Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
California: Laying off 57 employees in Palo Alto, Space Systems/Loral finally gave state employment administrators a late WARN! What automotive industry recovery? In San Jose, Capitol Expressway Ford warned they will render 102 people jobless in December! In Lodi, food processor General Mills warned they will render 410 people jobless by January 2015! The FDIC seized the bank known as Frontier Bank (aka El Paseo Bank), assets were assumed by Bank of Southern California. Los Angeles based Capitol Music Group laid off at least 12 employees, blamed on crashing sales. Mountain View based Symantec confirmed it will kill off 2-thousand jobs by the end of 2015, and the tech company will split in half in an effort to ‘right-size’! Dublin based hamburger joint Wendy’s announced it is killing an undisclosed number of HQ jobs (rumored to be in the hundreds) by December, and said that it will continue with its massive store selloffs into 2015! Wendy’s has been selling off its stores to franchise holders. Company administrators say they need to cut at least $30-million USD going into 2015! It’s not due to crashing sales (not yet anyway) but mainly because of skyrocketing beef prices (Wendy’s actually uses 100% beef, unlike McDonald’s)! The supply of cow meat is dwindling due to the decades old drought in the western half of the U.S., and not only is Wendy’s competing with people shopping for beef in grocery stores, but with other burger and steak restaurants as well.
Georgia: In Alpharetta, 400 people becoming jobless as Too Big to Jail insurance company AIG (American International Group, which has its origins in China) laid them off in the name of becoming “more agile”!
Illinois: Lawn and garden products maker County Stone Holdings now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Company administrators blame crashing sales to homeowners, resulting in at least 74 employees becoming unemployed.
Iowa: After 83 years iconic Dahl’s Foods now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. The bankruptcy will make it easier for the iconic food company to be sold off to a competitor (Associated Wholesale Grocers), 950 employees affected! After 30 years, Foster Family Music shutdown, the owners blaming a changing market.
Massachusetts: Maine based Hannaford Supermarkets announced they will shutdown their Ayer grocery store in February 2015, at least 87 jobs lost. Company administrators said they will not renew the lease and admitted the bad economy cannot support all the grocery stores they have. Steward Health Care System announced they will shutdown their Quincy Medical Center at the end of December, 680 jobs lost!
Michigan: What automotive industry recovery? Plastic parts maker for the automotive industry Flint Hills Resources shutting down their Marysville plant by mid-2015, at least 75 jobs lost. Company administrators said that despite their best efforts the factory could not “remain competitive”.
Missouri: Air ambulance service Air Evac Lifeteam announced the shutdown of their West Plains ops, 36 jobs lost. Company administrators blamed a number of things including the costs to upgrade helicopters and problems with landlords.
New Jersey: Gerresheimer Glass issued a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) saying 115 people will become jobless in January 2015! They are shutting down their Millville soda lime furnace, blaming it on global competition. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton warned state administrators that they will render 87 healthcare workers jobless by the end of 2014.
New York: NYC based Too Big to Jail taxpayer bailout eater JP Morgan Chase radically upped its job killing, now reports say a total of 45-thousand JP Morgan Chase workers will become unemployed, apparently by the end of 2014! And for more proof of a coming housing implosion, about 18-thousand of those job cuts are in the mortgage sector (due to a 48% drop in mortgage related business)! In 2012 a Bloomberg study revealed that JP Morgan Chase was getting $14-billion per year from the U.S. taxpayers! The iconic bank has also been accused of massive fraud and in 2013 agreed to pay the federal government a piddly $13-billion in fines (however, criminal charges are still pending). Oak-Mitsui Technologies warned it will shutdown its Hoosick Falls plant in February 2015, at least 29 jobs lost. Castle Oil issued a WARN revealing they’ve been sold off, putting in limbo at least 182 jobs! Some good news; Suffolk Bus has rescinded a previous WARN. Supposedly they aren’t shutting down after all.
North Carolina: Obamacare forced Harnett Health to lose $24-million and kill off 19 jobs!
Texas: Pasadena based bio-fuel maker Kior now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and up for sale. Administrators said it’s just to expensive to scale up bio-fuel production to compete with old fashioned petroleum oil. In Fort Worth, British empire based U.S. taxsucker BAE Systems killed off 190 U.S. jobs! It’s blamed on U.S. ally Korea (south, aka RoK) canceling an order to upgrade more than 130 F-16 jets. The upgrade deal was (mis?)-handled by the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Washington: Seattle based legal bio-tech drugs pusher Dendreon now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. Administrators say the company has $664-million in debt, but only $364-million in assets.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shutdown. It doesn’t count people who get a severance for being laid off.