Incomplete list of U.S. job loss announcements and shutdowns.
California: Despite Kroger’s claim that they plan to hire 14-thousand people this year, and after Kroger issued a shutdown WARN for their Indian Wells grocery store, and revelations of the shutdown of their Rialto Ralphs, local news reports say the Arcadia Ralphs in the Rancho Santa Anita Shopping Center is also being shutdown. A spokesman for Ralphs claims that between 80 and 1-hundred Arcadia Ralphs employees have been transfered to other stores. In Paso Robles, after 11 years Faultline Music shutting down next month. The ignorant owner blames internet competition, even saying that “Even the big guys like Walmart, Target…” are suffering despite the fact that Walmart and Target sell on the internet!
Connecticut: The failed ‘elected’ state lawmakers finally passed a budget; state agencies, and private non-profits getting taxpayer funding, will lose a total of $821-million USD, resulting in massive shutdowns and layoffs!
Idaho: ‘Suspect’ State Treasurer Ron Crane is now facing wrongful termination charges by a former employee, who was fired “in direct retaliation for communicating in good faith the existence of extensive waste of public funds/manpower and illegality”. In November 2015 five state employees reported to their superiors massive corruption in the Republican ‘christian’ controlled state government. Instead of being praised for revealing the waste of taxpayer funding, they were accused of insubordination! Two were fired! The Idaho Housing and Finance Association reports that the number of homeless people in northern Idaho has increased 5% since 2015. Local charities say the homeless rate is actually higher than the official count because not all localities are included in the head-counting, and warned the homeless rate will go up: “Although the homeless number is always interesting, those living from paycheck to paycheck who are on the verge of losing their homes is far greater. That’s the bigger issue.”-Jeff Conroy, Saint Vincent de Paul of North Idaho
New Hampshire: Teledyne PCT was sold-off and local news reports say the new owner, FTC Circuts, plans to shut it down, 80 jobs lost.
New Jersey: Sussex County Community College eliminated 47 jobs.
New Mexico: Albuquerque Public Schools shutting down 57 years old Acoma Elementary, due to what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome (low enrollment).
New York: New York City’s own Quarterly Economic Update admits that almost 50% of all new jobs in The Big Apple pay poverty level wages. This is proven by the fact that the number of people finding jobs have increased, yet city level personal income tax collections are crashing due to the low wages: “New York City’s private sector added 41,700 jobs, or 4.6 percent (seasonally adjusted annualized rate), in 1Q16, after adding a moderate 8,800 jobs in 4Q15…. ….NYC personal income tax (PIT) revenues, a proxy for personal income, fell 0.3 percent on a year-over-year basis to over $3 billion in 1Q16, due to weak collections and a higher volume of refunds.”
North Carolina: Without waring Vertex Railcar laid off 60 people, but then turned around and said a new order for railcars came in so they’ll rehire some of those laid off: “…market conditions and commodity prices change all the time. Because of our global footprint, Vertex understands the challenges that come with the ever-changing nature of the industry.”-Donald Croteau, ceo
Ohio: In Harrison Township, after 46 years Barnsider restaurant shutdown on Saturday, the building was sold-off three days prior.
Oklahoma: Despite surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions, Lyon’s Indian Store shutting down after 1-hundred years in Tusla. 40% of sales went to tourists. The owners are dealing with health problems and tried to sell the iconic novelty store, but nobody made a “true offer”.
Tennessee: In Chattanooga, after two years Harvest Grocery suddenly announced it was shutting down. An arrogant loyal customer blamed “the community” for not “supporting” the ‘natural foods’ store. Personally, my lack of income is enough to prevent me from “supporting” such expensive ‘natural foods’ ops. The economy sucks because the ‘99%’ don’t have any cash because the ‘1%’ are sucking it up. 99-percenters stop blaming each other!
Virginia: In Waynesboro, after 60 years McCoy’s Furniture shutting down when the inventory is gone. The store was sold to a guy in Texas because the original owner’s adult children did not want to take over the business. The ‘new’ Texas owner refused to say why he was shutting down the supposedly successful store.
West Virginia: In Belle, Walker Machinery issued a WARN, saying an undisclosed number of employees will become unemployed in July. I’ve repeatedly pointed out that a sure sign your ‘system’ has failed is the jack-up of taxes and/or creation of new taxes. Gov’na Earl Ray Tomblin has called a special legislative session to do just that! On the agenda is increasing the state sales and tobacco taxes and creating a telecommunications tax. The gov’na says it’s the only way to prevent funding cuts.
Wyoming: What housing market recovery? In another example of what I call Ripple Effect Layoffs (REL), in Gillette local news reports say residential vacancies have skyrocketed due to the oil-mining industry BS: “About 18 months ago, finding an apartment to rent was difficult, with a stingy vacancy rate of only 0.7 percent. By the end of March, the vacancy rate has jumped to 12 percent.”
“It was costing us more to keep it open.” : 13 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.”