Web site that helps people find jobs has layoff

TONY NATALE, TRIBUNE

More than 300 employees of the nation’s largest online center that helps locate jobs for the unemployed - CareerBuilder.com - have been laid off, including 20 from the firm’s Scottsdale office.

Most of the laid-off workers are from the Chicago corporate headquarters. However, some have also been let go from the Atlanta offices.

The company’s public information office in Chicago refused to answer questions about the layoffs, although a telephone call by the East Valley Tribune to a branch office near O’Hare Airport confirmed the layoffs were made Friday morning.

Also a former employee from the Scottsdale office who asked not to be identified said he was laid off along with others from the office in Old Town Scottsdale.

The layoffs also were a topic of conversation at Cheezhead.com, an information and chat Web site related to careers and employment. The Web site first reported rumors of the layoffs Thursday, noting that, unlike smaller layoffs by CareerBuilder.com earlier this year, this batch includes some higher-paid executives.

CareerBuilder.com has more than 1,500 employees nationwide and more globally. It was started in 1995 and is jointly owned by Gannett Co., Knight Ridder, the Chicago Tribune and Microsoft.

Last year the company reported it posted more than two million jobs on its Web sites and received more than 24 million hits. Its Web site said that in 2008 the company had a pool of more than 100 million potential employees in 38 countries.

Christi Berciago, an employee at the O’Hare office, said she and several other employees learned about the layoffs Friday morning.

“We were told the economy was not going so well,” said Berciago.

The Scottsdale employee said he and other workers were gathered in two groups Friday morning, one group representing those who were being laid off and the others who were still employed.

“We were told we were having a reduction in force and that we would be given severance packages,” said the employee. “We were packing our things and walking out the door by lunchtime.”