layoff tracker thread

[beast]

i remember reading that after 911 they went to Hollywood and asked them to come up with other scenarios in which terrorists might attack.

[beast]

Employers announce a combined 20,000 jobs cuts

By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD
AP Business Writer
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A round of more than 15,000 layoffs announced Thursday by AT&T Inc., DuPont and Viacom Inc. suggests a yearlong wave of job cuts is accelerating, just as the government is expected to report a higher unemployment rate for November on Friday.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse Group also announced 5,300 job cuts, although it's unclear how many will be in the United States.

The latest layoffs coincided with a government report showing the proportion of workers continuing to receive jobless benefits has matched a level last reached in September 1992. The deepening recession is pressuring companies to slash costs, and payroll is typically the quickest and most efficient way to do it.

Thursday's announced job cuts spanned an array of economic sectors, hitting telecom workers, bankers, salespeople and chemical manufacturers. The breadth of the layoffs suggests the pain of the recession will be felt broadly and well into 2009.

Dallas-based AT&T plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force. The nation's biggest telecommunications company said the job cuts will begin this month and continue throughout 2009.

Wilmington, Del.-based chemical company Dupont will cut 2,500 jobs and cut back hours for remaining workers. It also plans to eliminate 4,000 contractors this month, with more contractor cuts in 2009.

New York-based media conglomerate Viacom will cut about 850 jobs, or 7 percent of its work force.

Credit Suisse's 5,300 planned job cuts worldwide represents about 11 percent of its work force.

The layoffs announced Thursday follow others earlier this week. JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it plans to cut 9,200 positions at Washington Mutual, which it acquired. Jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., laid off about 350 employees across the country Wednesday, the same day software maker Adobe Systems Inc. said it will cut 600 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force.

"What we have seen is not just that the cuts are deep; it's that they are happening everywhere," said Andrew Gledhill, an economist with Moody's Economy.com. "It just tells you that there are very few people in any industry who can say, 'I feel safe.'"

Growing job insecurity dampens the economy in ways that go beyond those laid off, Gledhill noted. Anxious families, even those with jobs, rein in their spending. Because consumer spending accounts for roughly 70 percent of U.S. economic activity, a pullback in spending typically leads companies to cut even more workers to trim costs.

"The prospect of losing your job is what scares people," said George Whalin, president of Retail Management Consultants in San Marcos, Calif.

Nervous consumers already have cut back on spending, making November the weakest shopping month since at least 1969, according to retail figures released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers. This week's layoffs could accelerate the pullback.

"It just adds to the concern that consumers are going to have about the future," Whalin said. "I don't know if anyone has any positive spin on this. I wish there was."

For the thousands of newly laid-off, the timing of the latest job cuts, just a few weeks before the holiday season, is compounding the pain.

"It's kind of unusual - companies don't like to lay off people at Christmastime," said Robert Whelan, senior economist with the ECONorthwest consulting firm in Portland, Ore. "What's happened is that too many companies have been caught short. They can't get credit, business has fallen, and they don't have a choice."


Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/J/JOB_CUTS?SITE=VAROA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[beast]

Those figures set the stage for the Labor Department's monthly jobs report scheduled to be released today. Analysts expect that report to show the unemployment rate spiked to 6.7 percent in November.

Analysts said layoff announcements from large corporations indicate a rebound is not likely in the short term.

[beast]

Unemployment Rate Rises to 6.7%

New figures from the Labor Department show a much sharper
worsening of employment conditions than economists expected.
Some 533,000 nonfarm jobs were eliminated in November, the
most in one month since the mid-1970s, and figures for the
prior two months were revised upward by 199,000. The
unemployment rate rose two-tenths of a point to 6.7 percent
in November; it would have been even higher if large numbers
of discouraged workers had not given up looking for work.

[beast]

GM to lay off 2,000 more workers at 3 factories

By TOM KRISHER – 2 hours ago

DETROIT (AP) — The worsening U.S. auto sales slump claimed another 2,000 workers Friday as General Motors Corp. announced layoffs at three more car factories.

The company said it will cut shifts at car factories in Lordstown, Ohio; Orion Township, Mich.; and Oshawa, Ontario, starting in February due to slowing demand for their products.

"It's all market driven, as all of our changes have been of late," spokesman Chris Lee said.

The layoffs amount to 2.4 percent of GM's North American blue-collar work force of 84,000. So far this year, GM has announced 11,000 factory worker layoffs in the U.S.

In Lordstown, where GM makes the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 small cars, 890 workers will go on indefinite layoff starting Feb. 2 when GM ends a third shift at the sprawling complex. The shift was added earlier this year when gas prices hit $4 per gallon and demand for small cars skyrocketed.

Also Feb. 2, GM will lay off 390 workers by cutting a third shift at the Orion plant near Pontiac. The factory makes the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 midsize sedans. The Malibu had been GM's hottest seller, but demand has started to wane in recent months. No date has been set to bring the workers back because GM doesn't know when sales will return.

Another 700 workers will go on indefinite layoff Feb. 9 in Oshawa, Ontario, where GM makes the Chevrolet Impala large sedan. The company is cutting the third shift, also due to slowing demand, Lee said.

GM also is adding several weeks of down time to the normal two-week holiday shutdown that will essentially keep the Lordstown and Orion plants closed from late December through the month of January.

In addition, GM is adding a week of down time at its Malibu and Saturn Aura plant in Kansas City, Kan., keeping it closed for three weeks in January. When workers return Jan. 26, the assembly line speed will be slowed, Lee said.

GM's U.S. sales fell 41 percent in November when compared with the same month last year, and they are down 22 percent for the first 11 months of the year.

Overall, U.S. sales were off 37 percent in November, the worst level in 26 years, and were down more than 16 percent so far this year.

Automakers have blamed tight or nonexistent credit, economic woes and a lack of consumer confidence for the slump, and they aren't predicting much of a recovery in 2009.

Many of the laid-off workers will get state unemployment benefits plus supplemental pay from the company that adds up to about 95 percent of their base pay, for 48 weeks. Beyond that, their pay is in doubt because the United Auto Workers union has agreed in principle to eliminate the jobs bank, which would have given them most of their pay for up to two years.

Some of the workers, recent hires who work for $14 per hour, about half the hourly rate of an older UAW worker, will get only state unemployment benefits, Lee said.

GM shares fell 11 cents to $4 in morning trading Friday. They have traded in a range of $1.70 to $29.28 over the past year.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_Mvl4r4i9ue6CqUskMUZticqNuwD94SLFAG0

[beast]

A GM/Chrysler union would be bad for auto business

BY MIKE CLEMENT, Chrysler retiree

As the auto industry rescue plan takes shape in Washington, there has been renewed talk of a GM-Chrysler merger, or more probably, GM taking Chrysler off the hands of Cerberus, its private-equity owner. First off, both companies need to be fully focused on survival for the moment, and trying to pull off a merger in the current atmosphere would be enormously distracting and disruptive.

But even if they could, Chrysler retiree Mike Clement — 31 years in product planning, finance, sales and marketing — of Birmingham lists these reasons why it's not a good idea to even try.

PRODUCT: The Chrysler product lineup has almost complete overlap with the GM lineup. The main exceptions are the Jeep Wrangler and the minivans. This means that most of the Chrysler products will be dropped, resulting in the layoff of tens of thousands of workers at Chrysler and their suppliers and the closing of thousands of
dealerships. For the government to finance this blood bath is dead wrong!

PROFIT: GM already has two brands, Hummer and Pontiac, that it is trying to drop or drastically cut back and two troubled brands that may eventually be shut down, Saab and Saturn. This will be very expensive as GM learned when they dropped Oldsmobile. Eliminating the Chrysler and/or Dodge brands will saddle GM with further large costs and severely reduce profits, or more likely, markedly increase losses. Better that GM gets its own brand problems solved before it adds three more expensive-to-drop brands.

PEOPLE: Advocates of the proposal may point to Chrysler's merger with
AMC as the model for success, and indeed, Chrysler gained many talented
people from AMC. But, there are significant differences between now and
then that must be considered: At the time of the AMC merger, Chrysler was a very successful company. The minivans were the hottest vehicles on the market, the loan guarantee had been paid off, and Chrysler was very profitable. At this time, GM is in deep financial trouble, it is starting (not ending) a loan program with the government, and it is extremely unprofitable. The expected result will be that many of the most talented Chrysler people will not be satisfied working for GM and they will leave, taking irreplaceable knowledge and experience with them.

As the smallest, most nimble and fastest acting of the Big Three, Chrysler has arguably the best chance of survival in today's market. Further, GM has the most important new product coming, the Chevrolet Volt. Saddling GM with the problems of absorbing Chrysler will distract the company and could harm the Volt program. That would be bad for the country. Better that GM solve their existing problems and make sure they get the Volt right.

There is room in the market for three, downsized U.S. car companies. That's the best solution. 
Source: http://www.freep.com/article/20081208/OPINION05/81208050/1068/OPINION

[beast]

Another 15,000 job cuts
Sony, Wyndham, Novellus, Danaher, NFL, Principal Financial are the latest companies to add to the dismal employment picture, bringing the December tally to about 50,000 job cuts.
By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: December 9, 2008: 2:45 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The job toll continued Tuesday, as Sony Corp. and five other companies announced cuts totaling nearly 15,000 positions.

Sony, Danaher Corp., Wyndham Worldwide, the National Football League and Principal Financial Group announced job cuts totaling about 14,400 positions.

In addition,Novellus Systems said it was cutting 10% of its global work force without specifying a number of employees, but the company had a headcount of 3,678 staffers on Dec. 12, 2007.

Sony (SNE), based in Tokyo, on Tuesday announced the most sweeping job-cutting plan of the three companies. Sony said it planned to "reduce headcount" in its electronics business by 8,000 jobs by March 30, 2010. The cuts will be implemented worldwide, the company said, from a total workforce of 160,000, according to a Sept. 30 headcount.

Sony, which produces a wide variety of consumer electronics, blamed "the acute downturn in the economic climate" for the job cuts. The company also said it was reducing its seasonal and temporary staff.

The Wyndham Hotel Group (WYN), based in Parsippany, N.J.., said late Monday it would "eliminate" about 4,000 positions through the first quarter of 2009. Wyndham's hotels include Ramada, Days Inn and Super 8 chains.

Danaher Corp (DHR, Fortune 500)., a manufacturer based in Washington, said late Monday that it was "eliminating" about 1,700 jobs and 13 facilities in the fourth quarter, to save about $100 million in 2009. The company blamed the "current economic backdrop." Danaher makes tools, sensors and medical equipment.

Novellus (NVLS), a provider of equipment for the semiconductor industry, said on Tuesday that it was cutting one-tenth of its work force "through a combination of attrition and layoffs." The company, based in San Jose, Calif., said the reductions would occur through Jan. 31, 2009.

The NFL said on Tuesday that it planned to reduce its staff by about 150 employees over the next 60 days. The company employs 1,100 workers in its league headquarters in New York City, NFL Films facilities in Mt. Laurel, N.J., and its Los Angeles facilities houses NFL Network and NFL.com.

"These are difficult and painful steps, but they are necessary in the current economic environment," said Commissioner Roger Goodell in a memo to his staff, which was provided to CNNMoney.com.

He said the NFL would "emerge strong, more efficient" as a result of cuts.

Principal Financial Group (PFG, Fortune 500)said it is eliminating about 550 positions. This includes 300 jobs at its Des Moines, Iowa, headquarters and 250 jobs in 45 other locations, the company, equating 3.5% of its total workforce.

"Since September, when market conditions worsened, we have been continuously reviewing expenses and expected revenues," said Mary O'Keefe, senior vice president of Principal Financial, in a prepared statement. "In order to bring expenses more in line with projected revenues, we have already cut many expenses. Unfortunately, this must include eliminating some jobs."

Job cuts have been mounting all year. According to the Labor Department, the U.S. economy hemorrhaged 533,000 jobs in November, the largest monthly loss in 34 years. Through November, the economy lost of total of 1.9 million jobs, the government said, raising the unemployment rate to 6.7%.
The December of our discontent

This does not include December's brutal onslaught of job eliminations, totaling around 50,000 so far.

Just in one day - Dec. 4 - 11 companies announced a total of about 25,000 job cuts. Nearly half of that tally comes from one company: Dallas-based telecom AT&T (T, Fortune 500). Also on that day, Credit Suisse Group (CS) announced 5,300 cuts and DuPont (DD, Fortune 500) reported 2,500.

Also in December, Washington Mutual said it was cutting 7,600 jobs, U.S. Steel said it was cutting 3,500 and State Street Corp. (STT, Fortune 500) announced plans to eliminate 1,800.

Dow Chemical (DOW, Fortune 500) said it was eliminating 5,000 positions and closing 20 plants. The battered automaker General Motors (GM, Fortune 500), which is awaiting a bailout decision from Congress and the White House, said it was cutting 2,000 jobs. Car rental company Avis Budget Group (CAR, Fortune 500) said it plans to eliminate 2,200 jobs.

The Belgian-based brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev said it would reduce 1,400 positions and 3M (MMM, Fortune 500) reported 1,800 job cuts.

Going forward, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its weekly report on initial jobless claims on Thursday. The government is expected to announce 525,000 total jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 6, according to a consensus of economists compiled by Briefing.com. To top of page
First Published: December 9, 2008: 8:22 AM ET
 
 
 
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Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/09/news/economy/job_cuts/index.htm?postversion=2008120914