“It all comes down to finance and economics, what’s best for the company. It’s going to trickle down and hurt everybody, employees, residents, taxpayers, everybody is going to be affected.”-Linda Schwager, Mayor of Oakland, New Jersey, commenting on the never ending layoffs
In Florida, 79 cement company workers losing their jobs. Mexican owned Cemex says their outlook for the economy is so bad, that they have to make these additional layoffs on top of those announced at the end of last year. The views of the Mexican company counter those of the Portland Cement Association, which expects an 8% increase in construction this year.
A state run toll road company, and a state run canal company, have finally released the number of employees they will layoff this year. New York State Thruway Authority will eliminate 192 jobs! Officials blame declining traffic (you see, ‘mericans are driving less and using less fuel!) and increasing costs of repairing the roads. Elected officials refused to increase the tolls (at the behest of constituents), so the company is forced to cut back. New York State Canal Corporation will layoff 42 people. Unions are fighting the current round of layoffs, over the past several years hundreds of employees were already laid off.
Also in New York, Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) laying off an undisclosed amount of employees. ACS is owned by Xerox and processes student college loan applications. It doesn’t sound good for the current 800 employees. Local media says rumors of layoffs have been circulating since October 2012, and an official statement from company officials says all loans will be “cleared from their system” by August. The layoffs will take place in two phases, in March and June.
In California, the South Pasadena Unified School District revealed that 32 teachers will be laid off in March. That is if local voters fail to extend the Measure S parcel tax. The school district has been relying on the temporary tax to maintain a 1 teacher to 20 student ratio, but it also shows that the district can’t manage its funding because teacher pay should be coming from the standard local property taxes/fees, as well as state and federal funds, not additional special taxes.
Also in California, the Cask & Cork restaurant in Fresno closed down. It had failed after only eight months of operations. The owners say they will try again in a different city.
New Hamshire’s Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene hospital eliminated 34 jobs. They’re trying to save $1 million USD, due to declining revenue and decreasing state and federal reimbursements (Obama/Romney Care).
More lay offs for Illinois. Abbott Laboratories let go an undisclosed amount of employees. The global health care company already laid off 700 people last year. The company is “restructuring”.
In Little Rock, Arkansas, two local competing TV stations have merged. The local KLRT Fox affiliate and KARK NBC station are now under one owner, resulting in 28 employees losing their jobs. A similar thing happened here in East Idaho in 2010, when the KIFI ABC affiliate, and the KIDK CBS affiliate came under the single operation of Missouri based News-Press and Gazette (NPG). NPG cornered the East Idaho/West Wyoming broadcast market by taking over Telemundo, CW, NOW and KXPI Fox affiliate (the Fox affiliation used to be handled by a former employer of mine, then KIDK & KXPI came under the ownership of Fisher Communications who then turned operations over to NPG). By the way, it used to be illegal to corner local news media markets, but my former employer, and other media leaders, lobbied hard to change that! At the end of last year NPG paid $14.3 million to take over Santa Barbara, California’s KEYT ABC affiliate.
In Minnesota, Gerdau Steel laid off 31 employees. The Brazilian based company blamed it on the bad economy, and said if it weren’t for the terms of a recent loan (which requires them to maintain a specific number of positions) they would have laid off even more employees!
Estee Lauder shutting down its Oakland, New Jersey, factory. 116 employees affected! The cosmetics company is consolidating operations.
In Lewisville, North Carolina, a bicycle store named Neighborhood Transportation, shut down. The owner blamed his bad health.
In Jackson, Mississippi, Haverty’s is closing down its only furniture store in the Magnolia State. Company officials said the landlord wanted to increase the rent.
67 years old Peschell’s Bakery shut down in West Haven, Connecticut. The owners blamed the bad economy and competition from national chain stores.
63 people out-o-work in Decatur, Alabama. The Eaton Manufacturing hydraulic cylinder factory is closing down. Company officials blame it on a decrease in demand (bad economy).
138 jobs lost in Maryland! A British Red Coat company (Cobham) is shutting down two electronics factories. Cobham makes its money off U.S. taxpayers, as it is a military contractor. They blame the layoffs on expected and drastic federal government spending cuts.