Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
California: Yet another not-so Golden State tech company killing jobs. Santa Rosa based Keysight Technologies is eliminating at least 1-hundred jobs globally in an attempt to cut costs by $25-million USD! Administrators claim that by killing jobs now it will somehow result in new jobs later. In Napa Valley, after 45 years Tip Top Shoe Repair shutdown due to the landlord refusing to renew the lease. The space will now be used to allow a neighboring business to expand. After 71 years of “Made with Love & Lard” Oakland’s La Borinquena Mex-icatessen shutdown. The owners also shutdown their La Snackeria operation. They said they need to retire to “catch our breath”.
Connecticut: Norwalk based Xerox announced 3-thousand more job cuts, due to the never ending drop in revenues! In the past few months Xerox has already announced the shutdown of a call center in Texas and a warehouse in New York.
Georgia: Restaurant Timone’s shutdown: “Unfortunately, we’ve arrived at a tough crossroads, and I’ve decided to close Timone’s.”-Ron Eyester
Idaho: “We dodged a bullet last year. But we’re not going to dodge it this year. We’re going to go down.” so says southeast Idaho economist Ben Eborn who warns that the strong USD and 15 years long drought might finally kill off Idaho’s farmers. The exalted republican controlled government of The Gem State has finally given up playing the stock markets with taxpayer dollars, but only after losing a grand total of $8-million! Since 2008 the state treasurer “transferred the loss arbitrarily to protect one fund over another”, in other words they ‘cooked the books’. State administrators hope to recover money from a federal level settlement with Standards & Poor.
Illinois: Decatur based container shipper Trans Coastal Supply blaming GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) corn for forcing it into chapter 11 bankruptcy. Last year massive shipments of GMO corn from the U.S. were rejected by China, costing Trans Coastal Supply big money. They tried to sue the Switzerland based company that made the GMO corn. The 2014 lawsuit alleged that U.S. farmers, who grow corn for China, were sold the GMO corn by Syngenta even though China bans GMO corn. Leonard Bo Peep Preschool Academy shutdown due to taxpayer funding cuts. The Franklin-Williamson Bi-County Health Department laid off a total of 12 people since March. Should we blame ObamaCare? “We were already losing money on these programs, and it just can’t continue…..we’re going to be operating with fewer staff for many, many more months to come…..Times have caught up with us there. ….We will begin to increase those fees, we have no choice.”-Robin Koehl
Massachusetts: God refuses to stop ‘his’ 60 years old Saint Paul School in Wellesley from shutting down: “Over the past several years, St. Paul School has faced a steady decline in enrollment. An attempt to secure solid commitments from parents for the upcoming school year was not sufficient.”
Michigan: In Pontiac, ObamaCare forced Doctors Hospital-Oakland Physicians Medical Center to go bankrupt. Adminstrators blame the growing trend of ObamaCare mergers and the threat of losing Medicare payments due to ObamaCare rules. Reports said the hospital employed, at one point, 690 people!
Minnesota: What housing market recovery? After 16 years Moorhead Flooring and More (previously known as 5 to 9 Carpet) shutdown. The owner laid off all his employees a few years ago, but says the economy is so bad that “It’s just me and now it is time to cut back some more.”
Oklahoma: First National Bank & Trust Company of Broken Arrow shutting down its 28 years old South Elm Place office by December.
Texas: After 26 years Austin based restaurant chain Z’Tejas now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. The company is in debt by $9.3-million, and even owes the city of Austin more than $17-thousand for utilities! Administrators say they hope to sell-off their Cornbread Ventures, if they can’t then they’re shutting it all down forever!
Utah: In Saint George, Paul Mitchell the school shutting down in August. A spokesperson said Saint George is “not able to support as large of a school as is needed for Paul Mitchell”.
Virginia: After 21 years Sneak Reviews video store shutdown.
24 July 2015: “Blood bath happening….”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) no longer issues mass layoff reports: “On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the- board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all ‘measuring green jobs’ products. This news release is the final publication of monthly mass layoff survey data.”