More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise. Incomplete list of U.S. internet/high-tech/communications job destruction announcements in February 2017:
China based Perfect World Entertainment (Star Trek Online) confirmed it suddenly eliminated jobs, including some with its Star Trek management team.
Non-profit web-browser Mozilla suddenly laid off 50 people, supposedly in an attempt to expand operations.
California: Google issued a WARN saying 104 people in Mountain View will become jobless in April (on top of the 94 jobs eliminated in March)! Also in Mountain View, Veritas Technologies finally notified the state that it eliminated 64 jobs back in November. ‘Search engine for apps’ Quixey suddenly shutdown their Mountain View office, 48 jobs gone. Culver city based, and Disney owned, Maker Studios yet again eliminated jobs. This time at least 80 employees now unemployed. Redwood Shores based video game maker Storm8 issued a WARN, 131 jobs lost by the end of April in an attempt to become more competitive! Santa Monica based Activision suddenly laid off an undisclosed number of employees, despite reporting better than expected revenues for 2016. Redwood City based Shutterfly warned of layoffs as it consolidates ops, blaming a 30% crash in its 4th quarter 2016 profits! Shutterfly will shutdown operations in Santa Clara, as well as in New York state. In Palo Alto, tax-sucking Space Systems/Loral suddenly laid off 161 people! Tax-sucking Rockwell Collins issued a WARN, 44 jobs in Irvine lost by the end of April. Internet based clothing seller Nasty Gal suddenly shutdown operations in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, 98 jobs gone without warning.
Colorado: Denver based ReadyTalk no longer based in Denver as well as eliminating 46 jobs due to being taken over by rival Premier Global Services. Missouri based prescription ‘benefits’ company Express Scripts shutting down its call center in Pueblo, 320 jobs lost by the end of April! City leaders say Express Scripts still owes local taxpayers $2.8-million USD that was loaned to the prescription company, and never mind that Express Scripts also got about $3-million in tax incentives to build a call center in Pueblo!
Georgia: Alpharete based video game maker Kiz Studios confirmed it suddenly eliminated jobs, but refused to say how many. Administrators said it was to restructure “…three of our gaming studios in order to focus on our new Global Services practice.”
Florida: Broadband Interactive eliminating 129 jobs by mid-March!
Idaho: For some reason the state Department of Labor sat on a WARN from Pocatello based call center operator Mountain West Research, until now. The notice is dated October 2016 and reveals that 194 people lost their jobs (the state Dept. of Labor listing doesn’t say when the layoffs actually took place)! Just in case I missed something I checked local news media reports and found nothing about this huge, and apparently sudden layoff. It’s not the first time the company suddenly killed jobs, Mountain West Research did the same thing in Idaho Falls, back in 2012, but that mass layoff got the attention of the local news media (I wonder why the Pokey layoffs were missed?). The Pocatello Mountain West Research location on 675 Yellowstone Avenue is currently listed as available for rent by Premier Properties, however, its website is still up-and-running and lists an address of 1110 Yellowstone Avenue.
Kentucky: Internet based clothing seller Nasty Gal shutting down its distribution center in Shepherdsville, 70 jobs lost.
New Jersey: Gannett Satelilite Information Network eliminating 141 jobs by the end of March!
New York: U.S. Army contractor L3 Technologies laid off 44 people, other employees are being transferred to Mississippi, due to cuts in taxpayer funding. Less than a year after sending hundreds of jobs to China, Brooklyn-NYC based MakerBot commenced a ‘3rd round’ of layoffs, administrators admitted they intended to “reduce staff at MakerBot by 30%.” NYC based web-publisher Slate laid off at least six people. Jim Cramer founded TheStreet.com suddenly laid off about a dozen people, and also faces delisting from the stock market due to its low share pricing. Digital media start-up Odyssey laid off 55 people despite raising $35-million USD in funding! Administrators admitted they weren’t “able to scale” and stalled. British empire United Kingdom based Vodafone Americas issued a shutdown WARN for its NYC ops, 51 jobs gone by the end of June. Unisys shutting down its Rochester call center, 178 jobs lost right after Xmas 2017! ‘Women’s interests’ publisher Meredith suddenly laid off 40 people blaming crashing magazine advertising, however, it was revealed that Meredith’s TV revenues were up.
North Carolina: General Electric (GE) Hitachi Nuclear Energy laid off an undisclosed number of nuke plant workers in Wilmington. Local news media reported that at the time of the announcement no WARN had been filed with the state. Xerox spin-off Conduent eliminating 143 jobs in Charlotte, blaming the “changing business needs of a client”!
Oregon: Frontier Communications laid off 57 people due to the shutdown of its Beaverton dispatch center as part of “significant restructuring and reorganization”. The state’s oldest tech company, Electro Scientific Industries (ESI), warned of mass layoffs across North America in order to “deliver more consistent earnings”.
Pennsylvania: Wilkes-Barre based international internet marketer Pepperjam eliminating 19 jobs in the U.S. Times Shamrock-Citizens’ Voice of Wilkes-Barre eliminated 25 jobs and is trying to get 36 people to voluntarily quit, due to crashing advertising sales ever since 2012. This comes after years of changing ownership of the company through take-overs and mergers.
Texas: Teleperformance USA shutting down their Abilene call center, 274 jobs gone by April due to a “change in business circumstances”! Cloud company Rackspace Hosting eliminating at least 275 U.S. jobs after being taken-over by New York vulture capitalist Apollo! AT&T eliminating 54 jobs at its Richardson call center, by the end of March.
Virginia: Game Stop shutdown its Bristol Mall store. Despite the fact that BlindBatNews has been reporting GameStop shutdowns since January 2016, local news media reported that local customers were shocked that their favorite video game store was shutdown. Charter Communications issued a layoff WARN for its Herndon ops, 59 jobs lost by the end of March.
Wisconsin: Texas based social media manager Spreadfast shutting down its Madison ops, 45 jobs lost.
U.S. Tech/Communications breakdown, January 2017: “I FEEL LIKE WE ARE BEING BLED.” “AND IT’S GETTING WORSE.”
High-Tech Fail: USAF ADMITS F-22 STEALTH JET IS A PAIN TO MAINTAIN, AND THAT’S JUST THE ‘SKIN’!