Panasonic Cuts 15,000 Jobs; Global Layoffs

Sales Forecast Low for Plasma Flat-Screen TVs, Digital Cameras and Electronics

By ELEANOR HONG, SCOTT MAYEROWITZ and ALICE GOMSTYN
Feb. 4, 2009

A cheap night at home in front of the television may have new appeal for cost-conscious consumers these days, but that hasn't made television manufacturers and their employees immune to the recession.

Panasonic Corp., the electronics giant known for flat-screen TVs as well as digital cameras, announced today that it wouldslash 15,000 jobs and close 27 plantsworldwide. In December, rival consumer electronics maker Sony announced 16,000 job cuts.

Panasonic, which saw its third-quarter sales drop by 20 percent, announced its first annual loss in six years.

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"The current financial crisis originated in the United States has spread across the world and the company's outlook of the business environment has been extremely uncertain," the company said in its financial forecast.

The Osaka-based corporation is one of several Japanese companies cutting back on global production and staff. Japanese corporations are dealing with low sales and implications of a weak global economy set off by the U.S. financial crisis. The company's cost-cutting measures will affect Japan's workforce with plans to close plants by the end of March next year.

Macy's and Financial Giant Morgan Stanley

The crumbling economy has taken its toll on one of the largest department store chains. Macy's announced that it will cut 7,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

The company's cost-cutting measures include restructuring its retail divisions and reducing planned expenses. Macy's Inc. operates more than 840 department stores -- under Macy's and Bloomingdale's -- across the nation, with corporate offices located in New York and Cincinnati.

Today In Layoffs: Macy's, Morgan Stanley

Another Monday, another round of layoffs. Today's magic number is 4 percent. That's how much Macy's is shaving off of its headcount, cutting 7,000 positions as it restructures to survive the slowdown. Actually, the "restructuring" also looks like a "gutting." Some 40 percent of its executive positions are on the block as the retailer tries a new "decentralized" strategy, according to Forbes. Investors don't appear to like the move. Macy's shares were off nearly 5 percent in late trade. (It also might have something to do with Macy's slashing its quarterly dividend to 5 cents a share from around 13.25 cents.)

Meanwhile, the WSJ is reporting Morgan Stanley is planning a 3-4 percent reduction in headcount, or 1,500 to 1,800 jobs. The cuts, which could come this month, are on top of some 7,000 layoffs at Morgan during 2008. It's no surprise banks are still cutting back. Finance has been by far the hardest-hit sector in this downturn. Job losses during the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 topped 120,000. The WSJ also says big investment banks like Goldman Sachs are considering more cuts as well.

So who's hiring? The federal government. From the Associated Press:

Since 2001, civilian employment in the executive branch, excluding postal employees, has edged upward from 1.7 million to about 2 million, largely because of new homeland security jobs.

More federal job openings are on the horizon.

A report released in January by Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and Jared Bernstein, an economic policy adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, predicted that more than 90 percent of the 3 million to 4 million jobs that Obama proposes to save or create would be in the private sector.

But the report also estimated that 244,000 government jobs — some at the federal level, but more at the state and local level — would be created or saved.

That was based on a $600 billion stimulus package; the one being debated in Congress is more than $800 billion.

(Looking for one of those jobs? Check FedJobs.com.) Or you could go work at Lehman Brothers!

That's right: The WSJ says working for Lehman is "one of the hottest jobs on Wall Street." I-bankers are scrambling to get hired at the failed investment bank to help wind down "a broad patchwork of assets" including a "thicket of about 500,000 derivative contracts with 4,000 trading partners worth some $24 billion." Plus, they'll get to work alongside former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld who's still haunting the halls of his old bank. Sounds like a tough gig to me. A job's a job, I suppose, but who wants to spend the next couple of years reliving what went wrong?

2,300 GET PINK SLIPS AT MACY'S

February 7, 2008 -- Macy's cut its fourth-quarter earnings forecast after a decline in January sales and said it will eliminate 2,300 jobs.

The second-biggest US department-store chain will reduce annual expenses by $100 million starting in 2009 and cost the company $150 million this year, Macy's said yesterday in a statement.

Sales at stores open more than a year fell 7.1 percent in January, the second straight monthly decline.

Macy's has struggled to boost sales growth since buying May Department Stores in 2005 for $11 billion.

Chief Executive Terry Lundgren said the retailer will consolidate three divisions to help Macy's tailor merchandise to markets, reducing expenses and boosting revenue.

"The merger has been a struggle," said David Heupel, a Minneapolis-based fund manager with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

"They need a better way to manage these stores. The moves to consolidate and cut costs are obviously needed and positive." Thrivent manages $60 billion in assets, including Macy's shares.

Macy's declined $1.16, or 4.6 percent, to $23.94 in New York Stock Exchange trading. The shares have fallen 31 percent since the purchase of May.

The retailer will cut 950 positions at its regional headquarters in Minneapolis, 850 in St. Louis and 750 in Seattle.

The company is adding 250 district managers and staff who will operate its stores according to local tastes, the company said. Macy's has about 188,000 employees.

Standard & Poor's said it lowered its rating on Macy's to BBB-, citing "operating disappointments."

Updated: Facility Closures and Layoff Announcements (Jan. 20-26)

The following future closings and permanent mass layoffs were reported in Indiana.
· Atwood is closing down and laying off 152 employees in Elkhart in late February or mid March.
· Colgate Palmolive is closing down and laying off 40 employees at 1410 S. Clark Blvd. in Jeffersonville Feb. 29.
· Hurst Manufacturing is laying off 55 employees at 1551 W. Broadway St. in Princeton on March 3.
· International Automotive Components is laying off 233 employees at 200,000-square-foot at 600 S. Kyle St. in Edinburgh on March 17.
· Macy's-Washington Square Mall is laying off 103 employees at 10202 E. Washington St., # 300, in Indianapolis on March 1.
· Superior Sample Company, Inc. is closing down and laying off 31 employees at 1225 North State Road 25 in Rochester on March 10.
· Trinity Health is closing down and laying off 158 employees at its Our Lady of Holy Cross Care Center at 7520 S. US Highway 421 in San Pierre on Feb. 29.

Macy's Cuts 100 Chicagoland Jobs

Further evidence that Macy’s strategies are not headed in the successful direction executives hoped, Macy’s North, the division that operates Macy’s in the Midwest, announced Friday the layoff of 271 employees, citing lagging sales. Combined sales for November and December were down 1.1%, while December’s sales were down 7.9%, significantly worse than the anticipated 4 to 7 percent drop over last year.

January’s same day sales are expected to dip 4 to 6 percent.

100 positions in the Chicagoland area will be impacted, with 70 in Detroit, and the remaining in Minneapolis, where Macy’s North is headquartered. Most of the positions eliminated coincide with Macy’s shuttering their Marketplace food operations and wine sales beginning in March at every store other than the flagship State Street location.

Local stores impacted include Oak Brook, Aurora, Vernon Hills, and the new store in Bolingbrook. A Macy’s spokesperson said the effort is to align expenses with revenue. The layoff comes on the heals of Macy’s announcement just two weeks ago they will be closing nine underperforming stores, which impacts 900 employees. Although no stores are in Illinois.

Field’s Fans Chicago’s blog encourages fans to pen letters to the editor. One fan suggested, via the blog, an effort to organize a Field’s delegation at the next Macy’s annual meeting of shareholders. He added, “If Chicago can rise from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871 which was the greatest disaster to hit any city since Pompeii, then Chicago can bring back Marshall Field’s!”