Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Alabama: What real estate market recovery? Birmingham continues to crash & burn as news reports say an additional 6-thousand 5-hundred square feet of retail space is now available for rent or sale.  That’s because Cosi Restaurant and advertising agency Centigrade are refusing to renew their leases.

Arizona: In Tucson, after 38 years Navajo Rug Repair shutting down so the owners can retire.  They tried to sell the successful business but there were no buyers.  Phoenix based Apollo Education Group selling off its failing University of Phoenix after losing more than 50-thousand students in 2015!  The loss of students was the result of the U.S. Department of Education investigating claims of false promises of finding jobs after graduation, and the U.S. Department of Defense banning military personnel from taking University of Phoenix courses!

Florida:  Forever 21 issued a shutdown WARN for their Jacksonville store number 6002, about 63 jobs lost by mid-March.

Idaho: After jacking up the state fuel tax in 2015 (claiming there wasn’t enough money for never ending road work) state ‘lawmakers’ revealed the federal government increased 2016 federal funding for Idaho road repairs by $16-million USD!  Watchdog group Boise Guardian has revealed that the state Department of Corrections is short-changing county jails for housing state level prisoners.  The state pays counties about $45 per inmate per day, less than the cost of a cheap hotel/motel.  The result is that county level taxpayers are picking up the slack, on top of paying for their own county level prisoners!

Illinois:   Reports say Alliance Partners notified about 235 coal miners that they’ll be losing their jobs due to “Prolonged weak market conditions…”!   God seems oblivious as ‘his’ Archdiocese of Chicago threatens to shutdown at least 1-hundred churches (parishes) due to lack of money, lack of priests and The Rapture, I mean lack of church goers.

Indiana: In South Bend, after 20 years Top Notch Restaurant & Bakery shutdown.  News reports say it will be replaced with a grocery store.  But don’t get excited, the new grocery store is actually an old grocery store moving to a new location, so it’s a net loss of jobs.

Kansas: In Topeka, the Dillions grocery store on Huntoon Street shutting down this week.  City administrators are fearful of increased food insecurity based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data that says residents in the area around the Dillions are now living in a “food desert”.

Kentucky:  Reports say Alliance Partners notified at least 40 coal miners that they’ll be losing their jobs due to “Prolonged weak market conditions…”.

Massachusetts: Federally created ISO New England is warning of huge electricity rate increases for the ‘New England’ states; $3-billion USD in 2017 and $4-billion in 2018, due to shutdowns of outdated power plants.  In Lee, Wave Systems now chapter 7 bankrupt busted.  Administrators said they even tried to sell the data protection software company but nobody wanted to buy.  Chapter 7 usually means the company is officially dead.

Michigan:  In Kalamazoo,  after 40 years Van Sweden Jewelers shutting down in May.  The owner lost two primary employees at the end of last year and tried to sell the store, but nobody wants it.

Montana:  Washington based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) estimates that shutting down its coal fired Colstrip power plant will cost $200-million USD (of course the cost will be passed onto utility customers).  Reports say PSE want it shutdown by 2022, as well as wanting to sell off its newer power plants.  Environmentalists think the clean-up costs will hit $500-million.  There was no mention of the economic-employment impact to the small city of Colstrip.

Nebraska:  Douglas County must have an economic suicide wish as they’re shutting down 160 food joints, for operating without a license!  Administrators with the county Health Department claim they do it every year as licenses lapse, however, the interim prosecutor for the city of Omaha says as far as he knows such an operation has never been “enforced”.  Chris Janicek, the owner of Cupcake Omaha and Cake Box, exclaimed “This agency has run amok!”

New Jersey: Moonachie based bankrupt clothier Joyce Leslie announced it will shutdown all 42 stores: “Unfortunately, our efforts to find a strategic partner to help save the business were not successful. We are saddened to say that we now have to close our doors after 65 years.”-Celia Clancy, ceo

New York:  Professional Transportation Incorporated (PTI) issued a WARN, however, at this point the state Department of Labor has failed to publish the details of the WARN.

Ohio: In West Chester, after 68 years bakery supplies maker Bakery Crafts shutting down, 119 jobs lost starting in April!

Virginia: In Richmond, Pier 1 Imports shutting down their store on West Broad Street, by March.  In Lynchburg, after less than three years locally made handicrafts store Pastiche shutting down.

West Virginia: For the third time in the past month bankrupt coal miner Alpha Natural Resources conducting more mass layoffs.  This time 230 people will loss their jobs!  Last week 93 people lost their jobs and last month 831 people were laid off!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

05-06 February 2016: 74 restaurants shutdown without warning! Another company admits it “over-hired” in 2015!

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.”