Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.
Arizona: In Phoenix, Fuego Bistro shutdown its CityScape location. In Glendale, after 46 years restaurant La Peria shutdown due to not being able to pay its rent. In Scottsdale, Stingray Sushi shutdown. RT O’Sullivans sports bar-eatery shutdown on U.S. 60.
California: Illinois based drugs maker Baxalta eliminating 1-hundred jobs in Thousand Oaks by May, due to being taken over by an Irish company. In Stockton, S-Mart grocery store shutting down mid-month, 50 jobs lost due to lack of profits.
Connecticut: More proof of Depression; the city of Bridgeport eliminated 24 jobs due to lack of tax revenues. Administrators warned “There may be more than that.” 
And here’s another reason why tax revenues will continue to go down, battery maker Duracell warns it will move its Bethel HQ to Illinois due to being taken over by job killer Warren Buffett.
Florida: Tomato Land Farmers Market store-restaurant shutting down next month, due to the property being sold-off. In Tampa’s Ybor City, after 33 years The Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant shutting down on Wednesday. No specific reason was given, but in 2010 the Church of Scientology became the new landlord.
Idaho: Good news if you hate loan sharks, bad news if that’s how you make your living; according to the state Department of Finance the number of ‘licensed’ payday loan business crashed by 34% in 2015! More will shutdown as new tougher federal laws go into effect: “What we are hearing and reading nationally is the lenders are saying they cannot afford to stay in the business.”-Mike Larsen, Idaho Dept. of Finance Consumer Finance Bureau
The Idaho Department of Labor admits that many Idahoans born between 1980 and 2000 are fleeing the Right to Work (you over) Gem State, and the biggest reason is the same reason I’ve heard since arriving in 1997, not enough good paying jobs: “People want to stay here, but there aren’t many options or much industry available in Idaho. We’ve been avoiding this issue for a long time, because our employers don’t like to hear it: We don’t pay well!”-Ken Edmunds, Idaho Department of Labor
Back in 2003 I interviewed several Idaho State University Alumni who graduated in 1973. They all stated they were making more money back in the 1970s. One social sciences graduate stated he continued working at his loading dock job because he was making more money than what he would get with his sociology degree, but once Idaho became a Right to Work state (in the 1980s) everything went to hell. As a dock worker in Pocatello (on Garrett Way) he was making $15.00 per hour in the 1970s, and that’s not adjusting for inflation! He wasn’t married and his rent, utilities and food was so cheap by today’s costs that he felt like he was living in luxury. By 2003 most of the distribution/warehouse jobs left the city, and at his age he was lucky to find a job that paid him $7.00 per hour. He said the only reason why he wasn’t homeless was because he paid-off his cheap mobile home in the late 1970s and was still living in it. Many of the older Pocatellans I interviewed wondered how young adults were surviving financially. For decades local and state level politicians promised to bring god paying jobs to the state. In Pocatello and Chubbuck there is a covert push to make the area a warehousing/distribution hub again, but the average starting wage for such jobs is between $10 and $15 per hour. When adjusted for inflation that’s way less than what the same jobs paid in the 1970s!
Illinois: In Moline, Ryan’s Steakhouse shutdown without warning, pissing off employees. The restaurant was shutdown officially for an “asset inventory”, but then, the employees were told they could pick up their final paychecks! A local TV news report said one employee was told of the layoff after she clocked-out to go home.
Kentucky: An example of what I call Ripple Effect Layoffs (REL), Carmeuse Lime and Stone eliminating 76 jobs in Maysville, blaming it on a customer who suddenly announced it will shutdown a coal fired power plant in Pennsylvania: “FirstEnergy is the largest customer for Carmeuse’s Maysville Operation and the idling of the Bruce Mansfield power generation capacity has caused a significant and abrupt decline in demand for our products. This sudden decline in demand was unexpected.”
Minnesota: Stillwater School District shutting down three elementary schools. Interestingly administrators blame increasing enrollment! They claim they’re shifting children out of older schools into new buildings designed to handle more students.
New York: In NYC, after 29 years never ending building remodeling by the landlord killed-off Cardiology gift store: “We lost all the morning business. It’s a struggle every month to make the rent.”-Richard Barbosa
Pennsylvania: FirstEnergy suddenly shutting down its Bruce Mansfield power generation plant, after asking PJM Interconnection to grant a surcharge rate increase to its utility customers, and after claiming it spent $450-million USD on upgrades last year. The news of the sudden shutdown was revealed by a major supplier in Kentucky. 385 jobs threatened!
Texas: Aluminum maker Alcoa announce more layoffs, this time a second round of layoffs at their Howmet Castings ops in Wichita Falls. They already laid off 60 people back in January, no numbers given for this section round of job culling.
Virginia: In South Richmond, after less than six months White Horse Tavern shutdown due to lack of dinner sales. News reports say yet another restauranteur is about to take a whack at opening an eatery in the same location.
In Richmond, low income daycare Southside Child Development Center shutting down in June: “Funders are saying that they just can’t continue to support us without us being able to support ourselves, which is a hardship when you deal with the families that we serve.”-Sheila Pleasants
WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification
03-04 March 2016: “unsustainable”
Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed!
Employees of religious non-profits might not qualify for unemployment assistance: “If the non-profit organization is a church, you may or may not be entitled to unemployment. It all depends upon state regulations for church employers. In many cases, churches are allowed to set their own rules regarding unemployment benefits, meaning the church can choose whether to offer benefits to former employees.”
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.”
Japan based video game maker SEGA (SEGA was created in the U.S. territory of Hawaii in 1940, where it made slot machines) revealed they eliminated an undisclosed number of jobs from their San Francisco SEGA Networks ops.
Houston base food distribution giant Sysco says they have to kill more jobs, this time 1-thousand 2-hundred employees will become unemployed over the next 15 months! Administrators say the economic environment is forcing them to find ways to increase profits without relying on sales (because sales suck).
In Los Angeles, employees of bankrupt American Apparel walked off the job: “They are laying off workers, cutting out their hours, their pay and their rights, and now they can no longer afford living!”-Stephanie Padilha, employee
