Incomplete list of U.S. job loss announcements and shutdowns.
California: Save Mart issued a shutdown WARN for their Vacaville distribution center, 325 jobs gone by mid-August! Alcoa issued a layoff WARN for their Fontana operations, 189 jobs gone by August! Also in Fontana, Ryder laying off 47 people by August. CVS Pharmacy consolidating its Coram financial ops, resulting in 152 people in Rancho Cordova becoming jobless in September! Corizon Health eliminating 156 jobs in two locations by the end of the month! In Corona, Switzerland based drugs maker Actavis issued a layoff WARN, 31 jobs gone by August. In Modesto, American Medical Response-Centrex laying off eight people by Xmas. StemCells shutting down its Newark and Sunnyvale locations, 53 jobs lost by August. Prometheus Laboratories laying off 55 San Diegans by August. What automotive industry recovery? In Chowchilla, Brake Parts continues its shutdown, 65 people laid off by the end of July. More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise; United Technologies shuts down their San Diego office at the end of July. Software company Veritas Technologies revealed they laid off 128 people in Mountain View, back in May! Steiner eOptics (aka Laser Devices) shutting down their Monterey location, 69 jobs gone by August. Connecticut based Xerox shutting down their Cerritos location, 39 jobs lost by August.
Delaware: Two years ago Hastings entertainment stores were sold to Draw Another Circle, now it’s up for sale again. Administrators with Draw Another Circle say if nobody buys it then all remaining 126 Hastings stores will be shutdown affecting at least 1-thousand jobs! It’s blamed on crashing sales.
Idaho: It’s been revealed that a major buyer of Idaho potatoes, Japan, has banned the ‘fresh’ version of the iconic food product since 2006. That’s the year that the pale cyst nematode showed up in east Idaho farms. Japan has imported fresh potatoes from other U.S. states since then. Mining companies from Canada and China have signed a $700-million USD deal to open a molybdenum mine near Boise. Administrators with American CuMo Mining and MCC8 Group say Idaho has the largest moly-b deposits in the world! $100-million of the $700-million deal will be used to study the viability of the mining ops before any mining takes place. In Boise, an Oregon woman pled guilty to stealing $850-thousand USD from corrupt ‘christian’ run Saint Luke’s Health System. The woman ran the scam through her Boise employer Pinnacle Pension Services. Saint Luke’s itself has been caught ‘stealing’ local tax dollars.
The economy is so bad that there is an official teacher “famine” in eastern Idaho schools. According to numbers presented by east Idaho school districts, between 2009 and 2014 at least 9-thousand 569 teachers fled eastern Idaho schools! Statewide only 11 of Idaho’s 70 school districts were able to fill vacant positions, at the same time there is and exodus of education students as well. Between 2009 and 2013 there was a 35% drop in college students entering a teacher training program (what happened to Idaho’s free tuition if somebody became a teacher in Idaho?). Idaho Education News revealed that the state Department of Education does not keep track of such data, it’s coming from local districts and the universities themselves, implying that exalted state ‘lawmakers’ are ignoring the situation. Local school district administrators admit low pay for teachers is the main reason for the exodus, but say ObamaCare has jacked up the cost of employee benefits so high that they can’t afford to pay teachers mo-money: “I would not say it’s a teacher shortage we are experiencing, it’s a teacher famine!”-Randy Lords, Madison School District
Mississippi: The Walnut Grove state prison being shut down due to the “budget is lower than what we anticipated”.
Missouri: In Saint Louis, the Luna Lounge shutting down, the owner saying “a lot of factors” were responsible with the deciding factor being “I don’t want to be working until 1:30 a.m. any more.”
Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh base for-profit Brown Mackie College shutting down all U.S. 22 campuses by 2018! Layoffs begin now, enrollments halted. It’s directly connected to Brown Mackie owner Education Management’s problems with meeting tougher U.S. Department of Education rules.
Texas: University of Texas asking employees to voluntarily quit (buyouts) and eliminated 50 vacant positions. 40 academic programs threatened.
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.”