Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alabama: In Huntsville, Colorado based Sports Authority announced they will shutdown their Bridge Street Town Centre store in February. JCPenney announced they will shutdown their Cullman Shopping Center store in April, 25 jobs lost.
California: In Los Angeles, old style clothing store Revival Vintage shutdown, the owner did not want to renew the lease. San Jose news sources report that ebay administrators have confirmed they will sell off their PayPal ops, resulting in at least 2-thousand 4-hundred people becoming jobless! The sale of PayPal is being pushed by ‘activist’ (more like vulture capitalist) investors who now control most of ebay’s stock. DreamWorks Animation announced they will eliminate 400 to 500 jobs and shutdown their Redwood City studio in 2015! DreamWorks laid off 350 people in 2014! Company administrators say their revenues have fallen by tens of millions of dollars. In Moreno Valley, G2 Secure Staff issued a WARN saying they will layoff 39 people in March. In Willows, Johns Manville issued a WARN saying they will layoff 40 people by March. In Vista, Zodiac Pool Systems issued a WARN saying they will shutdown in October, at least 97 jobs lost. In Vandenberg AFB, taxsucker InDyne issued a WARN saying they will layoff 541 people in March! In San Ramon, California oil company Chevron finally issued a WARN revealing they laid off 100 people back in December! I doubt it’s really about oil prices, Chevron is at least the second oil company operating in California to issue a WARN about massive layoffs after the fact (a violation of WARN regulations)!
Colorado: After 25 years Pismo Fine Art Glass shutdown, the owner wants to retire. Renewable bio-fuel maker Gevo laid off 23 HQ employees and the CEO claims he’s cutting his base pay by 25%: “Gevo has determined this to be an opportune time to scale down the team to focus primarily on technology optimizations…”
Connecticut: The Milford Board of Education is planning to layoff 18 teachers for the 2015-16 school year, “primarily stemming from continued enrollment decline”. The University of Connecticut admitted they laid off employees, but refused to say how many.
Florida: 289 employees of rail company CSX have accepted early retirement buyouts! CSX was hoping for 300, which means the other 11 employes will probably be forced out.
Idaho: An independent investigation revealed that recently re-‘elected’ Pocatello mayor Brian Blad farmed out city road crews to other cities, for free and without permission of the city council (as required by law). The cost to Pocatello taxpayers is at least $15,773 in labor! To add insult to injury the city council said they aren’t going to pursue the matter, even though Idaho laws allows them to call in the Attorney General! The investigation was done by Deaton and Company, who submitted a seven page report to the city. Local news media refer to the scandal as ‘PaveGate’.
Illinois: Chicago based United Continental joins other airlines in contracting out thousands of in-house jobs, as many as 2-thousand jobs now going to cheap-o contractors!
Massachusetts: Kickass Cupcakes now chapter 7 bankrupt busted. The cupcake company has been shutting down stores since 2013. The owner refused to talk to local news media.
Michigan: God refuses to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ Christian bookstore, Kregel Parable. The owners of Restaurant Mediteran announced it will shutdown in March. Two of the co-owners want to retire and the third owner says he can’t handle more than one restaurant at a time. In Dearborn, The Mediterranean Chef shutdown and being liqudated.
Montana: Washington based Revett Mining shutting down their copper and silver Troy Mine, blaming low prices. 70 jobs lost.
Nebraska: In Scottsbluff, after six years female clothing store T & Company shutdown.
New Hampshire: In Nashua, the owners of Silverlight Candle & Gift Shoppe announced they will shutdown in February. They blame the unexpected shutdown of next door Aubuchon Hardware for the final nail in their coffin.
New Jersey: Belgium-Brazil owned Anheuser-Busch laying off 60 people and cutting beer production in Newark. It’s probably because this year’s malt barley crops in three states has been killed off by mother nature.
New York: In Valley Stream, after 30 years Sunrise Multiplex Cinemas shutdown, they sold out to a shopping mall developer. Despite reporting “substantial” quarterly gains (due to increased credit card use) NYC based American Express announced it will kill off 4-thousand jobs by the end of 2015! Company administrators also credited their better than expected quarterly results on past job cutting, so they are ramping up job cuts as part of their plan to “reinvent” the credit card company! Grocery store 173 Food issued a WARN saying they will shutdown in April, at least 30 jobs lost. Another NYC based company, AOL (formerly America OnLine) announced they will kill off 150 advertising jobs! Business Insider is also reporting that their sources say dozens of AOL employees have been voluntarily quitting since December: “Media and technology are drastically evolving to keep up with today’s consumer. The lines are becoming blurred, and as you well know, our industry is converging at a faster pace than anyone predicted.”-Bob Lord, president AOL
North Carolina: Mitt Romney’s wunderkind Staples shutdown their Greensboro store on Golden Gate Drive. After 30 years family owned Prime Sirloin buffet shutdown: “The building is old and the money to keep up the 30-year old property, which we leased, was simply going to be too much for us to keep on operating. We decided it was time to make the decision and like ripping off a band aid, there wasn’t any good way to do this.”-Lisa Martin, general manager
Ohio: ShurTech laid off 20 people at its Avon HQ: “The company needed to make these employment adjustments due to retail changes and the high cost of doing business in areas such as freight.”-Patti Sack, media manager
Oregon: What automotive industry recovery? Commercial Vehicle Group issued a WARN saying they are shutting down their interior parts factory, 117 jobs lost!
Pennsylvania: In Philipsburg, bowling alley Moshannon Valley Super Bowl shutdown after seven years, they were evicted for failure to pay their mortgage.
Puerto Rico: Sears Holdings announced they will shutdown their 25 years old Vega Baja Kmart in March, 206 jobs lost! Switzerland based legal drugs pusher Novartis announced they will shutdown operations in Humacao over the next three years, 270 jobs lost! The Federal Bank of New York blames it on the expiration of tax incentives.
Texas: In Garland, Valspar issued a WARN saying they will shutdown subsidiary Engineered Polymer Solutions between March and May, 54 jobs lost. In Austin, video game maker Lightbox Interactive laid off an undisclosed number of people, and might even shutdown. Evil Waco based Life Partners Holdings now chapter 11 bankrupt busted. They buy the rights to life insurance policies and then sell them to investors, that’s evil. In other words, unAmerican corporate America, and their investors, love to bet on your death! Oklahoma based Laredo Petroleum shutdown their Dallas office without warning, 75 jobs lost. Company administrators also claim $60 per barrel oil prices forced them to cut their operating budget in half, from $1-billion USD to about $525-million! In Houston two mega oil service companies announced massive layoffs; Halliburton (already reported in one of my previous reports) and Baker Hughes. Dumb-ass news media blames low oil prices but it’s really because Halliburton is taking over Baker Hughes! At least 7-thousand Baker Hughes employees will be let go because of the $35-billion Halliburton takeover, not the oil prices! Another Houston based oil company, Apache, announced it will kill off 250 jobs, after it hired on the former Baker Hughes CFO!
Virginia: In Old Town, after 64 years the Giant Food grocery store will shutdown. Company administrators say it’s because the town is too small to continue supporting it, and it’s not worth it to spend money on expanding it. News reports implied that there are too many Giant Food stores in the area around Old Town anyway.
Washington: A chapter 11 bankrupt busted company that loves to hit your smartphone with advertisements, Bellvue based Hipcricket, has been taken over by competitor SITO Mobile for $4.5 million. As in all such cases you should expect layoffs, despite the fact that Hipcricket administrators said their sale to SITO would “protect human capital”, corporate weenies always say things like that.
Wisconsin: In Racine, two Vanity clothing stores shutdown, despite increased revenues for the North Dakota based company.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shutdown. It doesn’t count people who get a severance for being laid off.