Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.
Jamaica, a member country of the West Indies Federation, is reporting that the unAmerican corporate America hospitality industry will hire 3-thousand Jamaicans in 2016, that’s a 50% increase from 2015! The majority of Jamaicans are working in the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Michigan.
Arkansas: Bentonville based economic canary in the coal mine Walmart began shutting down 154 U.S. stores on 17 January 2016, at least 10-thousand U.S. jobs lost! (here’s the list)
California: Cupertino based Apple is hurting for cash so much that it will now charge you to listen to ad plastered iTunes Radio in the U.S. Here’s a fine example of why it’s not worth it to do business in The Golden State: The city of Palo Alto is demanding the family owners of Buena Vista mobile home park pay an $8-million USD fine for wanting to shutdown their money losing operation: “The city says the money is needed so that the tenants can get expensive alternative housing in the area; in effect, the city is holding the Jissers uniquely responsible for solving the city’s severe housing affordability problem. That’s not just wrong, it’s unconstitutional. …..The city’s motion to dismiss doesn’t deny that the city is commanding a payment of $8 million…It just says the case shouldn’t be heard by a judge….. -Larry Salzman, Pacific Legal Foundation
Hawaii: Kahului Trucking & Storage laying off drivers as a result of the sudden shutdown of The Aloha State’s last sugar farm.
Idaho: A new study by the United Way shows 37% of Idahoans are in poverty and employed! Specifically, 37% of Idahoans are now classified as working poor, or Asset Limited-Income Constrained-Employed (aka ALICE). The United Way says even with the piddly-ass social services Idahoans cannot afford to buy basic necessities! And for more proof Right to Work only Works You Over keep reading.
Governor Butch Otter wants a third mental health crisis center built in The Gem State. Between 2014-15 eastern and northern Idaho got one each, and now Otter wants one in southern Idaho. ‘Lawmakers’ and even local sheriffs praise the crisis centers but don’t give examples of why they’re so good. The centers are meant to temporarily house people having mental health or drug abuse problems, instead of putting them in county jails. The fact that sheriffs are praising them, and the governor wants to spend another $1.72-million building another one, indicates a huge need, that a lot of Idahoans are having trouble dealing with their Right to Work (you over) circumstances, yet Right to Work officials don’t want to admit it. The city owned utility Idaho Falls Power is about to take over part of Rocky Mountain Power’s turf. If the state Public Utilities Commission approves Rocky Mountain Power will transfer poles, conductors and conduits around the Fielding Cemetery property to the control of taxpayers of the city of Idaho Falls, for the price of $50-thousand USD. Even God couldn’t stop a Christian student from ripping off the Mormon Brigham Young University-Idaho of $6-thousand 2-hundred, using a university credit card. Of course that ‘christian’ student wasn’t very smart because you can trace credit card transactions, and that’s how he got caught.
Kentucky: ISO copper wire maker Belden shutting down their factory in Monticello, 260 jobs being lost to the state of Indiana and to the country of Mexico, between now and the beginning of next year!
Louisiana: In Opelousas, dancehall Slim’s Y-Ki-Ki shutdown after 69 years. The property is now for sale. The family owners blame young people and today’s greedy spoiled bands: “They don’t look at the overhead you have, the utilities and things like that. They tell me, ‘We’ll take the door.’ They’ll start off charging at $10, then $15 and $20. By midnight, they’ll have a packed house. They’ll put the money in their pockets and go home. Then you have all the stress of what the night crowd destroyed and what you have to fix. It got to where we weren’t hardly making any more money.”
Missouri: Mike Shannon’s Steaks and Seafood shutting down their 30 years old downtown Saint Louis location, claiming it will help them focus on “franchise expansion”.
Montana: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission records reveal that five executives of Stillwater Mining got paid the equivalent of millions of dollars in bonuses less than five months after they eliminated 120 jobs! The bonuses were paid in the form of stocks in the company. Company administrators refused to comment when questioned by local news media.
New Hampshire: In Bath, The Brick Store (one of the oldest general stores in the U.S.) shutting down “due to changes in the economy”. The owners, Mike and Nancy Lusby, added “We did our best, but we have exhausted our resources, and lost Mike’s pension. We have done everything we can for 24 years to save the store, but we have nothing left to give … financially, emotionally or physically.”
New Jersey: God refuses to stop the shutdown of his Mother Teresa Catholic School, in June. Enrollment is down below 1-hundred students. For more proof the economy has not recovered, a major shipping company, which services retailers like Disney Store and Amazon.com, Elizabeth based EZ Worldwide Express is now chapter 11 bankrupt busted due to crashing shipment orders! The company even invested $12-million USD into new trucks, but now the 7-hundred employees are threatened with unemployment! With the massive retail store shutdowns now taking place across the U.S. you can expect even more shipping companies to go bust.
Ohio: Researchers at Ohio State University have proven that an ‘Amazon Tax’ killed internet holiday sales in 2015. They determined that sales on Amazon.com dropped an average of 8.3% in states that implemented taxes on internet purchases. The Washington Post article said sales declines increased as the price of the item went up: “The Amazon Tax had an especially chilling effect on big-ticket purchases that totaled more than $250, the study found. On these transactions, Amazon sales declined 11.4 percent once the tax was put in place.” U.S. Department of Energy awarded a contract potentially valued at $139.7-million USD to a company in Idaho, to provide infrastructure support services at the radioactive Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, in Piketon. Interestingly the Idaho Falls, Idaho, based company is called Portsmouth Mission Alliance. In Toledo, Laffs comedy club shutdown just short of the two year mark. The club’s operations manager said “…the turnout was not quite where we needed it to be.”
Pennsylvania: In Moosic, controversial adult outdoor movie theater Oak Hill Drive-In shutdown because they couldn’t afford to upgrade to digital.
Tennessee: Jerky maker Oberto shutting down its two years old Nashville meat factory despite promising to create 310 jobs and getting almost $2-million in taxpayer funds and grants (not tax breaks, outright cash!). State ‘lawmakers’ swear they’ll go after the jerky maker for a refund of the tax funding. The Nashville factory never got above 82 employees, despite Oberto’s promise. See more below in -Washington-. Here’s what Karl Dean, the now former mayor of Nashville, said back in 2012: “Oberto’s decision to locate a plant in Nashville speaks to the vitality of our city and the talent of our workforce. I’m especially pleased that Oberto will be bringing an existing facility back to life. Filling vacant buildings in and around our urban core is important to the strength and future of our city.”
Washington: Kent based mass produced jerky maker Oberto announced it will shutdown its two years old meat factory in Tennessee (well, the factory is two years old, I don’t know about the meat) and sell-off a meat factory in Oregon! The suck-ass economy is forcing Oberto to consolidate jerky treat making to its Washington ops.
Washington DC: Wonder what’s up with all the massive retail store shutdowns? The Department of Commerce released consumer spending numbers for 2015 and overall spending fell from 2014, and is on its way to 2008-09 levels! Even 2015 holiday sales flatlined! Of course the self exalted ‘expert’ analysts on TV still claim that consumers are just “holding onto their money”. I can tell you why I didn’t spend any money in 2015 on gifts or ‘extras’, same reason as the prior two years I don’t have any extra money to spend, I’m actually borrowing money to pay utilities gottdamn it!
Wisconsin: Retail packaging company Sealed Air shutting down their Mount Pleasant office, 74 jobs lost. It’s part of their plans, announced back in 2014, to move 3-hundred jobs out of The Badger State!
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
16 January 2016: Wells Fargo home foreclosures funding bad oil industry debts?
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed
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.”