Incomplete list of U.S. job loss announcements and shutdowns.
Alaska: University of Alaska Fairbanks shutting down its agriculture extension offices in Anchorage and Sitka by October. It’s blamed on millions of dollars in state funding cuts, caused by crashing revenues from the oil industry.
Arizona: Kingman Army Air Field Museum shutdown due to a dilapidated building that was built in 1942, and they can’t afford to fix. All museum owned assets are being put up for auction, surprisingly the auctioneer said the stuff was worth only $11-thousand USD!
Arkansas: In Little Rock, after 31 years Silvek’s European Bakery shutting down by the end of the month, apparently to take care of family issues (the owners said they hope their son can restart the bakery).
Illinois: Oak Brook based TreeHouse Foods took over ConAgra-Ralcorp and announced it will shutdown ConAgra factories in California and in Wisconsin, at least 720 jobs gone supposedly for lack of demand for snack foods!
Kansas: After 19 years Lexena based ‘home party’ jewelry seller Silpada shutting down in July. Between 2-hundred and 5-hundred in-house jobs lost and 10-thousand independent reps affected! It’s blamed on crashing sales. Don’t blame the internet because they also sell on ebay.
Maryland: After 73 years Mars Super Markets sold-off five grocery stores to rival Weis Markets and will shutdown its remaining eight grocery stores, more than 4-hundred jobs lost: “As you all know, the company has been struggling with declining sales for several years. We have tried cutting costs everywhere we can while preserving jobs and benefits, but it has not been enough.”-Chris D’Anna, ceo
Massachusetts: In Boston Weak, after 47 years Winmil Fabrics shutting down, the owners said they were tired of going for decades without a vacation. Hannaford Supermarkets shutting down their Hudson grocery store because they can’t afford to renew the lease. 94 jobs gone by mid-August. Too Big to Jail Bank of America shutting down their Westfield office by the end of August.
Missouri: In Saint Louis, after less than a year Lilly’s Music & Social House shutting down, the owner saying “Unfortunately, the doors are closing much earlier on this dream than we had hoped. The bar and restaurant industry is undisputedly challenging…. ….Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things just don’t work out.” Retailer Target shutting down their 10 years old Jennings store by mid-August. The location was takeover by a new landlord last year, and used as a police command center during last year’s Ferguson riots.
Ohio: In Cleveland, the Hard Rock Cafe shutting down in July, the movie celebrity created restaurant chain is consolidating restaurants due to the bad economy.
Oklahoma: After 18 years Christian owned Owasso Fitness Center shutting down. Local news reports say “the most Christian” owner is switching to private fitness lessons only. In Lawton, after 53 years the J. Roy Dunning Children’s Shelter shutting down due to being $122-thousand USD in the hole.
Tennessee: Utah based ‘christian’ owned Capstone Nutrition shutting down their Spring Hill factory-warehouse, 125 jobs gone by mid-June! It’s blamed on legal problems with client MusclePharm, which supposedly hasn’t paid for $22-million USD worth of Capstone products!
Washington: What construction industry recovery? Olympic Panel Products issued a shutdown WARN for their Shelton factory, 217 jobs gone starting in mid-July! More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise; Redmond based Microsoft laying off 1-thousand 850 cell phone employees worldwide, in direct connection to Microsoft’s takeover of Nokia. (Nokia itself took over Alcatel Lucent and announced that 15-thousand people globally will become unemployed as a result!)
And Seattle based Amazon ended its Price Matching Refunds on everything by TVs. Amazon administrators swear they didn’t change their policy, but customers are venting on Reddit: “What pisses me off the most is amazon is pretending like they never did this and if it happened before it was a ‘one time exception.’ I have price adjusted at least 50 times in the last 3 years, so that’s bulls**t if it was just an ‘exception’ this was the policy that amazon had.”
TechCrunch posted conflicting emails it got from Amazon: “If the item is shipped and sold by Amazon we have a 7 days price match from the time of delivery.”-28 April 2016
“With the exception of TVs, Amazon.com doesn’t offer post-purchase adjustments.”-02 May 2016
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification.
I found a 2010 AFL-CIO analysis (titled The Public Availability of WARN Notices: Lack of Accessibility and Disclosure…) which proves what I’ve been suspecting in my search of state WARN notices; most states are not complying with federal WARN regulations and are not publicizing or tracking mass layoffs.
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed!
Employees of religious non-profits might not qualify for unemployment assistance: “If the non-profit organization is a church, you may or may not be entitled to unemployment. It all depends upon state regulations for church employers. In many cases, churches are allowed to set their own rules regarding unemployment benefits, meaning the church can choose whether to offer benefits to former employees.”
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.”