California: HVAC parts maker Hart and Cooley shutting down their Nampa operations, 75 jobs lost between January and March 2016.
Colorado: Just months after getting government approval to sail cruise ships to Cuba, Haimark Line now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. It doesn’t help that the Breckenridge based company has only one 210 passenger ship.
Connecticut: Evil drugs researcher Bristol-Myers Squibb laying off 78 employees between January and March 2016.
Failed State Florida: West Palm Beach based ‘clean technology’ fertilizer maker BioNitrogen now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. The company hasn’t even finished construction on its first clean fertilizer factory! The company lost a $1.4-million lawsuit, but it was its own fault as the lawsuit was over unpaid debts. Retailer Target shutting down their Odessa store after Xmas. Lake Mary based Faro Technologies warned of about 1-hundred layoffs due to crashing sales in China and Japan.
Georgia: Wisconsin based QuadGraphics shutting down their junk mail/catalog factory in Evans, 250 jobs lost by January 2016!
Failed State Illinois: In Chicago, a leaked internal memo revealed that layoffs are coming for employees of Leo Burnett advertising agency. The memo said the bad economy is forcing them to “right size our accounts”. Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios began laying off 183 employees as it preps to move to California in December!
Kansas: Overland Park based cell phone company Sprint admitted that its planned $2-billion USD in cost cutting will result in thousands of people becoming unemployed! The layoffs are expected to take place by the end of January 2016. Not only that, but Sprint administrators say they’re hurting for money so much that for employees laid off after January 2016 the severance package will be cut in half!
Main: The Bucksport Generation power plant now officially chapter 11 bankrupt busted. It’s blamed on the shutdown and sell-off of the Verso paper mill (it’s main customer).
Maryland: Calvert Investments laying off 41 employees right after Xmas.
Massachusetts: Boston Weak based Too Big too Jail finance company State Street announced 6-hundred job cuts, and even hinted at more than that! News reports say it’s all about the shift to automation (robots). In Lawrence, textile mill Polartec conducted 90 “seasonal” layoffs, there are rumors the mill could shutdown and move to Tennessee. Bankrupt 32 years old sporting goods retailer City Sports has thrown in the towel and announced it will shutdown all 26 of its stores, after they failed to find a buyer!
Minnesota: Minneapolis based retailer Target admitted they will be shutting down a total of 13 stores after Xmas. News reports say that so far for 2015 Target has eliminated 2-thousand 5-hundred jobs!
Nebraska: Office Depot on Apples Way shutting down next week.
Failed State New York: That Which Cannot be Named refuses to stop Jewish Board of Family and Children Services from shutting down their Copiague Mental Health Clinic & PROS Possibilities program as well as their Central Islip Mental Health Clinic and ACT Program, at least 142 jobs lost by the end of January 2016! What real estate recovery? International real estate company Cushman & Wakefield laid off 40 New Yorkers as part of their 250 layoffs across the U.S.! It’s the result of several mergers with other companies. In Auburn, after 12 years Pet Depot shutting down before Thanksgiving, 10 jobs lost. It’s the fourth and last Pet Depot in The Empire State to shutdown, news reports say administrators for the company refuse to say why. Entergy shutting down its FitzPatrick nuclear power plant, 615 jobs lost by 2017! Entergy says if taxpayers are willing to fork over more bucks then they’ll keep the money losing nuke plant open.
North Carolina: In Greensboro, Jules Antiques and Fine Art shutting down by the end of 2015, the owner tried selling but nobody wanted to buy his business. Rotech Healthcare conducting a second round of healthcare layoffs, this time 61 people will become unemployed a few days before Xmas. In the first round of layoffs 90 billing employees were let go. Rotech’s Steve Burres directly blames Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). In Lexington, after 84 years (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) McCullochs’ Jewelers shutting down by Thanksgiving: “First the economy changed, with the closing of our local industry. The second is the shopping habits have changed. We have gone from a bustling downtown to the malls and now to shopping online. Now our building owners have changed.”-Jimmie Jean Hunt, owner
Ohio: After 43 years Coomer Furniture shutting down and being sold-off, the current owner said “I’m just getting worked to death.”
Oregon: In Newport, reports that 15 years old Sandcastle Toys shutting down. In Hillsboro, after 25 years Bike n Hike shutdown, the owner suddenly decided to sell the property.
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh based Warren Buffett & 3G Capital owned Kraft Heinz announced it will shutdown seven food factories in North America and kill off an additional 2-thousand 6-hundred jobs! The factory shutdowns are apparently on top of the three New York factory shutdowns I reported on a few days ago. The new shutdowns involve two factories in California, one in New York, one in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland, one in Wisconsin and one in the British empire country of Canada. The 2-thousand 6-hundred jobs reported as being lost must be ‘low balled’ because news reports out of Wisconsin say the factory shutdown there will kill 1-thousand 2-hundred jobs! Wisconsin based QuadGraphics shutting down their magazine/catalog factory in East Greenville, 4-hundred jobs lost by January 2016!
Virginia: In Henrico, after 182 years (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Blair’s Drug Store shutdown, blaming the skyrocketing costs of legal drugs for legal drug addicts: “Some drugs have increased 500 to 1,000% overnight!”-Berkley Rayfield, owner
Washington DC: The U.S. Department of the Treasury revealed your dumb-ass ‘elected’ lawmakers just jacked up the National Debt by a record one day increase of $339.1 billion USD! This is basically how much your government borrowed under a presidential executive order in order to prevent the total collapse, I mean shutdown of your exalted government!
Wisconsin: Local news reports say the Warren Buffett shutdown of the Kraft Heinz Oscar Mayer meat factory will kill 1-thousand 2-hundred jobs! Doug Leikness, the president of the employees’ union, stated “We’re doing very well…..Didn`t see it coming. We`ve increased productivity in this plant. We`ve done it with less workers, and now we`re getting the carpet pulled from underneath us. We just feel a big sense of betrayal from this company.” Mining equipment maker Joy Global announced they eliminated an additional 30 jobs on top of the 139 eliminations announced earlier in the month! At this point the state of Wisconsin has lost more than 10-thousand jobs for 2015!
01-03 November 2015: Iconic safe maker abandons New York for Mexico!
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed
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.”