More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise. Incomplete list of U.S. internet/high-tech/communications job destruction announcements in May 2016:
Once again, five tech companies are leading the way in corporate cash hoarding: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Cisco Systems and Oracle. For the past several years these very same tech companies have dominated corporate cash hoarding. In 2015 they hoarded a combined total of $504-billion USD, or 30% of the cash available in the U.S. economy. Basic economics courses will tell you that cash hoarding is a major drain on economies, pulling money out of the cash flow system which drives economies. And these are the same tech companies that are killing tens of thousands of jobs!
After three years website The Toast will cease new postings by July. The owners revealed they’ve been discussing shutting it down altogether for the past six months. They also admitted it’s actually difficult to finance such a website.
California: Palo Alto based Jive Software laying off 1-hundred people by the end of June, in an attempt to reach “sustainable profitability.” Mountain View based software company Symantec announced a restructuring plan that will eliminate 1-thousand 2-hundred jobs and shutdown some operations! Data storage contractor Western Digital issued multiple layoff WARNs, 204 jobs gone between June and July! Sacramento based newspaper owner The McClatchy Company off-shoring 150 U.S. InfoTech jobs to India! Xerox laying off 55 people in Riverside, by the end of June. Cisco Systems killed yet more jobs, this time 83 people in San Jose rendered jobless. In San Francisco, Roof Diagnostics Solar and Electric issued a WARN, 48 jobs gone by July. Video game maker Glu Mobile warning of mass layoffs after losing $8.6-million USD during its last quarter.
Connecticut: Roof Diagnostics Solar and Electric issued a shutdown WARN for their Middletown operation, 46 jobs lost by mid-July. Norwalk based internet travel company Priceline warning of bad results for its upcoming quarterly report.
Idaho: The Idaho Technology Council reports that from 2014 to 2015 business investments into The Gem State tripled ($3.47 billion to $16.29 billion)! However, when you break it down by region all the big increases in investments went to the Boise area (aka southern sector of the state), north and east sectors saw little change in investments. And 60% went to the service sector (retail).
Illinois: Chicago based internet loan company Avant laid off 60 people. CEO Al Goldstein admitted the economy sucks: “Our biggest competitor [California based Lending Club] just fell down, and the whole space is at an inflection point.” Chicago based e-coupon company Groupon laid off 30 people as part of their larger plan to eliminate 1-thousand 1-hundred jobs! Sports analytics provider to news media Stats eliminating 50 jobs, on top of the 30 jobs eliminated back in October.
Louisiana: In Baton Rouge, Xerox eliminated 84 data collection jobs with its State & Local Solutions ops.
Maine: Tennessee based Sitel eliminating 120 jobs at its Caribou call center, by mid-July! It’s blamed on lack of contracts.
Maryland: Silver Spring based Discovery Communications warning of impending employee buyouts and mass layoffs, this after the CEO took a 79% pay-cut last year! The job cuts are expected to be finalized by 3rd quarter 2016.
Massachusetts: Boston Weak tech start up Localytics admitted that its recent round of layoffs was an effort to maximize profits in a crashing economy. Boston Weak based electronic payment processor Merchant Customer eXchange (MCX) laid off 30 people and is once again delaying the release of its new payment processing software.
Missouri: Two years after re-entering the home loan market internet based Ditech Financial eliminating 103 jobs by September, as it shuts down its debt collects ops in Earth City!
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: NGR Solar announced it is streamlining its home solar division, meaning 5-hundred employees becoming unemployed!
New Mexico: California based Intel accelerating layoffs at its Rio Rancho ops, hundreds of people being laid off by Xmas and the Rio Rancho plant is being shutdown as well! Here’s what Intel said about accelerating layoffs across the world : “The majority of changes will be communicated worldwide over the next 60 days with some actions stretching into 2017, through site consolidations, a combination of voluntary and involuntary departures, reevaluation of projects, and an increased focus on efficiency in a variety of programs. We are not providing further site-specific information at this time.”
New York: NYC based internet auction site Paddle8 laid off at least 16 people as a direct result of their merger with Auctionata. And British empire Canada founded but NYC based Vice News laid off at least 15 digital media employees in California and New York, and began eliminating jobs in Europe. The Wall Street journal reporting that Armonk based IBM is conducting yet another round of massive job cuts in Colorado, New York and North Carolina. Those jobs are being off-shored to Costa Rica and India. Analysts think that when IBM is done killing U.S. jobs, this year, that as many as 14-thousand people could be unemployed! 3D printer maker MakerBot issued a layoff WARN for their Brooklyn location, at least 80 people jobless by mid-July. Roof Diagnostics Solar and Electric issued a shutdown WARN for its Henrietta operations, 38 jobs gone by mid-August. Insurance company New York Life issued a WARN saying 104 InfoTech employees in NYC and Sleepy Hollow will become unemployed by January 2017! The jobs are being “outsourced”. It’s finally been revealed that NYC based EmblemHealth eliminated 250 Information Technology (IT) jobs! They’re switching to a contractor.
North Carolina: Sitel shutting down its Ashville call center, 189 jobs gone starting in July!
Texas: Austin based video game maker Wizard101-KingIsle Entertainment revealed they laid off an undisclosed number of employees, after canceling the release of some new smart phone video games.
Utah: In Salt Lake City, without warning Disney Infinity killed 3-hundred jobs as Disney halted production and design of Star Wars related toys and video games! Disney administrators revealed how bad the future economy still is by saying “…we did not have enough confidence in the business in terms of it being stable enough to stay in it.”
Washington: 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
April 2016: “BLOODBATH”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed