The Job Market: A View from The Big Game Hunter, Jeff Altman

Toledo plans to layoff 300, including 75 officers

2009-04-18T08:09:00.001-04:00

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Toledo is planning to layoff about 300 city workers to deal with a $20 million budget deficit.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner announced the cuts Friday. They include 75 police officers on top of the 75 officers the city already planned to let go.

Finkbeiner says some of the job losses could be avoided if union leaders agree to contract changes, such as pay cuts, or if city council took action to increase revenue.

The city also plans to force nonunion employees to take a 20 percent pay cut by going to a 32-hour work week.

Boeing issues 300 layoff notices

2009-04-18T08:07:00.000-04:00

read article under copyright at link above

Qantas slashes profit estimate, plans mass job cuts

2009-04-14T10:49:00.001-04:00

By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch

TOKYO (MarketWatch) -- Qantas Airways said Tuesday it is cutting its fiscal 2009 earnings expectation by as much as 80% and plans to lower its flying capacity, reduce spending and eliminate up to 1,750 jobs in response to a major slump across the air travel industry.

"Market conditions have deteriorated, especially in our international business," said Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce. "We are experiencing significantly lower demand, particularly in premium classes, and considerable price pressures with extensive sales and discounting by all carriers."

The Australian flag carrier said it now expects its profit before taxes to fall to a range of A$100 million to A$200 million ($72 million to $145 million), compared to its previous forecast of A$500 million.

In the year ending June 2008, Qantas earned A$1.41 billion.

The new outlook "is subject to no further changes in market conditions, fuel prices, and volatility in hedge accounting results," Qantas said in a statement.
But Joyce added that, looking ahead, "Qantas expects the current volatility in operating conditions to continue for some time," and that "these volatile market conditions make it difficult to provide forecasts."

The company also said the capacity reductions and related restructuring will likely impact up to 1,250 full-time jobs, and it plans to remove an additional 500 management positions.

Qantas said it will minimize redundancies for the 1,750 positions by utilizing workforce initiatives, but "some redundancies will be unavoidable and will lead to additional restructuring costs in 2008/2009."

It said it also will reduce its flying capacity by around 5% and ground up to 10 aircraft.

Shares of Qantas (AU:QAN: news , chart , profile ) touched a low of A$1.74 before closing 2% higher at A$2, tracking the broader gains in Sydney, where Australia's S&P/ASX 200 finished with a gain of 2.2%.

Following the airlines' announcement Tuesday, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit ratings on Qantas to BBB/A-3 from BBB+/A-2 and said its rating outlook on the company remains negative.

Moody's said its downgrade to Baa2 from Baa1 in February anticipated the reduced earnings outlook.

Myra P. Saefong is MarketWatch's assistant global markets editor, based in Tokyo.

Navistar to lay off final 345 employees in Chatham

2009-04-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Press

CHATHAM, Ont. — Layoff notices have been issued to the remaining 345 employees at the Navistar truck plant in Chatham, Ontario.

The layoffs are due to take effect June 27th -- three days before the workers' current contract expires.

The company is required by law to issue the notices.

Bargaining on a new contract is expected to start early next month.

Already this year, Navistar has had two rounds of layoffs covering almost 700 workers at the plant.

The heavy truck industry is being hit hard by the U-S recession and the slumping Canadian economy.

Last year, rival Stirling Truck announced the closing of its plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, resulting in the loss of about 2,000 jobs.

CMS announces 107 more layoffs

2009-04-07T14:52:00.001-04:00

The cuts, including math and science coordinators and ESL assistants, save $4.3 million, bring total job loss to 213.
By Eric Frazier

CMS Superintendent, Dr. Peter Gorman speaks to the 24-member Athletic Eligibility Advisory Committee Thursday afternoon. TODD SUMLIN - tsumlin@charlotteobserver.com
To purchase this photo | Browse our store

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has added 107 more employees to its layoff list, this time including math and science coordinators and English as a Second Language assistants.

The cuts, announced Friday afternoon by Superintendent Peter Gorman, will save the district $4.3 million.

“The economic downturn is forcing the district to make some very hard decisions about trimming our expenses,” Gorman said in a statement. “And because so much of our budget is tied up in people, these cuts are necessary.”

Officials have said they need to cut as many as 534 jobs from the 2009-10 budget to make up for a multi-million dollar shortfall brought on by the recession. In all, CMS is considering cuts that could total more than $86 million.

“We've been meeting with people on an ongoing basis,” Gorman said earlier this week. “In some cases, we meet with groups. In some cases, the meetings are one-on-one. We are working hard to respect the integrity of our employees. This is a difficult time for them.”

Some educators with career status, more commonly known as tenure, are concerned that initial layoff letters from CMS didn't spell out their state-mandated rights, including the right to a hearing before the school board.

Chief Operating Officer Hugh Hattabaugh said Gorman was sending letters Friday to employees clarifying how the layoffs could affect them and informing them of their legal rights.

Charlotte attorney John Gresham said he's been contacted by “five or six” affected educators, and is waiting to see what the latest letter says. But so far, he said, “the message that's been coming out has left a number of employees very concerned.”

Classroom teachers were again spared, but more than 300 could find themselves among later rounds of cuts if money from the federal stimulus or other sources doesn't alter the budget picture.

Gorman said in an e-mail to all employees that some information about the stimulus money is starting to trickle down from the federal government, but “it's still impossible to be sure what relief, if any, CMS will get.”

Other positions cut this week and announced Friday include career and technical education coordinators and “behavior modification technicians” who help deal with disruptive students. Friday's cuts also include jobs from finance, curriculum and instruction and family services, as well as schools.

Last week, CMS cut 106 jobs from the superintendent's office, communications, accountability, curriculum and instruction, the six “learning community” offices scattered around the county and the Achievement Zone, which oversees 11 struggling schools.

Taken with the cuts announced Friday, CMS has eliminated 213 jobs and saved $11.9 million. Only 30 of the jobs were vacant.

CMS has about 19,000 full-time employees serving its 174 schools. Last year's budget totaled $1.2 billion. Gorman will present his 2009-10 budget proposal to the school board later this month. The county commission will give final approval.

600-plus get layoff alerts from TUSD

2009-04-07T14:01:00.000-04:00

More than 600 employees were notified Friday that they are part of a massive layoff in the Tucson Unified School District.
Of the district's 3,800 certified employees, including teachers, librarians and counselors, 560 received notice that they'll be getting their pink slips if the Governing Board approves the list Tuesday.
Sixty-five of the district's 182 administrators, from principals to department directors, also were given notice.

While the layoffs were anticipated given the potential for deep state budget cuts, slipping student enrollment and the fact that employees needed to be notified by April 15 if they were going to receive a contract for the next school year, the list went deeper than many had expected.
All teachers in their first, second and third years with the district were given notice, with the exception of teachers in alternative education, special education and hard-to-fill positions such as highly qualified math and science teachers.
Last year at this time, only 40 elementary teachers were put on notice. But this year, the district is reacting to a worst-case scenario of a $63 million hit.
The pink slips might not be permanent, though. Alyson Nielson, TUSD's director of employment services, said the district will begin hiring employees back as soon as more information becomes available on the budget.
"We are trying to be conservative, but once we become a little more confident as the budget takes shape, we can start getting teachers back into positions. I expect we'll be in a situation to begin to recall staff before the school year is even out."
That doesn't mean it won't be disruptive.
Many principals have made conscious hiring decisions and have invested time in training teachers to match their own expectations. And because staff callbacks will be done largely by seniority and certification, schools won't necessarily get back their original staffers.
And some schools will be more profoundly impacted than others.
Dodge Middle School, which has a mature teaching stable, doesn't have teachers on the list, although like all of the other schools it has to make plans to cut its budget by 18 percent. Those plans are due to the district April 30. Principal Cathy Comstock said she expects in the worst case to lose an assistant principal and a librarian, but her staff otherwise wasn't immediately affected by the layoffs.
John Bellisario, the principal at Valencia Middle School, meanwhile, is losing 30 percent of his teachers. The far Southwest Side school is in a high-poverty area, has struggled with an "underperforming" label for two years and has high teacher turnover.
Bellisario, in his first year at the school, said it's a different campus already under his leadership. But he's worried about the impact the cuts will have.
"I'm really concerned because we have done a lot of work with professional development with our staff," he said. Getting a new staff, he said, "will be like starting from scratch. We've made a lot of progress and come a long ways, so this is a setback."
Nielson said the human-resources staff is trying to be sensitive to such concerns. Teachers who are part of the layoffs are filling out forms listing school preferences and credentials.
"Somebody at Broadway and Houghton, for example, would have a hard time getting to a school on the other side of town," she said. "We're going to try to work within those preferences."
Same with teaching philosophy. Teachers at Drachman Montessori Magnet, for example, have to be comfortable with Montessori methods, while teachers at Cholla High Magnet School should have some familiarity with its focus on International Baccalaureate programs.
"We might be biting off more than we can chew," Nielson acknowledged, given the scope of the layoffs, "but we're going to work really hard to make sure we find the best fit possible."
Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at 806-7754 or rbodfield@azstarnet.com.

UNEMPLOYMENT SKYROCKETS TO 8.5%

2009-04-04T06:20:00.001-04:00

HIGHEST RATE SINCE 1983

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since late 1983, as a wide swath of employers eliminated 663,000 jobs. It is fresh evidence of the toll the recession has inflicted on America's workers, and economists say there's no relief in sight.

If part-time and discouraged workers are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 15.6 percent in March, the highest on records dating to 1994, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a new record low.

"It's an ugly report and April is going to be equally as bad," predicted Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

Last month's tally of job losses was slightly higher than the 654,000 that economists expected. The rise in the unemployment rate matched expectations.

Employers cut 651,000 jobs in February when the jobless rate was 8.1 percent, the same as initially estimated. January's job losses, however, were revised much higher, to 741,000 from 655,000.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. economy has lost a net total of 5.1 million jobs, with almost two-thirds of the losses occurring in the last five months.

The number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million in March. In addition, the number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. Those are people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or were unable to find full-time work.

Looking forward, economists expect monthly job losses continuing for most -- if not all of -- this year.

However, they are hoping that payroll reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 685,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period.

In the best-case scenario, employment losses in the present quarter would be about half that pace, some economists said. That scenario partly assumes the economy won't be shrinking nearly as much in the present quarter.

The deterioration in the jobs market comes despite a few hopeful signs recently that the recession -- now the longest since World War II -- could be easing.

Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending a six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there was better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales. And last week a report showed that consumer spending -- an engine of the economy -- rose in February for the second month in a row -- after a half-year of declines.

But as the economic downturn eats into their sales and profits, companies are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving measures. Those include holding down hours, and freezing or cutting pay, to survive the storm.

Job losses were widespread last month. Construction companies cut 126,000 jobs. Factories axed 161,000. Retailers got rid of nearly 50,000. Professional and business services eliminated 133,000. Leisure and hospitality reduced employment by 40,000. Even the government cut jobs -- 5,000 of them.

Education and health care were the few industries showing any job gains.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for a recovery next year, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.

Even if the recession ends this year, the economy will remain frail, analysts said. Companies will have little appetite to ramp up hiring until they feel the economy is truly out of the woods and any recovery has staying power.

Given that, many economists predict the unemployment rate will hit 10 percent at the end of this year. The Fed says unemployment will remain elevated into 2011.

Economists say the job market may not get back to normal -- meaning a 5 percent unemployment rate -- until 2013.

"There's going to quite a long haul before you see the jobless rate head down," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock Financial Services.

To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.

And the Obama administration had launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.

The administration also is counting on programs to prop up financial companies and reduce home foreclosures to help turn the economy around.

Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week.

3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it's cutting another 1,200 jobs, or 1.5 percent of its work force, because of the global economic slump. Fewer than half the jobs will be in the U.S., but include hundreds in its home state of Minnesota. The 1,200 figure includes cuts made earlier in the first quarter.

Elsewhere, healthcare products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions, or about 3 percent of its work force, and semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it will cut about 600 jobs, or 10 percent of its employees.

The Job Market: April 2009

2009-04-03T18:13:00.003-04:00

I didn't make the time to blog about the job market last month instead making time to talk to job hunters and work on a new site (www.freejobsearchtips.info) and the re-launch of TheResumeUniverse.com.

So I have a little bit of catching up to do.

The State of The Job Market (sounds like a Presidential address) is pretty well known:

Job cuts in January were over 740000
Job cuts in February were over 640000
In March, another 633000 workers lost their jobs (ADP believes the number was over 700000; we'll see if the government revises the figures further downward in the next few months

All told, unemployment is reported at 8.5%. That does not include people who are no longer collecting benefits or small business owners who are no longer paying themselves.

Unemployment rates were higher in February than a year earlier in all 372 metropolitan areas surveyed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics

In summary, more than 13 million people are counted as being out of work and there is little that I am seeing to indicate that the employment picture is improving. Understand that, although my office is hubbed in the Northeast, the work that our firm is doing in recruiting is national in scope. Every part of the country is being severely impacted in every almost every field except one--health care.

Clearly, the health care industry has enormous labor shortages. Positions available are not simply for physicians but nurse practitioners, people to work in hospital administration, pharmacists . . . the list is long and seemingly endless.

Professionals in the energy industry is another high demand area currently.

I think the next demand area is going to be consultants . . . temps . . . people working on a temp-to-perm basis.

You see, comes the summer, companies will be dealing with vacation schedules and work slippages (we have a project due by January and we're already behind on it. Let's get some people in to help). If we sat and one other thing, I think we will have turned the corner. If not, like Punxsutawney Phil (for my overseas readers who may not follow this uniquely American tradition--Phil is a groundhop used to predict whether winter will be short or long), we will be in for a cold winter this year and a tough year next, too.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Concepts in Staffing
thebiggamehunter@cisny.com

© 2009 all rights reserved.

Nokia to Layoff 1700 Worldwide

2009-03-23T07:19:00.000-04:00

Nokia Corp. said Tuesday it will lay off 1,700 people worldwide to cut costs, as the global economic downturn strikes deeper into the mobile phone sector.

The world’s top mobile phone maker said the job cuts will affect several sectors, including its devices and markets units, the corporate development office and global support functions.

“The number of employees we have to reduce is 1,700,” Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen said, adding that details would be announced after the company begins negotiations with employees.

Nokia shares fell 2 percent in Helsinki to close at euro8.65 ($11.25) after the announcement, which came as the industry bellwether continues to struggle with falling demand and handset prices.

In January, Nokia warned of major cost-cutting measures after its fourth-quarter net profit crashed 70 percent to euro576 million ($744 million). It also lost market share, which fell to 37 percent from 38 percent in the previous quarter and 40 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Nokia said it would aim for annual savings of euro700 million at its handset unit, but gave no details at the time.

Last month, Nokia said it will close a research center, ax up to 320 jobs and temporarily lay off 2,500 workers in Finland. It also announced a global voluntary resignation program, open to employees until May 31, in a move aimed at cutting personnel by 1,000.

It has also said it plans to increase short-term unpaid leaves and sabbaticals, and has appealed to employees to accept holiday time as payments, instead of cash, for overtime work in 2009.

Based in Espoo near Helsinki, Nokia last year remained the No.1 cell phone maker selling 468 million handsets, up 7 percent on 2008. It employs 128,400 people worldwide.

Toro Co. to lay off about 235 from Tomah site

2009-03-23T07:16:00.000-04:00

MADISON, Wis. - The Toro Co. has told Wisconsin officials it will lay off about 235 workers from its Tomah site next month.

The Bloomington, Minn., company makes products for landscape maintenance.

A Toro executive told Wisconsin officials in a letter last week the layoffs are expected to occur on or about April 20.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development released Toro's letter on Tuesday, as well as notices from three other companies.

Potash Corp. extends layoff of 940 workers

2009-03-23T07:14:00.000-04:00

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan plans to extend the temporary layoff of 940 workers who were let go in January.

The layoff covers workers at Potash’s Saskatchewan plants in Rocanville, Lanigan and Allan.

Workers at those fertilizer sites were initially laid off for eight weeks.

The extended layoffs come one day after Potash said it is reducing its 2009 potash production by an additional 1.5 million tonnes, bringing the total expected cut of its capacity to at least 3.5 million tonnes this year.

With inventories in its key markets expected to be mostly depleted in the second quarter of this year, the company said it is expecting a strong rebound in potash demand in the second half of 2009 that should continue into 2010.

“Farmers, like other consumers, have been on a buying hiatus but they cannot remain on the sidelines indefinitely,? said PotashCorp CEO Bill Doyle.

?People need to eat, farmers need to grow and sell crops, and maintaining soil fertility is essential for those things to happen,” he said in a release.

With files from Canadian Press

Bellevue Center developer asks for year delay for overhaul
Sask. legislative sitting expected to be all about the economy
Autoworkers feel stuck between buyouts, possible future cuts

CAT Announces More Layoffs

2009-03-23T07:10:00.000-04:00

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) plans to lay off 2,454 employees across 5 plants in Illinois, Indiana and Georgia to cut costs amid recessionary conditions.

The stock is trading marginally down 0.5% while volumes are at lower-than-average levels. The world’s largest manufacturer of mining and construction equipment said the layoff will impact 2,365 support and management workers for 6 months, while 89 will be let go permanently.

CAT had announced the elimination of 22,000 positions in January coupled with an up to 50% reduction in executive compensation.

Analysts have already slashed fiscal 2009 earnings estimates by 8 cents over the past month and by $2.22 over the past 60 days.

CAT is currently a Zacks #5 Rank ("Strong Sell") stock.

Caterpillar To Layoff Hundreds In Indiana

2009-03-23T07:09:00.000-04:00

Follow link to article under copywright

March 6: Stocks end mixed after jobs report

2009-03-07T08:38:00.000-05:00

Employees: Halliburton Layoffs in the Hundreds

2009-03-07T08:37:00.000-05:00

Layoffs Announced at Northrop Grumman

2009-03-07T08:36:00.000-05:00

Spansion Layoffs 3,000

2009-03-07T08:35:00.001-05:00

Layoff Worries 02-27-09

2009-03-07T08:34:00.000-05:00

HSBC CLOSES LENDING UNITS; 6,100 CUT

2009-03-03T06:12:00.000-05:00

By KAJA WHITEHOUSE

Last updated: 4:20 am
March 3, 2009
Posted: 4:20 am
March 3, 2009

Getting a loan just got a lot tougher.

British bank HSBC, often referred to as the nation's second-largest provider of US consumer loans, announced yesterday that it's shuttering two units dedicated to consumer lending.

The closure of the two units - HFC and Beneficial - will result in 6,100 job losses and the closing of 800 branches that provide mortgage refinancing and personal loans, among other forms of debt financing.

Beneficial has three branches in the New York area, including one in Brooklyn and another in Sunnyside, Queens, according to the firm's Web site. HFC also has three branches in the region, including one in Bayside, Queens.

HSBC's bank branches, which are scattered throughout Manhattan and the boroughs, won't be affected. HSBC will continue to underwrite residential mortgages through the bank branches, said a spokeswoman for the company.

The move comes as the parent company, HSBC Holdings, reported a 70 percent drop in 2008 net profit amid losses tied to the US mortgage and subprime loans.

The company, one of the few to have avoided a government bailout, is seeking to raise $17.7 billion from shareholders through a share sale.

JPMORGAN TO AX 12K

2009-02-27T07:43:00.000-05:00

By PAUL THARP

Last updated: 11:54 pm
February 26, 2009
Posted: 12:00 am
February 27, 2009

JPMorgan Chase plans to eliminate 12,000 jobs as it swallows failed bank Washington Mutual.

The financial giant said it expects to save about $2 billion by combining operations of the two firms, with about $1.35 billion saved in payroll alone.

Shares of JPMorgan jumped nearly 10 percent on the moves before settling at $23.05, a 6 percent rise.

Most of the cuts will come from Washington Mutual, with as many as 2,000 from JPMorgan's investment banking arm, officials said.

Jobless claims spike to 26-year high

2009-02-26T20:44:00.000-05:00

Number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits rises to 667,000. Continuing claims top 5 million for the first time.

By Lara Moscrip, CNNMoney.com contributing writer

Last Updated: February 26, 2009: 9:12 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance spiked, and those living on unemployment benefits hit a record high, according to a government report released Thursday.

For the week ended Feb. 21, 667,000 Americans filed initial jobless claims, up 36,000 from a revised 631,000 the previous week. That's the highest figure since October 1982.

Economists polled by Briefing.com were expecting claims to drop to 625,000.

In a sign that more jobless Americans are having trouble finding work, 5,112,000 continued on unemployment for the week ended Feb. 14, the most recent data available. That's the highest number since the Labor Department began keeping records since 1967.

Initial claims are expected to sharply increase, and it's likely they will reach 750,000 per week in the upcoming months, according to Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics in New York.

He noted that weekly filings, adjusted for population growth, would have to exceed the 1 million mark in order to break the jobless claims reported from the mid-1970s and early 1980s.

"We fervently hope that does not happen but we are not confident. Companies are throwing in the towel as they recognize that no sector is safe," Shepherdson wrote in a note.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 639,000, an increase of 19,000 from the preceding week. The average is used to smooth fluctuations in data.

The 4-week moving average for people continuing on unemployment was 4,932,250, an increase of 89,250 from 4,843,000 in the previous week.

The insured unemployment rate is 3.8%, nearly double the 2.1% rate from a year ago.

Stimulus: The stimulus bill that President Obama signed into law has several provisions that help those living on unemployment benefits.

The weekly unemployment benefit will temporarily increase by $25 on top of the roughly $300 jobless workers currently receive.

In addition, the first $2,400 of benefits in 2009 would be exempt from federal income taxes.

The stimulus also provides jobless workers with an additional 20 weeks in unemployment benefits, and 13 weeks on top of that if they live in what's deemed a high unemployment state.

Nokia seeks 1,000 voluntary layoffs

2009-02-25T19:44:00.000-05:00

Read article by following link to article under copywright

Washington jobless rate jumps to 7.8%

2009-02-25T19:43:00.001-05:00

Washington’s unemployment rate jumped to 7.8 percent in January from 7.1 percent in December, the state’s Employment Security Department reported Tuesday, in another sign of the deepening recession.

In January, an estimated 303,570 people were jobless and looking for work in Washington – the largest number ever in the state.

“These are rough times for the unemployed, but it’s also an opportunity to get some training for a new career,” said Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee.

The biggest declines were seen in manufacturing, information services, construction, motor vehicles and parts dealers, and truck transportation.

Washington's January unemployment rate of 7.8 percent was higher than the national unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. Washington's jobless rate was up significantly from a year ago, when it was 4.5 percent.

In the Seattle/Bellevue/Everett area, the unemployment rate was 6.8 percent, up from 6.2 percent in December. In January 2008, the Seattle area's jobless rate was 3.7 percent.

Pierce County had 9.1 percent unemployment rate in January, Snohomish County was 8.5 percent, and King County was 6.7 percent. Spokane County had 9.6 percent unemployment rate.

The state lost an estimated 7,000 seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs in January.

The Employment Security Department characterized the January unemployment numbers as a preliminary estimate. The department normally receives unemployment data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the January data was delayed due to a computer project. Employment Security said it generated its own January data using a “computer model that historically has closely matched the official number.”

Canada loses record 129,000 jobs

2009-02-25T19:41:00.000-05:00

Unemployment rate hits 7.2 per cent

BY PAUL VIEIRA, FINANCIAL POST

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Suozzi proceeding with cuts, layoffs despite stimulus

2009-02-25T19:39:00.000-05:00

Suozzi proceeding with cuts, layoffs despite stimulus

BY SID CASSESE | sid.cassese@newsday.com

9:10 PM EST, February 17, 2009

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi (Photo by Howard Schnapp / February 3, 2009)

Despite the expectation of up to $127 million in federal stimulus cash over 27 months, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi said Tuesday he will proceed with painful cuts and layoffs if he can't get the union concessions he wants this week.

But leaders of county employee unions shot back that Nassau should direct more stimulus money to ameliorate service cuts and layoffs. The leaders are scheduled to continue negotiations tomorrow with Suozzi administration officials.

Suozzi already has budgeted $50 million in increased federal Medicaid aid to help fill an estimated deficit of $130 million to $150 million this year. He is pushing state lawmakers to approve another $30 million in new taxes and fees.

But even if Nassau ends up getting somewhat more in Medicaid aid than anticipated, Suozzi argued yesterday that the unions still will have to agree to salary cuts or layoffs to close the budget gap.

Suozzi proceeding with cuts, layoffs despite stimulus

BY SID CASSESE | sid.cassese@newsday.com

9:10 PM EST, February 17, 2009

Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi (Photo by Howard Schnapp / February 3, 2009)