More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise. Incomplete (especially because of my internet troubles) list of U.S. internet/high-tech/communications job destruction announcements in December 2016:
Fairpoint Communications began their planned elimination of 153 jobs in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont!
Alabama: Sitel shutting down their 15 years old call center in Covington County, 4-hundred jobs gone by Spring 2017! Sitel execs gave no explanation which pissed off the mayors of two cities directly affected by the shutdown: “We were really shocked!”-Becky Bracke, Mayor of Opp
“…is Grinch making these decisions or human beings…?”-Earl Johnson, Mayor of Andalusia
Arizona: AT&T eliminated 50 jobs in Phoenix.
California: San Jose headquartered but France based SunPower announced it will shutdown a solar power panel factory and layoff 2-thousand 5-hundred people in 2017! It’s blamed on crashing retail prices for solar panels, SunPower is considered the second largest solar power panel maker in the United States. San Francisco advertising company AdRoll ‘rolled’ 29 of its employees by suddenly laying them off, despite reporting record level revenues. AdRoll execs claim the layoffs were needed to expand the company. Once again, DreamWorks Animation eliminating jobs, this time 170 people in Glendale to be pushed to the curb (on top of 2-hundred jobs eliminated elsewhere)! Blame it on DreamWorks new owner NBCUniversal. Semiconductor maker Atmel issued a layoff WARN for its San Jose ops, 45 jobs gone by February 2017.
Connecticut: Danbury based maker of power plant fuel cells FuelCell Energy eliminated 96 jobs due to lack of sales.
Florida: Tennessee based marketer, call center operator and job outsourcer Sitel issued a shutdown WARN for their Pompano Beach operations, 804 jobs gone by the end of February 2017! Orlando based maker of lasers for the healthcare industry Lensar now chapter 11 bankrupt busted.
Georgia: Atlanta based social network YikYak laid off about 30 people due to “strategic changes”.
Illinois: Chicago based jobs company Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that employers increased job killing by 25% compared to November.
Kentucky: Louisville based internet selling site CafePress confirmed it laid off more employees due to a “strategic” shift in policy. Back in August CafePress eliminated jobs at its California ops.
Massachusetts: For the second time this year Boston based bar management software developer BevSpot laid off employees. Reports say BevSpot’s entire ‘outbound’ sales department was canned due to low sales to restaurants and bars.
Minnesota: Seagate suddenly laid off 155 people in Shakopee, due to crashing demand for hard drives!
New York: NYC based Associated Press laid off 25 people.
Pennsylvania: Comcast issued a WARN for their Lancaster operations, 78 jobs gone by May 2017.
Washington: Spokane based internet retailer etailz eliminating at least 8% of its positions due to selling out to New York based Trans World Entertainment. Seattle Times warned employees of layoffs due to crashing advertising revenue.
Tech/Communications shutdown November 2016: GRINCH CONDUCTS MASSIVE “ORGANIZATIONAL DOWNSIZING”, MERRY XMAS!
U.S. Banking/Retail/Service sector destruction December 2016: “I AM FIGHTING….AN UNWINNABLE FIGHT.”