Incomplete list of publicly announced layoffs & shutdowns:
Alaska: A brand new grocery store already shutdown in Bethel! Swanson’s shutdown only nine months after opening, local news media says company administrators refused to answer their phone calls. The owner of the building also refused to talk to the local news media.
California: The Los Angeles School District approved the elimination of 609 teaching jobs! The LASD is short $158-million USD for the upcoming school year. Tax-sucking Aerojet Rocketdyne announced it will eliminate 5-hundred U.S. jobs, half of which will be in Sacramento! What automotive industry recovery? Palo Alto based electric car maker Tesla announced it will cut its employee numbers in China by 30%, due to down sales caused by problems with charging batteries. A company whose slogan is “We humanize technology…” fired everybody! San Francisco based tech news publisher Gigaom is now dead, the internet company never made enough money to pay its massive debts. Albertsons-Safeway continues to kill jobs at the former Safeway HQ in Pleasanton. A WARN filed on 09 March says 113 people will be laid off at the beginning of May! In Novato, Life Sales issued a WARN saying at least eight people will be laid off in May. In Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch Country Club issued a layoff WARN, saying 152 people will become unemployed in April!
Connecticut: In New Milford, iconic Homestead Inn (which survived the Great deflationary Depression) shutdown. The owner blames it on the death of her husband, and the bad economy, saying she’s moving back to the Philippines.
Florida: At Jacksonville International Airport, United Airlines issued a layoff WARN saying 66 people will be laid off in May. At the Miami International Airport, United Airlines issued a WARN saying 115 people will be laid off in May! At Palm Beach International Airport, United Airlines issued a WARN saying 69 people will be laid off in May. At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, United Airlines issued a WARN saying 148 people will be laid off in May! In Weston, Bonaventure Resort issued a WARN saying 296 people will become jobless in May!
Michigan: In Lansing, after 50 years gun shop Classic Arms shutdown. The last of the family owners wants to retire.
Minnesota: Minneapolis based Target killed off 3-thousand 1-hundred jobs, almost overnight! 1-thousand 7-hundred people were laid off and 1-thousand 4-hundred vacant jobs were eliminated! It’s part of their plans to cut $2-billion in operating costs!
Montana: The Southgate Mall Sears & Auto Center will shutdown in June, 57 jobs lost. Sears Holdings hopes to find a sucker for their much smaller independent franchise owner-operator Sears Hometown store, the location of which has yet to be determined.
Nebraska: In Lincoln, Nationwide Insurance has notified employees of Allied Insurance that 140 of them will become jobless by 2020! Blame Obama Care, because Nationwide says Obama Care will result in less insurance claims being filed, which is exactly what the insurance industry wanted.
Nevada: Gold miner Allied Nevada Gold now chapter 11 bankrupt busted.
New York: Louisiana based debt collector Coast Professional saying 264 New Yorkers will become jobless by the end of April! The debt collector lost its U.S. Department of Education contract. In Shrub Oak, drug rehab center Phoenix House Westchester Academy issued a WARN saying they will shutdown in June, 57 jobs lost, thank you Obama Care. In Brooklyn, pipe supplier Ferguson NY Metro issued a layoff WARN saying 31 people will become jobless in June, blaming the bad economy. In NYC, Cache Incorporated went bankrupt and laid off all 103 employees! Software company Soft Card issued a shutdown WARN for June, saying 41 employees will become jobless because of the bad economy. At the John F Kennedy International Airport, DAL Global Services issued a shutdown WARN for June, saying 621 people will become unemployed due to Delta Airlines canceling their contract!
North Carolina: Lowes Food announced it will shutdown its last two grocery stores in Gastonia by April, 160 jobs lost!
Ohio: US Steel began laying off 614 people at its Lorain oil pipe factory!
Pennsylvania: In Oakmont, after 88 years (surviving the Great deflationary Depression and numerous recessions) God refused to stop the Saint Irenaeus Catholic Elementary School from shutting down. Administrators say enrollment has dwindled to only 44 students (I call that DSS, Disappearing Student Syndrome. Christians might call that The Rapture).
Texas: Houston based oil pipeline company TMK IPSCO announced they will eliminate 78 jobs, saying “If you are not drilling, you lay off your oilfield services people and you don’t order any more pipe. That’s what’s happening to us.” Another Houston based oil company, BPZ Resources, now chapter 11 bankrupt busted.
West Virginia: The Mountain State’s largest food bank is about to shutdown. Administrators of the Mountaineer Food Bank, in Gassaway, said they’ve run out of money and can’t pay their employees! Some employees are now working for free: “It’s the hardest working crew I’ve ever been around! They don’t have much, but I’ll tell you what, they understand…the Mountaineer Food Bank spirit is here. It’s a gut wrencher! We’re in crisis management now.”-Dave Karr, interim director
06 – 08 March 2015: “our resources will be used more productively elsewhere”
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
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.