Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

France based clothier Comptoir des Cotonniers shutting down all three(?) of its U.S. stores.  Reports say the stores will be shutdown by the end of the month, and one store has already closed for good.

California:  More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t blame the internet for your demise; after 13 years Santa Monica based internet video game new media pioneer Game Trailers shutdown.  In 2014 Game Trailers was taken over by Defy Media, which immediately began killing jobs.  One report said the remaining employees were not warned about the sudden shutdown.   And then there’s Sunnyvale based Yahoo which is shutting down its BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) in March.  Administrators say it’s because they need to “streamline and simplify”.  San Francisco based GAP owned Old Navy brand clothing store revealed that the last two months of the Xmas holiday shopping season of 2015 was its worst ever for record setting sales declines.  But then in January 2016 Old Navy suffered a 6% sales decline from December!  The news shocked clothing retail ‘expert’ analysts.  What housing market recovery?  San Francisco based Too Big to Jail Wells Fargo eliminating an additional 581 mortgage related jobs across the U.S.!

Georgia: In Thomasville, after 71 years hunting supply store Stafford’s shutting down. The store is for sale, the owner wants to retire.

Illinois:  Hoffman Estates based Sears Holdings announced it will “accelerate” the shutdown of 50 more Sears and Kmart stores, blaming continued crashing sales.

Indiana:  In South Bend, 88 years old (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Dainty Maid Bake Shop shutting down this weekend due to the death of the owner.  The popular shop is for sale and the employees hope any potential buyer will re-open it.

Maryland:  In Hagerstown, the last Hometown Gifts Hallmark store shutting down.  At one point there were six Hometown Gifts Hallmark stores in the ‘tri-state’ area.

Massachusetts:  Price Chopper shutting down the New Adams grocery store by the end of the month, 57 jobs lost.  Administrators basically said it wasn’t worth it to keep the food store open.

New Hampshire: More proof brick-n-motors can’t blame the internet for their demise; internet security company DataGravity laid off an undisclosed number of people, in an effort to cut $850-million USD costs.

Oklahoma: Employees of oil company TD Williamson went to local news media to reveal they’d been laid off without warning.  One employee said he was escorted off the work site within 15 minutes of showing up.  TD Williamson only confirmed the layoffs after being questioned by local news media, but refused to give numbers.

Pennsylvania: In State College, long time The Shoe Fly (aka The Shoe Box) shutting down because “When the numbers don’t work for five to ten more years, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”  Northwest Bank shutting down three York County offices by the end of April.

Tennessee: After a wave of mass layoffs across several states aluminum maker Noranda now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and selling-off part of its operations.

Texas: Pennsylvania based oil company Sunoco eliminating 161 corporate jobs from its Corpus Christi based Stripes convenience store chain!  Apparently it has to do with the Stripes HQ being moved from Corpus Christi to Dallas, starting in April.   In Pleasanton, C&J Well Services laying off 78 oil workers.   Massachusetts based Thermo Fisher Scientific issued a shutdown WARN for their Houston operations, 67 jobs lost by April.  Last year they shutdown their Sugar Land operation.  The bio-tech company is consolidating operations.

Washington:  After creating booze selling ‘privatization’ rules which jacked up the cost (including taxes) of your favorite hard drink by 15% new data shows that the idiot ‘lawmakers’ of The Evergreen State actually drove booze buyers into neighboring Oregon and Idaho.  The Idaho State Liquor Division credits at least 7% of its state run store sales to buyers from Washington.  For Oregon the jump in hard drink sales was even bigger, with ten border booze stores reporting between 17% and 67% increase in sales to Washingtonians since 2011!  After 35 years Shields Floral Boutique in Hazel Dell shutting down, and not because the owner wants to: “It really kills me to do this. I can’t believe it’s at the end.”-Carol Shields

Washington DC: The U.S. Army announced it must shutdown, or reduce in size, one out of every three chow halls due to “changing soldier demographics, satisfy soldier desire for selection/taste or nutritional requirements … or meet commander mission requirements”.

West Virginia:  McDowell County Board of Education eliminating 30 jobs due to losing $1.5-million in state and local tax funding, caused by losing an average of 1-hundred students per year!  (that’s what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome)

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

07 – 08 February 2016: “This agency has run amok!”  

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.”