRS to create 100 jobs, get $1M – News | DailyAdvance.com .
- The Arizona Department of Transportation reported that all 41 state highway projects paid for with money from President Barack Obama’s stimulus package will generate an estimated 6,020 jobs. The five projects in Maricopa County will generate 2,180 direct jobs, ADOT says.
via Stimulus construction jobs coming, but slowly.
- LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) – New tax credits for battery makers have brought four companies to Michigan, with a combined investment of more than $1.7 billion.
Four projects have been approved by the Michigan Economic Growth Authority. One is contingent on another tax credit being passed by Michigan’s Legislature. Those projects will create more than 6,600 jobs in the state. The batteries produced will be used in next generation electric and hybrid vehicles.
- In preparation for its peak season, which generally runs from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day Weekend, Sunriver Resort is planning to hire as many as 250 seasonal employees and has eliminated the international hiring program it relied on to fill as many as 85 seasonal jobs a year since 2006.
- HOLLAND – Johnson Controls, the Holland area’s largest employer, will invest $220-million in a new lithium ion battery facility here, bringing 500 new jobs. The plant should be open in 18 to 24 months, pending state and federal approvals.
Mike: The layoff announcements picked up in the afternoon. I hope you allhave a good evening. Till Wednesday………………..
Dilbert - Apr 13
To view a wide variety of blogs, pay a visit to: http://aphainventions.com
“If they did not grossly understate it, they were certainly guilty of a significant error of omission,” said Carbonneau, 40, of Windham, N.H. “The total job loss to the community would actually be at around 1,500 — much greater than the 700 that was originally reported by the agency in its press releases earlier this year,” he said.
via Union president: IRS ‘grossly understating’ Andover layoffs - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA.
Steve Kelley - Apr 13
US and some Canada Layoff News
Hiring News and News You Can Use
- Microsoft/Google/IBM and other Rumors & News -
Mike: It looks as if IBM is trying to escape the higher salaries of Europe for the lower salaries of developing countries. So at least we in the US and Canada can take comfort in knowing that IBM is an equal oppotunity job mover, since they are laying off thousands in the US and Canada as well and shipping those jobs to developing countries. This is not intended to be a protectionist screed, but it is telling that a company, like IBM, which in 2008 received $1,622,457,555 (IBM contracts 2008 USAspending.gov) in federal contracts (that doesn’t include state, county, city and other municipal contracts), is inclined to move so many good paying jobs offshore.
- IBM is planning to axe thousands of jobs in Britain, Germany and Ireland as part of a broader move to shift much of its workforce to cheaper outlets in eastern Europe, China, India and South America, the Observer has learned.
“We expect many job cuts in Ireland, Germany and the UK in the coming months,” said Lee Conrad, national co-ordinator for Alliance@IBM, an American advocacy group for IBM workers.
via IBM set to axe thousands in move to cheap labour abroad | Business | The Observer .
- IN a move that would make even the most miserly budget airline operator wince, IBM has cut tea and coffee from the office budget worldwide to cut costs.
IBM Australia sent an email to staff last week telling them it would stop subsidising employees’ home internet connections from May. But workers were gobsmacked to learn that having a cuppa on the company’s tab had also become an unaffordable luxury.
Instead, they were told, they would have to buy drinks from vending machines to be installed at “selected” company sites.
Employees who put in long hours of unpaid overtime to help push the tech giant’s profits up 12 per cent to $US4.4billion during its final quarter of last year have received the news as a slap in the face.
via IBM ‘too poor’ to pay for staff tea | The Australian.
- Mike: All this IBM news reminds me of the Bud Light commercial where the group is sitting around the conference table discussing ways to cut costs. At IBM it must go something like this: First person: We could cut high paying jobs and move them to lower wage countries. CEO: Check. Second person: We can cut free coffee and tea to our valued employees. CEO: Check. Third person: We could cut CEO and executive pay. CEO: Throws person out the window.
- IBM is in the midst of building up its workforce in India while trimming payroll in more mature markets, including the United States. The company now maintains more than 70,000 employees on the subcontinent.
- Microsoft has reacted to the global economic slump by reassigning half of its forward-looking Live Labs staff to other projects around the company. The remaining half will focus solely on Microsoft’s search products, the area that probably offers Microsoft the most room for revenue growth.
- With or without stimulus money, Virginia’s unemployment trust fund is withering.
Even if the state had voted to accept an additional $125.5 million in federal money to expand those eligible for unemployment benefits, the fund would still need bolstering.
“That would have enabled us to go longer without going broke and it would also have enabled us to borrow less money” from the federal government, said Donald Lillywhite, a research analyst with the Virginia Employment Commission.
via State’s jobless fund expected to run dry | Richmond Times-Dispatch.
- The state’s $2.2 billion unemployment insurance program — a safety net crucial to the welfare of jobless Floridians — relies on 35-year-old computer technology that is antiquated, “well beyond its useful life” and at an “ever increasing risk of … failure,” according to documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
The mainframe computer, installed in 1972, is “inherently rigid and difficult to maintain” and costs the state tens of millions of dollars in unemployment overpayments and staff time, says a report by the Agency for Workforce Innovation, which runs the unemployment program.
via Unemployment checks could halt in Florida if old computer bites dust – OrlandoSentinel.com.
Joel Pett - Apr 13
- Detroit –Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. this morning unveiled a “sober yet straightforward” budget to City Council that includes laying off 334 workers and eliminating 504 vacant positions to trim $42 million from the city’s General Fund.
via Cockrel: ‘Sober’ budget calls for 334 layoffs | detnews.com | The Detroit News.
- The gap can be closed, according to a report by Finance Director Ann Marie Ricardi, through days off without pay for employees, salary and benefit reductions, and layoffs.
- US and some Canada Layoff News -
- Mining company Cliffs Natural Resources said it will further cut production of metallurgical coal and layoff an additional 355 workers at its mines as the global economic downturn continues to batter the steel industry and drive down demand.
via Cliffs to slash coal output, affecting 355 jobs – Forbes.com.
- Bankrupt U.S. chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride Corp (PGPDQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it will close its Dalton, Georgia, chicken processing plant, a move that affects 280 employees, as it looks for ways to trim costs and become more efficient.
- BELLE FOURCHE, S.D. (AP) – American Colloid Co. has decided to put its Belle Fourche bentonite plant into what the company calls an “idle state of operations.”
via Production to be ‘idle’ at Belle Fouche plant.
- Plano-based Perot Systems Corp. said Friday it has cut 30 to 40 jobs in the Plano area.
- As part of a widespread and deep cost-cutting effort, ArvinMeritor Inc. laid off 250 people in February and March, including 100 at the company’s light vehicle business.
via ArvinMeritor has cut jobs to close two plants | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press.
- KNOXVILLE — Panasonic Electronic Devices, in Knox County, and Eagle Bend Manufacturing Inc., in Clinton, laid off a total of 79 workers at the end of March.
via Panasonic, Eagle Bend cut 79 jobs : Business : Knoxville News Sentinel.
- Scarborough, Ontario (AHN) – Hudson’s Bay Company is set to implement a 1,000 reduction of manpower in its Canada operations announced earlier this year. The number of jobs to be shed is equivalent to 5 percent of HBC’s 60,000 employees spread in 600 stores in North America.
via HBC To Shed 1,000 Jobs In Canada | AHN | April 13, 2009.
- Two companies have announced salary cuts and other cost-containment measures today.
via RegeneRx, PharmEng cut salaries – FierceBiotech.
- PITTSBURGH (AP) — Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. says it may curtail production and lay off 275 workers at a smelter in Canada if it’s unable to negotiate a 15-percent pay cut with employees there.
via The Associated Press: Alcoa may slash output, jobs at Canada plant.
- OPELIKA, AL (WTVM) – Officials with Michelin North America announced today it will close its BF Goodrich Tire Manufacturing plant in Opelika by October 31.
The company had previously laid off more than 80 workers in February. The Opelika facility produces BF Goodrich and Uniroyal brand passenger car tires. It employs about 1,000 workers.
via WTVM.com and WTVM News Leader 9, Columbus, GA | Opelika tire plant to shut down.
- MEBANE, N.C. — The GE Consumer and Industrial’s plant in Mebane announced Monday that 100 hourly employees were being laid off.
via 100 Laid Off Mebane GE Plant – Money News Story – WXII The Triad.
- The company reportedly had laid off between 20 and 27 staffers in January.
via Toon Site MyToons Logs Off | Animation Magazine.
- Law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP has laid off 15 attorneys and 22 staff members, a firm official confirmed Monday.
via- http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/04/13/daily6.html
- The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce laid off about 20 percent of its work force on April 7, chamber officials said.
The organization, which had 58 employees before the cuts, said economy-related declines in membership, event participation and sponsorship prompted the staff cuts.
via Las Vegas Business Press :: News : LV Chamber lays off 20 percent of staff.
- Railroad-car manufacturer FreightCar America Inc. announced Monday afternoon that it plans to suspend production at its Roanoke manufacturing plant when workers complete their current work orders.
via FreightCar America plans ‘temporary suspension’ of production in Roanoke - Roanoke.com.
- Finch Paper in Glens Falls, which employs 780 people, announced today it will eliminate 57 blue-collar jobs in its mill.
via Finch cutting mill jobs -- Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY.
- Ten full-time employees at the Hino Motors facility in Williamstown are now out of work.
via Layoffs at Hino Motors .
- April 12 (Bloomberg) — International Business Machines Corp. plans to cut “thousands” of staff in the U.K., Germany and Ireland as it shifts jobs to eastern Europe, China, India and South America, the Observer reported.
via IBM to Cut Thousands of Jobs in Western Europe, Observer Says – Bloomberg.com .
- April 13 (Bloomberg) — Spanish airline Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA will cut 1,200 jobs at its airport-services unit as it seeks to return it to profit, Expansion reported.
- T-Mobile’s UK call centers may face the axe after the firm has resolved to outsource the operations to call centers in Philippines. The operations in UK are spread across three offices- with two in Scotland, which are managed by Telecom Service Centres (TSC) and the third in Yorkshire.
- NZZ am Sonntag said Switzerland would also be hit hard this time, with job cuts among the 26,400 due to be announced on April 22, unnamed sources said.
Swiss newspaper Sonntag said last month that the world’s largest wealth manager in terms of assets would cut a further 8,000 jobs.
via UBS to announce more job cuts soon -media | Markets | US Markets | Reuters .
- Chip PC states that it intends to cut expenditures by NIS 700,000 a month through salary reductions and the laying off of about ten employees. The company had about 70 employees at the end of 2008.
- Hiring News and News You Can Use -
- Job hunting sucks. And while you might be kicking yourself if your expensive AT&T data contract outlasted your last job, you can actually put that data plan and iPhone to work for you in your job hunt.
For instance, you’ll be the first to see new job listings as you browse through CareerBuilder listings in the supermarket checkout line. You’ll always have an electronic résumé and business card on hand, ready to send to any contact you meet with beamME CV. And you’ll have access to tons of finance tools like Mint, ensuring that you always stay within your budget, no matter how tight it might be.
via The Best iPhone Apps for the Unemployed – Reviews by PC Magazine.
- LAS CRUCES — A project director for Spaceport America says the first of 13 bid packages for construction of the nation’s first inland commercial facility for orbital flights will be released in about two weeks.
John Roberts said all 13 bid packages will be released by June.
via Spaceport offers jobs during construction in New Mexico – El Paso Times .
- About 340 jobs are available at the new Wal-Mart Super Center in Logan, which is set to open in mid-June.
via New Logan Wal-Mart looking to fill 340 jobs - ABC 4.com .
- A Fort Worth, Texas-based meat-processing company plans to open a manufacturing plant in Nashville that will eventually employ 250 people.
via Texas meat processor to hire 250 people for Nashville plant | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean.
- Governor extends jobless benefits 7 weeks
Mike: A relatively calm Monday for larger layoff announcements. Monday seems to be quieter for layoff announcements than the remaining weekdays, but I hope it’s a trend that we can all enjoy. See you Tuesday, and don’t forget to get those tax forms ready for the deadline on April 15. …..
Steve Breen - Apr 13
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