Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
STARBUCKS AXES 600
February 22, 2008 -- Starbucks Corp. said it would cut 600 jobs and restructure operations as it seeks to reverse a decline in customer visits.
About 220 workers were fired, with other cuts coming from the elimination of open positions, Seattle-based Starbucks said yesterday in a statement. Starbucks, which employs more than 170,000, fell 43 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $17.83 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
About 220 workers were fired, with other cuts coming from the elimination of open positions, Seattle-based Starbucks said yesterday in a statement. Starbucks, which employs more than 170,000, fell 43 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $17.83 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Survey says private domestic firms biggest employer to Chinese graduates
Labels: China, college grads, employment
Promise of U.S. jobs lures migrants who vowed to stay in Mexico
Labels: employment, immigrants, Mexico, US
Mitsubishi Motors axes Australian plant with 930 layoffs
Labels: Australia, layoffs, Mitsubishi Motors
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Merge cutting work force by 30 percent
Merge Technologies Inc. of West Allis is planning to reduce its work force by about 30 percent by the end of September as part of an initiative to slash $10 million to $12 million in expenses.
Merge, a provider of medical imaging software and technology with about 600 employees, said most of those job cuts would occur through the layoff of about 160 workers by March 31, with most effective immediately.
About 45 of those layoffs would occur in the United States and Canada, while 115 would occur offshore, said Merge, which does business as Merge Healthcare and has its headquarters at 6737 West Washington St. An office in Burlington, Mass., has been vacated.
Another 20 employees are expected to leave the company through attrition by the end of September, reducing total employment to 420.
The company will recognize a charge in its first quarter ending March 31 of approximately $2 million related to the layoffs. The layoff will save approximately $7 million a year.
Merge said it has already cut enough jobs since Sept. 30, 2007, to save another $3 million. Further attrition in employment is expected to save $1 million to $2 million a year.
In recent months, the troubled Merge has undertaken two restatements of its financial statements to clear up accounting issues and is the target of a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stemming from the restatements. Merge is also defending itself against several class-action lawsuits filed in 2006.
In addition, companies in the medical imaging industry, including Merge and imaging equipment maker GE Healthcare Technologies in Waukesha, have been hurt by the passage of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which reduced Medicare reimbursement for medical imaging procedures.
Ken Rardin, the company's president and CEO, said: "As we addressed earlier, the impacts of the Deficit Reduction Act, the two financial statement restatements, and ongoing legal expenses associated with litigation and the SEC investigation have been quite significant and have necessitated the recent rightsizing initiative."
Merge, a provider of medical imaging software and technology with about 600 employees, said most of those job cuts would occur through the layoff of about 160 workers by March 31, with most effective immediately.
About 45 of those layoffs would occur in the United States and Canada, while 115 would occur offshore, said Merge, which does business as Merge Healthcare and has its headquarters at 6737 West Washington St. An office in Burlington, Mass., has been vacated.
Another 20 employees are expected to leave the company through attrition by the end of September, reducing total employment to 420.
The company will recognize a charge in its first quarter ending March 31 of approximately $2 million related to the layoffs. The layoff will save approximately $7 million a year.
Merge said it has already cut enough jobs since Sept. 30, 2007, to save another $3 million. Further attrition in employment is expected to save $1 million to $2 million a year.
In recent months, the troubled Merge has undertaken two restatements of its financial statements to clear up accounting issues and is the target of a probe by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stemming from the restatements. Merge is also defending itself against several class-action lawsuits filed in 2006.
In addition, companies in the medical imaging industry, including Merge and imaging equipment maker GE Healthcare Technologies in Waukesha, have been hurt by the passage of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which reduced Medicare reimbursement for medical imaging procedures.
Ken Rardin, the company's president and CEO, said: "As we addressed earlier, the impacts of the Deficit Reduction Act, the two financial statement restatements, and ongoing legal expenses associated with litigation and the SEC investigation have been quite significant and have necessitated the recent rightsizing initiative."
Labels: layoffs, Merge Technologies, Wisconsin
Manufacturers account for 24% of fourth-quarter layoffs
In the fourth quarter of 2007, there were 1,619 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 265,454 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released February 14 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The construction industry experienced a record high in both layoff events and separations in the fourth quarter of 2007. Other industries registering fourth-quarter highs in terms of separated workers were arts, entertainment and recreation, and finance and insurance, the latter mostly due to higher layoff activity in credit intermediation and related activities. Both the total number of layoff events and the number of separations were lower than during the October-December 2006 time period.
Among the seven categories of economic reasons for layoff, the completion of seasonal work accounted for the highest share of events (42 percent) and number of separations (119,325) in October-December 2007. Layoffs due to business demand reasons had the next highest proportion of events (34 percent). The only category of economic reasons for which the number of separations increased over the year was financial issues.
Sixty-one extended mass layoff events involved the movement of work and were associated with the separation of 10,076 workers. These events accounted for 7 percent of the non-seasonal layoff events and non-seasonal separations.
Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events, the lowest proportion reported since collection began in 1996. Events involving permanent closures affected 27,723 workers, down from 43,158 separations reported during the fourth quarter 2006. Fifty-six percent of employers reporting an extended layoff in the fourth quarter of 2007 indicated they anticipated some type of recall, about the same as last year.
The national unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted, in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 4.2 percent a year earlier. Private non-farm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased by 0.9 percent, or about 1.1 million, over the year.
For all of 2007, the total number of extended mass layoff events was 5,170, affecting 931,053 workers. While the total number of layoff events increased in 2007 from a year earlier, the number of separations decreased over the period.
Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs
Manufacturing accounted for 24 percent of events and 27 percent of separations in the fourth quarter, largely in food manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing. Layoffs in the administrative and waste services sector accounted for 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events and 7 percent of separations. The layoffs in this sector were concentrated in landscaping services. Cutbacks in the finance and insurance sector accounted for 6 percent of events and separations and were primarily in the credit intermediation and related activities industry.
Construction industries experienced a record high number of extended mass layoff events (622) and separations (78,716) in the fourth quarter of 2007. The largest number of separations was in heavy and civil engineering construction (44,151, mostly associated with highway, street and bridge construction), followed by specialty trade contractors (22,559) and construction of buildings (12,006).
Information technology-producing industries (communications equipment, communications services, computer hardware, and software and computer services) accounted for 24 extended mass layoff events and 3,351 separations during the fourth quarter of 2007, the lowest figures reported for any quarter since 2000.
Read the full report and view all of the data tables by clicking on the link below:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.htm
Among the seven categories of economic reasons for layoff, the completion of seasonal work accounted for the highest share of events (42 percent) and number of separations (119,325) in October-December 2007. Layoffs due to business demand reasons had the next highest proportion of events (34 percent). The only category of economic reasons for which the number of separations increased over the year was financial issues.
Sixty-one extended mass layoff events involved the movement of work and were associated with the separation of 10,076 workers. These events accounted for 7 percent of the non-seasonal layoff events and non-seasonal separations.
Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events, the lowest proportion reported since collection began in 1996. Events involving permanent closures affected 27,723 workers, down from 43,158 separations reported during the fourth quarter 2006. Fifty-six percent of employers reporting an extended layoff in the fourth quarter of 2007 indicated they anticipated some type of recall, about the same as last year.
The national unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted, in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 4.2 percent a year earlier. Private non-farm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased by 0.9 percent, or about 1.1 million, over the year.
For all of 2007, the total number of extended mass layoff events was 5,170, affecting 931,053 workers. While the total number of layoff events increased in 2007 from a year earlier, the number of separations decreased over the period.
Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs
Manufacturing accounted for 24 percent of events and 27 percent of separations in the fourth quarter, largely in food manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing. Layoffs in the administrative and waste services sector accounted for 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events and 7 percent of separations. The layoffs in this sector were concentrated in landscaping services. Cutbacks in the finance and insurance sector accounted for 6 percent of events and separations and were primarily in the credit intermediation and related activities industry.
Construction industries experienced a record high number of extended mass layoff events (622) and separations (78,716) in the fourth quarter of 2007. The largest number of separations was in heavy and civil engineering construction (44,151, mostly associated with highway, street and bridge construction), followed by specialty trade contractors (22,559) and construction of buildings (12,006).
Information technology-producing industries (communications equipment, communications services, computer hardware, and software and computer services) accounted for 24 extended mass layoff events and 3,351 separations during the fourth quarter of 2007, the lowest figures reported for any quarter since 2000.
Read the full report and view all of the data tables by clicking on the link below:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.htm
Labels: BLS, layoffs, manufacturing
Manufacturers account for 24% of fourth-quarter layoffs
n the fourth quarter of 2007, there were 1,619 mass layoff events that resulted in the separation of 265,454 workers from their jobs for at least 31 days, according to preliminary figures released February 14 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The construction industry experienced a record high in both layoff events and separations in the fourth quarter of 2007. Other industries registering fourth-quarter highs in terms of separated workers were arts, entertainment and recreation, and finance and insurance, the latter mostly due to higher layoff activity in credit intermediation and related activities. Both the total number of layoff events and the number of separations were lower than during the October-December 2006 time period.
Among the seven categories of economic reasons for layoff, the completion of seasonal work accounted for the highest share of events (42 percent) and number of separations (119,325) in October-December 2007. Layoffs due to business demand reasons had the next highest proportion of events (34 percent). The only category of economic reasons for which the number of separations increased over the year was financial issues.
Sixty-one extended mass layoff events involved the movement of work and were associated with the separation of 10,076 workers. These events accounted for 7 percent of the non-seasonal layoff events and non-seasonal separations.
Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events, the lowest proportion reported since collection began in 1996. Events involving permanent closures affected 27,723 workers, down from 43,158 separations reported during the fourth quarter 2006. Fifty-six percent of employers reporting an extended layoff in the fourth quarter of 2007 indicated they anticipated some type of recall, about the same as last year.
The national unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted, in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 4.2 percent a year earlier. Private non-farm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased by 0.9 percent, or about 1.1 million, over the year.
For all of 2007, the total number of extended mass layoff events was 5,170, affecting 931,053 workers. While the total number of layoff events increased in 2007 from a year earlier, the number of separations decreased over the period.
Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs
Manufacturing accounted for 24 percent of events and 27 percent of separations in the fourth quarter, largely in food manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing. Layoffs in the administrative and waste services sector accounted for 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events and 7 percent of separations. The layoffs in this sector were concentrated in landscaping services. Cutbacks in the finance and insurance sector accounted for 6 percent of events and separations and were primarily in the credit intermediation and related activities industry.
Construction industries experienced a record high number of extended mass layoff events (622) and separations (78,716) in the fourth quarter of 2007. The largest number of separations was in heavy and civil engineering construction (44,151, mostly associated with highway, street and bridge construction), followed by specialty trade contractors (22,559) and construction of buildings (12,006).
Information technology-producing industries (communications equipment, communications services, computer hardware, and software and computer services) accounted for 24 extended mass layoff events and 3,351 separations during the fourth quarter of 2007, the lowest figures reported for any quarter since 2000.
Read the full report and view all of the data tables by clicking on the link below:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.htm
Among the seven categories of economic reasons for layoff, the completion of seasonal work accounted for the highest share of events (42 percent) and number of separations (119,325) in October-December 2007. Layoffs due to business demand reasons had the next highest proportion of events (34 percent). The only category of economic reasons for which the number of separations increased over the year was financial issues.
Sixty-one extended mass layoff events involved the movement of work and were associated with the separation of 10,076 workers. These events accounted for 7 percent of the non-seasonal layoff events and non-seasonal separations.
Permanent closure of worksites occurred in 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events, the lowest proportion reported since collection began in 1996. Events involving permanent closures affected 27,723 workers, down from 43,158 separations reported during the fourth quarter 2006. Fifty-six percent of employers reporting an extended layoff in the fourth quarter of 2007 indicated they anticipated some type of recall, about the same as last year.
The national unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted, in the fourth quarter of 2007, up from 4.2 percent a year earlier. Private non-farm payroll employment, not seasonally adjusted, increased by 0.9 percent, or about 1.1 million, over the year.
For all of 2007, the total number of extended mass layoff events was 5,170, affecting 931,053 workers. While the total number of layoff events increased in 2007 from a year earlier, the number of separations decreased over the period.
Industry Distribution of Extended Layoffs
Manufacturing accounted for 24 percent of events and 27 percent of separations in the fourth quarter, largely in food manufacturing and transportation equipment manufacturing. Layoffs in the administrative and waste services sector accounted for 8 percent of all extended mass layoff events and 7 percent of separations. The layoffs in this sector were concentrated in landscaping services. Cutbacks in the finance and insurance sector accounted for 6 percent of events and separations and were primarily in the credit intermediation and related activities industry.
Construction industries experienced a record high number of extended mass layoff events (622) and separations (78,716) in the fourth quarter of 2007. The largest number of separations was in heavy and civil engineering construction (44,151, mostly associated with highway, street and bridge construction), followed by specialty trade contractors (22,559) and construction of buildings (12,006).
Information technology-producing industries (communications equipment, communications services, computer hardware, and software and computer services) accounted for 24 extended mass layoff events and 3,351 separations during the fourth quarter of 2007, the lowest figures reported for any quarter since 2000.
Read the full report and view all of the data tables by clicking on the link below:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mslo.htm
Labels: BLS, layoffs, manufacturing
Longaberger Layoff Announced/225 Cut
By: George Hiotis
The announced a major layoff of basket makers and senior management employees.
The company says 200 employees in the basket making operation lose their jobs effective today.
Longaberger officials also say 25 senior management jobs companywide are being lost.
That reduction occurred throughout an eight-week period since December.
The company says its taking the steps to strengthen the itself and fuel its future growth.
Chief executive officer Tami Longaberger says “it became crystal clear that we needed to streamline senior management to enable us to quickly and efficiently make the important decisions that will help us grow.”
Officials also announced the company will hire 250 people for seasonal jobs at the Longaberger Homestead.
The announced a major layoff of basket makers and senior management employees.
The company says 200 employees in the basket making operation lose their jobs effective today.
Longaberger officials also say 25 senior management jobs companywide are being lost.
That reduction occurred throughout an eight-week period since December.
The company says its taking the steps to strengthen the itself and fuel its future growth.
Chief executive officer Tami Longaberger says “it became crystal clear that we needed to streamline senior management to enable us to quickly and efficiently make the important decisions that will help us grow.”
Officials also announced the company will hire 250 people for seasonal jobs at the Longaberger Homestead.
Labels: layoffs, Longaberger Basket Company
Employment levels reach record high
The number of people in work reached a record high, and job-related benefit claimants fell to a 30-year low, but the good news was dented by a series of job loss announcements.
The Government said the official jobless figures, which also showed a 61,000 fall in unemployment in the quarter to December to 1.61 million, the lowest for almost two years, highlighted that the UK continued to have a strong and stable labour market.
But within hours of the figures being published, a series of job cuts were announced, including 600 losses at the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth, 100 at an industrial paints factory in Lancashire, and 150 at a sofa-making company in South Wales.
Meanwhile, a cloud of uncertainty hung over up to 1,100 jobs at Pickfords, the UK's oldest removals firm, after its owner warned the business faced going into administration unless a buyer could be found.
Official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that UK employment increased by 175,000 in the three months to December to 29.4 million, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971, while the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 10,800 in January to 794,600, the lowest total since the summer of 1975. It was the 16th consecutive monthly reduction.
The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those looking after a sick relative, on early retirement or who have given up looking for a job, also fell in the latest quarter - by 54,000 to reach 7.92 million. But the total is still 51,000 higher than a year ago.
Employment Minister Stephen Timms said: "These figures show we continue to have a strong and stable labour market with both record numbers in employment and the lowest claimant count for 32 years.
"Our welfare reform policies are improving the opportunities for people who have traditionally been the hardest to reach, helping them to make the move off benefits and into work."
John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "What is surprising is that the ONS figures show no sign whatsoever of the softening in demand for staff identified by various recent independent employer surveys.
"The apparent conundrum might be explained by the normal lag between turning points in economic activity and the eventual labour market fallout. Let's hope for the best - but don't be too surprised if things soon start to take a turn for the worse."
The Government said the official jobless figures, which also showed a 61,000 fall in unemployment in the quarter to December to 1.61 million, the lowest for almost two years, highlighted that the UK continued to have a strong and stable labour market.
But within hours of the figures being published, a series of job cuts were announced, including 600 losses at the Devonport dockyard in Plymouth, 100 at an industrial paints factory in Lancashire, and 150 at a sofa-making company in South Wales.
Meanwhile, a cloud of uncertainty hung over up to 1,100 jobs at Pickfords, the UK's oldest removals firm, after its owner warned the business faced going into administration unless a buyer could be found.
Official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that UK employment increased by 175,000 in the three months to December to 29.4 million, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1971, while the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell by 10,800 in January to 794,600, the lowest total since the summer of 1975. It was the 16th consecutive monthly reduction.
The number of people classed as economically inactive, including those looking after a sick relative, on early retirement or who have given up looking for a job, also fell in the latest quarter - by 54,000 to reach 7.92 million. But the total is still 51,000 higher than a year ago.
Employment Minister Stephen Timms said: "These figures show we continue to have a strong and stable labour market with both record numbers in employment and the lowest claimant count for 32 years.
"Our welfare reform policies are improving the opportunities for people who have traditionally been the hardest to reach, helping them to make the move off benefits and into work."
John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: "What is surprising is that the ONS figures show no sign whatsoever of the softening in demand for staff identified by various recent independent employer surveys.
"The apparent conundrum might be explained by the normal lag between turning points in economic activity and the eventual labour market fallout. Let's hope for the best - but don't be too surprised if things soon start to take a turn for the worse."
Labels: employment, UK
Friday, February 15, 2008
What jobs Project Well into the Future
The government is very helpful with offering career guidance; they do tell you to start a business, but they do suggest where jobs are going to be based upon surveying and sampling.
Here's what they suggest (in no particular order):
Healthcare
Education
Information Technology
Sales
Administrative Support
Accounting and Other professional Services
Engineering
Hospitality (Tourism, Food and Beverage Services)
If you are open to work internationally, I would add commercial construction to this list. Certainly given the number of major projects under construction around the world (many countries are building entire cities!).
In addition to new jobs being created, the economy will be losing a lot of Baby Boomers in these professions creating enormous shortages.
Here's what they suggest (in no particular order):
Healthcare
Education
Information Technology
Sales
Administrative Support
Accounting and Other professional Services
Engineering
Hospitality (Tourism, Food and Beverage Services)
If you are open to work internationally, I would add commercial construction to this list. Certainly given the number of major projects under construction around the world (many countries are building entire cities!).
In addition to new jobs being created, the economy will be losing a lot of Baby Boomers in these professions creating enormous shortages.
Jeff Altman
The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com
© 2008 all rights reserved.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, is Managing Director with Concepts in Staffing, a New York search firm, He has successfully assisted many corporations identify management leaders and staff in many disciplines since 1971. He is a retired certified leader of the ManKind Project, a not for profit organization that assists men with life issues, and a practicing psychotherapist.
He is the author of “Get Yourself Hired NOW! The Big Game Hunter’s Guide to Head Hunting Your Next Job and Every Job After That” (in ebook and audio formats) and “Get Your Job Search Organized NOW!” (ebook) Both are available at www.getyourselfhirednow.com
To receive a daily digest of positions emailed to you, search for openings that The Big Game Hunter is working on, to use Jeff’s free job lead search engine, Job Search Universe, to subscribe to Jeff’s free job hunting ezine, “Head Hunt Your Next Job, or his staffing ezine, “Natural Selection”, or to learn about his VIP program, go to www.jeffaltman.com.
Explore some of The Big Game Hunter's products in "The Universe" series
- Job Search Universe: Search thousand of Job Boards and Corporate Job Sites for job leads at the same time
- The Resume Universe: Information about Resumes and Cover Letters
- The Consulting Universe: Search and Post Consulting Assignments and Consulting Jobs
- Self-Employment Universe: Business Opportunities and Work-At-Home
- The Diet Universe: Health & Wellness Information
- Personal Finance Universe: Taking Care of Your Money better
Plus
- Search4Candidates.com: Refined Searching for Resumes and Candidate Leads
- Search4JobLeads.com: The site that recruiters use to find job leads
- VIP Personal Search: Hire Your Own VIP Personal Search Agent
- The Job Market Blog: Blogging and news about the job market since August 2001
- 4ITProfessionals: Search for jobs, resume services and post your resume—targeted on IT professionals
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- Indian Job Network: Network for Work in
Labels: US Job Market
100 PINK SLIPS ABOUT TO HIT GRAY LADY STAFFERS
By KEITH J. KELLY
February 15, 2008 -- The New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller yesterday told the paper's editorial staff that the company plans to slash about 100 newsroom jobs this year.
Keller broke the news to staffers in three separate meetings.
"The low-hanging fruit is gone, and so is some of the higher-hanging fruit," Keller said, according to a statement released by the Times.
"To meet our budget goals, we will have to do a little less, and every time we do less, we cede a bit of advantage."
Keller said he hoped to accomplish the cuts through buyouts and attrition, but acknowledged that involuntary cuts were possible.
Under past staff reductions, voluntary buyouts must first be offered before any firings can take place.
Many of the jobs affected fall under the jurisdiction of the Newspaper Guild.
Guild officials were not available to comment.
Insiders seemed resigned to the bad news.
"I don't think it comes as a surprise to anyone," grumbled one in sider, who added, "In some cases it's a way to get rid of deadwood."
The Times currently has 1,332 ed itorial em ployees - more news room jobs than any other newspa per in the US.
Keller promised that upper-level executives would share in the pain, but didn't disclose precisely how that would be accomplished.
The Times has been under pressure for years. Its circulation in the five boroughs of New York City, its home base, has plunged 20 percent over a five-year period.
The paper's ad base has also eroded.
And The Wall Street Journal is stepping up its coverage in the political and lifestyle arena following the $5.4 billion takeover of Dow Jones by News Corp., which also owns The Post.
Labels: layoffs, New York Times
Thursday, February 14, 2008
SEARS TO FIRE 200 WORKERS
Bloomberg
February 14, 2008 -- Sears Holdings Corp., the company that started reorganizing last month to stem declining sales, will fire 200 workers at its Hoffman Estates, Ill., headquarters to cut costs.
The jobs are in support services and account for 4 percent of the 5,000 positions at the retailer, spokesman Chris Brathwaite said yesterday.
The largest US department-store company has posted declining sales at older stores in every quarter since Chairman Eddie Lampert combined Sears Roebuck & Co. and Kmart Holdings Corp. in 2005. Last month, Lampert ousted Chief Executive Officer Aylwin Lewis and restructured Sears.
MORGAN STANLEY SLASHING JOBS AGAIN
By ZACHERY KOUWE
Preparing 1,000 layoffs." border="0" width="223">JOHN MACK
Preparing 1,000 layoffs.
Preparing 1,000 layoffs.
February 14, 2008 -- Bank of America may be plunging deeper into the mortgage business by purchasing Countrywide Financial, but the rest of Wall Street is getting as far away from home loans as they can.
Yesterday, Morgan Stanley said it will eliminate 1,000 jobs by scaling back its US residential mortgage business and closing the Advantage Home Loans unit in the UK.
"Given the continued dislocation in the mortgage markets, we have restructured our residential mortgage business to ensure we are appropriately positioned for the environment going forward," Anthony Meola, chief operating officer of the US residential business, said in a statement.
This year, Morgan Stanley has said it will cut 2,000 jobs from areas that offered mortgages, packaged and traded debt securities and provided high-yield loans.
The company also said in October it was eliminating about 300 trading and banking jobs in the securities division.
The firm will continue its mortgage-servicing business, Saxon Mortgage Service, and offer loans to retail brokerage clients.
Wall Street has eliminated at least 19,000 jobs in the past six months. Lehman Brothers recently announced it would "substantially" reduce its US residential-mortgage lending. To date, some 3,800 mortgage jobs have been lost at the firm.
Morgan Stanley, led by John Mack, bought Advantage in December 2005, joining Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch in setting up units making home loans to UK borrowers and packaging them into securities. The bank also bought mortgage lenders in Italy and Russia.
Labels: layoffs, Morgan Stanley
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Sega Sammy Cutting 400 Jobs, 80 Arcades
By Earnest Cavalli EmailFebruary 08, 2008 | 4:43:05
Amid news that Sega Sammy Holdings expects to lose 26 billion yen ($243.9 million) during this fiscal year, the firm announced that they will be cutting 400 jobs from their videogame software group.
This sad news comes on the heels of a plan the company revealed in November to close or sell 80 of the group's 430 worldwide arcades.
Company executives see heavy Japanese regulation of the gambling uses for their pachinko systems (leading to an 85 percent profit decline for that section of the company), as well as the proliferation of the Wii (which gives gamers the ability to play many popular Sega arcade games at home) as key factors in their current financial woes.
The ongoing collapse of the traditional arcade makes this news not-so-surprising, but many were still stunned by the Japanese government's decision to crack down on the pachinko industry.
Certainly, it's a form of gambling, but with annual revenues of 30 trillion yen ($281 billion), you'd think they'd be willing to continue to look the other way, if not actively subsidize an industry which generates great, continuous economic windfalls for the nation.
I don't think the arcade will ever truly die, if only because there are so many frighteningly devoted Dance Dance Revolution fans out there, but this news is yet another kick to the ribs of the traditional arcade's badly beaten body.
Sega Sammy sees loss in 2007/08 [Reuters]
Amid news that Sega Sammy Holdings expects to lose 26 billion yen ($243.9 million) during this fiscal year, the firm announced that they will be cutting 400 jobs from their videogame software group.
This sad news comes on the heels of a plan the company revealed in November to close or sell 80 of the group's 430 worldwide arcades.
Company executives see heavy Japanese regulation of the gambling uses for their pachinko systems (leading to an 85 percent profit decline for that section of the company), as well as the proliferation of the Wii (which gives gamers the ability to play many popular Sega arcade games at home) as key factors in their current financial woes.
The ongoing collapse of the traditional arcade makes this news not-so-surprising, but many were still stunned by the Japanese government's decision to crack down on the pachinko industry.
Certainly, it's a form of gambling, but with annual revenues of 30 trillion yen ($281 billion), you'd think they'd be willing to continue to look the other way, if not actively subsidize an industry which generates great, continuous economic windfalls for the nation.
I don't think the arcade will ever truly die, if only because there are so many frighteningly devoted Dance Dance Revolution fans out there, but this news is yet another kick to the ribs of the traditional arcade's badly beaten body.
Sega Sammy sees loss in 2007/08 [Reuters]
Labels: Japan, layoffs, Sega Sammy
High-tech Harris Corp. of Melbourne to add 425 jobs by mid-2008: Defense contracts are fueling the company's hiring growth in Palm Bay and Melbourne
Feb 07, 2008 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- Melbourne-based Harris Corp. plans to add more than 425 new jobs by mid-2008, the latest hiring boom in a substantial expansion of its Brevard County work force, the company said Wednesday.
With annual pay ranging from $55,000 to more than $66,000, the high-tech communications giant expects to boost its Brevard work force by at least 6 percent through midyear, officials said.
More hiring is planned later in 2008, although specifics were not available.
Since early 2007, the company has generated more than 700 new jobs in Melbourne and Palm Bay. Though it has filled some positions vacated by retirements, Harris' work force grew at a net pace of nearly 10 percent.
Wartime defense contracts have prompted much of its hiring, though nondefense work has been almost equally important, officials said.
"We've seen across-the-board growth," spokesman Jim Burke said. "And the local hiring numbers do not include additional hiring we are doing throughout the rest of the U.S. and internationally."
The largest high-tech company based in Central Florida currently employs about 7,200 in government communications, electronics, program management and other technology operations. That represents nearly half of its worldwide employment.
Harris has grown locally without the enticement of tax breaks or other government incentives, according to Burke.
Its average annual salaries are 50 percent to 90 percent higher than the Central Florida average of $37,000 a year.
The company continues to bring aboard a variety of technical talent, ranging from recent college graduates to veteran engineers, Burke said.
It produces some key military systems now used in Iraq and Afghanistan, including high-speed command communications systems and fighter jet cockpit electronics.
Its nonmilitary work includes production of wireless hand-held computers for the U.S. Census Bureau and advanced air-traffic control communications for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Harris recently posted fourth-quarter sales of $1.3 billion, a 30 percent jump from the year-earlier quarter. Profit rose 26 percent to $114 million, beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate.
The company's expansion comes at a critical time for the region as the economy tries to weather the effect of the real estate slump and mortgage-credit crisis, said Sean Snaith, an economist with the University of Central Florida.
"Harris has tapped into areas that have been unscathed by the housing demise thus far," he said. "There continues to be sustained demand and job creation in the military sector, which is not going away any time soon, no matter who comes into the White House."
The higher paying jobs at Harris and other high-tech employers will be key to sustaining the local economy by supporting consumer spending during the slowdown, Snaith said.
"Their salaries are a far cry from the other industries tied to tourism, which generally have lower pay," he said. "High-tech provides the types of jobs we need to diversify the economy and increase the average wage in this region."
Overall, defense and high-tech employment across mid-Florida has grown 8 percent to 223,200 jobs since 2005, according to a recent study for Enterprise Florida by the University of West Florida's Haas Center.
Richard Burnett can be reached at rburnett@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5256.
With annual pay ranging from $55,000 to more than $66,000, the high-tech communications giant expects to boost its Brevard work force by at least 6 percent through midyear, officials said.
More hiring is planned later in 2008, although specifics were not available.
Since early 2007, the company has generated more than 700 new jobs in Melbourne and Palm Bay. Though it has filled some positions vacated by retirements, Harris' work force grew at a net pace of nearly 10 percent.
Wartime defense contracts have prompted much of its hiring, though nondefense work has been almost equally important, officials said.
"We've seen across-the-board growth," spokesman Jim Burke said. "And the local hiring numbers do not include additional hiring we are doing throughout the rest of the U.S. and internationally."
The largest high-tech company based in Central Florida currently employs about 7,200 in government communications, electronics, program management and other technology operations. That represents nearly half of its worldwide employment.
Harris has grown locally without the enticement of tax breaks or other government incentives, according to Burke.
Its average annual salaries are 50 percent to 90 percent higher than the Central Florida average of $37,000 a year.
The company continues to bring aboard a variety of technical talent, ranging from recent college graduates to veteran engineers, Burke said.
It produces some key military systems now used in Iraq and Afghanistan, including high-speed command communications systems and fighter jet cockpit electronics.
Its nonmilitary work includes production of wireless hand-held computers for the U.S. Census Bureau and advanced air-traffic control communications for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Harris recently posted fourth-quarter sales of $1.3 billion, a 30 percent jump from the year-earlier quarter. Profit rose 26 percent to $114 million, beating the average Wall Street analyst estimate.
The company's expansion comes at a critical time for the region as the economy tries to weather the effect of the real estate slump and mortgage-credit crisis, said Sean Snaith, an economist with the University of Central Florida.
"Harris has tapped into areas that have been unscathed by the housing demise thus far," he said. "There continues to be sustained demand and job creation in the military sector, which is not going away any time soon, no matter who comes into the White House."
The higher paying jobs at Harris and other high-tech employers will be key to sustaining the local economy by supporting consumer spending during the slowdown, Snaith said.
"Their salaries are a far cry from the other industries tied to tourism, which generally have lower pay," he said. "High-tech provides the types of jobs we need to diversify the economy and increase the average wage in this region."
Overall, defense and high-tech employment across mid-Florida has grown 8 percent to 223,200 jobs since 2005, according to a recent study for Enterprise Florida by the University of West Florida's Haas Center.
Richard Burnett can be reached at rburnett@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5256.
Labels: Florida, Harris Corp, hiring, Melbourne
Hospitals' acute need: Workers to fill jobs
UHS, Lourdes sweetening deals to attract candidates
CHUCK HAUPT / Press & Sun-Bulletin
Kim Hunter, a registered nurse at Binghamton General Hospital, prepares an IV. She worked as a nurse's aide while she earned her degree at Binghamton University's Decker School of Nursing on a UHS scholarship.
While the country faces the prospect of a looming recession, a large and growing demand for health care workers has spurred a new round of aggressive recruiting by local hospitals.
United Health Services -- Broome County's largest employer with 3,300 people on the payroll at Wilson Regional Medical Center and Binghamton General Hospital -- expects to fill 700 vacancies this year, said Michael McNally, UHS vice president of human resources.
Lourdes, a Binghamton hospital with about 2,200 employees, expects to hire between 400 and 450 people, said Dan Bonsick, the hospital's vice president of human resources.
Hospital administrators said they expect to fill the positions in the near term. But the task won't be easy. As the bulk of the professional work force nears retirement, the demand for health care workers is growing faster than the pool of candidates to fill the jobs.
"If we don't aggressively pursue the problem, it's not going to happen by itself," McNally said. "We could hire the entire graduating classes at BCC and BU and not satisfy our need."
The Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University produced more than 200 nurses from its undergraduate program last year, with another 80 coming from Broome Community College's full- and part-time programs.
With intensified recruiting efforts, including tapping schools in Tompkins County and Mansfield Pa., staffing at Lourdes and UHS has grown between 15 and 25 percent over the last decade. But several factors are accelerating the need for help: an aging population, longer life expectancy, technological advances requiring more expertise, and an exodus of experienced workers nearing retirement age.
"We will see the crunch in the next three to five years," McNally said.
Demand remains especially high in technical fields, including pharmaceuticals, medical imaging and nursing.
Both UHS and Lourdes are sweetening the deal to draw qualified workers into the employment pipeline by increasing educational incentives, such as loan forgiveness and scholarships. This year, UHS expects to spend more than $1 million in educational and training programs designed to boost the supply of skilled workers in years to come.
Lourdes recently increased tuition reimbursement programs by 40 percent.
As part of the deal, both care providers require a commitment from recipients to work for them for a designated number of years.
The programs are part of a recruitment strategy known as "grow your own," McNally said. It's based on the idea that boosting educational incentives and certification programs and recruiting heavily from local and regional colleges is a more effective way to fill many nursing and technical positions than recruiting from afar.
Technology boom
While most private industries have to respond to global competition and the ebb and flow of any number of other economic pressures, health care faces a different set of issues.
"You can't really off-shore health care," Bonsick said. "People are going to be sick and they are going to be sick locally."
While that fact remains universal, demographic factors, changing technology, medical advancements and shifting public policy have combined to produce unexpected consequences.
"If somebody would have asked me 18 years ago if we would have seen (employee) growth of nearly 22 percent, I would have said no, that doesn't make sense," McNally said. In the 1980s, emphasis grew on using medical advances to keep people out of hospitals. That goal has been largely achieved, but overall staffing needs grew for many reasons:
* More technology means greater automation and fewer workers in most industries. But in health care, it means more skilled workers are needed to operate equipment. Medical imaging, for example, expanded from X-rays to scanning devices used more extensively to diagnose illnesses, each requiring experts to run tests and interpret results.
* Development of more drugs and their increasing use in treatment has dramatically increased the need for pharmacists.
* As people live longer, they tend to have greater risks and complications from chronic health problems. That means more people requiring more care. People who do end up in the hospital are sicker.
* A disproportionate number of experienced health care providers will retire within the next decade, while the overall Southern Tier population continues to age faster than the rest of the country.
"You can't talk about the status of the labor market without discussing the situation with baby boomers," Bonsick said,
Registered nurses 55 or older -- "in the retirement corridor" as McNally puts it -- will near 34 percent by 2010 at United Health Service. That's compared to 14 percent in 2005. The numbers are similar at Lourdes.
To fill the void, hospital administrators are recruiting people like Kim Hunter, 24, a Vestal native who worked as a nurse's aide while she earned her degree at Binghamton University's Decker School of Nursing on a UHS scholarship. She qualified for the Baccalaureate Accelerated Track program, which allowed her to build on her bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Rochester to get a nursing degree in one year. For Hunter, it was an ideal time to get into health care.
''I really like patient care and I wanted all the work I could get," she said. "And you will always have a job here."
But finding enough people like Hunter will likely get harder before it gets easier, recruiters said.
There is a similar shortage of doctors, mainly because of restrictions placed on medical school admissions 20 years ago when policy-makers anticipated a glut in the profession.
In upstate New York, more than 52 percent of active physicians are 50 or older, according to the SUNY Center for Health Work Force Studies.
Unlike nurses and many technical specialists, there is no established local source for physicians, and national competition is fierce. That makes hospitals more dependent on recruiting internationally, said Nadene Bradburn, a Lourdes physician recruiter. That's a viable solution, she said, but it is complicated by visa and immigration issues.
Some fields are worse off than others, Bradburn said, noting the Tier suffers acutely from a lack of gastrointestinal physicians.
Psychiatrists, surgeons and urologists also are needed.
"Succession planning is pretty much our number-one priority," Bradburn said. "We certainly could use more GI doctors. It's the search that keeps me up at night."
Accordingly, the price for doctors goes up as the supply goes down. The median annual salary for internal medicine has risen 14 percent from 2002 to 2007 to $193,162, and compensation for gastroenterologists is up 30 percent to $356,388, according to the Medical Group Management Association's Physician Compen-sation and Productivity Survey.
Retaining workers is as vital as recruiting them, and that means providing a satisfying work environment, said Marjorie Cinti, a nurse recruiter with Lourdes. The emphasis has been on creating a workspace that allows nurses to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative and logistical duties, she said.
The hospital also is increasing education and equipment to avert injuries, which older staff members may be prone to because they tend to do heavy lifting.
"If caregivers are getting older and the patient population is getting larger, that's a bad combination," Bonsick said.
CHUCK HAUPT / Press & Sun-Bulletin
Kim Hunter, a registered nurse at Binghamton General Hospital, prepares an IV. She worked as a nurse's aide while she earned her degree at Binghamton University's Decker School of Nursing on a UHS scholarship.
While the country faces the prospect of a looming recession, a large and growing demand for health care workers has spurred a new round of aggressive recruiting by local hospitals.
United Health Services -- Broome County's largest employer with 3,300 people on the payroll at Wilson Regional Medical Center and Binghamton General Hospital -- expects to fill 700 vacancies this year, said Michael McNally, UHS vice president of human resources.
Lourdes, a Binghamton hospital with about 2,200 employees, expects to hire between 400 and 450 people, said Dan Bonsick, the hospital's vice president of human resources.
Hospital administrators said they expect to fill the positions in the near term. But the task won't be easy. As the bulk of the professional work force nears retirement, the demand for health care workers is growing faster than the pool of candidates to fill the jobs.
"If we don't aggressively pursue the problem, it's not going to happen by itself," McNally said. "We could hire the entire graduating classes at BCC and BU and not satisfy our need."
The Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University produced more than 200 nurses from its undergraduate program last year, with another 80 coming from Broome Community College's full- and part-time programs.
With intensified recruiting efforts, including tapping schools in Tompkins County and Mansfield Pa., staffing at Lourdes and UHS has grown between 15 and 25 percent over the last decade. But several factors are accelerating the need for help: an aging population, longer life expectancy, technological advances requiring more expertise, and an exodus of experienced workers nearing retirement age.
"We will see the crunch in the next three to five years," McNally said.
Demand remains especially high in technical fields, including pharmaceuticals, medical imaging and nursing.
Both UHS and Lourdes are sweetening the deal to draw qualified workers into the employment pipeline by increasing educational incentives, such as loan forgiveness and scholarships. This year, UHS expects to spend more than $1 million in educational and training programs designed to boost the supply of skilled workers in years to come.
Lourdes recently increased tuition reimbursement programs by 40 percent.
As part of the deal, both care providers require a commitment from recipients to work for them for a designated number of years.
The programs are part of a recruitment strategy known as "grow your own," McNally said. It's based on the idea that boosting educational incentives and certification programs and recruiting heavily from local and regional colleges is a more effective way to fill many nursing and technical positions than recruiting from afar.
Technology boom
While most private industries have to respond to global competition and the ebb and flow of any number of other economic pressures, health care faces a different set of issues.
"You can't really off-shore health care," Bonsick said. "People are going to be sick and they are going to be sick locally."
While that fact remains universal, demographic factors, changing technology, medical advancements and shifting public policy have combined to produce unexpected consequences.
"If somebody would have asked me 18 years ago if we would have seen (employee) growth of nearly 22 percent, I would have said no, that doesn't make sense," McNally said. In the 1980s, emphasis grew on using medical advances to keep people out of hospitals. That goal has been largely achieved, but overall staffing needs grew for many reasons:
* More technology means greater automation and fewer workers in most industries. But in health care, it means more skilled workers are needed to operate equipment. Medical imaging, for example, expanded from X-rays to scanning devices used more extensively to diagnose illnesses, each requiring experts to run tests and interpret results.
* Development of more drugs and their increasing use in treatment has dramatically increased the need for pharmacists.
* As people live longer, they tend to have greater risks and complications from chronic health problems. That means more people requiring more care. People who do end up in the hospital are sicker.
* A disproportionate number of experienced health care providers will retire within the next decade, while the overall Southern Tier population continues to age faster than the rest of the country.
"You can't talk about the status of the labor market without discussing the situation with baby boomers," Bonsick said,
Registered nurses 55 or older -- "in the retirement corridor" as McNally puts it -- will near 34 percent by 2010 at United Health Service. That's compared to 14 percent in 2005. The numbers are similar at Lourdes.
To fill the void, hospital administrators are recruiting people like Kim Hunter, 24, a Vestal native who worked as a nurse's aide while she earned her degree at Binghamton University's Decker School of Nursing on a UHS scholarship. She qualified for the Baccalaureate Accelerated Track program, which allowed her to build on her bachelor's degree in liberal arts from the University of Rochester to get a nursing degree in one year. For Hunter, it was an ideal time to get into health care.
''I really like patient care and I wanted all the work I could get," she said. "And you will always have a job here."
But finding enough people like Hunter will likely get harder before it gets easier, recruiters said.
There is a similar shortage of doctors, mainly because of restrictions placed on medical school admissions 20 years ago when policy-makers anticipated a glut in the profession.
In upstate New York, more than 52 percent of active physicians are 50 or older, according to the SUNY Center for Health Work Force Studies.
Unlike nurses and many technical specialists, there is no established local source for physicians, and national competition is fierce. That makes hospitals more dependent on recruiting internationally, said Nadene Bradburn, a Lourdes physician recruiter. That's a viable solution, she said, but it is complicated by visa and immigration issues.
Some fields are worse off than others, Bradburn said, noting the Tier suffers acutely from a lack of gastrointestinal physicians.
Psychiatrists, surgeons and urologists also are needed.
"Succession planning is pretty much our number-one priority," Bradburn said. "We certainly could use more GI doctors. It's the search that keeps me up at night."
Accordingly, the price for doctors goes up as the supply goes down. The median annual salary for internal medicine has risen 14 percent from 2002 to 2007 to $193,162, and compensation for gastroenterologists is up 30 percent to $356,388, according to the Medical Group Management Association's Physician Compen-sation and Productivity Survey.
Retaining workers is as vital as recruiting them, and that means providing a satisfying work environment, said Marjorie Cinti, a nurse recruiter with Lourdes. The emphasis has been on creating a workspace that allows nurses to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative and logistical duties, she said.
The hospital also is increasing education and equipment to avert injuries, which older staff members may be prone to because they tend to do heavy lifting.
"If caregivers are getting older and the patient population is getting larger, that's a bad combination," Bonsick said.
Labels: employment, New York, nursing, United Health Services
Jobs are there, but skilled workers aren't
by Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
Friday February 08, 2008, 8:49 PM
Tens of thousands of jobs go wanting in Michigan because workers don't have the skills for nursing, healthcare and advanced manufacturing positions, a state labor and economic leader says.
A job retraining initiative dubbed No Worker Left Behind aims to end that for unemployed or underemployed workers, said Keith W. Cooley, director of the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
In an interview with The Saginaw News Editorial Board, Cooley said Friday the agency has asked for $40 million to retrain up to 100,000 workers and $10 million more to train 3,000 nursing students and 500 nursing faculty members during the next three years.
"We have got to invest in our workers," he said. "We cannot allow them to be left in the lurch."
The state has earmarked about $37 million in federal job retraining funds to the No Worker Left Behind initiative, but Cooley said the agency wants to add state dollars to do more.
The agency director was in Saginaw to mark the opening of the department's Unemployment Insurance Agency's Remote Initial Claims Center, a 150-employee site at 999 S. Washington. The call center, which handles unemployment insurance claims, relocated this fall from the Saginaw Centre, 310 Johnson. Saginaw Future Inc. handed the agency a recognition award for keeping the jobs in the city.
Since 2000, Michigan has lost more than 400,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing, to foreign competition, outsourcing and technological automation on the assembly line.
The state had the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.6 percent in December; the Saginaw-Saginaw Township metro area marked a 7.4 percent jobless rate for the same period.
Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has called on lawmakers to fund the new job growth strategies. Along with jobs, Granholm in her State of the State address last month said education, affordable health care and safe cities are keys to attracting employers.
Saginaw Future President and Chief Executive Officer JoAnn T. Crary said the Saginaw Valley has unfilled high-skilled jobs in health care and computer-aided manufacturing, and in skilled trades such as chemical operators and welders.
"As far as this region goes, we can always use more training dollars," she said.
The No Worker Left Behind initiative would pay up to $5,000 a year for two years to cover college tuition or technical training in high-growth regional jobs or entrepreneurial skills. Workers must take a Michigan Works skills assessment test, earn a family income of less than $40,000 a year, have graduated from high school at least two years ago, are not full-time college students or remain unemployed or have received a termination or layoff notice.
Like the governor, Cooley said the alternative energy industry expansion is critical. Hemlock Semiconductor Corp.'s search for its next expansion site beyond a $1 billion plan in the works in Thomas Township is "on our radar screen," he said.
"We don't want to lose that," said Cooley, a former chief executive officer of Focus Hope in Detroit and a one-time General Motors Corp. engineer.
HSC manufactures one-third of the world's supply of polycrystalline silicon, a super pure rock-like material used in electronics and solar cells. It expects to double production in Thomas Township by 2010.
To give employers a bigger incentive, the state could loosen its grip in some areas outside of job safety regulations and retraining, said Veronica Horn, executive vice president at the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce.
"What we need in this state is a lighter regulatory burden on companies ... all the way around," she said.
Cooley said the Great Lakes State's effort to attract and retain employers would gain more traction if it had "one-stop shopping" to handle the multitude of issues employers confront with state permits.
The state has made progress: The agency has dropped the time it takes to process permits to an average of 183 days from 430, he said.
"That's a big change, but we don't think it's enough," he said. "I'd like to see it go down to 30 days."
Friday February 08, 2008, 8:49 PM
Tens of thousands of jobs go wanting in Michigan because workers don't have the skills for nursing, healthcare and advanced manufacturing positions, a state labor and economic leader says.
A job retraining initiative dubbed No Worker Left Behind aims to end that for unemployed or underemployed workers, said Keith W. Cooley, director of the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
In an interview with The Saginaw News Editorial Board, Cooley said Friday the agency has asked for $40 million to retrain up to 100,000 workers and $10 million more to train 3,000 nursing students and 500 nursing faculty members during the next three years.
"We have got to invest in our workers," he said. "We cannot allow them to be left in the lurch."
The state has earmarked about $37 million in federal job retraining funds to the No Worker Left Behind initiative, but Cooley said the agency wants to add state dollars to do more.
The agency director was in Saginaw to mark the opening of the department's Unemployment Insurance Agency's Remote Initial Claims Center, a 150-employee site at 999 S. Washington. The call center, which handles unemployment insurance claims, relocated this fall from the Saginaw Centre, 310 Johnson. Saginaw Future Inc. handed the agency a recognition award for keeping the jobs in the city.
Since 2000, Michigan has lost more than 400,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing, to foreign competition, outsourcing and technological automation on the assembly line.
The state had the highest unemployment rate in the nation at 7.6 percent in December; the Saginaw-Saginaw Township metro area marked a 7.4 percent jobless rate for the same period.
Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has called on lawmakers to fund the new job growth strategies. Along with jobs, Granholm in her State of the State address last month said education, affordable health care and safe cities are keys to attracting employers.
Saginaw Future President and Chief Executive Officer JoAnn T. Crary said the Saginaw Valley has unfilled high-skilled jobs in health care and computer-aided manufacturing, and in skilled trades such as chemical operators and welders.
"As far as this region goes, we can always use more training dollars," she said.
The No Worker Left Behind initiative would pay up to $5,000 a year for two years to cover college tuition or technical training in high-growth regional jobs or entrepreneurial skills. Workers must take a Michigan Works skills assessment test, earn a family income of less than $40,000 a year, have graduated from high school at least two years ago, are not full-time college students or remain unemployed or have received a termination or layoff notice.
Like the governor, Cooley said the alternative energy industry expansion is critical. Hemlock Semiconductor Corp.'s search for its next expansion site beyond a $1 billion plan in the works in Thomas Township is "on our radar screen," he said.
"We don't want to lose that," said Cooley, a former chief executive officer of Focus Hope in Detroit and a one-time General Motors Corp. engineer.
HSC manufactures one-third of the world's supply of polycrystalline silicon, a super pure rock-like material used in electronics and solar cells. It expects to double production in Thomas Township by 2010.
To give employers a bigger incentive, the state could loosen its grip in some areas outside of job safety regulations and retraining, said Veronica Horn, executive vice president at the Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce.
"What we need in this state is a lighter regulatory burden on companies ... all the way around," she said.
Cooley said the Great Lakes State's effort to attract and retain employers would gain more traction if it had "one-stop shopping" to handle the multitude of issues employers confront with state permits.
The state has made progress: The agency has dropped the time it takes to process permits to an average of 183 days from 430, he said.
"That's a big change, but we don't think it's enough," he said. "I'd like to see it go down to 30 days."
Labels: employment, jobs, Michigan, skilled labor
832,000 jobs created in two years - officials
Iran-Employment-Shaeri
Deputy Interior Minister Ali- Mohammad Shaeri said here Sunday that 832,000 jobs were created with a credit of rls 1,600 billion over the past two years.
Shaeri told a ceremony, marking inauguration of a development project in this northern city on Sunday, that Islamic Revolution has earned a foothold with growing share in scientific, industrial and technological projects at present age.
He said Iran is among eight countries holding a high position in the nuclear technology.
He added that in the aerospace industry, Iran has a top position and in terms of satellite designing and construction and space base it has surprised the world arrogance.
Elsewhere in his remarks, each Iranian's per capita income growth has reached dlrs 10,000 this year from dlrs 1,800 in 1979, the year when Iran's Islamic Revolution became victorious.
Deputy Interior Minister Ali- Mohammad Shaeri said here Sunday that 832,000 jobs were created with a credit of rls 1,600 billion over the past two years.
Shaeri told a ceremony, marking inauguration of a development project in this northern city on Sunday, that Islamic Revolution has earned a foothold with growing share in scientific, industrial and technological projects at present age.
He said Iran is among eight countries holding a high position in the nuclear technology.
He added that in the aerospace industry, Iran has a top position and in terms of satellite designing and construction and space base it has surprised the world arrogance.
Elsewhere in his remarks, each Iranian's per capita income growth has reached dlrs 10,000 this year from dlrs 1,800 in 1979, the year when Iran's Islamic Revolution became victorious.
Labels: employment, Iran
800 dismissed PNCC workers won’t get jobs back
The Philippine Star
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has dismissed for lack of merit a petition for reinstatement by the 800 workers dismissed from the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC).
"We already issued a no-reinstatement order," Labor Secretary Arturo Brion told reporters in an interview.
In a separate order, DOLE also junked the PNCC employees’ complaint accusing the PNCC management and the Skyway O & M Corporation (SOMCO) of illegally terminating their employment.
"We find no legal basis under the pleadings filed to implead third parties (PNCC and SOMCO)," Labor Undersecretary Luzviminda Padilla pointed out.
Padilla said the PNCC and SOMCO cannot be prosecuted for charges of illegal termination based only on an allegation and without a compelling reason.
According to Padilla, the PNCC employees were merely "forum shopping" when it tried to include the PNCC and SOMCO in their complaint of unfair labor practices before the DOLE-National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB).
The PNCC employees initially accused the PNCC Skyway Corp. (PSC) of committing unfair labor practices by illegally terminating them.
Earlier, the Paranaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) junked a petition of the PNCC employees for a court order to stop a foreign-owned firm from operating the Skyway.
With the dismissal of their petition, the 800 PNCC employees were officially terminated from their jobs. Mayen Jaymalin
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has dismissed for lack of merit a petition for reinstatement by the 800 workers dismissed from the Philippine National Construction Corporation (PNCC).
"We already issued a no-reinstatement order," Labor Secretary Arturo Brion told reporters in an interview.
In a separate order, DOLE also junked the PNCC employees’ complaint accusing the PNCC management and the Skyway O & M Corporation (SOMCO) of illegally terminating their employment.
"We find no legal basis under the pleadings filed to implead third parties (PNCC and SOMCO)," Labor Undersecretary Luzviminda Padilla pointed out.
Padilla said the PNCC and SOMCO cannot be prosecuted for charges of illegal termination based only on an allegation and without a compelling reason.
According to Padilla, the PNCC employees were merely "forum shopping" when it tried to include the PNCC and SOMCO in their complaint of unfair labor practices before the DOLE-National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB).
The PNCC employees initially accused the PNCC Skyway Corp. (PSC) of committing unfair labor practices by illegally terminating them.
Earlier, the Paranaque Regional Trial Court (RTC) junked a petition of the PNCC employees for a court order to stop a foreign-owned firm from operating the Skyway.
With the dismissal of their petition, the 800 PNCC employees were officially terminated from their jobs. Mayen Jaymalin
Labels: layoffs, Philippine National Construction Corporation, The Philippines
Fitch begins layoffs as debt issuance tapers off
Fitch Ratings yesterday said it has begun laying off employees, just days after its parent company said the ratings agency expected to cut 150 jobs, or about 7 per cent of its work force, by the end of its fiscal year in September.
Last week, Fimalac, Fitch's French parent company, reported first-quarter revenue at the ratings agency fell 9.1 per cent from the same period last year due to a drop in debt issuance. A Fitch spokesman, Huxley Somerville, said yesterday he could not detail how many people had lost their jobs so far and what areas of the rating agency were affected. The layoffs, which began late last week, occurred mostly in public and structured finance, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Last week, Fimalac, Fitch's French parent company, reported first-quarter revenue at the ratings agency fell 9.1 per cent from the same period last year due to a drop in debt issuance. A Fitch spokesman, Huxley Somerville, said yesterday he could not detail how many people had lost their jobs so far and what areas of the rating agency were affected. The layoffs, which began late last week, occurred mostly in public and structured finance, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Labels: Fitch Ratings, layoffs
Heads up: Russell Stover layoffs at Colorado plant
Layoffs coming
About 150 of the 480 employees at the Russell Stover Candies plant in Montrose, Colo., will lose their jobs around April 1 when the factory’s 3-11 p.m. shift is eliminated. Russell Stover said the rising cost of raw materials and the company’s need to cut costs to remain competitive led to the layoffs.
About 150 of the 480 employees at the Russell Stover Candies plant in Montrose, Colo., will lose their jobs around April 1 when the factory’s 3-11 p.m. shift is eliminated. Russell Stover said the rising cost of raw materials and the company’s need to cut costs to remain competitive led to the layoffs.
Labels: Colorado, layoffs, Russell Stover Candies
Layoffs loom in IT majors, techies panic
Bangalore: The IT industry has some job worries. More than 500 IBM and TCS employees across the country have been retrenched. This has techies in the IT industry uncertain about their future.
Worried IT guys writing, speaking their mind on blogs. This is what dominates the cyberspace these days. Well, at least in the techies' domain.
The worry stems from the recent retrenchment of many like them from the TCS and IBM.
Though many like Akhil (name changed) who works in IT firm, don't feel alarmed yet, the truth is – the younger crop IS apprehensive.
And with the gossip mills running riot, many in the industry feel their future may not be as secure as they once thought it to be.
Akhil says, "The panic hasn't as such set in. Among the fresher there might be a certain amount of wariness."
However, industry leaders dismiss the retrenchment of more than 500 IBM and TCS employees across the country as routine - a part of quality control.
You underperform and you get sacked. They say it has little to do with the rising rupee or the slowdown in the US economy.
Customer XPs CEO, Rivi Varghese says, “As an industry grows higher up the chain, it is but natural that a small percentage of the people will not be able to keep pace with that. So it is a question of expectations not being met."
Let's not panic yet - that seems to be the message being sent out by young techies to their friends and colleagues in the industry but having said that the IBM, TCS exodus has made the situation deeply disturbing.
Worried IT guys writing, speaking their mind on blogs. This is what dominates the cyberspace these days. Well, at least in the techies' domain.
The worry stems from the recent retrenchment of many like them from the TCS and IBM.
Though many like Akhil (name changed) who works in IT firm, don't feel alarmed yet, the truth is – the younger crop IS apprehensive.
And with the gossip mills running riot, many in the industry feel their future may not be as secure as they once thought it to be.
Akhil says, "The panic hasn't as such set in. Among the fresher there might be a certain amount of wariness."
However, industry leaders dismiss the retrenchment of more than 500 IBM and TCS employees across the country as routine - a part of quality control.
You underperform and you get sacked. They say it has little to do with the rising rupee or the slowdown in the US economy.
Customer XPs CEO, Rivi Varghese says, “As an industry grows higher up the chain, it is but natural that a small percentage of the people will not be able to keep pace with that. So it is a question of expectations not being met."
Let's not panic yet - that seems to be the message being sent out by young techies to their friends and colleagues in the industry but having said that the IBM, TCS exodus has made the situation deeply disturbing.
More layoffs at Trans World
Trans World Entertainment Corp. has laid off a handful of employees at its Albany, N.Y., headquarters over the past couple weeks due to a reduction in the number of its stores, an official said Friday.
"A handful of positions were eliminated, which is typical when you close stores at year's-end," Chief Financial Officer John Sullivan said.
No other cuts are expected, he said.
About 600 people work at the music, movie and video game company's administrative headquarters and distribution facility at 38 Corporate Circle.
Trans World said in late December it was closing about 130 stores, leaving the company with about 815 locations by the end of this year.
Most of its stores operate under the name f.y.e. (For Your Entertainment).
Trans World (Nasdaq: TWMC) is also closing a distribution center in North Canton, Ohio, resulting in 234 layoffs. Another 18 employees are losing their jobs at a facility in Johnstown, N.Y., that makes racks and other store displays.
The closure of the North Canton facility is expected to boost employment at the Albany warehouse by 80 to 100 jobs as the distribution duties are shifted to the East Coast.
The store reductions and plant closing came on the heels of another disappointing holiday season for the retailer. Trans World Chairman and CEO Robert J. Higgins expects to report a $15 million to $20 million net loss when fiscal 2007 earnings results are released March 6.
Higgins and one of Trans World's biggest investors, Riley Investment Management LLC, have proposed buying out the company for $5 per share.
Another investor, Sherwood Investment Overseas Ltd., in Orlando, Fla., has offered to take the company private for $7 per share.
Trans World was trading at $4.22 mid-afternoon Friday, down 0.2 percent.
"A handful of positions were eliminated, which is typical when you close stores at year's-end," Chief Financial Officer John Sullivan said.
No other cuts are expected, he said.
About 600 people work at the music, movie and video game company's administrative headquarters and distribution facility at 38 Corporate Circle.
Trans World said in late December it was closing about 130 stores, leaving the company with about 815 locations by the end of this year.
Most of its stores operate under the name f.y.e. (For Your Entertainment).
Trans World (Nasdaq: TWMC) is also closing a distribution center in North Canton, Ohio, resulting in 234 layoffs. Another 18 employees are losing their jobs at a facility in Johnstown, N.Y., that makes racks and other store displays.
The closure of the North Canton facility is expected to boost employment at the Albany warehouse by 80 to 100 jobs as the distribution duties are shifted to the East Coast.
The store reductions and plant closing came on the heels of another disappointing holiday season for the retailer. Trans World Chairman and CEO Robert J. Higgins expects to report a $15 million to $20 million net loss when fiscal 2007 earnings results are released March 6.
Higgins and one of Trans World's biggest investors, Riley Investment Management LLC, have proposed buying out the company for $5 per share.
Another investor, Sherwood Investment Overseas Ltd., in Orlando, Fla., has offered to take the company private for $7 per share.
Trans World was trading at $4.22 mid-afternoon Friday, down 0.2 percent.
Labels: layoffs, Trans World Entertainment
Mitsubishi Motors axes Australian plant with 930 layoffs
Labels: Australia, layoffs, Mitsubishi Motors
Employment in construction falls sharply
The latest employment data for the construction industry provides one of the clearest indications yet of a major slowdown in the sector.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show employment in private construction firms fell by 6.4 per cent last year.
The CSO's monthly employment index decreased from 105.0 in December, 2006 to 98.3 in December, 2007.
The final figure for November, 2007 also showed a decrease of 5.3 per cent when compared with November, 2006.
The data comes in the wake of figures from the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), published earlier this week, which show a significant decline in house registrations in the month of January.
The number of building guarantee registrations dropped to 1,430 last month compared to 3,776 national housing registrations for January, 2007.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show employment in private construction firms fell by 6.4 per cent last year.
The CSO's monthly employment index decreased from 105.0 in December, 2006 to 98.3 in December, 2007.
The final figure for November, 2007 also showed a decrease of 5.3 per cent when compared with November, 2006.
The data comes in the wake of figures from the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), published earlier this week, which show a significant decline in house registrations in the month of January.
The number of building guarantee registrations dropped to 1,430 last month compared to 3,776 national housing registrations for January, 2007.
Labels: construction, Ireland, unemployment
Joblessness at 33-year low of 5.8 per cent: 'economy continues to chug along?
OTTAWA - Canada's economy burst out of the gate in January, creating 46,400 new jobs and sending the unemployment rate tumbling to 5.8 per cent from a revised six per cent in December.
The surprisingly strong job creation - market analysts had predicted a 10,000 gain - sent the Canadian dollar shooting above parity. It closed at 100.2 cents US, up 1.09 cents, and traded as high as 100.49 cents US earlier in the day.
"Just when we thought that Canadian employment was finally showing signs of slowing down, January's employment numbers bust through expectations once again," commented TD Bank economist James Marple.
"January's labour force survey points to an economy that has continued to chug along even as the U.S. teeters on the brink of recession."
The jobs advance countered expectations that a stalling economy would slow the impressive job creation of recent years.
December had shown a job-market contraction of about 18,000 jobs, and the Bank of Canada last month revised its expectations for first-quarter economic growth to a rate of 0.6 per cent.
But housing starts also rebounded in January, as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Friday that the annual rate of housing starts was 222,700 units, up from 184,700 in December.
And Statistics Canada said wage growth continued strong, with a year-over-year rise of 4.9 per cent for - double the 2.4 per cent inflation rate.
"It's a little too early to say definitely, but on the data you have to say there's a good chance the Canadian economy will hold up pretty well to the U.S. slowdown," said BMO economist Douglas Porter.
"In hindsight, it looks like December's very weak data was caused by the bad weather and if you combine the two months we had about 30,000 jobs growth, which shows we're slowing down but still doing OK."
The economy produced jobs last month in a wide array of industries, with professional and technical services and construction leading the way.
As well, most new jobs were full-time and in the private sector.
Even manufacturing, which has been in a deep slump, edged up in January by creating 17,500 jobs, although over the past year the sector remains 113,000 in the hole, with most of those lost jobs in Ontario and Quebec.
Offsetting the gains were losses in retail and wholesale trade and in the information, culture and recreation sector.
The Canadian dollar gained as the economic data cast doubt on how fast the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates. Many economists had forecast the bank would slice rates by half a percentage point in March, but Porter said the urgency may have evaporated.
TD's Marple continues to expect a half-point cut, but said the unrelenting strength in wage growth presents a concern on an otherwise benign inflation front.
"Still, we expect that this report was more of a blip than a sign of renewed strength in Canada's labour market."
Other economists said that December may have been the blip, saying the continued rise in wages bodes well for the economy, even if it will grow at a slower pace than last year.
"We've had growth in hourly wages at over four per cent for six straight months," said Meny Grauman of CIBC World Markets. "That definitely is a plus for Canadian consumers and shows the internal dynamics of the economy are still quite good."
Statistics Canada had first reported December's jobless rate at 5.9 per cent but revised it up to 6.0, making January's advance in jobs even more surprising.
Private-sector employment rose by a strong 77,000 in January, bucking the recent trend of strong public-sector job growth and weak non-governmental employment gains.
Still, the private sector recorded a modest 0.7 per cent increase over the past year, while public-sector job growth, which was flat in January, advanced 6.2 per cent on the year.
Most provinces saw their unemployment rate fall in January, with Quebec setting a 33-year low with a jobless rate of 6.8 per cent. Ontario's jobless rate fell to 6.3 per cent, although Canada's most populous province remains a weak point on the job creation front, rising only 1.5 per cent over the past year.
Meanwhile, the housing-start numbers show that Canada "has avoided the sharp slowdown in housing activity seen in the United States," commented JP Morgan economist Ted Carmichael.
He noted that since housing starts in both countries peaked in early 2006, activity has tumbled 46 per cent in the U.S. but declined only nine per cent in Canada.
The surprisingly strong job creation - market analysts had predicted a 10,000 gain - sent the Canadian dollar shooting above parity. It closed at 100.2 cents US, up 1.09 cents, and traded as high as 100.49 cents US earlier in the day.
"Just when we thought that Canadian employment was finally showing signs of slowing down, January's employment numbers bust through expectations once again," commented TD Bank economist James Marple.
"January's labour force survey points to an economy that has continued to chug along even as the U.S. teeters on the brink of recession."
The jobs advance countered expectations that a stalling economy would slow the impressive job creation of recent years.
December had shown a job-market contraction of about 18,000 jobs, and the Bank of Canada last month revised its expectations for first-quarter economic growth to a rate of 0.6 per cent.
But housing starts also rebounded in January, as Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported Friday that the annual rate of housing starts was 222,700 units, up from 184,700 in December.
And Statistics Canada said wage growth continued strong, with a year-over-year rise of 4.9 per cent for - double the 2.4 per cent inflation rate.
"It's a little too early to say definitely, but on the data you have to say there's a good chance the Canadian economy will hold up pretty well to the U.S. slowdown," said BMO economist Douglas Porter.
"In hindsight, it looks like December's very weak data was caused by the bad weather and if you combine the two months we had about 30,000 jobs growth, which shows we're slowing down but still doing OK."
The economy produced jobs last month in a wide array of industries, with professional and technical services and construction leading the way.
As well, most new jobs were full-time and in the private sector.
Even manufacturing, which has been in a deep slump, edged up in January by creating 17,500 jobs, although over the past year the sector remains 113,000 in the hole, with most of those lost jobs in Ontario and Quebec.
Offsetting the gains were losses in retail and wholesale trade and in the information, culture and recreation sector.
The Canadian dollar gained as the economic data cast doubt on how fast the Bank of Canada will cut interest rates. Many economists had forecast the bank would slice rates by half a percentage point in March, but Porter said the urgency may have evaporated.
TD's Marple continues to expect a half-point cut, but said the unrelenting strength in wage growth presents a concern on an otherwise benign inflation front.
"Still, we expect that this report was more of a blip than a sign of renewed strength in Canada's labour market."
Other economists said that December may have been the blip, saying the continued rise in wages bodes well for the economy, even if it will grow at a slower pace than last year.
"We've had growth in hourly wages at over four per cent for six straight months," said Meny Grauman of CIBC World Markets. "That definitely is a plus for Canadian consumers and shows the internal dynamics of the economy are still quite good."
Statistics Canada had first reported December's jobless rate at 5.9 per cent but revised it up to 6.0, making January's advance in jobs even more surprising.
Private-sector employment rose by a strong 77,000 in January, bucking the recent trend of strong public-sector job growth and weak non-governmental employment gains.
Still, the private sector recorded a modest 0.7 per cent increase over the past year, while public-sector job growth, which was flat in January, advanced 6.2 per cent on the year.
Most provinces saw their unemployment rate fall in January, with Quebec setting a 33-year low with a jobless rate of 6.8 per cent. Ontario's jobless rate fell to 6.3 per cent, although Canada's most populous province remains a weak point on the job creation front, rising only 1.5 per cent over the past year.
Meanwhile, the housing-start numbers show that Canada "has avoided the sharp slowdown in housing activity seen in the United States," commented JP Morgan economist Ted Carmichael.
He noted that since housing starts in both countries peaked in early 2006, activity has tumbled 46 per cent in the U.S. but declined only nine per cent in Canada.
Labels: Canada, employment
Nevada's unemployment hits over a 5-year high, Lyon's is higher at 6.5%
Nevada's unemployment rate jumped to 5.8 percent in December, the highest it's been since April 2002, and Lyon County's unemployment rate was at 6.5 percent. Meanwhile, the national unemployment rate was at 5.0 percent in December, said Chief Economist Bill Anderson of the Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation (DETR).
Nevada's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has steadily increased since reaching a low of 4.1 percent in late 2005 and early 2006, Anderson said. The rate climbed slowly for a year to reach 4.6 percent by mid-2007. Since then the unemployment rate has continued to climb, rising by four-tenths of a percentage point to 5.8 percent in December, up from the seasonally-adjusted rate of 5.4 percent in November and 5.2 percent in October.
Nationally, November's unemployment rate was 4.7% and 5.6% in California while it while in December it was 5% and 5.6% respectively.
The state agency reported Lyon County's total labor force for December was 22,560 with unemployment at 1,457 (leaving 21,103 employed), for the 6.5 percent unemployment rate. Only Nye County's unemployment rate at 7.2 percent, was higher among Nevada counties.
In December 2006 in Lyon County., the labor force was 21,627 and unemployment totaled 1,283, for a 5.9 percent unemployment rate. In November,
"Although population growth in the state has slowed, Nevada's labor force has increased by about 25,000 since June," Anderson said. "The economy has been unable to absorb the new workers, however, and the ranks of the unemployed have swelled by about 14,000."
Lyon County is considered part of the Carson City MSA, whose December unemployment rate was 6.1 percent. That compared to 5.6 percent in November and 4.9 percent a year before.
The housing slowdown remains the primary cause of labor market problems, Anderson said. The construction industry shed nearly 8,000 jobs in 2007, despite work on numerous large projects on the Las Vegas Strip. Other industries have contributed to Nevada's weak job growth--now at a five-year low 0.6 percent--as well. The financial industry lost 1,500 jobs in 2007, and the employment services (temporary help) sector shed 8,200 jobs.
"The housing slump very likely contributed to the weakness in those industries as well," Anderson said. "The year 2007 was a less than memorable one for Nevada's economy. Labor market conditions continued the deterioration that began in 2006. When the final numbers are in, the state is likely to have seen its second weakest job growth--better only than 2002--in the past 15 years."
Although retail sales figures for the holiday shopping season will not be available for several more weeks, the labor market did not receive its usual seasonal boost, he added. Retail trade employment increased by 5,300 from October to December, below the average of 5,700 holiday season retail jobs created in the previous 10 years.
"On a percentage basis, retail employment gains look even worse," Anderson said. "From 1997 through 2006, the holiday season provided a 4.9 percent increase in retail sector employment, on average. In 2007, holiday season hiring advanced retail employment by only 3.8 percent."
Anderson said it is important to note labor market statistics are revised each year. Modified labor force and industrial employment estimates take into account new population data, revised seasonal adjustment factors and more complete employment data than is provided by the monthly surveys.
"While much of the prior year data will be revised--with initial publication of the revisions in early March--the slowing trend reported throughout 2007 is almost certain to be confirmed," he said. "his trend is likely to continue into 2008."
Nevada's statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has steadily increased since reaching a low of 4.1 percent in late 2005 and early 2006, Anderson said. The rate climbed slowly for a year to reach 4.6 percent by mid-2007. Since then the unemployment rate has continued to climb, rising by four-tenths of a percentage point to 5.8 percent in December, up from the seasonally-adjusted rate of 5.4 percent in November and 5.2 percent in October.
Nationally, November's unemployment rate was 4.7% and 5.6% in California while it while in December it was 5% and 5.6% respectively.
The state agency reported Lyon County's total labor force for December was 22,560 with unemployment at 1,457 (leaving 21,103 employed), for the 6.5 percent unemployment rate. Only Nye County's unemployment rate at 7.2 percent, was higher among Nevada counties.
In December 2006 in Lyon County., the labor force was 21,627 and unemployment totaled 1,283, for a 5.9 percent unemployment rate. In November,
"Although population growth in the state has slowed, Nevada's labor force has increased by about 25,000 since June," Anderson said. "The economy has been unable to absorb the new workers, however, and the ranks of the unemployed have swelled by about 14,000."
Lyon County is considered part of the Carson City MSA, whose December unemployment rate was 6.1 percent. That compared to 5.6 percent in November and 4.9 percent a year before.
The housing slowdown remains the primary cause of labor market problems, Anderson said. The construction industry shed nearly 8,000 jobs in 2007, despite work on numerous large projects on the Las Vegas Strip. Other industries have contributed to Nevada's weak job growth--now at a five-year low 0.6 percent--as well. The financial industry lost 1,500 jobs in 2007, and the employment services (temporary help) sector shed 8,200 jobs.
"The housing slump very likely contributed to the weakness in those industries as well," Anderson said. "The year 2007 was a less than memorable one for Nevada's economy. Labor market conditions continued the deterioration that began in 2006. When the final numbers are in, the state is likely to have seen its second weakest job growth--better only than 2002--in the past 15 years."
Although retail sales figures for the holiday shopping season will not be available for several more weeks, the labor market did not receive its usual seasonal boost, he added. Retail trade employment increased by 5,300 from October to December, below the average of 5,700 holiday season retail jobs created in the previous 10 years.
"On a percentage basis, retail employment gains look even worse," Anderson said. "From 1997 through 2006, the holiday season provided a 4.9 percent increase in retail sector employment, on average. In 2007, holiday season hiring advanced retail employment by only 3.8 percent."
Anderson said it is important to note labor market statistics are revised each year. Modified labor force and industrial employment estimates take into account new population data, revised seasonal adjustment factors and more complete employment data than is provided by the monthly surveys.
"While much of the prior year data will be revised--with initial publication of the revisions in early March--the slowing trend reported throughout 2007 is almost certain to be confirmed," he said. "his trend is likely to continue into 2008."
Labels: Nevada, unemployment
School of Business releases job growth update
The National Consensus Forecast of Labor Employment, Compensation and Productivity is not forecasting a job contraction nationwide in 2008, and the projection for productivity remains relatively low.
A recession is technically defined as a contraction in both employment and output, commented Dawn McLaren, research economist at the W. P. Carey School of Business and editor of the Blue Chip Job Growth Update.
But, "while the national job growth average registered one percent in December 2007 on a seasonally adjusted basis, it should be remembered that this average is made up of highs and lows across both industry and geographic divisions," McLaren said. "The lows have been pulling the national average slowly downward over the last several months."
Year over year, the U.S. economy grew by 1,270,000 nonagricultural jobs in December 2007 over December 2006, a 0.9 percent increase, according to the Blue Chip Job Growth Update. The goods producing sector contracted by 403,000 jobs, a 1.8 percent decrease in December 2007 compared to December 2006, however the service providing sector grew by 1,673,000 non-agricultural jobs for the same period, a 1.5 percent increase.
Among the states, Utah continues to hold the number one rank in total nonagricultural job growth in December 2007 over December 2006, with a 4.0 percent increase representing 50,000 jobs. And Michigan again pulled up the rear with the lowest rate of total nonagricultural job growth for the same period, with a 1.8 percent decrease, or 78,500 jobs. The Oregon information sector recorded 8.6 percent job growth in December 2007 compared to December 2006 (3,100 jobs), and Montana had the highest job growth in the construction and mining sector, with a 9.0 percent increase representing 3,400 jobs.
Among the metro areas, the Danville, Virginia metropolitan area ranked first in nonagricultural job growth in metropolitan markets with under 1,000,000 workers for December 2007 over December 2006, posting a 6.9 percent gain, representing 2,800 jobs. Among metropolitan markets with a workforce of over 1,000,000, the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington metropolitan area had the highest rate of growth in nonagricultural employment, posting a 2.8 percent gain, which represented 41,100 jobs.
The Blue Chip Job Growth Update has been the first-to-user source of complete federal employment data since its inception in 1992. It presents data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor in an easy-to-read format, permitting state-to-state comparisons within 24 hours of the release of the data. The National Consensus Forecast of Labor Employment, Compensation and Productivity, which appears quarterly in the Job Growth Update, contains information from a panel of leading economists around the country.
The Blue Chip Job Growth Update is available online to subscribers. A sample issue and subscription information are available online at http://wpcarey.asu.edu/jgu.
Carolyne Kennedy, carolyne.kennedy@asu.edu
480 965-7774
W. P. Carey School of Business
A recession is technically defined as a contraction in both employment and output, commented Dawn McLaren, research economist at the W. P. Carey School of Business and editor of the Blue Chip Job Growth Update.
But, "while the national job growth average registered one percent in December 2007 on a seasonally adjusted basis, it should be remembered that this average is made up of highs and lows across both industry and geographic divisions," McLaren said. "The lows have been pulling the national average slowly downward over the last several months."
Year over year, the U.S. economy grew by 1,270,000 nonagricultural jobs in December 2007 over December 2006, a 0.9 percent increase, according to the Blue Chip Job Growth Update. The goods producing sector contracted by 403,000 jobs, a 1.8 percent decrease in December 2007 compared to December 2006, however the service providing sector grew by 1,673,000 non-agricultural jobs for the same period, a 1.5 percent increase.
Among the states, Utah continues to hold the number one rank in total nonagricultural job growth in December 2007 over December 2006, with a 4.0 percent increase representing 50,000 jobs. And Michigan again pulled up the rear with the lowest rate of total nonagricultural job growth for the same period, with a 1.8 percent decrease, or 78,500 jobs. The Oregon information sector recorded 8.6 percent job growth in December 2007 compared to December 2006 (3,100 jobs), and Montana had the highest job growth in the construction and mining sector, with a 9.0 percent increase representing 3,400 jobs.
Among the metro areas, the Danville, Virginia metropolitan area ranked first in nonagricultural job growth in metropolitan markets with under 1,000,000 workers for December 2007 over December 2006, posting a 6.9 percent gain, representing 2,800 jobs. Among metropolitan markets with a workforce of over 1,000,000, the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington metropolitan area had the highest rate of growth in nonagricultural employment, posting a 2.8 percent gain, which represented 41,100 jobs.
The Blue Chip Job Growth Update has been the first-to-user source of complete federal employment data since its inception in 1992. It presents data compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor in an easy-to-read format, permitting state-to-state comparisons within 24 hours of the release of the data. The National Consensus Forecast of Labor Employment, Compensation and Productivity, which appears quarterly in the Job Growth Update, contains information from a panel of leading economists around the country.
The Blue Chip Job Growth Update is available online to subscribers. A sample issue and subscription information are available online at http://wpcarey.asu.edu/jgu.
Carolyne Kennedy, carolyne.kennedy@asu.edu
480 965-7774
W. P. Carey School of Business
Labels: employment data, USA
Thursday, February 07, 2008
IBM Layoff, IBM cuts 700 Jobs, IBM Job cuts
Multiple layoffs occurred in Burlington VT, Endicott NY and Austin TX
today. They appear to have been a long time coming as several of the
former employees mentioned spending the better part of 2006 training
their replacements to perform the tasks for which they alone were
responsible.
Rightsizing is not uncommon and often used by companies to get rid of
a few bad apples - or even one - while avoiding discrimination or
other charges (By no means am I saying all those laid off were bad
apples). It isn't clear how many folks were let go today, but there
hasn't been any news coverage of it in any of the cities where it
occurred. That leads me to believe that this is planned and not
substantial. (edit 12 Sept 2006: article in NY newspaper speculates
the number of worldwide layoff to be between 500 and 700 people. Some
employees are with the IBM-Endicott tech group but it isn't clear if
all are)
I found the discussion at the IBM board at Yahoo! about the layoffs
interesting. It is obviously worth noting that disgruntled and
emotional former employees are not impartial in their criticisms, but
some of the critiques were interesting to me.
The link to the thread is here. The UI is kind of distracting but you
can change the appearance to suit you using the view menu. Here are
some highlights:
"I once had a PDM, during a moment of rare honesty, once tell me that
IBM now did not expect employees to be in a long term status, rather,
a short term association."
You don't have to tell me how IBM has changed, I'm a 2nd-generation
IBMer. I grew up going to the "IBM Christmas parties" where they would
hire out a big auditorium and fill it with piles of presents, sorted
by age and gender, for kids of employees. That IBM is long, long gone.
Of course I was/am a commodity, treated like garbage - thrown out when
the usefulness is gone.
In my case, I have identical skills as my co-workers who remain - C++
Object Oriented programming, with 4 years of Java experience as well.
Very current skills. However, the guy in India does same for fraction
of my pay, and I'm one of the first in my area to train a guy in India
- and yes, alarm bells went off in my head this spring when I was told
I had someone to "help" me with the software component I owned.
I had my desk cleaned out 10 days ago, in case it was a "march you to
the door" layoff.
Good summary of IBM resource situation. Result:
"This lack of retention of experenced employees, and teh(sic) constant
resource shifting churn, IMO is one of the reasons IBM executes poorly
globally."
This result has been proven for years by the break even or worse
performance of services (IGS type) despite the best excuses and
financial face lift that IBM financial engineering can muster.
All the profits come from divisions with minimal cross tower requirements.
That last line is telling and seems to be true. I don't think the IBM
jams are unifying the company fast enough or thoroughly enough to make
consequential change.
today. They appear to have been a long time coming as several of the
former employees mentioned spending the better part of 2006 training
their replacements to perform the tasks for which they alone were
responsible.
Rightsizing is not uncommon and often used by companies to get rid of
a few bad apples - or even one - while avoiding discrimination or
other charges (By no means am I saying all those laid off were bad
apples). It isn't clear how many folks were let go today, but there
hasn't been any news coverage of it in any of the cities where it
occurred. That leads me to believe that this is planned and not
substantial. (edit 12 Sept 2006: article in NY newspaper speculates
the number of worldwide layoff to be between 500 and 700 people. Some
employees are with the IBM-Endicott tech group but it isn't clear if
all are)
I found the discussion at the IBM board at Yahoo! about the layoffs
interesting. It is obviously worth noting that disgruntled and
emotional former employees are not impartial in their criticisms, but
some of the critiques were interesting to me.
The link to the thread is here. The UI is kind of distracting but you
can change the appearance to suit you using the view menu. Here are
some highlights:
"I once had a PDM, during a moment of rare honesty, once tell me that
IBM now did not expect employees to be in a long term status, rather,
a short term association."
You don't have to tell me how IBM has changed, I'm a 2nd-generation
IBMer. I grew up going to the "IBM Christmas parties" where they would
hire out a big auditorium and fill it with piles of presents, sorted
by age and gender, for kids of employees. That IBM is long, long gone.
Of course I was/am a commodity, treated like garbage - thrown out when
the usefulness is gone.
In my case, I have identical skills as my co-workers who remain - C++
Object Oriented programming, with 4 years of Java experience as well.
Very current skills. However, the guy in India does same for fraction
of my pay, and I'm one of the first in my area to train a guy in India
- and yes, alarm bells went off in my head this spring when I was told
I had someone to "help" me with the software component I owned.
I had my desk cleaned out 10 days ago, in case it was a "march you to
the door" layoff.
Good summary of IBM resource situation. Result:
"This lack of retention of experenced employees, and teh(sic) constant
resource shifting churn, IMO is one of the reasons IBM executes poorly
globally."
This result has been proven for years by the break even or worse
performance of services (IGS type) despite the best excuses and
financial face lift that IBM financial engineering can muster.
All the profits come from divisions with minimal cross tower requirements.
That last line is telling and seems to be true. I don't think the IBM
jams are unifying the company fast enough or thoroughly enough to make
consequential change.
Perry Manufacturing laying off 149 workers
Tom Joyce
Staff Reporter
Another chapter in an all-too-familiar story was written Wednesday when the layoff of nearly 150 employees of Perry Manufacturing Co. was announced.
Personnel at the company headquarters in Mount Airy Industrial Park, located off Carter Street, were assembled for a meeting about 9:30 a.m. and told that 149 jobs would be terminated there effective April 7. Problems linked to a company contract with Lands' End hastened the decision, sources said.
*
Overall, about 180 people work at the facility that employs office, engineering and distribution personnel, among others. Samples are the lone items actually produced by the local operation now. Only a core group of employees will remain at the Mount Airy facility that was launched in 1950 by the late William K. Woltz Sr.
“I won't say a skeleton crew, but there will be a much smaller group left as we try to work through this situation,” said William K. Woltz Jr., who now heads the company.
Perry Manufacturing is believed to have 4,000 employees at both domestic and overseas locations. Most of the local jobs reportedly are being moved offshore, continuing a recent pattern that has caused the loss of more than 1,000 textile positions in Mount Airy in just the last year.
Plant closures and major downsizings have led to layoffs by Gildan Activewear Inc., Spencer's Inc., Renfro Corp and Cross Creek Apparel since early 2007. In December, Surry County's unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent, its highest level in three years.
Woltz said Wednesday that the downsizing of the Mount Airy operation “is due to the current financial crisis in the United States and unrelenting competition from the Far East.”
“And we're sorry about it,” the company official added of the layoff.
Perry Manufacturing employees who were interviewed about the move that it was not unexpected, especially considering the trend of other textile layoffs in Mount Airy. However, the news is hard to accept, just the same, they say.
“I know there are a lot of people that are going to lose their homes and everything,” said one of the workers being displaced, “because there's nothing left in Mount Airy.”
That worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she also has an uncertain outlook as a single mother in her mid-30s - with mortgage and car payments. She is hoping to somehow find other work soon. “I've been there about six years,” she said of her job with Perry.
Rumors that such an event would strike Perry Manufacturing's work force had swirled for weeks, according to two other employees leaving the company parking lot during lunch Wednesday. They confirmed that their positions are among ones being eliminated.
“I mean, it's going to be rough, but there is unemployment,” said one of the two, an 11-year office employee at Perry Manufacturing who asked that her name not be published. She was philosophical about the layoff and its impact. “One door shuts, another one opens,” she said.
Going back to school was among the options suggested by the pair.
Todd Harris, a member of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners, said Wednesday night that the latest announcement is a “clarion call” to local officials to be more vigilant about economic development.
“I wish it didn't happen, but it did,” Harris added. ‘There's certainly nothing positive about it.” The current economic situation reinforces a view long held by Harris that “we should be proactive rather than reactive about industrial recruitment.”
“It just means that we've got to change the way we do industrial recruitment,” said Harris.
Problems With Lands' End Contract
Relying on a network of production facilities and contractors throughout Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Perry Manufacturing Co. produces knit and woven clothing. It specializes in women's and misses' outerwear, including suits and coats, with customers including Lands' End and Liz Claiborne. The company also has maintained facilities in Miami and Dallas.
One employee said Wednesday that the local layoff is a result of “bad management” regarding a contract with Lands' End, for which Perry has manufactured such products as tie-dyed polo shirts. Perry is said to have had a $56 million contract with that retailer.
The contract included supplying winter-oriented products to Lands' End, which later canceled an order for merchandise due to a less-than-expected demand and other problems, according to the worker.
“When you order something, you're supposed to take it,” the employee said. Company officials, however, allowed the shipments to be canceled. “They just let them drop the order, and it's put them in financial despair.”
As a result of that situation, Lands' End shipped the clothing items back to the local company. “They're coming in by the truckloads,” she said. Since Lands' End tags already have been sewed into the garments, “what can they do with them?” she said of Perry Manufacturing's options regarding the returned products.
Another source said that the problem with Lands' End was not solely responsible for the local job losses, but hastened the move.
For his part, Woltz declined to specify Wednesday the role the Lands' End contract played in the layoff announcement.
“We really can't comment on those kinds of things,” the Perry Manufacturing official said. “As you can well imagine, this is a fluid situation.”
In October 2004, Perry Manufacturing turned to McColl Partners, a financial advisory firm, for a debt-restructuring program.
Reverberations from company financial problems are being felt at its other facilities as well.
“We have reduced our office in Dallas significantly,” Woltz said, “and we're reducing our Hong Kong office.”
“Our offshore facilities are running full.”
When asked if Perry Manufacturing will continue to maintain some presence in Mount Airy, Woltz replied, “I would certainly hope so.”
“I live here.”
Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com, or at 719-1924.
Staff Reporter
Another chapter in an all-too-familiar story was written Wednesday when the layoff of nearly 150 employees of Perry Manufacturing Co. was announced.
Personnel at the company headquarters in Mount Airy Industrial Park, located off Carter Street, were assembled for a meeting about 9:30 a.m. and told that 149 jobs would be terminated there effective April 7. Problems linked to a company contract with Lands' End hastened the decision, sources said.
*
Overall, about 180 people work at the facility that employs office, engineering and distribution personnel, among others. Samples are the lone items actually produced by the local operation now. Only a core group of employees will remain at the Mount Airy facility that was launched in 1950 by the late William K. Woltz Sr.
“I won't say a skeleton crew, but there will be a much smaller group left as we try to work through this situation,” said William K. Woltz Jr., who now heads the company.
Perry Manufacturing is believed to have 4,000 employees at both domestic and overseas locations. Most of the local jobs reportedly are being moved offshore, continuing a recent pattern that has caused the loss of more than 1,000 textile positions in Mount Airy in just the last year.
Plant closures and major downsizings have led to layoffs by Gildan Activewear Inc., Spencer's Inc., Renfro Corp and Cross Creek Apparel since early 2007. In December, Surry County's unemployment rate rose to 6.1 percent, its highest level in three years.
Woltz said Wednesday that the downsizing of the Mount Airy operation “is due to the current financial crisis in the United States and unrelenting competition from the Far East.”
“And we're sorry about it,” the company official added of the layoff.
Perry Manufacturing employees who were interviewed about the move that it was not unexpected, especially considering the trend of other textile layoffs in Mount Airy. However, the news is hard to accept, just the same, they say.
“I know there are a lot of people that are going to lose their homes and everything,” said one of the workers being displaced, “because there's nothing left in Mount Airy.”
That worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she also has an uncertain outlook as a single mother in her mid-30s - with mortgage and car payments. She is hoping to somehow find other work soon. “I've been there about six years,” she said of her job with Perry.
Rumors that such an event would strike Perry Manufacturing's work force had swirled for weeks, according to two other employees leaving the company parking lot during lunch Wednesday. They confirmed that their positions are among ones being eliminated.
“I mean, it's going to be rough, but there is unemployment,” said one of the two, an 11-year office employee at Perry Manufacturing who asked that her name not be published. She was philosophical about the layoff and its impact. “One door shuts, another one opens,” she said.
Going back to school was among the options suggested by the pair.
Todd Harris, a member of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners, said Wednesday night that the latest announcement is a “clarion call” to local officials to be more vigilant about economic development.
“I wish it didn't happen, but it did,” Harris added. ‘There's certainly nothing positive about it.” The current economic situation reinforces a view long held by Harris that “we should be proactive rather than reactive about industrial recruitment.”
“It just means that we've got to change the way we do industrial recruitment,” said Harris.
Problems With Lands' End Contract
Relying on a network of production facilities and contractors throughout Central America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Perry Manufacturing Co. produces knit and woven clothing. It specializes in women's and misses' outerwear, including suits and coats, with customers including Lands' End and Liz Claiborne. The company also has maintained facilities in Miami and Dallas.
One employee said Wednesday that the local layoff is a result of “bad management” regarding a contract with Lands' End, for which Perry has manufactured such products as tie-dyed polo shirts. Perry is said to have had a $56 million contract with that retailer.
The contract included supplying winter-oriented products to Lands' End, which later canceled an order for merchandise due to a less-than-expected demand and other problems, according to the worker.
“When you order something, you're supposed to take it,” the employee said. Company officials, however, allowed the shipments to be canceled. “They just let them drop the order, and it's put them in financial despair.”
As a result of that situation, Lands' End shipped the clothing items back to the local company. “They're coming in by the truckloads,” she said. Since Lands' End tags already have been sewed into the garments, “what can they do with them?” she said of Perry Manufacturing's options regarding the returned products.
Another source said that the problem with Lands' End was not solely responsible for the local job losses, but hastened the move.
For his part, Woltz declined to specify Wednesday the role the Lands' End contract played in the layoff announcement.
“We really can't comment on those kinds of things,” the Perry Manufacturing official said. “As you can well imagine, this is a fluid situation.”
In October 2004, Perry Manufacturing turned to McColl Partners, a financial advisory firm, for a debt-restructuring program.
Reverberations from company financial problems are being felt at its other facilities as well.
“We have reduced our office in Dallas significantly,” Woltz said, “and we're reducing our Hong Kong office.”
“Our offshore facilities are running full.”
When asked if Perry Manufacturing will continue to maintain some presence in Mount Airy, Woltz replied, “I would certainly hope so.”
“I live here.”
Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com, or at 719-1924.
Labels: layoffs, Perry Manufacturing
TCS Asks 500 Employees To Resign (TCS Layoff)
India’s leading software services company, TCS, have announced that around 500 employees have been asked to resign due to their poor performance.
The company review staff performance twice a year where staff are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Staff with low scores are either asked to re-train or sent for counselling depending on their role. Staff who are unable to meet the performance requirements are asked to find work elsewhere.
It has been speculated that IT companies have started actually tough regarding employee productivity as a result of the rupee rising against the dollar.
In the last quarter of 2007 TCS employeed 4,037 new employees taking the total number up to 108,229. A year previous to this the total headcount was 83,500.
About TCS:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the world's leading information technology companies. Through its Global Network Delivery Model™, Innovation Network, and Solution Accelerators, TCS focuses on helping global organizations address their business challenges effectively.
TCS continues to invest in new technologies, processes, and people which can help its customers succeed. From generating novel concepts through TCS Innovation Labs and academic alliances, to drawing on the expertise of key partners, it keeps clients operating at the very edge of technological possibility.
Whether TCS is envisioning a business advantage, engineering an IT solution, or executing an outsourcing strategy, it helps its customers experience certainty in their every day business.
The company review staff performance twice a year where staff are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Staff with low scores are either asked to re-train or sent for counselling depending on their role. Staff who are unable to meet the performance requirements are asked to find work elsewhere.
It has been speculated that IT companies have started actually tough regarding employee productivity as a result of the rupee rising against the dollar.
In the last quarter of 2007 TCS employeed 4,037 new employees taking the total number up to 108,229. A year previous to this the total headcount was 83,500.
About TCS:
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the world's leading information technology companies. Through its Global Network Delivery Model™, Innovation Network, and Solution Accelerators, TCS focuses on helping global organizations address their business challenges effectively.
TCS continues to invest in new technologies, processes, and people which can help its customers succeed. From generating novel concepts through TCS Innovation Labs and academic alliances, to drawing on the expertise of key partners, it keeps clients operating at the very edge of technological possibility.
Whether TCS is envisioning a business advantage, engineering an IT solution, or executing an outsourcing strategy, it helps its customers experience certainty in their every day business.
Layoff announcements jump 69% in January
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:30 a.m. EST Feb. 4, 2008
PrintPrint EmailE-mail Subscribe to RSSRSS DisableDisable Live Quotes
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A fresh surge in financial-sector layoffs contributed to a 69% increase in corporate job-cut announcements in January, according to the latest tally compiled by outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas released Monday.
U.S. corporations announced 74,986 job reductions last month, up from December's 44,416 and 19% higher compared with the previous January, Challenger Gray reported.
The financial sector cut 15,789 positions, accounting for more than a fifth of the documented job cuts for January.
Job cuts remain below levels seen in the 2001 recession, noted John Challenger, CEO of the firm that bears his name.
"If the economy dips into a full-blown recession, it will likely be caused by a drop in consumer spending and the effects of the high price of energy," Challenger said in a release. "In that case, we would expect to see job cutting in areas such as retail, consumer products, and transportation."
The Challenger Gray report is hardly comprehensive: It covers only a tiny fraction of those who lose their jobs each month.
In November, for instance, a total of 1.8 million workers were let go, representing about 1.3% of total employment, according to the latest available data from the Labor Department. By comparison, 2.1 million people quit their jobs voluntarily in November.
The layoff announcements as tracked by Challenger Gray could take place immediately or over time. The reductions could be accomplished by voluntary means such as retirements, buyouts or workers leaving for other jobs, and they could be offset by hiring in other divisions of a company. End of Story
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
Last update: 7:30 a.m. EST Feb. 4, 2008
PrintPrint EmailE-mail Subscribe to RSSRSS DisableDisable Live Quotes
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A fresh surge in financial-sector layoffs contributed to a 69% increase in corporate job-cut announcements in January, according to the latest tally compiled by outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas released Monday.
U.S. corporations announced 74,986 job reductions last month, up from December's 44,416 and 19% higher compared with the previous January, Challenger Gray reported.
The financial sector cut 15,789 positions, accounting for more than a fifth of the documented job cuts for January.
Job cuts remain below levels seen in the 2001 recession, noted John Challenger, CEO of the firm that bears his name.
"If the economy dips into a full-blown recession, it will likely be caused by a drop in consumer spending and the effects of the high price of energy," Challenger said in a release. "In that case, we would expect to see job cutting in areas such as retail, consumer products, and transportation."
The Challenger Gray report is hardly comprehensive: It covers only a tiny fraction of those who lose their jobs each month.
In November, for instance, a total of 1.8 million workers were let go, representing about 1.3% of total employment, according to the latest available data from the Labor Department. By comparison, 2.1 million people quit their jobs voluntarily in November.
The layoff announcements as tracked by Challenger Gray could take place immediately or over time. The reductions could be accomplished by voluntary means such as retirements, buyouts or workers leaving for other jobs, and they could be offset by hiring in other divisions of a company. End of Story
Rex Nutting is Washington bureau chief of MarketWatch.
Labels: Challenger Job-Cut Report, layoffs
Emporia prepares for lost Tyson jobs
BY DAN VOORHIS
The Wichita Eagle
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market.
Mike Hutmacher/The Wichita Eagle
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market.
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market. Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia. Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia. Employees leave the Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia after their shift. A Tyson beef processing plant worker prods a steer onto the killing floor chute in Emporia.
* Tyson layoffs surprise few in industry
* Garden City ready for ex-Tyson workers
EMPORIA PREPARES FOR LOST TYSON JOBS
The massive Tyson Foods plant sits on the west edge of Emporia like an anchor keeping the town from blowing away. The cattle slaughtering and processing plant has for decades been the city's largest employer. It provides more than 10 percent of the jobs in a two-county area, along with the characteristic stockyard smell.
That's why when Tyson announced Jan. 25 that it was laying off 1,500 of its 2,400 workers, the town was gripped by shock, then anger and panic. By midweek that had settled into a deep anxiety.
The best estimate is that the layoff will take $65 million to $75 million out of the $900 million Emporia-area economy.
And lurking in the background is the fate of the 700-employee Dolly Madison Cakes plant. The
owner, Interstate Bakeries, is close to presenting a plan to emerge from bankruptcy, but what that means for the plant is unclear.
The one bright spot is that the community has an unemployment rate of just 4 percent and has jobs going unfilled because of the tight labor market. But the layoff could push that to 7 to 8 percent, officials said Friday.
Bracing for the impact
The community is planning furiously as it waits a few weeks to get a clearer read on the impact of the Tyson layoffs.
The plant stopped slaughter operations late last week, and second-shift workers are already off the job. Paychecks will continue until mid-March, but community leaders will have a rough idea before then of how many plant workers will leave town.
Already, local officials know that roughly 400 Somalis, mostly single men, brought in by Tyson in the last two or three years will leave for jobs at other Tyson plants.
The real question is what happens to the other 1,100 families. That's a significant question in a town of 27,000 people.
On Friday, 21 government and nonprofit groups held a summit. City Manager Matt Zimmerman emerged elated: The community was pulling together, sharing resources and coming up with solutions.
Among them is a job/social services fair on Feb. 16. Fifty employers will be there, as will state and federal workers to help with benefits, bankers to advise on home loans and volunteer tax preparers. A food and fund drive is being organized.
"It's a dip... not a depression," Zimmerman said Friday. "But we have to make sure people don't turn it into that by panicking."
Leaving after 10 years
Maricela Ocampo has worked for Tyson for the past 10 years and was living the American Dream.
She, her husband and three children had scraped by for years in order to save money and build up their credit rating for a nicer house. In August, they bought a large ranch-style house on Emporia's south side. The kids were happy in school.
Now, the family will have to move so she can find work. The layoff has put their dreams in jeopardy.
The house is on the market, and she said they probably will move to the Kansas City area. The stress has made her sick, she said.
"I'm sad mostly," she said. "We got used to it in Emporia.
"We will have to divide the family. My parents and all my friends will be staying here, and I'm not."
5 percent -- or 15 percent
Larry Ek and Maurice Schmidt of Ek Real Estate, the city's largest agency, have sold houses in Emporia for 30 years.
They're veterans of the economic twists and turns of this town. They recall fondly the 4,000 construction workers who came to town in the late 1970s and early 1980s to build the Wolf Creek nuclear plant.
And they remember what happened when they left -- home prices fell 15 percent.
They were calm last week as they thought about the future. They had a busy week talking to people who were putting their homes on the market. Emporia, the agents said, still will be there tomorrow, although it may be a little different.
The number of people leaving town means home prices will fall again. Just how far they fall is an indicator of the town's economic distress.
"The only question is will it be down 5, 10 or 15 percent," Schmidt said.
Ready to hire
Beneath the larger bad news story, there are smaller good news stories.
Dan Smoots, co-owner of Fanestil Foods with his wife, Jan, has built the specialty meat processing plant into a $10 million operation with 70 workers.
They placed an ad for five more workers before they heard about the layoffs. The ad ran a day after the layoffs were announced.
"We didn't know this tsunami was coming," Smoots said.
By midweek, they had about 75 applications, with 20 or 30 more a day coming in.
Smoots worked at the Emporia plant for 17 years. He feels their pain, but he's an entrepreneur now and also sees an opportunity.
He will have no trouble getting those five workers now. And if he decides to pursue a contract to debone and grind chicken, he will add 10 or 15 more with no trouble. Having hundreds of people with meat cutting experience available is a tremendous opportunity.
"How often can you pick up 10 to 15 people with Wizard knife skills?" he said. "All they have to do is trade beef for chicken."
Economic ups, downs
Kent Heermann's job as president of the regional economic development council just got harder.
As the city's main economic development person, the community is looking to him to replace those jobs. Although a couple of smaller plants are set to open in the near future, they won't come close to immediately replacing those jobs.
But a look at other cities that had large beef plants close recently is surprisingly comforting.
Norfolk, Neb., lost 1,300 jobs when Tyson closed a slaughter plant there in 2006. Unemployment grew from 3.7 percent to 4.0 percent but started to decline within about four months as those workers either left or were absorbed into the economy.
The Tyson workers are a valuable, but perishable, resource from an economic development perspective, he said. They're attractive to other industries looking to relocate to Emporia.
But the workers need to find work. Already, Hutchinson, Great Bend, Arkansas City and Fremont, Neb., are asking to be at the February job fair.
"There is a great opportunity out there for the workers," Heermann said. "But we'd like to keep as many as possible in Emporia."
Reach Dan Voorhis at 316-268-6577 or dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com.
The Wichita Eagle
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market.
Mike Hutmacher/The Wichita Eagle
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market.
Maricela Ocampo has suffered from depression and blood pressure issues after learning she and 1,500 other beef processing employees were being laid off from Tyson in Emporia. She and her family have placed their Emporia home on the market. Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia. Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia. Employees leave the Tyson beef processing plant in Emporia after their shift. A Tyson beef processing plant worker prods a steer onto the killing floor chute in Emporia.
* Tyson layoffs surprise few in industry
* Garden City ready for ex-Tyson workers
EMPORIA PREPARES FOR LOST TYSON JOBS
The massive Tyson Foods plant sits on the west edge of Emporia like an anchor keeping the town from blowing away. The cattle slaughtering and processing plant has for decades been the city's largest employer. It provides more than 10 percent of the jobs in a two-county area, along with the characteristic stockyard smell.
That's why when Tyson announced Jan. 25 that it was laying off 1,500 of its 2,400 workers, the town was gripped by shock, then anger and panic. By midweek that had settled into a deep anxiety.
The best estimate is that the layoff will take $65 million to $75 million out of the $900 million Emporia-area economy.
And lurking in the background is the fate of the 700-employee Dolly Madison Cakes plant. The
owner, Interstate Bakeries, is close to presenting a plan to emerge from bankruptcy, but what that means for the plant is unclear.
The one bright spot is that the community has an unemployment rate of just 4 percent and has jobs going unfilled because of the tight labor market. But the layoff could push that to 7 to 8 percent, officials said Friday.
Bracing for the impact
The community is planning furiously as it waits a few weeks to get a clearer read on the impact of the Tyson layoffs.
The plant stopped slaughter operations late last week, and second-shift workers are already off the job. Paychecks will continue until mid-March, but community leaders will have a rough idea before then of how many plant workers will leave town.
Already, local officials know that roughly 400 Somalis, mostly single men, brought in by Tyson in the last two or three years will leave for jobs at other Tyson plants.
The real question is what happens to the other 1,100 families. That's a significant question in a town of 27,000 people.
On Friday, 21 government and nonprofit groups held a summit. City Manager Matt Zimmerman emerged elated: The community was pulling together, sharing resources and coming up with solutions.
Among them is a job/social services fair on Feb. 16. Fifty employers will be there, as will state and federal workers to help with benefits, bankers to advise on home loans and volunteer tax preparers. A food and fund drive is being organized.
"It's a dip... not a depression," Zimmerman said Friday. "But we have to make sure people don't turn it into that by panicking."
Leaving after 10 years
Maricela Ocampo has worked for Tyson for the past 10 years and was living the American Dream.
She, her husband and three children had scraped by for years in order to save money and build up their credit rating for a nicer house. In August, they bought a large ranch-style house on Emporia's south side. The kids were happy in school.
Now, the family will have to move so she can find work. The layoff has put their dreams in jeopardy.
The house is on the market, and she said they probably will move to the Kansas City area. The stress has made her sick, she said.
"I'm sad mostly," she said. "We got used to it in Emporia.
"We will have to divide the family. My parents and all my friends will be staying here, and I'm not."
5 percent -- or 15 percent
Larry Ek and Maurice Schmidt of Ek Real Estate, the city's largest agency, have sold houses in Emporia for 30 years.
They're veterans of the economic twists and turns of this town. They recall fondly the 4,000 construction workers who came to town in the late 1970s and early 1980s to build the Wolf Creek nuclear plant.
And they remember what happened when they left -- home prices fell 15 percent.
They were calm last week as they thought about the future. They had a busy week talking to people who were putting their homes on the market. Emporia, the agents said, still will be there tomorrow, although it may be a little different.
The number of people leaving town means home prices will fall again. Just how far they fall is an indicator of the town's economic distress.
"The only question is will it be down 5, 10 or 15 percent," Schmidt said.
Ready to hire
Beneath the larger bad news story, there are smaller good news stories.
Dan Smoots, co-owner of Fanestil Foods with his wife, Jan, has built the specialty meat processing plant into a $10 million operation with 70 workers.
They placed an ad for five more workers before they heard about the layoffs. The ad ran a day after the layoffs were announced.
"We didn't know this tsunami was coming," Smoots said.
By midweek, they had about 75 applications, with 20 or 30 more a day coming in.
Smoots worked at the Emporia plant for 17 years. He feels their pain, but he's an entrepreneur now and also sees an opportunity.
He will have no trouble getting those five workers now. And if he decides to pursue a contract to debone and grind chicken, he will add 10 or 15 more with no trouble. Having hundreds of people with meat cutting experience available is a tremendous opportunity.
"How often can you pick up 10 to 15 people with Wizard knife skills?" he said. "All they have to do is trade beef for chicken."
Economic ups, downs
Kent Heermann's job as president of the regional economic development council just got harder.
As the city's main economic development person, the community is looking to him to replace those jobs. Although a couple of smaller plants are set to open in the near future, they won't come close to immediately replacing those jobs.
But a look at other cities that had large beef plants close recently is surprisingly comforting.
Norfolk, Neb., lost 1,300 jobs when Tyson closed a slaughter plant there in 2006. Unemployment grew from 3.7 percent to 4.0 percent but started to decline within about four months as those workers either left or were absorbed into the economy.
The Tyson workers are a valuable, but perishable, resource from an economic development perspective, he said. They're attractive to other industries looking to relocate to Emporia.
But the workers need to find work. Already, Hutchinson, Great Bend, Arkansas City and Fremont, Neb., are asking to be at the February job fair.
"There is a great opportunity out there for the workers," Heermann said. "But we'd like to keep as many as possible in Emporia."
Reach Dan Voorhis at 316-268-6577 or dvoorhis@wichitaeagle.com.
Labels: Emporia, Kansas, Kansas City, layoffs, Tyson
AT&T plans to lay off 213 but can't do it until next year
By: Harlan Levy, Journal Inquirer
02/02/2008
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AT&T gave layoff notifications this week to 213 union workers, mainly in call-center billing and repair jobs in Hartford, West Hartford, Meriden, and New Haven that serve customers using traditional, hardwired telephone service.
Some of the 213 also work in the pay-phone business that is due to shut down at the end of the year.
The company's contract with Communications Workers of America Local 1298 guarantees the workers other jobs in the company, at the same pay, for up to the life of the contract, which expires next year.
The workers have 60 days to decide whether to take other jobs, which AT&T said would likely be in nearby Connecticut sites in the wireless, broadband, or U-verse video businesses.
The jobs could involve installation and repair work in the broadband and video businesses or customer-service positions in wireless stores, AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom said.
The workers also can choose to take a severance package. AT&T has offered early retirement packages to a total of 1,000 workers.
"This could significantly mitigate the impact on the 213 positions that will be eliminated," Bloom said.
AT&T is not moving the targeted jobs out of state, Bloom said.
"There's less work in the wireline side of the business," Bloom said, using an industry term for traditional, hardwired telephone service. "So we're shifting the workforce to match the new workload and adding hundreds of jobs in U-verse video, broadband, and wireless, which are seeing strong growth."
Despite Bloom's denials, Bill Henderson, the president of the local union, insisted that the jobs are moving out of state to places like Berksville, Ohio; Dallas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, where labor is cheaper.
"The jobs are still being done," Henderson said. "They're not going to be done in Connecticut. They're going to be done in Berksville. So if you have a repair call, it won't be answered in Connecticut. It will be answered in Berksville. Why? Because it's cheaper to do business in Berksville."
"That isn't correct," Bloom replied. "We're managing the workforce to the workload. The reality is there's less work in those areas."
Henderson said he asked Gov. M. Jodi Rell to step in and stop the jobs from being sent out of state.
"The governor has to weigh in on this," Henderson said. "She can say we're not losing work in Connecticut, but I've gotten no response. The silence is deafening."
"I'm offended that the governor cannot sit down and talk to us," he added. "To have no response from the governor is insulting to every union member who wants to sit down with the governor."
Rell spokesman Rich Harris responded that the governor is working on the issue.
"She's spoken with a number of state officials, including Economic and Community Development Commissioner Joan McDonald, among others, and given direct instructions to do everything they can to try and move this situation to a positive resolution," Harris said. "She very much wants to see these jobs saved if at all possible."
Work on the state budget and preparing for the opening of the legislature next week has preoccupied the governor, Harris added, so scheduling a meeting with union members has been difficult. She has no intention of letting the matter slide, Harris said, and intends no slight to union members.
McDonald met with Henderson late Friday.
"It was a very productive meeting," said James Watson, a spokesman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
02/02/2008
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AT&T gave layoff notifications this week to 213 union workers, mainly in call-center billing and repair jobs in Hartford, West Hartford, Meriden, and New Haven that serve customers using traditional, hardwired telephone service.
Some of the 213 also work in the pay-phone business that is due to shut down at the end of the year.
The company's contract with Communications Workers of America Local 1298 guarantees the workers other jobs in the company, at the same pay, for up to the life of the contract, which expires next year.
The workers have 60 days to decide whether to take other jobs, which AT&T said would likely be in nearby Connecticut sites in the wireless, broadband, or U-verse video businesses.
The jobs could involve installation and repair work in the broadband and video businesses or customer-service positions in wireless stores, AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom said.
The workers also can choose to take a severance package. AT&T has offered early retirement packages to a total of 1,000 workers.
"This could significantly mitigate the impact on the 213 positions that will be eliminated," Bloom said.
AT&T is not moving the targeted jobs out of state, Bloom said.
"There's less work in the wireline side of the business," Bloom said, using an industry term for traditional, hardwired telephone service. "So we're shifting the workforce to match the new workload and adding hundreds of jobs in U-verse video, broadband, and wireless, which are seeing strong growth."
Despite Bloom's denials, Bill Henderson, the president of the local union, insisted that the jobs are moving out of state to places like Berksville, Ohio; Dallas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, where labor is cheaper.
"The jobs are still being done," Henderson said. "They're not going to be done in Connecticut. They're going to be done in Berksville. So if you have a repair call, it won't be answered in Connecticut. It will be answered in Berksville. Why? Because it's cheaper to do business in Berksville."
"That isn't correct," Bloom replied. "We're managing the workforce to the workload. The reality is there's less work in those areas."
Henderson said he asked Gov. M. Jodi Rell to step in and stop the jobs from being sent out of state.
"The governor has to weigh in on this," Henderson said. "She can say we're not losing work in Connecticut, but I've gotten no response. The silence is deafening."
"I'm offended that the governor cannot sit down and talk to us," he added. "To have no response from the governor is insulting to every union member who wants to sit down with the governor."
Rell spokesman Rich Harris responded that the governor is working on the issue.
"She's spoken with a number of state officials, including Economic and Community Development Commissioner Joan McDonald, among others, and given direct instructions to do everything they can to try and move this situation to a positive resolution," Harris said. "She very much wants to see these jobs saved if at all possible."
Work on the state budget and preparing for the opening of the legislature next week has preoccupied the governor, Harris added, so scheduling a meeting with union members has been difficult. She has no intention of letting the matter slide, Harris said, and intends no slight to union members.
McDonald met with Henderson late Friday.
"It was a very productive meeting," said James Watson, a spokesman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
Facility Closures and Layoff Announcements (Jan. 27-Feb. 2)
A Weekly Listing of Future Corporate Downsizings
This report is excerpted from Watch List, a weekly column of distressed commercial properties, mortgages and corporate news.
Slaughter Overcapacity
Tyson Foods Inc. is restructuring operations at its Emporia, KS, beef plant. Beef slaughter operations will cease within the next few weeks. However, the facility will still be used as a cold storage and distribution warehouse and will process ground beef. The company has no present plans to use the slaughter area of the Emporia plant; however, the equipment there will be left intact. The discontinuation of slaughter operations will result in the elimination of approximately 1,500 of the 2,400 jobs currently provided at the Emporia plant. This will include people employed in first and second shift slaughter, as well as second shift processing. Affected workers will continue to be paid and receive benefits for 60 days.
Now, while I usually don't expand on the plant closing announcements, I found Tysons Foods comments to be enlightening.
"There continues to be far more beef slaughter capacity than available cattle and we believe this problem will continue to afflict the industry for the foreseeable future," said Dick Bond, president and CEO of Tyson Foods. "We estimate the current slaughter overcapacity in the industry to be between 10,000 and 14,000 head of cattle per day."
"This imbalance is especially a problem for Emporia," he said. "Cattle production has moved from eastern to western Kansas over the past twenty to thirty years, and the Emporia plant is no longer centrally located in relationship to where most of the cattle it slaughters are raised."
In addition, the U.S. cattle herd is not growing. Tyson sees no signs of appreciable growth in the fed cattle supply over the next two to three years, which is consistent with the opinions of various industry analysts. The rising price of grain, caused in part by the use of corn for ethanol, has put pressure on feed costs, land costs and the use of farm ground. Further, the number of cows being retained for calf production continues to decline.
"At a time in the cattle cycle when cattle numbers should be at or near their highest, the level of production is not approaching its historic peaks and we do not see any increases in fed cattle production in the foreseeable future," said Jim Lochner, senior group vice president of Tyson Fresh Meats.
Facility Closures and Permanent Mass Layoffs
The number of workers laid off last year, which had been falling since 2001, increased last year. Mass layoff last year totaled 1.58 million, up 7% from 2006. The total was well off the mark of 2001, when 2.57 million people lost their jobs in the aftermath of the Internet bubble burst. The number of workers getting lay off notices has gone up four consecutive months now.
National Semiconductor Corp. will be disposing of certain manufacturing equipment and reducing its workforce at its wafer fabrication facilities. National will eliminate approximately 200 positions, primarily in Arlington, TX; South Portland, ME; and Greenock, Scotland. The departure of terminated employees is expected to begin in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 and should be substantially completed by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. The removal and disposal of equipment will begin in January 2008 and should be completed by the end of the 2008 fiscal year.
NewPage Corp. is integrating original NewPage operations and the former Stora Enso North America (SENA) operations. The specific restructuring actions are as follows: - Permanently close the No. 11 paper machine in Rumford, ME, by the end of February 2008. Approximately 60 employees will be affected by the shutdown. - Permanently close the pulp mill and two paper machines, Nos. 43 and 44, in Niagara, WI, by the end of April 2008. Approximately 319 employees will be affected by the shutdown. - Permanently close the No. 95 paper machine in Kimberly, WI, by the end of May 2008. Approximately 125 employees will be affected. And - Permanently close the Chillicothe, OH, converting facility by the end of November 2008 after some of the converting machines and volume are transferred to existing facilities in Luke, MD, and Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Approximately 160 employees will be affected.
Universal Forest Products Inc. intends to close facilities in Stanfield, NC; Gulfport, MS; Elkhart, IN; Westville, IN; and Sanford, NC. UFP does not anticipate needing the operations even when the housing market recovers. Operations from these facilities have been consolidated into plants in New London, NC; New Waverly, TX; White Pigeon, MI; Granger, IN; Bunn, NC; and Emlenton, PA, respectively. The sale of these facilities together with the sale of other excess real estate is expected to generate approximately $38 million in positive cash flow before taxes in 2008.
Albany International's Appleton Wire Division at 5655 Bell Road in Montgomery, AL, is closing down and laying off 96 employees on Feb. 15.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in California.
· Bear Stearns is closing down and laying off 142 employees on Feb. 15 at 1833 Alton Parkway in Irvine.
· Beckman Coulter Inc. is closing down and laying off 158 employees on Feb. 28 at 1050 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto.
· Centinela Hospital Medical Center is laying off 155 employees on Feb. 29 at 555 E. Hardy St. in Inglewood.
· CompUSA Inc. is closing down and laying off 50 employees on Feb. 11 at 750 Market St. in San Francisco.
· Lockheed Martin Space Systems is laying off 60 employees on Feb. 11 at 1111 Lockheed Martin Way in Sunnyvale.
· The Hershey Co. is closing down and laying off 255 employees on Feb. 15 at 1400 S. Yosemite in Oakdale.
· Unified Western Grocers Inc. is closing down and laying off 61 employees on Feb. 13 at 21001 Cabot Blvd. in Hayward.
· Unisys Corp. is laying off 89 employees on Feb. 11 at 25725 Jeronimo Road in Mission Viejo.
· Washington Mutual is laying off 100 employees on Feb. 15 at 17875/17877 Von Karman Ave. in Cypress; another 100 employees at 4920/4940 Johnson Dr. in Pleasanton; another 131 employees at 17861 Von Karman Ave. in Cypress; and 50 employees at 9200 Oakdale Ave. in Chatsworth.
Coleman Cable Inc. is closing down its Woods Industries' operations at 5541 W. 74th St. in Indianapolis, IN, laying off 68 employees by April 25.
Cephalon Inc. intends to transition manufacturing activities at its Cima Labs Inc. facility at 10000 Valley View Road in Eden Prairie, MN, to its recently expanded manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, UT. As part of that plan some drug delivery research and development activities currently performed in Salt Lake City will move to Cima’s Brooklyn Park, MN, facility. The moves should be completed within two to three years.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Ohio.
· American Airlines will not relocate its 56,000-square-foot customer reservations center in the Bartlett Bldg. at 36 E. 4th St. in downtown Cincinnati and will lay off 477 employees. According to American Airlines, all tenants in the 232,000-square-foot building have been asked to vacate. American has decided to close those operations permanently. The closure is effective Aug. 15; layoffs begin March 15.
· GE Lighting is closing its Niles Glass Plant at 403 N. Main St. on March 7 affecting 54 employees. Honeywell Autolite is laying off 100 workers at 1600 N. Union St. in Fostoria with the first layoffs to occur March 18 and then roll through January of next year.
· Palm Harbor Homes is closing its production operations in Sabina on March 15 affecting 130 employees.
· Trans World Entertainment Corp. will close its North Canton distribution center at 8000 Freedom Ave. as part of its program to streamline its operations. The operations at the Canton center will be phased out over the next two months and affects 234 employees. Trans World will service its stores from its remaining distribution centers located in Albany, NY, and Carson, CA. Additionally, the company announced the closing of its fixture facility in Johnstown, NY, affecting 18 employees.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Texas.
· Associated Materials LLC plans to discontinue use of the warehouse facility adjacent to its Ennis vinyl manufacturing facility at 4200 Knighthurst St. In addition, the Company committed to relocating certain vinyl siding production from Ennis to its vinyl manufacturing facilities in West Salem, OH and Burlington, Ontario. The warehouse that is adjacent to the Ennis manufacturing facility was built during 2005 and is currently leased by the company.
· Lineage Power Inc. is permanently reducing the workforce at its facility at 3000 Skyline Drive in Mesquite. It is eliminating 100 positions; layoffs began Jan. 15,2008 and will continue through Oct. 31.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Virginia.
· SLM Corp. (Sallie Mae), the largest U.S. college- loan provider, is eliminating 350 jobs and seeks to cut 20 percent of its operating expenses to combat rising borrowing costs and shrinking federal subsidies to lenders. The workforce reduction equals about 3 percent of the lender's 11,000 employees, with layoffs in 26 locations, including the Reston headquarters.
Sprint Nextel Corp. in Reston, plans to streamline its business as part of an ongoing review of its operations and market approach. These plans call for job reductions across the company including approximately 4,000 internal positions and reduced utilization of outsourced services and contractors. The company also expects to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and to close approximately 125, or 8 percent, of its company-owned retail locations. The company has approximately 20,000 total distribution points, including nearly 1,400 company-owned retail locations.
This report is excerpted from Watch List, a weekly column of distressed commercial properties, mortgages and corporate news.
Slaughter Overcapacity
Tyson Foods Inc. is restructuring operations at its Emporia, KS, beef plant. Beef slaughter operations will cease within the next few weeks. However, the facility will still be used as a cold storage and distribution warehouse and will process ground beef. The company has no present plans to use the slaughter area of the Emporia plant; however, the equipment there will be left intact. The discontinuation of slaughter operations will result in the elimination of approximately 1,500 of the 2,400 jobs currently provided at the Emporia plant. This will include people employed in first and second shift slaughter, as well as second shift processing. Affected workers will continue to be paid and receive benefits for 60 days.
Now, while I usually don't expand on the plant closing announcements, I found Tysons Foods comments to be enlightening.
"There continues to be far more beef slaughter capacity than available cattle and we believe this problem will continue to afflict the industry for the foreseeable future," said Dick Bond, president and CEO of Tyson Foods. "We estimate the current slaughter overcapacity in the industry to be between 10,000 and 14,000 head of cattle per day."
"This imbalance is especially a problem for Emporia," he said. "Cattle production has moved from eastern to western Kansas over the past twenty to thirty years, and the Emporia plant is no longer centrally located in relationship to where most of the cattle it slaughters are raised."
In addition, the U.S. cattle herd is not growing. Tyson sees no signs of appreciable growth in the fed cattle supply over the next two to three years, which is consistent with the opinions of various industry analysts. The rising price of grain, caused in part by the use of corn for ethanol, has put pressure on feed costs, land costs and the use of farm ground. Further, the number of cows being retained for calf production continues to decline.
"At a time in the cattle cycle when cattle numbers should be at or near their highest, the level of production is not approaching its historic peaks and we do not see any increases in fed cattle production in the foreseeable future," said Jim Lochner, senior group vice president of Tyson Fresh Meats.
Facility Closures and Permanent Mass Layoffs
The number of workers laid off last year, which had been falling since 2001, increased last year. Mass layoff last year totaled 1.58 million, up 7% from 2006. The total was well off the mark of 2001, when 2.57 million people lost their jobs in the aftermath of the Internet bubble burst. The number of workers getting lay off notices has gone up four consecutive months now.
National Semiconductor Corp. will be disposing of certain manufacturing equipment and reducing its workforce at its wafer fabrication facilities. National will eliminate approximately 200 positions, primarily in Arlington, TX; South Portland, ME; and Greenock, Scotland. The departure of terminated employees is expected to begin in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 and should be substantially completed by the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. The removal and disposal of equipment will begin in January 2008 and should be completed by the end of the 2008 fiscal year.
NewPage Corp. is integrating original NewPage operations and the former Stora Enso North America (SENA) operations. The specific restructuring actions are as follows: - Permanently close the No. 11 paper machine in Rumford, ME, by the end of February 2008. Approximately 60 employees will be affected by the shutdown. - Permanently close the pulp mill and two paper machines, Nos. 43 and 44, in Niagara, WI, by the end of April 2008. Approximately 319 employees will be affected by the shutdown. - Permanently close the No. 95 paper machine in Kimberly, WI, by the end of May 2008. Approximately 125 employees will be affected. And - Permanently close the Chillicothe, OH, converting facility by the end of November 2008 after some of the converting machines and volume are transferred to existing facilities in Luke, MD, and Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Approximately 160 employees will be affected.
Universal Forest Products Inc. intends to close facilities in Stanfield, NC; Gulfport, MS; Elkhart, IN; Westville, IN; and Sanford, NC. UFP does not anticipate needing the operations even when the housing market recovers. Operations from these facilities have been consolidated into plants in New London, NC; New Waverly, TX; White Pigeon, MI; Granger, IN; Bunn, NC; and Emlenton, PA, respectively. The sale of these facilities together with the sale of other excess real estate is expected to generate approximately $38 million in positive cash flow before taxes in 2008.
Albany International's Appleton Wire Division at 5655 Bell Road in Montgomery, AL, is closing down and laying off 96 employees on Feb. 15.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in California.
· Bear Stearns is closing down and laying off 142 employees on Feb. 15 at 1833 Alton Parkway in Irvine.
· Beckman Coulter Inc. is closing down and laying off 158 employees on Feb. 28 at 1050 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto.
· Centinela Hospital Medical Center is laying off 155 employees on Feb. 29 at 555 E. Hardy St. in Inglewood.
· CompUSA Inc. is closing down and laying off 50 employees on Feb. 11 at 750 Market St. in San Francisco.
· Lockheed Martin Space Systems is laying off 60 employees on Feb. 11 at 1111 Lockheed Martin Way in Sunnyvale.
· The Hershey Co. is closing down and laying off 255 employees on Feb. 15 at 1400 S. Yosemite in Oakdale.
· Unified Western Grocers Inc. is closing down and laying off 61 employees on Feb. 13 at 21001 Cabot Blvd. in Hayward.
· Unisys Corp. is laying off 89 employees on Feb. 11 at 25725 Jeronimo Road in Mission Viejo.
· Washington Mutual is laying off 100 employees on Feb. 15 at 17875/17877 Von Karman Ave. in Cypress; another 100 employees at 4920/4940 Johnson Dr. in Pleasanton; another 131 employees at 17861 Von Karman Ave. in Cypress; and 50 employees at 9200 Oakdale Ave. in Chatsworth.
Coleman Cable Inc. is closing down its Woods Industries' operations at 5541 W. 74th St. in Indianapolis, IN, laying off 68 employees by April 25.
Cephalon Inc. intends to transition manufacturing activities at its Cima Labs Inc. facility at 10000 Valley View Road in Eden Prairie, MN, to its recently expanded manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, UT. As part of that plan some drug delivery research and development activities currently performed in Salt Lake City will move to Cima’s Brooklyn Park, MN, facility. The moves should be completed within two to three years.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Ohio.
· American Airlines will not relocate its 56,000-square-foot customer reservations center in the Bartlett Bldg. at 36 E. 4th St. in downtown Cincinnati and will lay off 477 employees. According to American Airlines, all tenants in the 232,000-square-foot building have been asked to vacate. American has decided to close those operations permanently. The closure is effective Aug. 15; layoffs begin March 15.
· GE Lighting is closing its Niles Glass Plant at 403 N. Main St. on March 7 affecting 54 employees. Honeywell Autolite is laying off 100 workers at 1600 N. Union St. in Fostoria with the first layoffs to occur March 18 and then roll through January of next year.
· Palm Harbor Homes is closing its production operations in Sabina on March 15 affecting 130 employees.
· Trans World Entertainment Corp. will close its North Canton distribution center at 8000 Freedom Ave. as part of its program to streamline its operations. The operations at the Canton center will be phased out over the next two months and affects 234 employees. Trans World will service its stores from its remaining distribution centers located in Albany, NY, and Carson, CA. Additionally, the company announced the closing of its fixture facility in Johnstown, NY, affecting 18 employees.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Texas.
· Associated Materials LLC plans to discontinue use of the warehouse facility adjacent to its Ennis vinyl manufacturing facility at 4200 Knighthurst St. In addition, the Company committed to relocating certain vinyl siding production from Ennis to its vinyl manufacturing facilities in West Salem, OH and Burlington, Ontario. The warehouse that is adjacent to the Ennis manufacturing facility was built during 2005 and is currently leased by the company.
· Lineage Power Inc. is permanently reducing the workforce at its facility at 3000 Skyline Drive in Mesquite. It is eliminating 100 positions; layoffs began Jan. 15,2008 and will continue through Oct. 31.
The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Virginia.
· SLM Corp. (Sallie Mae), the largest U.S. college- loan provider, is eliminating 350 jobs and seeks to cut 20 percent of its operating expenses to combat rising borrowing costs and shrinking federal subsidies to lenders. The workforce reduction equals about 3 percent of the lender's 11,000 employees, with layoffs in 26 locations, including the Reston headquarters.
Sprint Nextel Corp. in Reston, plans to streamline its business as part of an ongoing review of its operations and market approach. These plans call for job reductions across the company including approximately 4,000 internal positions and reduced utilization of outsourced services and contractors. The company also expects to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and to close approximately 125, or 8 percent, of its company-owned retail locations. The company has approximately 20,000 total distribution points, including nearly 1,400 company-owned retail locations.
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